Relationship Marketing
Multichannel Relationship Marketing Multichannel is really a tactic that is part of a relationship marketing strategy.
“Multichannel pharma marketing is conceptually relatively simple to understand, but incredibly difficult in practice,” says Len Starnes, former Head of Digital Marketing & Sales, General Medicine at Bayer Schering Pharma. “That said, multichannel is not a transient phenomenon, it’s here to stay.”
This completely NEW — published November, 2012 — collection of Pharma Marketing News articles, blog posts, podcasts, and survey results focuses mainly on issues related to multichannel marketing to physicians.
These days, pharma marketers cannot rely solely on reaching physician clients via sales reps and print journal ads. Digital channels — including the Web, social media, and mobile — are increasingly being used by physicians to access information about pharma brands.
Multichannel is really a tactic that is part of a relationship marketing strategy, which uses various interactive media to develop, maintain, and foster a relationship with a current and prospective customers to maximize need satisfaction, share of mind and budget, and nurture loyalty and, ultimately, advocacy of the brand of a product or service.
47 pages; published November, 2012.
A new survey by Envision Solutions, LLC, a healthcare marketing communications company, suggests that many Americans are deeply skeptical of pharmaceutical companies’ motives for supporting non-profit patient advocacy groups.
Are Sales Reps Necessary?
It is common knowledge that sales reps are much less effective than they used to be, thanks in part to some tactics of the industry like sales pods that carpet bomb physicians with multiple reps saying the same thing. Now, the pharmaceutical industry is set to follow Pfizer’s lead and cut 10-20% of the sales force. Is it crazy to ask if sales reps are needed at all?
Balancing Idealistic vs. Realistic CRM Processes
This article is a summary of a panel chaired by Michael C. Lengel, Partner at Peppers and Rogers Group, and included Sharon Reffett, Director of Customer Systems and Administration at Allergan, John Vaeth, Director, CRM Capability Development at Biogen, and Wendy Jackson, President, Direct Marketing at Publicis.
Biotech DTC: Business Not As Usual
In 2005, sales of biotech products — i.e., biologics, including therapeutic serums, toxins, antitoxins, vaccines, blood components or derivatives, allergenic products, or analogous products, or derivatives — grew by 17.1 percent, far outstripping the 5.2 percent in sales growth of small molecules-products developed and marketed by Big Pharma. Although the overall total sales of biologics is still small in comparison to small molecules — about $52 billion vs. $600 billion — the biotech industry is poised to dramatically increase the number of products it adds to the market each year.
Whatever the numbers, there’s blood in the water and ad agencies are circling, trying to entice these innovative companies into transforming themselves into marketing machines. Some agency people suggest that biotech needs to engage in traditional direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. Biotech, however, needs more than DTC as usual.
Topics covered include:
- Definitions and FAQs: What is a biological product? How do biological products differ from conventional drugs?
- Follow Big Pharma’s Footsteps?
- Biotech Products Require More Education
- The “Oprahsizing” of Advertising
- Scientist Ambassadors
- Cost of Biotech Products
- Biotech Marketing Guideposts
- Service vs. Product: Betaseron Case Study
The Changing Landscape of Physician Interactions
Pharmaceutical companies are under increasing pressure to reduce costs, speed the time-to-market for new products and ensure that physicians are informed and educated about their products.
MERGE Rx recognizes this need and offers a new generation of Web-enabled software that helps pharmaceutical companies manage physician interactions — including key opinion leader (KOL) management, phaseIV trials, and eDetailing — from a single, secure and scalable access point.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Eight Great Ways to Improve Interactions
- Multi-Channel Non Personal Interactions
- Personalization
- Key Opinion Leader Management
The Changing World of MSLs: Determining Value
This article is an edited transcript of the May 2006, Pharma Marketing Roundtable discussion, which was devoted to exploring issues surrounding the new roles of medical science liaisons (MSLs) and key opinion leader physicians (KOLs) in physician education and product marketing.
Closed-Loop Marketing
This article is a review of the presentation “Where Should Closed Loop Marketing Really Begin?” by Bruce Grant, Senior VP, Business Strategy and David Wigder, Senior VP, Strategy & Analytics at Digitas Health. This presentation was focused on leveraging eDetailing for effective closed-loop marketing campaigns.
Creating the Most Effective Sales Calls
As sales costs soar, it is critical to design and deliver messages that break through the competitive clutter and impact product performance. But how can you develop messages that drive prescribing? How can you be sure your reps are giving the messages you want to convey-and know those messages are working? And how can you protect against competitive messaging and unexpected market events?
The Empowered Patient
What It Means for Pharma Marketers
This article presents a case for the drug industry to adopt a patient-centric model in which pharma companies can develop unique expertise in decoding the behavior, needs, motivations of empowered patients and then use this knowledge as the basis for helping healthcare professionals and payers to put into place programs that achieve better patient outcomes.
The European eMarketing Scene: Desperately Seeking Strategy
The pharmaceutical industry is struggling to develop an eMarketing strategy in Europe, which is comprised of many relatively small markets (the member countries of the EU) having significant cultural and language differences.
Evolve Your Brand into a Relationship with Consumers and Physicians
This article is a review of a presentation by Keli Bennett, Consumer Marketing Director at Abbott Laboratories, in which she contrasts and compares DR marketing and traditional DTC strategies and presents a Case Study showing the ROI benefit of integrating the two approaches.
Finding the “Right Stuff” to Revitalize Sales Productivity
Declining sales force productivity is a major issue on the minds of sales managers and corporate executives of pharmaceutical companies large and small. More and more physicians are limiting face time and closing their doors to sales reps. The solution, according to Hossam Sadek, VP of Sales Force Effectiveness, IMS Health, is for pharmaceutical sales management to focus on relationships and the metrics that drive relationships, to enable reps to deliver tailored messages that truly impact the prescribers in their territory.
GSK Strikes Back with a Grassroots Campaign
Mike Pucci, Vice President of External Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline, discusses his strategy to get the word out about the good that the pharmaceutical industry is doing.
HCP Marketing Beyond the Physician
NPs, PAs, and even RNs are for the most part overlooked by the pharmaceutical industry, according to David Mittman, PA, president of Clinician 1. This article reviews the issue and includes tips for marketing to NPs and PAs.
How Readable, Credible & Useful are Pharma Blogs?
This article presents the compllete results from the first ever survey of The Pharma Blogosphere in which blog readers evaluate 22 different pharma-related blogs on the basis of readability, credibility, usefulness, and bias.
How to Manage the Online Conversation
This article presents a summary of a conversation with Jenna Woodul, LiveWorld’s EVP and Chief Community Officer, about how pharma companies can manage their social media interactions using technology and credentialed participants.
Increase Prescription Sales with Smart Tools
Realizing the limitations of the printed package insert (PI), Wellscape, a technology company that provides software solutions designed to improve patient care has developed Smart-PI, which distills complex prescribing information and packages it in portable, stand-alone real-time tools accessible from web sites and available for desktop and Tablet PCs and PDAs.
Medical Device Marketing: Worlds Apart from Rx Drug Marketing
Medical device marketing is different than Rx drug marketing, which is something attendees of the recent PharmaMed Marketing & Media Conference hosted by Med Ad News learned.
This article summarizes a presentation from that conference and discusses how medical device marketing to consumers and physicians is different than Rx drug marketing. While some device marketing campaigns take a page from the Rx arena, there are difficulties and roadblocks ahead and these are also summarized in this article.
Merck Rejiggers Its Marketing Mix
Adam Schechter, President of Merck US Human Health, made this statement not long ago at a Goldman Sachs healthcare conference: ‘Industry must embrace new ways of engaging physicians on their terms.’
Topics covered include:
- Merck to Slash Field Force?
- Consumer Media Consumption Habits vs. Media Spend (Google chart)
- Customer Focus Means More Technology
- Engaging Customers on Their Terms
- Impact vs. Risk Analysis of Physician Marketing Channels (chart)
Mobile Medical Reference: An Effective Door Opener for Sales Reps
Pharmaceutical companies are searching for new, creative solutions to the problem of decreasing sales rep effectiveness. One such solution is to provide physicians with value-added smart tools to allow them instant access to up-to-date prescribing and treatment information.
Moderation Best Practices for Pharma Social Networks
Pre, Post, or No Moderation… Whatever. You Must Have a Plan!
This article presents a summary of results from a recent survey of readers and other experts regarding pharma social media moderation best practices.
Patient Assistance Program Rankings
Going Beyond Sales Force Effectiveness to Customer Experience Satisfaction
Market Strategies’ 2008 MSImage Oncology Patient Assistance Program is a syndicated study that identified what oncologists and oncology practice managers perceive to be the top pharmaceutical PAPs in the industry. The study identified how PAPs influence overall corporate image among physicians, what performance measures drive a pharmaceutical company’s PAP image, and which companies are perceived as having the best PAPs.
Personalized e-Marketing – How can you create and profit from a customer’s lifetime experience?
Instead of talking about CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Philippe Barzin, former Director of Connectivity at Johnson & Johnson, focused on HRM or “Healthcare Relationship Management.” To demonstrate the effectiveness of “customer-oriented surround marketing” and personalization, Barzin used BabyCenter, a J&J consumer-focused web site, as a case study.
Putting the Customer Back in Customer Relationship Management
This article features the thoughts of Derek Evans, Vice President, Global Solutions Marketing at Dendrite International, on how to put the customer back in Customer Relationship Management. Evans emphasized the compound effect of excessive focus on high prescribers and the restrictions of formularies and government regulations.
Reinventing the Sales Model
Moving from Sales to Service
It’s unrealistic to do away with sales reps altogether, but dramatic change is needed. TNS Healthcare experts talk about moving beyond current approaches to a new sales model–one with the right balance of selling and service to forge the strong physician relationships that drive long-term prescribing.
Relationship Marketing via eNutrition
Review of ForMyDiet Platform
“Pharmaceutical companies that market treatments for conditions requiring diet management can provide educational and value added tools as a featured aspect of their marketing campaigns,” said Ami Assayag, CEO, Specialty Diets, Inc., developer of the web-based medical diet management platform ForMyDiet™.
Sales Reps Debate Their Value
As Heard on CafePharma
When pharmaceutical sales reps are asked about the value of sales reps, you get some surprising comments. Tghis article summarizes some of the responses – including the good, the bad, and the ugly – from CafePharma members to the question “Are Sales Reps Necessary?”
Strategies for Enhanced Physician Targeting and Segmentation
Richard B. Vanderveer, Ph.D., CEO of the global pharmaceutical marketing and research firm V2 GfK, presents strategies for enhanced physician targeting and segmentation.
Tailoring CRM Solutions to Your Business Strategy
Real World examples of CRM assessment and initial implementation, highlighting early best practices in CRM deployment.
Targeted Faith-based Disease Awareness Marketing
A Multi-cultural Outreach Initiative
This article describes a new health awareness initiative intended to reach African Americans via churches and health ministries in an effort to alert this community to their heightened risk for life-threatening conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and much more.
To Build Patient Adherence, Pfizer Puts Technology Behind The Curtain
This article summaries a presentation made by Diane Stafford, Head of Patient Relationship Marketing for Pfizer UK at a recent eyeforpharma entitled “The E-nabled Patient: Using Technology to help build valuable patient relationships,” Ms. Stafford asserted that you “can’ t use technology as [a compliance program] delivery mechanism if it’s not right.”
Use of Twitter for Patient Support
Should Pharma Fill the HCP-to-Patient Social Media Vacuum?
Twitter has often been hyped as a great way to support customers. The customers of pharma are physicians and patients. But pharma Twitter accounts offer very little in terms of patient support. This article summarizes a survey that asked respondents to evaluate several ways in which Twitter could be used to improve patient support.
YouPharma: New Rules for Pharma Marketing and Social Media
Highlights from a Pharma Roundtable discussion and comments from several bloggers in the Pharma Blogosphere about pharma use of social media.
