The Facebook Audience: Can Pharma Maximize Its Potential?

Like everyone else, we're intrigued about the science of Facebook marketing. Dan Zarella (Dan Zarella.com) suggested in this PowerPoint presentation that pharma Facebook pages are some of the least liked pages. Why is that?






















Source: Hubspot 101 Marketing Charts-Graphs-
Science of Facebook-Slide 61

While this information could be dismissed as ho-hum, we think you should pay attention to the important points about social media. We believe Facebook represents 67% of the "bell curve" that is your market. Our assertion is that if pharma publishes Facebook pages for its products, disease states or its patient tools, the content must meet the needs of this audience -- and currently it doesn't.  But can it really meet those needs?  

Looking at the rest of this presentation, we see that much of the Facebook audience is looking for interaction with others. What facebookers tend to value is more entertainment-oriented sites. So the next question about this social medium is: Should pharma even be in this space?  While many in e-marketing groups want to answer that question, our point of view is yes, but only if they are willing to create an interactive relationship with Facebook "friends" on the "friends' " terms. Building interactive games and apps that help facebookers learn or interact, is the key.  If not, they shouldn't waste their time, because the price of entry is steep.

It is this concept we believe industry marketers need to grasp. For years, the industry has been able to buy a seat at any table it chooses, but the game is changing!  In the past, industry would change the rules and today people are choosing not to let industry play in their game.

So what are we suggesting here?  Industry leaders need to change their expectations and must realize they may not be able to call the shots. But data show, like in Facebook, if you believe this is your target market, there is opportunity to market your products -- just realize the game is not set up to meet industry's needs.

So what is your next step?  Ask us -- we have some ideas.

Prescription Abandonment: Opportunities Lost

It’s a shame that industry’s rep is in tatters right now. Pharma should be delivering an important message to American businesspeople, but they likely won’t pay attention – one, because of the messenger, and two, because it would cost them money – initially -- to fix the problem.

We’re talking about prescription abandonment. A new Annals of Internal Medicine study confirms what common sense tells us: people with limited resources will not pay for prescriptions they cannot afford. The study – conducted in tandem with CVS Caremark over the summer – shows that if a co-pay hits the $40 and above range, people are more apt to forgo the drug, especially if it’s a new script.

An accompanying editorial  also notes the obvious: Someone who doesn’t fill a prescription undermines his treatment, faces increased healthcare costs down the road as well as potentially life-threatening results.

That someone also affects the workplace – in terms of days off, reduced productivity, and so on.

The Annals study isn’t the first. A WSJ blog, citing a Wolters Kluwer study, notes that nearly 10% of new scripts for brand-name drugs weren’t filled in the 2nd quarter of 2010 – an 88% hike over the same time period in 2006.  Comments to this WSJ blog were Scrooge-like. “The bottom line is that people are too unaware of what the actual costs are for health care,” wrote one. “If you don’t think your health is important enough to spend any of your own money [even when insurance is available to you], why should the taxpayers, your employer, or anyone else think it’s important?” wrote another.

Let’s look at a map. Folks at Kaiser Permanente figured out how many prescription drugs people take in the U.S. In two words, it’s stunning. In Tennessee, people between 19 and 64 take an average of 16 medications; in North Dakota, it’s 13, in California, less than 9. We argue that this map shows that people will fill their prescriptions – when they can.

But if big employers do what they’re threatening – shift more healthcare costs to workers – what will happen to those employees at the bottom of the payroll?

A little forethought is needed here. Think about those diseases that are relatively symptomless at first, like type 2 diabetes. Regular doctor’s visits and blood draws would show creeping A1C levels. Diabetes under control is cheaper than diabetes out of control.

Are employers and government agencies being penny wise, pound foolish? We’d say so! We’d also urge industry marketers -- despite pharma's current reputation -- to use these data to help solve the problems and focus on medication adherence solutions that work!

The Eroding Patient-Doctor Relationship

Could the trust between patient and doctor be eroding?  According to Consumer Reports' second annual prescription drug survey, it probably is.

In this survey, in which 1,150 adults were polled, the majority said that doctors were unduly influenced by financial incentives they received from industry.

The survey found that:

• 69% think industry has too much influence over which drugs are prescribed;
• 50% said a physician would prefer prescribing a drug than suggesting another way to handle a condition;
• 47% said industry gifts can sway physicians to prescribe certain medicines.

Even though this survey offers no proof that the survey participants knew if their physicians were industry consultants, we must take it seriously, because perception is reality. Our industry doesn’t discuss the eroding patient/doctor relationship, and it must. This is an unintended consequence of the ongoing transparency upheaval, and the negative consequences of this reality is something we must address now.

Why? We are feeling only the beginning of the negative impacts of DTC advertising. Bob Ehrlich and other leaders in DTC marketing circles recognize this as well. We need to change the feeling consumers have, that industry is eroding the relationship between themselves and their physician. For if this is to continue, with all the other forces at work, the challenges may be difficult to overcome. And that is not positive.