The Pharma Trust Deficit

Pharma marketers are ever so keen on social media. Patients are out there talking about their conditions, and their medications. Pharma would love to join, and no doubt influence, the conversation.

But Pharma has a problem. It’s starting out with a huge trust deficit.

Take the headlines around GSK’s Avandia from about a month ago. Just like with Vioxx is appears that a major Pharma company has suppressed or muted reports of fatal adverse events.  The result, as a recent blog post relates, is “An example of everything that’s wrong with pharma,”  which is a complete lack of trust. And unfortunately, this trust deficit is the current starting point for pharma.

To get a sense of what brand trust is all about and how low on the scale pharma sits, its useful to think about the current situation with Toyota. This company has been acting much like pharma with regards to their products safety issues: hiding evidence in order to put revenues and expansion and share value above customer and end user safety.

The thing to point out is that the long fall from grace that Toyota has undergone is pretty much the same distance pharma already is from the top of the trust ladder. That is a long hill to climb.

This doesn’t mean pharma should ignore social media. But it does mean some pharma co’s needs to think more holistically as customer-first marketing organizations, and less like greedy, sales-at-all-cost machines.  That type of mentality only deepens the trust deficit with customers and makes the marketing job that much harder.

Brand Building, e-Marketing, Social Networks

March 26, 2010

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The Creative Demands of Pharma Marketing

Marc Brownstein recently wrote an article in Ad Age entitled “Pharma Marketing is Embarassing.” While he understands the fact that the industry is highly regulated he showed his lack of industry knowledge by thinking advertisers would be well served if they just stopped mentioning those embarassing side effects. In fact, they are just the things that regulators force advertisers to keep in their scripts.

Now we in the industry can laugh at such an naive view. But it got me thinking about the creative challenges inherent in working in such a regulated environment, especially in Canada. One might think that such an environment would stifle creativity and idea generation. But that assumes that marketers start with the constraints of advertising regulations and start working from there. But that’s simply not how it works.

The truth about how we develop ideas in pharma marketing – whether they are traditional or digital – is that we start with a blank page, just like everyone else. Ideas about how to engage customers or communicate a brand message with maximum impact are born without any blinders, harnesses, or saddles eventually imposed by Health Canada and PAAB.

Ultimately,  the ideas in pharma that ultimately get implemented are those that pass the test of simply being excellent ads, or excellent digital programs, BUT ALSO can be successfully molded to fit the requirements those unfortunate regulations.

So pharma marketers have to have doubly creative – not only do they have to come up with the ads and programs, but they have to be extra creative in how to make them work effectively in a heavily regulated environment.

So while its easy to cast stones at pharma ads, the creative energy behind them is certainly no cause for embarassment.

Brand Building, e-Marketing

July 13, 2009

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What .ca Does For Your Brand

Greg Rice, in his Future Pharma Marketing Blog has a great entry about why its important for Canadian Pharma marketers to not rely on a US .com site, but to deploy a Canadian product site or micro-site. The primary reason is to enable the marketer to create an integrated, engaging campaign. You simply can’t place a  reference to a US .com site on your Canadian ads, or link through to it from your banners. And while on the surface, it seems like the assumption “they’ll just go to the .com if they want more information” is a reasonable one, when you look at the user experience of that model, you see a series of breakdowns of what could be a very positive brand experience.

Lets say a physician sees an ad in a Canadian medical journal and is intrigued and she wants more information. Great! Must have been a good ad. But wait! There’s no URL. Breakdown #1. She could Google the brand name and find the US .com site, but as a marketer, you sure aren’t making it easy.

Lets assume this doc actually does google your brand and gets to the .com. OK, its easy enough to find, but the branding in the US is often different. Suddenly the ad she saw and the message she received and compelled her to look for more information is no longer the key message on the site. Suddenly she is being provided a whole new message, one that simply does not match the one that compelled her to go the web. This is breakdown #2. And the chances that the user will simply click away are very high.

Ususally US site are very robust, so lets assume our Canadian doctor continues to view the site. She decides to check out the Health Care Professional Resources – often a helpful and value-rich area of a site. Here comes breakdown #3. All online resources are US sites. Not only that, but all othe nline patient support sites only allow US residents as well. Not very supportive to her patients, are they?

At the end of the day, the message that Canadian physicians receive is that “we really don’t care” about you or your patients. To me, that’s the biggest and most damaging breakdown of all: to leave a customer with the sense that they are simply not important. Not worth the trouble.

There’s no wonder that consumer brands don’t rely on global sites for all of their local online marketing efforts. Its not just a language issue – there are differences in local markets that need to be addressed, and local sites enable direct engagement with that target audience.

The good news is that a local site can sometimes use US digital assets to make the construction of a Canadian micro-site more efficient and cost effective. That MOA video that cost an arm and a leg can be repurposed for minimal cost. You can also ask your US colleagues to place a link on their site that states “Canadian Healthcare Professionals Click Here”. But chances are, they will get to your site first, because you’ve got the URL and a call to action in your ad, banners, and google ads all helping your target find your site.

Now isn’t that a great way to tell your customers that you really do care?

Uncategorized

July 3, 2009

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Moving from Tactics to Strategy

Lets face it. Right now the e-Pharma space in Canada is mostly just a bunch of isolated tactics. A brand site here, a patient site there, living for the most part in isolation, without a overarching strategy in place. There are some exceptions – Lilly’s product portal at www.lillyinteractive.ca is definitely a product/customer service portal approach (although the indicators are that these portal visits are declining in the US) – but by and large, interactive efforts remain purely tactical in nature.

With the economic realities of today, shrinking sales forces, and the curiosity that web 2.0 has generated , the call for brand managers to investigate “non-sales force promotion” has never been louder. And the opportunity has never been greater to move from a purely tactical approach to a strategic one. But what does that really mean? “Strategy” is one of those $5 words people like to throw around to sound really smart. What does strategy in the Canadian e-Pharma space look like?

To start, it requires that Product Manager get the following things about their customers, their brand, and the Internet:

1. An understanding of your customers – GP, Specialist, pharmacist…
2. An understanding of branding & interactive branding.
3. An understanding of the key touch-points for each target.
4. An understanding of the key brand issues.
5. An understanding of interactive opportunities – from types of properties, types of online media…
6. An understanding of the regultory environment.

To be sure – there’s a lot you need to need to know. And an as you probably can infer, Interactive Strategy can’t be separate from the Brand’s overall Communication Strategy. And there are many Product Managers, especially those new ones who have been recently promoted from the the sales force, will know a lot about their brand, but will be lacking in experience on many of the interactive fronts.

It may be that Pharma Companies need to invest in education around the e-Pharma space. A little “Interactive Boot-Camp” if you will, run by the e-Business group if there is one, or a trusted agency partner. Its tough enough for people to acknowledge they don’t know something, but its impossible if they don’t know what it is they don’t know. When Marketing VP’s ask PM’s to think about “non-sales force promotion”, are they also giving their people the tools to do that effectively?

At the end of the day, its great to want to talk about interactive or integrated strategy. Its even better to have some knowledge and tools in place so that those efforts are are effective as possible.

Uncategorized

April 24, 2009

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Integrating Tactics: Planning is the Key

Canadian Pharma Marketers that do move past the detail aid and dose card and into online brand promotion sometimes forget about the all-important aspect of integrating their tactics.

Its simple really. Whatever is out in the field, be it a journal ad, direct mail campaign, leave behinds, etc., all should point back to the brand site. Its pretty simple brand touch-point stuff, where each touch point should point the target to another (the website) and from there, perhaps to requesting a rep visit, yet another touch-point.

To make it even more compelling, the URL on your print material should be accompanied by some kind of indication of the added value to be found on the site: cool new patient materials, or free PDA download for example. (Free works well with Docs, doesn’t it?) Or it could be an invitation to deeper information on a topic, special studies, etc. Its a customer-centric approach, and lets brand managers put the right content in the right channel.

Ah, but if only it were so simple. The reality is that PAAB won’t let a piece be approved without approving the site at the URL that’s included. And often the detail aid and journal ad move first as the key pieces, upon which many of the other materials are based.  And that dose card can move pretty quickly through the process as well, often ahead of the website that is getting some video shot or the PDA tool produced.  So all too often the URL gets stripped out of these pieces and they lose their integrated force.

So what’s a marketer to do? Well, the first thing is to understand the value of integrating all your tactics and then to plan to ensure that your integration efforts can happen. The detail aid and the website should ideally move together through the agency simultaneously (thus the benefit of a fully integrated agency) so that the site approval does not delay that of others.

The other option is to look at opportunities to sticker existing printed pieces, or replace the art files at the journals with updates ads that contain the brand URL. Paying for film is no longer an issue, so the costs are minimal.

So an integrated promotional campaign can happen if you make it a priority. You can plan for it, especially if you work with an agency that can deliver all of your material, interactive included. It means understanding that your digital media may represent the critical path of your time lines, and starting earlier on it.

Simple? Well, its not really rocket science. Just a little different than what you might be used to.  But the benefits of these consumer-world standard best practices can’t be ignored.

Brand Building, e-Marketing, Non-Rep Promotion

April 4, 2009

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Marketing in a Straight-Jacket

I told a friend a while back that Pharma marketing was a lot like playing chess. Not only is it highly cerebral – to really understand a brand there is a not insignificant degree of scientific understanding required – but also, there are lots and lots, and lots of rules.  Canada, with a regulatory environment governing pharma marketing similar to Europe,  has a (possibly overly-)active watchdog agency (our beloved PAAB) that limits how, what, where and when we can say what we say about our brands. Not to mention who we can say it to.

Now if that wasn’t enough, here comes the whole social network scene. Not only are the regular rule still in play, but a whole new wrinkle is thrown in to the mix: the dreaded adverse event report. Engaging in social marketing in its fullest, most web 2-point-oh-ist way means opening up to what consumers and patients have to say. Allowing for conversation. Two-way conversation! Sounds great, but aye, here’s the rub: of they talk about any kind of side effect or adverse event, well, its game over. Once that adverse event gets reported, a whole mechanism goes into play, one to which the pharma company is legally bound. Its a nightmare scenario – one that pharma companies simply cannot afford. Some might insist that pharma has to suck it up and pay the price, but the truth is that its a long way from allowing that to happen.

Talk about marketing in a straight jacket!

But pharma marketers are, if anything, pro’s at finding ways to manage around such constraints. And its been very interesting to see how Pharma manages to delve into social marketing. Pharma You Tube channels and facebook pages have been popping up here and there with varying degrees of success. So how are they managing closing off the dreaded adverse event reporting risk? Simple. Comments, user feedback, wall posts, any and all open text fields are inactive.

Unfortunately, closing off these functional elements pretty much  kills the conversation before it even starts. Even YouTube video submissions are asked point blank, not to include any comment about the drug, including any adverse events.

But some smart folk out there are finding a way to be a little more engaging. While open text comment fields are simply too risky, there’s no reason visitors can’t vote or rank videos or other content. Sure, its overly structured and limits what people can say, but its something. J&J has done an interesting thing on their YouTube channel and has put together a list of YouTube favourites where commentary is free to be.

I can guarantee the straight jacket will never fully come off. And really, its there to ensure patients, consumers and doctors are not misled about the benefits a drug might offer. That’s hugely important. And savvy marketers are finding ways to generate a little bit of wiggle room here and there. There are still moves that can be made on the phrma marketing chess board. As frustrating as it can be for marketers and their agencies.

Brand Building, e-Marketing, Social Networks

March 6, 2009

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Pharma on YouTube: Best Practices

There’s quite the buzz about pharma finding its social media mojo on YouTube. A recent eye on FDA article gave a good account of the recent pharma channel additions, singling out AZ and Sanofi for their My Asthma Story and Go Insulin channels.

I took a look at the various pharma channels recently and you can start to see some best practices start to emerge. The first mover into this space was J&J, who, along with their Motrin Moms on facebook, seems to be the most comfortable with Social Media. Their FluFlix program, glowingly reviewed here, set the bar for what can be accomplished. Since then they have launched a general J&J Health Channel with J&J created videos along with a list of YouTube favourites. Someone is obviously working on maintaining this fairly regularly – searching YouTube for good health video’s then likely vetting them with the corporate powers that be so they can be added to the favourites list. That takes time. The result? 43,000 + views.

Best Practice #1: Social Marketing requires an investment to do it right.

AZ has pulled a bit of a copycat move with My Asthma Story. Like FluFlix, the goal is to get people to create and upload videos about their experience controlling asthma with SYMBICORT. They’ve gone a step farther though, in that My Asthma Story involves an actual product, unlike FluFlix, where the commentary was around people’s experience with the flu alone. While My Asthma Story has received significant traffic, I wonder how many videos will be disqualified for breaching the following guideline: “Do not mention any medications you have used by name, or talk about any side effects you may have experienced.” I assume that means SYMBICORT as well.

Best Practice #2: If you want video submissions, its better to talk condition rather than drug. (This is a great market leader strategy, so that should not be a big deal.)

Sanofi’s entrance into the space with their Go Insulin channel provides another best practice. I was wondering why their channel was not getting a lot of views (8,211 at the time of this post). Until I went to the Go Insulin website.  There are no links tothe YouTube channel, and its pretty much the same thing. All the videos on the YouTube channel are on the site.

Best Practice #3: Don’t replicate.

Finally, a nod to the Corporate PR approach. Abbott’s uninspiringly named AbbottChannel, the peppier GSKvision and the morbund sanofipasteurTV provide the examples. All of these site have received substantially fewer views than the product or condition channels. Abbott and sanofi seem to be using the channel as a half-hearted “see what happens” foray into the space. Its unfortunate. GSK shows that with a the application of a theme along with some more engaging videos can make a much more compelling channel. Not surprisingly, Abbott.com is not linking to their YouTube channel. A link isn’t even buried in their News and Media page. Sanofipasteur.com, likewise.

Best Practice #4: Link to/promote your channel!

At the end of the day, you can see the companies that are serious, and leading the way, and those thast are following. When you see channels that have been up for months with no links, its clear that not everyone is on the same page.  Whoever did the YouTube channel at Abbott has not talked to the corporate communications web team. Search “youtube” on J&J and you see three links to their general health channel from their corporate site. That’s the way to do it.

Best Practice #5: External Communication success requires internal communication/integrated effort.

All in all its great to see Pharma on YouTube. I’m sure going to be working on getting some of my Canadian clients to think about it.

e-Marketing, Social Networks

February 25, 2009

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Canadian Physician eMarketing: A Ripe Opportunity

Five years ago, the marketing to physicians online was difficult in part because of a complete dearth of online media that targeted physicians. There were only a few sites offering banner ad space, CMA.ca being the main one, and there was no chance to create a large scale online campaign that could really drive awareness.

Fast forward to today, and the situation is dramatically different. More and more Canadian Physician sites are offering banner space. CMA, CMAJ, Med Post, Doctor’s Review, the OMA and many more all offer banner space, more than enough to mount a serious online campaign targeting GPs.

While these online properties have created opportunity, not many pharma companies have engaged in a meaningful way. The most risk averse of all marketers, pharma brand managers are wary of sticking their necks out and be the first to take on the web as a major promotional medium. Building a site and mounting a substantial e-marketing campaigned is not cheap. Furthermore, it will stick out on the brand plan big time. Why go against the tried and true?

That argument has worked for a while, but I get the strong sense that the tide is starting to turn. Expenditure on rep promotion is being scaled back as doctors start limiting access and pharma companies feel the realities of the economic downturn and brace for US price controls. Non-rep promotion is the new buzz word. As brand managers and marketing VP’s look around for answers, a few bold, bright ones will seize the opportunity to create a truly integrated campaign. Banners on the bulk of physician sites, call outs and spotlights on journal ads and Direct Mail, and email marketing campaigns driving physicians to web sites for more in depth material and useful tools and downloads. All for the cost of a rep or two.

Sure, that would get us to where consumer marketing has been since 1998. But the reality is that the missing link – physician targeted online media – has been found. So its time to play catch up. I’m sure game. Are you?

Brand Building, e-Marketing

February 7, 2009

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CLM Efforts Prove Pharma’s Adaptable

In the eyes of many, Pharma is a big lumbering beast that is slow to learn, slow to adapt, and slow to change. There are plenty of valid reasons. These are massive companies – not nimble little businesses that can turn on a dime. They employ tens of thousands of people. They create and manufacture some of the most important substances on earth – substances that keep you and I, our parents and kids, healthy.

And to do this, they’ve got processes. Boy do they. The legal and regulatory world they inhabit is a bit like a straight jacket. So its no wonder that over the years, their business units have ossified somewhat into fairly rigid pillars. Marketing, sales, IT, R&D. Everyone in their own corner, following the processes that enable theses big beasts to slowly lumber through the market place.

That’s why recent developments in CLM (Closed Loop Marketing) by some companies have been so impressive to me. Because implementing CLM actually requires 3 key pillars within Pharma Companies to work incredibly closely. IT, Sales, and Marketing all have tremendous stakes in making CLM work. And getting these groups to work together for a common goal is actually a pretty amazing feat.

CLM involves sales reps using tablet PC’s to detail pharma products to physicians. The click stream is tracked and analyzed. The data can show what messages are resonating with which audiences,  and can be used to determine key segments. Messaging can be quickly optimized, refocused, and ultimately, improve sales. At the core is the integration of this click stream into the pharma co’s existing CRM system (usually Seibel). And here’s the challenge: Marketing suddenly must think digitally about their messaging material. Sales needs to shift from paper to a tablet (hello change management!).  IT needs to understand what sales reps actually do in the field, and just how marketing uses CRM data. So you can see how Marketing, Sales, and IT, suddenly need to come out of their corners and get along. And get along well.

And when I look at some companies that are knee deep in it , such as Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, and Janssen Ortho, I have nothing but the utmost respect. Often with unsung heroes in E-business managing the process behind the scenes, and trainers who help reps get used to what can be a hugely intimidating change, these companies have accomplished quite something.

And with a new economic climate threatening the status quo for all businesses, it will be the ones that have embraced change and shown that they can do things differently despite huge procedural and structural resistance, these will be the ones that I think will be most able to deal with the harsh new realities of the market. To me, these early movers into CLM prove that Pharma actually is adaptable. And in times like these, when the business climate is changing so drastically, being adaptable is one thing that can give a company the edge it needs to make it through.

Tablet Detailing

February 5, 2009

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Patient Sites: A Savvy Marketers Dream

If Pharma companies are guilty of one thing, its this: they go, almost exclusively, for the new script. This, despite the reams of evidence that Pharma loses billions of dollars annually due to poor compliance, in the form of, for example,  skipped pills and delayed script renewals. As the economy deteriorates, this situation is like to get worse.

Patient sites are one way to combat this situation , usually using the obvious script reminder services that can be deployed via email or SMS.

But really, patient sites could be so much more.

In Canada, DTC is technically not allowed. But DTP, Direct to Patient, sure is. And whether or not your drug is for chronic illness or something acute, wouldn’t it be great to have your patients know your brand above and beyond the illegible script they pass to the pharmacist? What if your packaging included a link to a patient site where you could engage the patients taking your med and initiate a meaningful relationship. People talk about their illnesses and ailments all the time – what if your brand was the one about which people say – oh yeah, I had (or have) that condition and took [your brand]. It worked great.”

But unless you take the initiative and engage them in some way and let them know who and what your brand is all about, in many instances, they may not even know even know what they took.

If your brand is for a chronic condition, diabetes for instance, there’s really no excuse to not have an online patient program. Your drug is central to the life of that patient. That’s a huge opportunity to build trust and loyalty and generate word of mouth recommendations. Drugs for acute conditions also need to think about this – if  a condition returns, how powerful would it be for that patient to return to his or her doctor and say, “I’d like [your brand] again.”

It may be the economy that gets pharma to see the value of online patient programs. Hopefully, they will see the value even beyond better repeat prescription rates, and see how engaged patients will also impact new RX’s as well through word of mouth. Thats an angle they may be even more willing to swallow.

Brand Building, Social Networks

January 28, 2009

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