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Tack of The Clones

Viagra's many clones in India are trying to use smart branding to get attention.

By T.R Vivek

Viagra's Indian cousins

Why is Viagra such a strong brand name? Is it simply the pioneer's advantage of overwhelming fame (like Armstrong, the first man on the moon)? Or is it intrinsically a terrific name for a little blue pre-coital pill that fixes male erectile dysfunction?

Pfizer, Viagra's marketer, would like to think that it's a terrific name, regardless of its 'first status'. After all, it spent a small fortune on just devising the brand, hiring Interbrand Wood, a brand consultancy, for the job. 'Viagra' is meant to suggest 'vigour', and the rhyme with 'Niagra' is meant to evoke thoughts of a powerful gush of feelings. That makes sense, doesn't it? Over in India, though, observers had suspected that 'Viagra' was just a shortened version of 'via Agra' - which is how one gets to Fatehpur Sikri, a place that finds place on many a baby-making itinerary in these parts.

Well, talk about unintended consequences. Anyhow, the 'gra' part has certainly caught on in India - and is now considered vital to the business of upward inducement - to be graphic (ah, another 'gra'; maybe there's some semiotics buried deep in there). At least three prominent clones of Viagra available here end with 'gra'. The differentiating part, if one may call it that, is the prefix.

There's Zydus Cadilla's Penegra, which makes the least attempt to be subtle. There's Sun Pharma's Edegra, which tries to evoke visions of this truly bountiful garden. And then there's Cipla's Silagra, which is decidedly more abstract. 'Sila' in Sanskrit means something close to 'conduct', while the same word in current Hindustani usage means 'reward' (Cipla also likes to name all its brands with a 'Ci' or 'Si' sound).

The fourth prominent clone in India is Ranbaxy's Caverta, suggestive of 'cavorting', presumably... though this is a connotation that very few would get. But then, Ranbaxy has always tried to emphasise its parent brand name over the actual drug name.

India, one must add, is a more interesting market than the US, for the simple reason that clones are legal (the patent regime comes into force only after 2005). This means that competition is fierce, the product formulations are more or less at par (medically), and marketing makes a big difference. Contrary to popular belief, the more a product gets pushed to commodification, the greater the role of marketing - as a tool to differentiate the offering (on intangible attributes) in the target's mind.

But even the US may not remain a single-brand market for long. Eli Lilly has already developed a rival formulation (it's not a pre-coital drug -- and has to be taken in the morning for an evening performance). The brand? Cialis, meant to suggest a coupling of spontaneity and intimacy.

Meanwhile, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline have teamed up to launch a competitive product (yet another formulation). And they have a name for it too: Levitra. The suffix is meant to remind you of 'vita', for 'life', while the prefix 'le' translates to 'the' in French.

Does Viagra's marketing team need to worry? Who knows. But what fun if Indian clones were also allowed to enter Western markets.

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