Tag Archives: content

This New Engagement Model Garners Significant Rewards For Pharma

Posted on by
Reply

Last year, on July 26, 2021, I wrote in this blog on gaining a competitive edge with Omnichannel pharma marketing Omnichannel pharma marketing. However, from several recent studies, it appears, it’s still remains in a nascent stage. Most players in the industry haven’t been able to get there, just yet.

This is evident from a paper, published in the Reuters Events on November 08, 2022. It underscored, ‘But few, perhaps none, can say they have yet mastered omnichannel. A 360-degree view of the customer remains a work in progress. The seamless customer experience that physicians have come to expect in their private lives as customers in retail, finance, or hospitality, remains an aspiration.’

That said, the good news is – today – with rapidly declining Covid-19 onslaught, many drug companies have realized that their earlier assumption of ‘we know what our customers want,’ is invalid in the emerging perspective. Thus, it is foolhardy for their marketing strategy planners to believe that have a 360-degree view of their customers. This realization has prompted several companies to find out, based on the data, what the key customers’ needs are and engage with them accordingly.

In this article, I shall, therefore, reemphasize for the consideration of the young marketers that Omnichannel customer engagement, including patients and doctors, would help fetch significant and sustained financial rewards for drug companies.

However, another visualization of 6 years ago seems to have come true:

About 6 years ago, on December 26, 2016, I visualized in this blog: ‘a majority of the doctors’ choices in India would, possibly, involve MRs, while a good number of other important doctors’ choices may probably be independent of them. Nevertheless, from this emerging trend, it’s clear now that multi-channel engagement would be a new normal in pharma sales and marketing, sooner than later.’

This visualization seems to have come true by a great extent, as vindicated by the above study of the Reuters Events. It confirms, currently, most companies are stuck in multi-channel content delivery and, in fact, are still a long way of enjoying the benefits of truly aligned – Omnichannel engagement. This brings us to the question: ‘What’s the difference between Multi-Channel and Omnichannel content delivery strategy for customer engagement?’

Difference between Multi-Channel and Omnichannel content delivery strategy:

The article published in the Pharmaceutical Executive, on June 30, 2021, indicated: ‘An integrated strategy based on Omnichannel marketing is now increasingly replacing multichannel marketing.’

Nonetheless, in my article of July 26, 2021, I highlighted, although both omnichannel and multichannel engagement will be able to deliver targeted contents to patients through several interactive digital platforms, these two aren’t the same. Omnichannel approach connects these channels, including smartphone-based Apps, specially formatted websites, social media, community, and the likes – bridging technology-communication gaps that may exist in multichannel solutions.

Notably, any change from the fragmented and siloed multichannel approach to Omnichannel marketing would entail simultaneous orchestration of channels across personal, non-personal, and media. Besides orchestration of channels, the message of course, needs to be unified, interrelated – without being repetitive. From this perspective: ‘Bringing the channels and stakeholders together in a truly integrated manner is the pivotal shift required to break through today’s noisy and crowded pharmaceutical marketplace,’ as the above Pharmaceutical Executive article concluded.

More and more people are charting the digital space:

Fast increasing penetration into the cyberspace by a large section of the population, especially in the healthcare space – triggered by Covid related lockdowns, is now all pervasive. An increasing number of people now want to know more and more about various disease states, their treatment and prevention options, in the digital space. Patients and healthcare providers’ key requirements include, where to get the right information from, and how.

Information-needs expanding beyond disease or drug efficacy and safety:

A discussion, arranged by the Fingerpaint Group and published in the Fierce Pharma on November 14, 2022, covered some interesting points in this area. It acknowledged that in the digital space: “You’ve got the efficacy, the safety information, all that.” The discussion then pointed out: “But for a consumer, it’s a different type of journey. It’s, how do I learn more about the disease I’m dealing with? What is it I want to know, not only either for me, or if I’m a caregiver for somebody in my family, even, how do I help support them?”

Thus, it comes out clearly that patients’ or care givers’ quest for information isn’t just about the disease, it’s also about the quality of information that will help the person, as a whole. The drug companies, I reckon, should now accept it as one of their responsibilities. As one of the participants in this discussion said, ‘finding ways to reach everybody in the whole continuum so that they’re educated and informed, so that they can make better decisions for themselves,’ are imperatives for the marketers.

Personal detailing or other personal engagements don’t become irrelevant: 

Omnichannel approach doesn’t make traditional in-person detailing or other personal engagements irrelevant or obsolete. However, those alone, will no longer help a pharma player to achieve performance excellence. The new challenge is how does a company get to the right audience, get the right product to the right patient, or caregivers, amongst this vast ocean of digital noise.

Moreover, the ongoing digital push – beyond several essential personal outreach, will only accelerate in different ways. Omnichannel customer engagement, based on their own terms of engagement, including time, speed, and quality of information, will be the name of the new the game for success.

Many pharma companies aren’t sure where to start, But…

McKinsey & Company in a paper, published on January 05, 2022, also said so. It observed: ‘An analytics-enabled omnichannel commercial model can elevate HCP engagement, but many pharma companies are not sure where to start.’ However, it reiterated: ‘An analytics-enabled omnichannel commercial model can create value; Companies should start now.’

Thus, many pharma marketers may require hand-holding by domain experts, at least, to begin with. However, selection of experts being the key, should go through a structured validation process, including their previous success record in this initiative. As I articulated above, the challenge remains, how does a company use Omnichannel platform to engage the right customers with the right products and associated details, navigating through the noisy cyberspace.

That said, it won’t be unfair to acknowledge that many pharma companies are moving in the right direction.

But many pharma companies are moving in the right direction:

As I mentioned in my article of May 31, 2021: COVID-19 is driving lasting changes in what HCPs need and value,’ found the Accenture Healthcare Provider Survey May 2020, named – ‘Reinventing Relevance.’ Several physicians from the US, Europe and Asia were found to have experienced a significant change taking place in many pharma companies’ communication with them – going much beyond just product information.

Accenture’s follow-up study in August 2020 also reiterated, ‘pharma companies have improved how they engage with healthcare providers during Covid-19.’ It, therefore, appears that the new value expectations of many physicians are being met with a newer value delivery model, significantly deviating from pre-Covid practices.

However, in the above article, I discussed about value delivery through content – not about the channels used.

Conclusion:

The paper by McKinsey & Company, as mentioned above, also indicates another important point. While channels to engage HCPs and other customers are proliferating, the line between online and offline engagement is rapidly blurring. It further adds, managing this imperative has become more and more overwhelming for sales reps. The reason being, they “have traditionally relied on their ‘instincts’ to build relationships with HCPs.

It is now becoming challenging even for many experienced reps to tailor and optimize today’s complex mix of channels, content, and frequency of interactions for individual HCPs, the paper underscores. Which is why, today, transforming the existing commercial model is considered both inevitable and urgent, and:

“Pioneers that have adopted analytics and omnichannel approaches as part of their commercial model have garnered significant rewards.” the paper concluded.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Augment Pharma Customers’ New Value Expectations With Content Marketing

Posted on by
Reply

‘COVID-19 is driving lasting changes in what HCPs need and value,’ found the Accenture Healthcare Provider Survey May 2020, named – ‘Reinventing Relevance.’ Several physicians from the US, Europe and Asia were found to have experienced a significant change taking place in many pharma companies’ communication with them – going much beyond just product information.

The study observed, right from the early days of Covid-19 pandemic, daily operations of many health care providers (HCPs) shifted to more virtual interactions with both patients and pharma companies. The participating doctors also felt, the services that pharma companies are now offering deliver higher value than the pre-pandemic period.

Accenture’s follow-up study in August 2020 reiterated, ‘pharma companies have improved how they engage with healthcare providers during Covid-19.’ It, therefore, appears that the new value expectations of many physicians are being met with a newer value delivery model, significantly deviating from pre-Covid practices.

For example, in the above August 2020 survey, most HCPs said pharma players are increasingly providing education on how to better treat patients remotely and help them manage their conditions in light of COVID-19. Besides, some of these companies are also helping patients understand various contemporary health and care related issues.

Against this backdrop, as the study underscored: ‘Now is the time for pharma companies to redefine their relevance.’ Picking up from here – in this article, I shall focus on the relevance of ‘Content Marketing’ in pharma to effectively deliver the new value expectations of physicians with a new value delivery model.

Pharma marketing can’t be ‘an outdated and uncoordinated analogue’ any longer:

Since quite some time, technological innovation has started opening new vistas of opportunities with new tools, multi-channels, and platforms for personalized and more effective customer engagement in pharma. But, majority of tradition-bound pharma players, unlike their counterparts in other industries, preferred to stick to the single channel marketing model, that has been offering golden eggs, till Covid-19 struck.

It’s not that no one in pharma knew at that time about the usefulness of content marketing. This is vindicated even in the article on the future of pharma marketing, published in the Pharmaphorum, on May 23, 2017. It wrote: ‘Where others have taken marketing innovation in their stride, pharma retains an outdated and uncoordinated analogue perspective of how to communicate its business.’

Citing examples of some pharma marketers, such as, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly, it wrote, ‘while moves have been made to embrace new marketing methods, such as the integration of digital technologies for multichannel marketing (MCM) strategies, the way forward for pharma marketing is far from clear.’  It was – then.

It is different now; 

Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged many pharma marketers to expand marketing focus much beyond just product information to meet their customers new value expectations. These encompass some critical areas, as the May and August 2020 surveys of Accenture have brought out.

For many companies, content marketing strategy with an omnichannel presence will help build long-term relationships with customers. That said, for all to be on the same page, let me recap – what exactly is content marketing, and its difference from the traditional single channel marketing in the pharma industry.

Content marketing in pharma:

According to the Content Marketing Institute: ‘Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.’

Instead of pitching the products or services, content marketing provides contemporary, relevant, and useful content to customers to help them solve their contemporary issues in the given space. Since quite some time, content marketing is being practiced in many industries, including -by a selected few in pharma, as indicated above.

The key difference from traditional marketing:

The value of content marketing lies in the quality of personalized engagement between the customer and the company with personalized content through different channels. From this perspective, while traditional marketing is akin to ‘shouts’ at the customers – generally, for a brand prescription, whereas content marketing is akin to ‘talking’ with them for a solution. Content marketing in pharma is, therefore, about a grand strategy for effective participation in meaningful conversations for development stronger stakeholder relationships.

Content marketing usually includes educational articles – on the company website or in the form of e-books, videos, infographics, white papers, magazines, podcasts, or webinars. The content for all these need to be tailor made to credibly answer specific questions that customers have and provide them with something they can’t get elsewhere. This process of creating a deeper and a sustainable bond with stakeholders, often pays a rich commercial dividend, even in trying times.

Increasing use of content marketing, especially, in a fast-changing scenario, as we witness today, can help a pharma company to change and enhance its customer’s behavior toward the company, in a win-win manner.

Some recent examples of content marketing in pharma:

For more clarity, let me give below a few examples of good content marketing in the pharma industry, as available in the cyberspace – some of them capturing Covid related issues too:

  • Speak Your Migraine, developed by Novartis, was created to support people living with migraine. The website carries an impact assessment tool for the visitors to feel how migraine affects people’s lives, enabling them to openly share their experiences with doctors and family.
  • Lilly Pad is Eli Lilly’s official blog, consisting of articles on the company, its research to cure diseases and improve the quality of lives. The blog also provides details of the health and public policy, along with corporate social responsibility of the organization in various areas of the society.
  • Takeda Pharmaceutical launched its campaign IBD Unmasked to support and create increased awareness of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The campaign aims to help IBD sufferers find their inner super-strength and become superheroes like the characters featured in the graphic novels within the campaign.
  • Bayer’s content marketing initiatives span across print and digital media with a large following. The organization publishes two well-appreciated publications as a carrier of its content: The Bayer Scientific Magazine and the Bayer Magazine.

Conclusion:

Overall, pharma and biotech industries don’t seem to be doing as well in this area. According to ‘The State of Content Survey for Life Sciences’ by Accenture, only very few of them think that they are doing well. For example:

  • Just 13% of pharma and biotech marketers and 17% of med tech marketers think they leverage content well.
  • Only 4% in med tech and 11% in pharma/biotech report they have a clearly documented content strategy that meets their current and future needs (compared to 42% across all industries).
  • Only 6% of med tech marketers and 9% of pharma/biotech marketers feel objectives are clearly laid out (versus 19% across all industries).

It is quite possible that more than a year since Covid disruptions, this situation has somewhat improved for some companies. Nevertheless, amid this complex environment, most of the pharma and biotech players still require defining a robust ‘content marketing strategy’ for them. Establishing clear objectives of the content strategy based on well-researched data, along with its measurement criteria, will demand a quality thought process. Depending on the strategic requirements, the leadership will need to put in place an organizational structure for content marketing, including people, processes, technology, and tools that can deliver the stated content marketing goals – both during, as well as after the pandemic period.

Thus, I reckon, to effectively augment pharma customers’ new value expectations, content marketing needs to occupy an important place in today’s pharma marketing playbook.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Time To Audit Pharma’s Doctor-Engagement And Other Digital Strategies

Posted on by
Reply

It’s now over a year since the unprecedented global health crisis commenced. In this grueling saga, a silver lining is also visible. It helped pharma industry gain a fascinating operational experience, while navigating through disruptive business changes. The changes in the health care ecosystem, ranges from rapid espousal virtual medical care to the meteoric rise of e-marketing and e-visits to physicians.Encouragingly, the entire industry displayed a remarkable resilience to quickly get on to its feet, after initially getting knocked down by the overpowering impact of the pandemic.

One critical pharma-brand demand generating tool – in-person engagement between doctors and pharma reps, also came to a grinding halt – almost overnight, as it were, for well-known reasons. Moreover, companies started facing a crippling situation for all physical business events, such as, Continuing Medical Education (CME), active participation in medical conferences, patient engagements, and so on – as an integral part of their brand or corporate value delivery strategy.

Catching many by surprise, almost in no time, finding no other effective alternatives, several drug companies imbibed e-marketing – many of them in bits and pieces, though. Interestingly, technology based organizational transformation, which was progressing at a snail’s speed, thus far, gained momentum during the pandemic. Since then, there hasn’t been any looking back in this area. Instead, the speed of digital transformation in pharma is expected to accelerate further, as we move on.

Notably, many doctors are still not inclined for in-person sales calls. But, they haven’t stopped looking for product and other information from drug companies. More importantly, after more extensive charting the cyberspace during lockdowns, information requirements of many doctors have changed significantly, as confirmed by various surveys. The same holds good regarding their preferred channels of information and interaction.

This prompts one to ponder over a critical question. Although, a shift towards digitalization, including pharma marketing, is necessary in the changing scenario, do companies need to audit their digital marketing strategies in this area – now?

Nonetheless, this performance audit needs to be an independent assessment of a company’s e-marketing operations to assess whether its digital programs or functions are working as intended to achieve the expected goals. This article will dwell on this subject.

Are companies satisfying doctors’ information needs digitally?

The answer to this question was captured in a recent survey conducted by Abelson Taylor/Veeva. Some of its important findings are as follows:

  • Amid peak of Covid pandemic, 42 percent physicians surveyed, wanted from drug companies, specific treatment protocols tailored to their patient populations. Alongside, they also need to know the latest Covid related developments in medical silences, information on how the outbreak impacts their day-to-day practice, and how they deal with patients. The survey revealed, most of these unconventional information needs were slow to arrive to many doctors.
  • 83 percent physicians reported they hadn’t received any new information from reps, even remotely, in the week before the survey – in late March 2020.
  • Despite reps’ visits being more preferred by doctors, which included e-visits and tele-detailing calls, these declined by 63 percent, while emails between the two increased by 263 percent during the same period.
  • The average time for online meetings is now 17 minutes, despite the above preferences of doctors – versus a pre-Covid average meeting time of just six minutes. One reason could be doctors had more time with them as patient calls were less.

Therefore, the question arises, couldn’t these visits be made more customer need oriented? The possible reason for the same could be lack of simultaneous feedback mechanism for pharma marketers. Similar assessment is essential in other related areas, as well. Because, for reps’ effective virtual ‘visits’, data based – right selection of customer-preferred digital channels, content and formats for communication is crucial.

For Rep’s effective e-visits – channel, content and format selection is vital: 

This area has been well-researched in an India specific article, published by Bain & Company on December 20, 2020. The study found that physicians in India are more likely to engage with certain channels, content and formats for virtual ‘visits’ of medical reps.

The study also found – otherwise, physicians’ click-rates for digital information from pharma companies has traditionally been low – at an average around 10 percent to 15 percent, with some variation for specialties. Thus, with well researched e-visit strategy, pharma companies will have the opportunity to double or even triple levels of engagement in many cases, the study assessed. However, the drug companies would need to necessarily tailor their digital programs to physician preferences.

The study found the preferences of Indian doctors’ in these areas, as below:

Preference

1

2

3
Channel 71% – WhatsApp 20% – E-mail 3% – SMS
Content 29% – Publication findings 26% – Clinical Case Study 12% – Promotional Brand
Format 55% – Videos 15% – Articles and infographics

The above data, therefore, suggest:

-  Physicians in India overwhelmingly prefer communication via WhatsApp, with click rates 3.5 times higher than email and nearly 24 times higher than SMS.

-  Content matters: Scientific content, such as published findings and clinical case studies, generated up to 2.5 times higher engagement than promotional brand content.

- And format makes a difference too, with physicians 3.5 times more likely to click on short video content than articles and infographics.

These vindicate the point – pharma players in India require to initiate a meaningful process of an independent periodic review of their digital strategies – now. More importantly – based on the company-specific emerging trends, if a player quickly adapts accordingly, the possibility of getting a bigger bang for its buck on physician outreach,’ would likely to be high – even in the new normal.

Some key points to consider during long-term digital strategy formulation:

Just as today’s pharma operations aren’t a replica of 2019 and before, the same holds good for tomorrow and thereafter, as the process, span and magnitude of digitalization will keep improving. A glimpse of the same is available in an article on digitally engaged physicians during the digital health transition, published in PLOS ONE, on September 28, 2020. Following are the two – among several other points, on further democratization of medical information, as articulated by the authors:

  • Broader role of doctors is during the digital transition. Companies need to spot and understand quickly how it’s evolving over a period of time.
  • Digitally engaged physicians may also consider themselves as a guide and participate in the medical information managing function – in the description, collection, and sharing of credible content in the online space.

Conclusion:

Nevertheless, a section within the pharma industry still nurtures the hope of a return to the ‘old normal.’ Whereas most others don’t really subscribe to this seemingly unrealistic hope. Hence, even after the pandemic gets over, some critical changes are likely to last longer. These include more e-visits of reps than in-person doctor calls, webinars for doctors and patients, in company virtual meetings for training and other strategic physical events. None of these are expected to happen in similar frequency, scale and manner as what used to happen in 2019 and before.

Further, in the new normal, with more enlightened and digital savvy customers around, just talking the talk of ‘patient-centricity’ will no longer suffice. Companies will need to walk the talk - mostly through more transparent digital platforms, henceforth. Similarly, just talking about data and analytics won’t just be enough, pharma companies need to marshal enough wisdom in their people inventory, to capture and make productive use of credible data and information.

Undoubtedly, pharma’s digital strategies in all these areas have started taking roots. However, the yield of the same, apparently remains much below their potential, in most cases, for various reasons. Which is why, I reckon, an independent, in-depth, and periodic audit of each pharma company’s doctor-engagement and other digital strategies, since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, is now essential.

The objective is not to revert to the old traditional model – jettisoning the digital transformation pathway, especially in pharma marketing, especially when the yield is low. The idea is to review or redraft the digital strategy, based on periodic audits. Or it may even be just tightening some loose knots of a patient-centric and doctor-friendly contemporary game plan for business excellence in the new environment.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Should Pharma-Doctor Communication Be Also Gender-Specific?

Posted on by
Reply

Regardless of situations, while selecting a suitable doctor for patients, or for that matter, pharma companies engage with them for commercial reasons, their gender doesn’t matter much to many.

What one generally looks for is, whether they are General Practitioners (GPs), General Surgeons (GSs) or Specialists in various disease areas, such as cardiac, metabolic, bones and joints, cancer and so on. This has been happening, despite several research studies pointing out a number of important gender-based behavioral differences between most male and female doctors, often leading to a significant difference in patient outcomes.

Before proceeding further, let me admit up front that there may be some exceptions to this general scenario. For example, certain female patients may prefer being examined by the female doctors only. Similarly, a few drug companies may be tailoring the content and the process of their communication based on the target doctors’ age.

In this article, I shall try to focus on this area based on a number of important research findings. The objective being whether medical communications of pharma players should also factor-in the gender-specific nuances among male and female doctors. This is because, such differences impact clinical outcomes and happens irrespective of whether they are GPs or specialists. Let me kick-start the discussion with the following question:

“Does gender matter when choosing a doctor?”

This interesting point was raised in an article, titled “Should You Choose a Female Doctor?”, appeared in ‘The New York Times (NYT)’ on August 14, 2018. Let me put across the essence of it, quoting from some large research findings.

The August 21, 2018 study, titled “Patient–physician gender concordance and increased mortality among female heart attack patients,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). This study covered more than 580,000 heart patients admitted to emergency rooms in Florida between 1991 and 2010. After a thorough scrutiny, the researchers noted that:

  • The mortality rates for both women and men were lower when the treating physician was female.

Consequently, it appears, gender does matter, while choosing a doctor for better treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, just one illustration in this regard may not possibly be enough to drive home this point. Thus, let me quote from another important study. This one is a Harvard study that included more than 1.5 million hospitalized Medicare patients and arrived at similar conclusions, with the finding as stated hereunder.

Lower 30-day mortality under female internists than male counterparts:

This large study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine on February 2017 also concludes:Hospitalized patients who receive care from female general internists have lower 30-day mortality and readmission rates than those patients cared for by male internists.

“The difference in mortality was slight – about half a percentage point – but when applied to the entire Medicare population, it translates to 32,000 fewer deaths,” reported the above NYT article while commenting on this subject. I shall come to this finding in just a bit.

Why patient outcomes are different under the care of male and female doctors? 

To get an answer to this question, just as several other previous studies, the findings of the above issue of JAMA Internal Medicine also suggest more studies in this area. The aim is to zero-in on the key differences in practice patterns between male and female physicians, which may have important clinical implications for patient outcomes.

The researchers observed, understanding exactly why these differences in care quality and practice patterns exist may provide valuable insights into improving quality of care for all patients, irrespective of who provides their care.

Curiously, this question was answered in a 2002 study published in the JAMA that found female doctors spend more times with patients.

Female doctors spend more times with patients:

The paper, titled “Physician gender effects in medical communication: a meta-analytic review” wanted to find out why patient outcomes are different under the care of male and female doctors?This study was published in the August 14, 2002 issue of JAMA. It found, “Female primary care physicians engage in more communication that can be considered patient centered and have longer visits than their male colleagues.”The average difference in time spent with patients between male and female physicians is about 2 minutes, or 10 percent, per visit.

The researchers also found that female physicians engage in communication that mostly relates to the larger life context of patient conditions. It includes addressing psychosocial issues through related questions and counseling, greater use of emotional talk, more positive talk, and more active enlistment of patient input. From this perspective, they commented: When taken together, these elements comprise a pattern that can be broadly considered ‘patient-centered’ interviewing.

Would tailoring pharma communication accordingly fetch better dividend? 

Such highly similar findings, as evidenced by many reports, over a considerable period of time, add much credence to an important fact. These vindicate the concept that ‘patient-outcomes are better when cared by female doctors as compared to their male counterparts.’ In the pharma context, the subsequent question that surfaces: Can this finding be put to use while developing a tailor-made communication strategy with appropriate content for female doctors, harvesting a rich commercial dividend?

No doubt, before doing so, more data need to be generated and analyzed to corroborate the utility of the same in the pharma business. That said, the good news is, the work has already started in this area.

Some interesting recent findings on pharma-doctor interactions:

As reported by Fierce Pharma on October 26, 2018, moving towards this direction, CMI/Compas ventured into testing the water. It planned to find out whether drug companies should develop male and female doctor-specific communication strategy and content for more productive engagement with them. After an elaborate data analysis, CMI/Compas found the following:

  • As the most important source of new product information 59 percent of older-male-doctors rank pharma sales reps much higher. Whereas, only 46 percent of older-female-doctors’ think so.
  • 47 percent of older-male-doctors were most likely to see sales reps without any restrictions. Whereas, less than 40 percent of the other group saw reps without placing any hurdles to their visits.
  • Female physicians of all generations were found more likely to rank medical websites and online drug reference guides as more important tools than their male counterparts.
  • Women doctors are also likely to encourage patients using websites, electronic medical records and patient support programs more frequently than their male counterparts.
  • After receiving requisite information from pharma source, especially younger women doctors, are more likely:

- To change a patient’s treatment (20 percent).

- Try a new product (22 percent).

- Conduct more research using other sources (40 percent).

Conclusion:

These research findings do provide a fresh food for thought for the pharma strategists to ascertain whether a new ground exists to further hone the conversation between drug companies and the doctors. More specific point to ponder is, whether an avant-garde, as it were, customer-segmentation strategy be put to use, while devising a sharply focused communication and content for the male and female doctors, separately for each.

Coming back to where I started from: Should pharma-doctor communication be gender-specific? In my view, enough credible evidences, as captured in several large studies, send a clear signal towards an affirmative answer. Nevertheless, individual company would still be required to meticulously vet it out internally, for the best possible results.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

The Relevance of Content Marketing In Pharma

Posted on by
Reply

“Nearly half of pharma industry may come under price control” – was the headline of a media report of June 7, 2017. Although, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has apparently denied any such move, the fact is that the number of drugs coming under price control is steadily creeping up, ever since the Drugs Price Control Order 2013 came into force. If this trend continues, the gross profit margin of most of the branded generic manufacturers will also keep getting significantly squeezed, with a varying degree, though.

Coupled with drug pricing pressure in the United States, USFDA import bans from several manufacturing plants in India and dwindling number of new generic drugs ready for US launch, the market capitalization of many publicly listed pharma companies, may go further south. An important example of this situation was cited by Bloomberg, with reasons, in its report of June 07, 2017 carrying a headline “Pharma Woes Axe $14 Billion From Wealth of Once-Richest Indian.”

However, the overall setting is not so distressing for all Indian drug manufacturers, for different reasons. The June 08, 2017 headline of another  business news daily stating – “Cadila Healthcare overtakes Lupin as second most valuable pharma company in India,” vindicates the point. The promoter of this company reportedly said, ‘the company expects to receive 40 product approvals in the US in the current financial year.’

Be that as it may, added to these pain points of many pharma players in the country, Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s recent hint on framing rules for doctors to prescribe generic drugs, invites yet another wave of worries for the branded generic drugs players in India, regardless of a solid socioeconomic reason for the same.

Keeping these developments in perspective, collectively, the headwind faced by the Indian pharma industry, regardless of the underlying reasons, is indeed a tough one to navigate through, unscathed. Consequently, the stellar aggregate net profit growth of 41.3 percent in 2016 over 2015, as reported by the 2016 Dun & Bradstreet publication titled, “India’s Leading Pharmaceutical Companies 2016”, could possibly be rather challenging to maintain. Let me hasten to add that a much slower rise in the sector’s largest expense head – ‘raw material expenses’, also helped to achieve this enviable profit growth in 2016, as the report elaborated.

In this article, I shall try to fathom the depth this issue, and the possible way forward.

Areas of laudable contribution by the pharma industry:

For several decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been playing a leading role, not just in offering new innovative drugs, but their cheaper generic equivalents also, as those go off-patent, incessantly, to save and improve the quality millions of lives, across the world. The success of the drug industry is fundamentally driven by innovation – both in the discovery of new molecules and treatments, as well as in coming out with new cost efficient processes to significantly improve patients’ access to innovative drugs, post patent expiry.

Two areas requiring greater focus:

In tandem with these laudable initiatives, two disturbing trends are gathering momentum. One such trend is inadequate understanding of the grave fall out of not meeting with important stakeholders’ expectation on product pricing. As a result, various Governments and other health care payers are coming down heavily on pharma players to make drug prices affordable for the patients.

And the second one is, an intriguing apathy to be innovative in engaging with each stakeholder to take them on board. This can be done by communicating transparently, an easy-to-understand way and a customized way, the major benefits the individual players have been providing to facilitate various public health care initiatives. An apparent disinterest in this area continues, despite the snowballing effect of adverse public perception, and increasing trust deficit.

The core factors driving the trends:

These two trends are generally driven by two core factors – one is external, and the other internal. The external one is related to the general socioeconomic environment, and the internal one is intimately related to strategic business game plans of individual pharma companies.

The discussion will get more complex, if one wants to know whether the traditional pharma business models have a catalytic effect on the seemingly hostile business environment. As I have discussed several times in this blog, what the pharma players can possibly do in the pricing area, I shall not go into that subject yet again.

Nevertheless, what the pharma companies can do in the second area, to achieve their key strategic business goals, is quite different from what most of them are doing or not doing, till date. As we see around, many pharma players, especially the Indian branded generic companies remain engaged predominantly with the doctors, in the form of product detailing, or through Continuing Medical Education (CME) events, or the likes of these.

Today’s newer kind of strategic intervention calls for expert inputs. This is essential to create credible-research-based innovative content, and deliver the same with absolute precision through tailor-made platforms, for effective engagement with each stakeholder. It goes without saying, this should be done in a way that ordinary citizens or netizens can easily relate to.

Relevance of ‘Content Marketing’:

As the traditional pharma marketing is becoming progressively less and less effective, the need for a comprehensive content marketing model is becoming critical for the Indian pharma industry, more than ever before. In this model, useful content will be at the core of pharma marketing

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI): ‘Content Marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.’

It is possible to make the demand of a medical product, or a caring corporate image, more sustainable through content marketing, as compared to the traditional ones where individual product detailing and CMEs become the centerpieces of marketing strategy.

Why is it so important for pharma now?

According to a Pew Research Study, “One in three American adults have gone online to figure out a medical condition.”

Similarly, PwC Health Research Institute’s consumer survey of 1,060 US adults highlights, about one-third of consumers are using the social space as a natural habitat for discussions on health. More than 80 percent of individuals aged between18 and 24 would likely to share health-related information through social media, while nearly 90 percent of individuals would engage in health-related activities, or trust information found via social media. Around 45 percent of consumers said information from social media would affect their decisions to seek a second opinion.

In India too, increasing number of doctors and patient populations are ferreting information that they require from cyberspace, including different expert websites, online, and immediately when they require those.

Doctors are searching for detail information on different drugs, about their manufacturers, new treatment processes, and required data on clinical trials. Similarly, patients are searching for information in various other areas, such as, different aspects of the diseases that they or their near or dear ones are suffering from, and their effective modes of treatment with cost data, by getting connected online with related patient groups or communities. Even when engaging with the doctors, they often want to cross verify the outcome of discussion with the information available on the Internet. So do the doctors with the information provided by the pharma companies in person.

For example, one such popular website, among many others, is The Mayo Clinic’s Sharing blog designed for the Mayo Clinic community, and includes the following area:

  • Sharing experience of patient communities
  • Specialist doctors discussing new treatments, contemporary innovation in the health care space and patient care
  • Medical researchers and specialist doctors sharing their research experiences
  • Discussion on future health care and wellness by the professionals at Mayo Clinic
  • Students sharing their experience and perspectives in various areas

Driven by the current digital wave, and the word of mouth publicity to the benefits derived by the doctors and patients through such process, an ever-increasing number of the population is expected to do the same, in the years ahead.

Thus, a huge marketing opportunity in this much unexplored area awaits the Indian pharma players to establish an emotional connect with the stakeholders, including the doctors and patients, by providing all relevant information that they are web-searching for.

Needs specialization:

Unlike traditional pharma marketing, content marketing is a highly-specialized area – especially for the generation of requisite meaningful and quality data, getting the relevant insight through analytics for innovative message creation.

Moreover, as the current public image of pharma players, in general, is not very encouraging, it may be a good idea to work on various trust building activities. These may include videos on patients narrating their stories or a research experience, and infographics. Thereafter, its delivery through best suited communication platforms, across the marketing channels, followed by constant evaluation of the quality impact generated, will be critical.

Content marketing initiative in pharma should ideally start on a pilot scale and curated to enhance stakeholder engagement level, as necessary, before scaling it up to a national or a global level, as the situation would call for.

A few examples:

Some global pharma players have initiated great work in the space of content marketing. These are aimed at mostly to increase the awareness level and educate patients, doctors, and caregivers in some important and carefully crafted areas. A few examples are as follows:

  • Actually She Can (Allergan): on contraception options
  • Set Your Sights (Novartis): on vision conditions that a person may not have been previously aware of
  • Living Like You (Novartis): on coping with Multiple Sclerosis at its different stages
  • Arthritis.com (Pfizer): provides information about rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis
  • Quitter’s Circle (Pfizer and American Lung Association): provides resource for those who want to quit smoking and their supporters.

Conclusion:

The most predictable part in the pharma business environment is its unpredictability. What is happening today with various large and seemingly invincible players of the recent past, is indeed jaw dropping. Some experts had predicted that the ultimate outcome of getting fixated into mostly traditional business practices in a rapidly changing socioeconomic setting and technology focused environment, could seriously challenge the long-term sustainability of a business.

The major adverse impact on the Indian pharma sector’s overall business performance is primarily driven primarily by the product pricing pressure and USFDA import bans on product quality parameters. Many believe, both these are intimately related to the current business practices of the industry, in general, leading to increasing trust deficits between the pharma companies and the Government, including the public.

The growth engine of the pharma industry is innovation, which would always remain so. Interestingly, in marketing areas no much innovation is noticed. Continuous and effective engagement with all stakeholders is critical now, not just for brand promotion, but also on corporate mission, vision and values, giving solid examples of how the company is making steady progress in those areas. This would help establish credibility in their eyes and take them on board to create a powerful and trustworthy voice for effective brand engagements, as well. It will also encourage the pharma players to ‘walk the talk’, in the real world, always.

The opportunities that a comprehensive content marketing strategy could offer to pharma companies to move in this direction, are phenomenal. It helps to get emotionally connected with all stakeholders, by providing relevant information, including those they are web-searching for, in a more innovative and informative format.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.