Quick Guide to the New Era of Marketing

A recent webinar by Bill Lee highlighted the end of marketing as we traditionally know it.  Pharma companies specifically must revamp marketing strategies if success is to be found in the future (see Message to Pharma CEOs: Forget Price Increases, retain customers!).  So what does this mean for companies’ market strategies going forward?  What should be the focus in order to retain business and attract new customers?  Most of you will agree that the best product recommendation comes from someone you know.  In sales and marketing, these customers (be a business or consumer) are known as promoters.  These promoters are imperative to expanding a business since they will give an honest opinion about your product and people will listen to people they know and trust. 

In the webinar, Mr. Lee goes on to discuss Net Promoter Score (NPS).  This score is given to customers based on their ability to influence the decisions made by other potential customers.  Business will prefer to enter into contracts where they can hear first hand accounts of the service or product from a trusted referral.  Quality promoters are true gems to companies and should be treated that way.  These customers will essentially make the sale for you.  The million-dollar question is how do you as a brand manager generate and keep quality promoters.  Not every customer will be a quality promoter and some may even detract from your business, so it must be the aim of your marketing team to create strategies that generate sales by way of promoters.  We can help your company utilize social media to monitor the flow of information via promoters (and detractors) so that these clients can add to your business.

So how can we utilize this promoter strategy to increase pharma and healthcare sales?  First, we must generate products and services that induce chatter between customers. And while we live in a heavily regulated industry, think about the simply premise of this measure. Would these patients recommend your product to a friend or colleague?  If the answer is 9 or 10 out of 10, this is really a great measure. That is why we believe it is essential that industry create opportunities for customers to discuss your products online and help facilitate this talk.  Allowing forums that bring together current and potential customers can help companies demonstrate the value their products bring to the market.    

As mentioned before, humans naturally accept recommendations from their trusted close circles and if a trusted member of a community has a positive experience with your product, you may have just convinced the entire community.

The Rules of Self-promotion

Imagine yourself as a young twenty-something working to get your blog/writing off the ground.  With today’s social media outlets make it easier than ever to start a blog and instantly share it with each and everyone of your followers, friends, and subscribers.  There is, however, a fine line between making yourself known and an air of arrogance.  While arrogance can get you noticed very quickly, it can also turn people off even faster.  So how do you, the hypothetical young twenty-something blog writer, walk the tightrope of effective self-promotion and arrogance?

As discussed by Della on Micro to tele, we are on the same page that most of our self-promotion is obtained by tweeting the blog-link a few times the day of publishing and once on Google+.  But for an up and coming blog with few regular followers, is this enough?  And, is it okay to tag others (friends or influencers) in your tweets/posts in order to gain a following?  Our opinion is that content is the major determinant.  If your content is aligned with that of whom you are tagging, then yes, one or two tags a month of an influencer may be just what you need to boost your credentials.  Important to note though, there is a fine line between a few tags a month and becoming obtrusive.  Do not become the latter.  That is arrogance.

You may be asking yourself, how does this apply to BioPharma Advisors and healthcare?  Well now change that hypothetical situation to a healthcare/life sciences company rather than a blog.  It is essential to promote yourself in the proper communities without seeming arrogant to those well established in those communities.  That is where we come in.  We can help you boost your credentials with a proper marketing strategy that will allow you to gain ground in your field.  Remember, there is a fine-line between self-promotion and arrogance.  Crossing the line can be detrimental to your company, but a proper promotional strategy will lend to a successful future.

Cashing in on the 6 things patients want from social media

Attempts at creating the next sexy and flashy social media craze seem to be everyday occurrences.  But, the real issue at stake is developing social media with functionality.  After reading this article on "6 things patients want from social media," we wanted to add our perspective for our clients to consider in their life science marketing strategies. 

The most important point is the first thing patients want (and need): to find information quickly! We are still amazed at all the efforts ongoing in the industry that SEO provides, yet when marketers hire agencies to produce the information for all their print materials, no consideration is given to making that information readily accessible by patients or providers.   Look at some of the trends with video on You Tube. Are marketers really leveraging this channel given its rapid rise?  Patients are much more willing to take 3 minutes to watch a quality, informative video that provides a summary of information that is essential to their diagnosis/prognosis.  Incorporate a product or brand name in the informative video and you have a customer.  Our video marketing expertise will allow your company to effectively reach out to patients in a manner that will educate potential customers while promoting your product.

Other important points to consider when branching into social media to facilitate the conversation and flow of information with patients are:

·      To have information streamlined: This coincides with providing information quickly but also incorporates providing information in a manner that flows so information is easy to find and understand.

·      A clear understanding of the aging population: When developing social media strategies it is easy to produce an interface that attracts younger populations.  But how does one attract the primary demographics in healthcare?  It is essential to have a clear plan and benefits for the use of social media by the aging population.

·      To be engaged: Throwing information at patients and then becoming disconnected is not a good marketing strategy.  You must provide an interface through which patients and brand reps can interact in a meaningful way.

·      To help with the practical parts of care: Unfortunately, payments and paperwork is one of the practical parts of healthcare.  New ways of streamlining this necessary portion of healthcare will increase customer satisfaction and keep patients returning for your product or service.

·      To help with the healing process: For us, this touches back on being engaged.  Throughout the healing process, patients need to feel as if they are the number one priority for a physician and social media can assist with this.  Provide an easy way to keep physician-patient dialogue open and medical adherence will increase.

Social media will have a huge influence on healthcare going forward.  Provide a customer centric approach to marketing and attracting patients that focuses on these patients’ needs and you will see great returns.  Contact us, and we can help you develop your social media marketing plan that will reach out to patients in a meaningful way.

Localizing Customer Centric Marketing

In today’s world of continual globalization and the prominence of national and international brands, it is easy for a consumer to have little connection to a brand other than store exposure or a television ad.  This fact begs the question, how do national brands develop customer centric strategies that narrow this disconnect?  A recent post by eMarketer regarding national brands’ local marketing techniques shows that, in order to boost brand recognition and to repair this disconnect, national brands intend to spend more money in 2013 on local digital media.

Image Courtesy eMarketer.com

Attracting customers on a local basis is a key marketing strategy across all industries and is important in building quality customer relationships.  However, in many cases building a customer base on the local level is out of the hands of the national brand.  When this is the case, the national brand must rely on the ability of the local affiliate or distributor to market their products in an effective manner.  Recent surveys show national brands transitioning to local marketing strategies that incorporate mobile marketing, local blogs, and online customer reviews; however, many feel that local affiliates lack the expertise to execute these strategies effectively. 

Going forward, what will be big pharma’s solution to effectively market brands on a local level?  An emerging narrative in pharma is the coordination of national brand advertising  and local affiliate advertising.  The big "media buying" agencies do not know local affiliate marketing.  The need to develop cohesive strategies between these advertising channels focusing on a customer centric experience might be something industry wants to consider producing in 2013.  There is not a single brand director on the planet that does not want to build brand recognition. It is important to recognize ever-changing demographics and geographies that require attention in relation to current sales to ensure ensure companies are reaching their desired consumer. Let us help you determine your best channel mix and local versus national media spend. Let us give you some of our thoughts by sending us your media plan or having your media agency contact us.  

Message to Pharma CEOs: Forget prices increases, retain customers first!

This may be an older article from May 2011 by FiercePharma but it caught our eye and is still very relevant a year and a half later.  What is the moment when reality and perception converge for the Pharma industry?  What will happen when the CEOs of all the top life science companies need to tell their boards there is no more room for growth?  We hope someone in these organizations is spending some time on this subject, because the time is now.

We have always suggested there is a new era of engaging with customers.   The media for connecting with your customers is constantly evolving, and today, these methods of customer interaction are changing faster than ever.  But the majority of industries are slow to catch up, especially life science companies.  Yet, regardless of the marketplace conditions, the pace of change or current technologies, we believe in maintaining focus on the golden rule.  Treat customers as you would like to be treated as a person!  Through the years, the industry has continued to see things differently.  And then, when faced with events such as the patent and fiscal cliff, the drug industry seems to be out of answers.

This leads us to our current advice.  Do more with the business you currently earn! Our advice is to start managing the expectations of your boards that lower earnings and revenues are going to be a way of life if you do not take this focus.  Of course, this is unless you plan to revamp your research and development efforts to be wildly successful, but that discussion will require its own post. 

Firstly, look to BRIC nations for your future growth and develop harvest strategies for Europe and the US.   Secondly (and possibly more importantly), focus on making sure refills, re-orders, and customer complaints are managed more effectively rather than the constant focus on creating demand for your products/services.  It is evident that you have a large number to fill every year.  Globally, pharmaceutical companies lose an estimated $564 billion annually in revenues due to failed medication adherence (see study by Capgemini Consulting).  And with stats like the finding that 75% of first time statin users discontinue use within the first year of therapy, the focus needs to be retaining customers. It seems that much time (and money) is spent working on the same insufficient “brand-building” strategies.  Medication adherence programs work!  Why not mandate that all your products and brands make them an integral part of their marketing plan?  Let’s change the focus going forward and recoup some of that $564 billion.