Why Do Drug Companies Now Need More Focus On The 5th “P” Of Marketing?

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Tapan Ray

Astute marketers understand that over several decades, the much-known phraseology – ‘marketing mix’, has remained the bedrock of marketing a product or a service. The ‘Father of Modern Marketing’ - Philip Kotler defined this terminology as the “the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” In this context, the controllable variables are referred to as the 4 ‘P’s - Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which remained the basic focus areas in the brand building strategy of pharma marketers, as well.

With an unprecedented transformative impact within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry during the Covid-19 pandemic – for various reasons, ‘purpose’ is fast slotting itself as the 5th fundamental ‘P’ of the marketing-mix. The changing market - triggered by changing customer dynamics, entails the need to clearly define, to the satisfaction of customers, the”purpose” of a business, brand, or service.

As it is increasingly critical to achieve business excellence in the changing paradigm, in this article I will focus on this area from the point of view of goal-oriented pharmaceutical marketing. Although, I wrote before on the need of creating purpose driven brands, this discourse is with a different perspective.

A classic concept gets a fresh impetus in Covid pandemic:

Peter Drucker, whom the Business Week magazine termed as ‘The Man Who Invented Management,’ in 2005, once wrote: “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer, so well the product or service fits him and sells itself… The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” I reckon, this vision epitomizes the core concept of ‘purpose driven marketing.’

Understanding ‘purpose driven marketing’:

In an article, published on February 01, 2021, Ad Council wrote that after 22 years – a recent CEO roundtable deliberation decided to amend the definition of ‘purpose-driven marketing.’ The previous one was centered around ‘maximizing shareholder return.’ Whereas the amended one, in addition to serving shareholders, defined ‘purpose-driven marketing’ as ‘a strategy used by an organization to center its external communication efforts around a social cause that aligns with its core values. The goal of purpose-driven marketing is for an organization to develop a deeper rapport with their consumers by creating authentic connections based on shared values.’

This new statement reflected the changing culture in the days before the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people are more vocal about their expectations and spending. For which, they are even switching brand or service preferences in line with their values.

Covid prompts consumers rediscovering the value the industry delivers:

Covid -19 crisis has driven the positive consumer sentiment way up, as people are rediscovering the value the industry delivers to meet their new reckoning. This was also articulated in a related article. This was published in the Fierce Pharma, on August 13, 2020, as the pandemic overwhelmed the world. The same consumer sentiment also gets reflected in a first of its kind global study - ‘The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study,’ published on June 17, 2020.

The survey was carried out against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, covering 8,000 consumers across eight countries - United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Singapore, Malaysia. The findings of the research ‘sheds new light and unequivocal proof that the companies leading with Purpose will prevail.’ Vast majority of the respondents ‘have spoken and stand ready to give their hearts, voices and wallets in support of Purposeful brands.’

Especially, the healthcare consumers are now stepping up to stand for something more than hard facts on the features and benefits of products and services – something very meaningful that can influence positive changes in their minds. When it happens, the companies’, in tandem, will also be positively impacted to significantly improve their bottom-lines.

Some key findings of the study:

After in-depth study over 75 brands, the researchers of the above study found that:

94 percent of the respondents value the companies with a strong sense of purpose and are willing to reciprocate through brand loyalty.

They are 4 to 6 times more likely to trust, buy, champion, and protect companies with a strong purpose over weaker ones.

Only 37 percent believe today’s companies are reaching their potential on this front

The paper concluded, ‘it has never been more important for companies to not only articulate their Purpose, but to consistently demonstrate that Purpose – how they operate, support issues and engage with all stakeholders.’ As the above Ad Council article articulated, the above findings also ‘mean that purpose-driven marketing can’t be cosmetic. It must be reflected in every aspect of a brand’s business model and culture, or that brand or organization can expect to be called out for hypocrisy – more on that later.’

Who’s driving the ‘purpose driven marketing?’

As I wrote in my previous article, today’s new generations, such as, Millennials - regarded as ‘digital pioneers,’ and Gen Z – the true digital natives, approach their health care in drastically different ways with new sets of expectations. These are quite different from the members of the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, or Gen X. As the core concept of ‘purpose driven marketing’ is meeting Gen Z’s one such expectation, this population is regarded as the key driver of ‘purpose driven marketing’, in the pandemic-driven changes in the paradigm of the old normal.

I quoted in the above article, ‘Gen Z people are likely to turn the health industry on its head with their unique expectations for how healthcare should be delivered.’ Moreover, this genre of growing population is slowly but steadily gaining a critical mass to hasten the process of change that pharma marketers should take note of.

According to a paper of the World Economic Forum, published on November 08, 2021, there are 1.8 billion Gen Z around the world, equal to 23% of the global population. Yet, another paper of August 11, 2020, reconfirms that Gen Z comprises 1.8 billion people, making up for almost a quarter of the global population. India stands out with a population that includes 375 million Gen Z people – 27% of the total. Thus, Gen Z and millennial populations are considered at the forefront of shaping this new purpose-driven culture.

The Gen Z populations prefer companies contributing to social causes:

The third annual, international study of Gen Z, conducted by The Center for Generational Kinetics and commissioned by WP Engine, launched on July 07, 2020, reveals some interesting facts. These relate to new expectations for the web by Generation Z in comparison to other generations, including Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. The findings reiterate, ‘72% of Gen Z are more likely to support a company that contributes to social causes.’ It further emphasized, Gen Z is acutely aware that in today’s digital world, anyone can use their voice to ignite change, and that includes those brands which don’t take explicitly socially responsible stand in their branding strategy. Thus, imbibing ‘purpose driven marketing’ is likely to help pharma players to effectively engage this new breed of the target audience for desired long-term financial returns.

Further, based on the same logic, it is not difficult to fathom that ‘stakeholder-trust’ will also play a pivotal role, while delivering consumer expected value, and demonstrating the purpose driven actions of the business – to the Millennial and Gen Z population.

Stakeholder ‘Trust’ is critical in a value and purpose driven business:

This is a new reality, as vindicated by several recent global surveys that include India too. According to Edelman Trust Barometer 2022, ‘business holds on to its position as the most trusted institution, with even greater expectations due to government’s failure to lead during the pandemic.’ This survey – conducted against the backdrop of the pandemic, involved 36,000+ respondents in 28 global markets, including India to look at how institutions are trusted against the backdrop of the pandemic.

Some key findings of this latest study:

All stakeholders want business to fill the void, with nearly 60 percent of consumers buying brands based on their values and beliefs,

Almost 6 in 10 employees choose a workplace based on shared values and expect their CEO to take a stand on societal issues,

64 percent of investors looking to back businesses aligned with their values.

Most respondents (59 percent) said they tend to distrust until seeing evidence that something is trustworthy,

64 percent believe people in their country lack the ability to have constructive and civil debates.

Technology (74 percent) was the most trusted sector, followed by education (69 percent) and healthcare (69 percent). Social media (44 percent) continued its decline with a 2-point slide, solidifying its spot as the least trusted sector.

While Germany (65 percent) and Canada (65 percent) remained the most trusted country brands, India (36 percent) and China (34 percent) remain the least trusted.

The evolving trend indicates that the new generation, ‘wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they are looking to their employers to curate a fulfilling, stimulating and purpose-driven environment,’ as the article underscored. In that sense, ‘purpose-driven marketing’ has also the potential for pharma players to attract the best talents of the new generation. Conversely, it is quite likely that any organizations inability to do so, willingly, or otherwise, could help gather rust, blunting its cutting-edge for performance excellence.

Conclusion:

There isn’t any doubt that Covid-19 pandemic has initiated a paradigm shift in the expectations of the stakeholders, especially the customers and the employees from the companies. They no longer expect the organization just to focus on profit goals. Alongside, most of them also want the employers to focus, in equal measure, stakeholder value, expectation, dignity, besides social purpose and goals.

When a pharma player is seen solving societal issues, e.g., protecting the patient-health in a patient friendly manner, or saving the environment - with concrete, quantifiable measures, it creates a competitive edge for the company, fetching significant business returns from stakeholders. Surly, the pandemic is further augmenting expectations of the growing population of Gen Z – for responsible business operations = driven by value, purpose, and goals of the society – where we live in.

Consequently, it’s now becoming clearer that sustainable business excellence of pharma players can no longer be just on ‘maximizing shareholder’ returns, in terms of profit. Thus, it calls for the purpose-driven marketing, where organizational contribution to society would provide a significant competitive advantage. From this perspective, in my view, the Indian pharma marketers would now need much greater focus on the 5^th ‘P’ of the marketing-mix – more than ever before.

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.

Create Novel Marketing Pathways As Covid Mutants Keep Emerging

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Tapan Ray

The World’s battle against wave after wave unsettling onslaught of Coronavirus on human lives and livelihood continues, since December 2019. The first wave was triggered by the novel Covid-19 from Wuhan in China, the second by its deadly – Delta variant, and now – the third by Omicron. In India, first case of Covid-19 was reported on January 31, 2020.

Initially, global experts contemplated vaccines to prevent and contain Covid-19 and were the best hope for ending the pandemic. However, the effectiveness of existing Covid vaccines apparently declines against its subsequent mutants. This is evident even in India when the next variant Omicron commenced its onslaught.

The good news is, AstraZeneca has now claimed, a third booster shot of its Covid-19 vaccine willsignificantly boost antibody levels against the Omicron variant. However, Omicron may not be the last Covid-19 variant, as it appears today.

As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron, scientists have identified another new strain of the COVID-19 causing virus – in Southern France – known as ‘IHU’. This B.1.640.2 variant was reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases. However, it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned. This process is likely to take, at least, some more time.

Thus, in the current situation, when increasing numbers of even fully vaccinated individuals are getting re-infected caused by emerging mutants of Covid-19, and some more than once, the focus expanded towards more effective disease treatment. Some countries, such as the US, have decided for the 3^rd booster shot of Covid-19 vaccine. Israel has even gone for the 4^th booster shot of Covid vaccine. Be that as it may, in this fast-evolving scenario, even bright pharma marketers have been experiencing new strategic challenges, as we move on. Against the above backdrop, this article will delve into that space, focusing on some of the new trends of the new normal.

Pharma’s focus expands towards more effective Covid specific treatment:

Visualizing the way Covid-19 pandemic could possibly pan out in the foreseeable future, several global pharma and biotech companies have started focusing on specific treatment for this virus, ensuring speedy patient recovery.

For example, on November 21, 2020, the U.S. FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a cocktail therapy of casirivimab and imdevimab for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients.

Just a month later, on December 22, 2021, the U.S. FDA issued another emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use). This was also for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients.

A day after Pfizer’s the first oral COVID-19 treatment, approval, on December 23, 2022, the U.S. FDA issued one more emergency use authorization (EUA) for Merck’s molnupiravir. This is the second antiviral pill authorized in the U.S, for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults. Nearer home, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has also given EUA to Molnupiravir for the treatment of adult patients.

Interestingly, French regulators rejected Merck’s molnupiravir pill for low efficacy. They found other therapies were much more effective than this molecule. Even in India on January 06, 2022, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also expressed safety concerns on Molnupiravir. Thus, it has not been included in the national list of Covid treatments in India. That said, such brilliant initiatives by several pharma companies in the battle for saving lives and livelihoods against Covid-19 pandemic, made those companies household names like never before.

Covid made several pharma companies household names, but not brands:

This point was restated in a recent article, published in the Fierce Pharma on December 22, 2021. It emphasized, Covid-19 ‘has brought the words of the pharma industry into people’s lives like never before: Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Merck have become household names.’ One may not remember the names of their Covid products, but will mostly know the company.

Many people have now started referring to Covid vaccines and drugs in generic names. As from the very beginning we started hearing people saying, like – I got ‘AstraZeneca Vaccines’, ‘Remdesivir’, or ‘Covid Cocktail therapy’. Company names usually followed the generic names in most cases. Although, ‘that’s been good for pharma’s reputation, but has left marketers in a bind about branding, commented the above article.

Most Covid-19 drugs and vaccine brands are on ‘emergency use approval’

In the Covid dominated year of 2021, drug and biotech companies managed to get USFDA approval for 55 new drugs. However, many of those drugs and vaccines got only Emergency Use Approval (EUA) and only under emergency use basis. This basically means, under EUA these companies did not get full marketing approval and were handicapped to go whole hog with the usual new brand marketing campaigns. This critical issue is expected to remain even in 2022.

In a situation, such as this, when the full scale branding initiatives can’t be undertaken, intenseCorporate Branding Campaigns, I reckon, would pay a rich dividend. This process will be quite different from creative new brand marketing in the old normal. Some global innovator companies are using even the mass media to promote their respective vaccines, albeit differently.

Such promotions include, Open Letter from the Company CEO, creative use of TV shows, messages of the head honchos through twitter or word of mouth campaigns – creating a snowballing effect. Alongside, healthcare marketing professionals are also intensifying their Covid-vaccine ad campaigns, sans brand names, to increase awareness and persuade more people to get vaccinated, soon.

To move in this direction, at least, during EUA period for Covid drugs and vaccines, hybridization of pharma marketing will be necessary in many cases, which won’t be an easy task for all, though.

Hybridization of pharma marketing – necessary – but not an easy task:

Based on experience of almost the last two years, many drug companies have realized that virtual-only customer engagement models have some serious shortcomings to fetch desired outcomes. This issue was studied and well-articulated in an article, published in the Reuters Events on November 30, 2021.

It found: “Virtual-only engagement can make it harder to create a real connection.” Further, as the paper articulated: “Even if HCPs share their video, we are losing the third dimension, hence losing out on parts of that personal component.’ Besides, although, online meetings are flexible regarding timing, if a doctor doesn’t dial-in, there is only a small chance the meeting will happen later that day, unlike waiting in a clinic for the interview to take place.

To address this issue, pharma players are now in various stages of creation and adoption of their respective hybrid marketing models. However, the process offers its own challenges. Working out customer-specific hybrid engagement models are a different ball game altogether- requiring very different skill sets, continuous training and above all a very different mindset.

Conclusion:

As reported on January 06, 2022, rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the novel Coronavirus threatens to rewrite the business recovery timelines, even in India. Even recently, many CEOs and top executives have opined, businesses would have to live with Covid-19 uncertainty. The article further added: ‘Many companies have suspended their return-to-work plans and are reassessing business continuity measures as a third wave of the pandemic starts to surge.’ Most CEOs also expressed one of their top priorities was to ensure Covid-19 protocols were being followed and all employees were safe.

Similar situation arises for all Covid drugs approved under the EUA by the Drug Controller general of India, and are being marketed by Indian companies against non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with the innovators. Thus, an analogous marketing issue exists surrounding all such EUAs, as the company concerned can’t undertake a full brand marketing campaign. This constraint is likely to pose a major marketing challenge for several potential Covid blockbuster drugs in India, at least in 2022, which marketers need to overcome, creatively.

From the above perspective of Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, companies would need to create novel and effective strategic pathways for performance excellence. At least, as long as Covid-19 mutants will continue to emerge, causing operational disruptions in the pharma business.

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.

Deliver The Best Patient Outcomes With Right High-Tech-High-Touch Combo

Posted on December 13, 2021 by Tapan Ray

Healthcare is regarded as an industry where high-quality technology and high-quality human touch can’t possibly be separated from each other, ever. Since long, this is considered essential in delivering better treatment outcomes – the core value most patients desire, and buy – directly or indirectly.

Why high-quality technology helps make treatment of various diseases increasingly more effective, is no-brainer. However, amid high decibel ‘digital’ buzz during Covid-19 pandemic, some may also wonder how does ‘high-touch’ help improve treatment outcomes? Against this new backdrop, I shall explore in today’s article: why high-touch is so important for most patients alongside high-tech, and the critical need of striking a right balance between high-tech and high-touch in most areas of healthcare delivery. Let me start with a brief recap of the same in the pharma industry perspective.

Balancing high-tech and high-touch in pharma – a brief recap:

In a similar context – against the contemporary market dynamics, I discussed about Pharma’s new and still evolving pathway for digital and F2F customer engagement on February 15, 2021. This is primarily because, today’s patient-centric marketing model has to be on Omnichannel platforms to deliver patient-expected value, effectively – and more.

In this mix, F2F customer engagement process is just one among several channels – but a critical brand demand generation tool, though – giving a feel of ‘high-touch’ – in-person interactions to many key customers. Many studies show, alongside acceptance of ‘high-tech’ digital channels, customer expectations for ‘high-touch’, by and large, continue to exist, even today. Thus, one of the key responsibilities of pharma marketers is to arrive at the optimal combination of in-person F2F engagement channel, and high-tech digital channels for remote engagement.

However, this isn’t the unique need of the new normal. On April 29, 2019, I wrote about the evolving new pathway is a hybrid business model. It is customer-centric and helps create a right blend of high-tech and high-touch approaches. Striking an optimal balance between the two is critical to successful business outcomes. This brings me to the point of the relevance of ‘high-touch’ in healthcare.

The relevance of ‘high touch’ in healthcare:

Since time immemorial, a strong bond of trust-based doctor-patient relationship has remained pivotal in the disease treatment process, across the world. This still exists regardless of the socio-economic status, and degree of patient literacy, including digital – particularly for moderate to severe ailments.

A recent article – ‘High-Touch Telemedicine’, published by CFHA on June 04, 2020, also highlighted, “Touch has been central to the physician-patient relationship for as long as there have been physicians. Patients allow their doctors to touch them in places and in ways that they would allow to no one else. The gentleness and the carefulness that doctors are trained to use on this touch is a bonding experience that supports healing. If this trust is violated, if a doctor is unduly forceful or disrespectful, this can be a cause for grievance and even litigation.”

The scientific pertinence of physicians’ high touch for patients:

This point was lucidly elaborated in the above paper. It said, the doctor’s comforting physical touch, and interactional touch, have impacts on the Neuroendocrinology of the patients involved. Thus, physicians’ high touch when used in a benevolent conversation, releases the neuropeptide oxytocin in the brains of both participants. This, among others, helps to improve recognition of emotions, increase mutual trust, so compliments and the recognition of a person’s efforts and successes.

Covid-19 propelled ‘high tech’ in healthcare to a new high sans ‘high touch’:

The Covid-19 pandemic, undoubtedly, propelled healthcare into a virtual world. It triggered the development of a plethora of ‘high tech’ innovations to deliver prompt healthcare to patients suffering from various ailments, even from remote locations. One such example is telehealth. Many healthcare providers, including the Government of India realized that leveraging the potential of ‘Telemedicine’ can effectively address the healthcare needs of a large population, across the world.

That said, I reckon, although, healthcare can’t survive without high tech. But, a high-tech-healthcare, like telemedicine, can’t totally replace high touch, at least, in the treatment process of several moderate to severe ailments.

The Best and the worst-case scenario for only high-tech healthcare:

As studies indicate, only high-technology based healthcare sans high-touch, in the best case scenario, would facilitate affordable access to treatment for more patients, bringing down administrative time and cost, in tandem. Which is why, when Covid-19 pandemic posed unique challenges to providing health care, India’s health policy makers revised the nation’s Telemedicine Practice Guidelines on March 25, 2020. They acknowledged in the manual, high-tech Telemedicine ‘increases timely accessto appropriate interventions, including faster access and access to services that may not otherwise be available’.

Whereas, in a worst-case scenario, only digital access to healthcare may create some barrier to direct physical examination of the patient by the doctor, and their interaction. This may impact patient emotion – so important in the disease treatment process. Thus, although high-tech is essential for the advancement of healthcare, but can’t totally replace a patient’s need for high touch care.

High tech is essential, but can’t replace high touch-based trust:

Several recent papers deliberated this point with umpteen evidences. One such paper was published in the Harvard Business Review on October 30, 2019. The article is titled, ‘AI Can Outperform Doctors. So Why Don’t Patients Trust It?

The research points out, ‘patients are reluctant to use health care provided by medical artificial intelligence, even when it outperforms human doctors. This is because, patients believe that their medical needs are unique and cannot be adequately addressed by algorithms. To realize the many advantages and cost savings that medical AI promises, care providers must find ways to overcome these misgivings.’

The study also found that when health care was provided by AI rather than by a human care provider, patients were less likely to utilize the service and wanted to pay less for it. They also preferred having a human provider perform the service even if that meant there would be a greater risk of an inaccurate diagnosis or a surgical complication.

Given a choice – ‘patients will always highly value and seek out human touch’:

This point was also deliberated in another study, published in the MedCity News on January 14, 2021. Acknowledging: ‘Effective, modern medicine cannot survive without technology,’ it brought to the fore an important finding: ‘Regardless of how intuitive the software – or how advanced the technology – patients will always highly value and seek out human touch’ because of several reasons. Some of which are as follows:

Patients believe that their medical needs are unique and cannot be adequately addressed by algorithms. Patient experiences aren’t meant to be 100% digital. And despite the accuracy of computers, humans prefer to seek care from other human beings.

Different patients have different emotional needs. Life-altering diagnoses and unforeseen outcomes are best delivered by a living, breathing, feeling individual who can fully understand and address these needs.

Physical examinations by a doctor are more reassuring and restorative for patients.

The author concluded, high tech is absolutely necessary for the progress of health care, in general. However, in the foreseeable future, high touch would remain an instrumental part of patients’ healthcare experience.

I believe, one can even experience it as the Covid-19 safety restrictions will start easing, or even now – to some extent. Therefore, ‘healthcare professionals must find a way to blend the sophistication of technology with the power of touch in order to continue improving patient experiences, care, and outcomes’, the paper underscores.

Conclusion:

Just as in the pharma business, a right-mix of high-tech and high-touch is also necessary in overall healthcare space, to deliver the best health outcomes to patients. After initial disruptions, a similar trend is emerging even in the new normal. No doubt, usage of high-tech digital platforms is here to stay, and further improve in the years ahead. But, digitalization alone in the healthcare space, should not be construed as something that can make high-touch totally irrelevant or redundant in a patient’s journey for disease treatment.

The mindset of mutual exclusiveness of high-tech and high-touch, if any, either during patient-treatment or in the customer engagement process needs a revisit. As it appears, it is neither desirable in customer engagement, nor in patient treatment processes – akin to one approach suits all. This is because, healthcare is very personal to patients – more than most other areas. A lot of individual feelings and emotions are involved in patients’ end-to-end journey for treatment, where only high tech-based solutions may not meet all patient expectations – sans high-touch of physicians, as I deliberated above.

Thus, effective integration of high-tech-healthcare with high-touch of physicians, nurses, and some technicians, is evolving as the right way to deliver patient expected values, for better health outcomes. From this perspective, alongside most other stakeholders, astute marketers are realizing that high-tech digitalization isn’t a panacea for effective pharma marketing. Delivering the best patient outcomes with the right high-tech-high-touch combo, is the name of the game.

By: Tapan J. Ray

What Have And Haven’t Changed In Pharma’s New Normal?

Posted on September 26, 2021 by Tapan Ray

While navigating through the challenge of disruptive changes, several pharma marketers are now focusing more on creating, connecting, and leveraging all market and customer related data, across the organization. Astute ones are using state-of-the-art tools, platforms, and techniques to gain actionable insights on new demands of pharma markets. I wrote about it in my article - ‘Data: the new ‘Magic Wand’ For Pharma Business Excellence,’ published in this blog on October 01, 2018.

This process is helping them to fathom what areas the pandemic has changed and what it hasn’t. Their aim is to draw cutting-edge strategies accordingly for market effectiveness – outperforming competition. This article will explore that space with contemporary examples. Let me start with a few illustrations of some hits and misses for the treatment of Covid – as the world started learning to live with this menacing virus. This was enviable, as the requisite scientific date wasn’t readily available at that moment of truth. But the time has changed now.

Some hits and misses:

As the pandemic overwhelmed the world, and no well-documented treatment for infection caused by the brand new virus – Covid-19 was available, many drug players were given quick emergency approval by country regulators for some repurposed drugs. But most of those weren’t found effective as fresh clinical data started pouring in. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO), have, reportedly, indicated that remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality or the in-hospital course of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.

More recently, Gilead Sciences Veklury – a failed Ebola drug, repurposed for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, suddenly became a blockbuster drug, according to a September 17, 2021 report. However, in less than a year, alongside more research data - a study from Europe, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, showed that Veklury has no real benefit. The report also highlights: ‘Aided by a ringing endorsement from then-president Donald Trump, Veklury rang up sales of $2.8 billion in 2020, including $1.9 billion in the final quarter. But those sales slid this year to $1.5 billion in the first quarter followed by $829 million in the second quarter.’

Similarly, there are several areas that are seemingly getting transformed, triggered by the pandemic and the time for resorting to a hit or miss approach, is now virtually over. From pharma marketers’ point of interest, it will now be at one’s own peril for not challenging the pre-Covid business traditions, rules, and well-tried strategies on customer relationships and brand building models. This brings us to the question on what specifically have changed in the new normal as the pharma industry navigates thorough the Covid pandemic – for close to two years now.

Pandemic-triggered changes in the pharma marketing area:

Changes are many and are being studied across the world. One such recent analysis, articulating how the pandemic triggered changes have redefined marketing, was published by the Harvard Business Review (HBR), on March 10, 2021. This paper came more than a year after the pandemic overwhelmed the world. This article listed some interesting macro-level changes, including the following:

Old normal: You are competing with your competitors.
New normal: You are competing with the last best experience your customer had.

Old normal: Customers hope you have what they want.
New normall: Customers expect you to have exactly what they want.

Old normal: Courting customers is just like dating.
New normal: Courting customers is just like online dating.

Old normal: Customers must sit at the heart of your marketing strategy.
New normal: Customers must sit at the heart of your customer journey.

Old normal: Agility is a technology process.
New normal: Agility is a modern marketing approach.

Old normal: Your brand should stand behind great products.
New normal: Your brand should stand behind great values.

To illustrate the point, let me now give a few examples of some micro-level changes in the same space.

Some transformation trends:

I am citing a few examples related to pharma’s traditional sales and marketing models. One such area is, quite a few companies are adopting connected data based and analytics-supported Omnichannel approach for customer engagement. The key objective is to deliver coherent and high-quality customer experience.

The need for new commercial models for the changing life sciences market, was also highlighted in an interesting article, published in the Pharmaceutical Executive on September 16, 2021. The authors identified six health care macro trends, demonstrating the value of transforming care delivery and shifting market behavior that prompt to reframe customer value propositions.

Taking a cue from this paper, I am listing below some of the current trends – as I see these and wrote before in this blog. Each one of these calls for well-connected data with analytics support:

Staying relevant to customers with a focus on customer experience.

‘Made to measure’ marketing for personalized care, as “one-size-fits-all” care regimens losing its relevance.

Fostering a new genre of ‘customer-brand relationship’ to drive more targeted go‑to‑market strategies, enhanced agility/mobility of resources and highly personalized customer interactions.

Augmenting pharma customers’ new value expectations for competitive advantages, besides dynamic forecasting, sales force performance analytics support and predictive pricing modeling.

Arriving at right and flexible customer value delivery models, as the health care sector shifts toward new sites of care – outside the traditional old normal models. For example, with more patients preferring Telehealth pharma marketing needs retooling to reap a rich harvest.

Meeting the growing demand for value‑based care with novel risk‑adjusted and outcome‑based Price-Value-Models, supported by ongoing innovation in this area and sophisticated approach to value, affordability and outcomes.

Interestingly, despite Herculean constraints, many pharma players continued creating and delivering value, as the customers were expecting with changing situations.

Drug-price sensitivity is increasing:

In the new normal, drug price sensitivity of customers is increasing manifold, for various reasons. A June 18, 2020 study, flags: ‘Nine in 10 Concerned About Rising Drug Costs Due to COVID-19.’ Although, this particular study (Gallup Poll) was conducted in the United States, general public apprehension is no different in other parts of the world, including India.

In my article of September 14, 2020, I also wrote that the concept of ‘fair pricing a drug’ is being deliberated by many experts around the world, since quite some time, till today. But it continues. Most recently, as reported on September 22, 2021, for different reasons related to its new Alzheimer’s drug - Aduhelm, including its hefty price tag of $56,000 annually per patient, ‘Biogen reps banned from D.C.-area neurology clinics.’

Regardless of such customer reactions, the pharma industry, as reported on September 17, 2021, continues to advocate – drug pricing pressure will stifle innovation, blocking patient access to needed medicines and dry up investment in important R&D on new therapies. Curiously, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), is spending more than $1 million on TV ads as part of a massive lobbying and communications campaign emphasizing the potential harm to patients seeking cures for deadly diseases, as the report highlights.

Innovation – remained mostly unhindered from old to new normal:

Customers’ expectations can’t be ignored indefinitely. Interestingly, the world has also witnessed it with Covid drug and vaccine innovation continuing even during the most trying times during the pandemic, even in India. It is, therefore, quite understandable why unfettered access to drug innovation is considered an oxymoron, by many.

The good news is, despite shrill voices over pricing measures, the quest for adding meaningful value to the healthcare space continues unhindered. As reported on September 19, 2021, both Pfizer and Merck are advancing oral antiviral candidates targeting Covid-19 into late-stage testing. Thus, I reckon, regardless of jarring noise from pharma lobbyists, drug innovation, willy-nilly, has to satisfy the diverse demand of health care customers.

Innovation needs to satisfy demands of diverse healthcare customers:

That, increasingly, drug innovations will need to be based on their ability to satisfy the demands of life sciences companies’ diverse customer-perceived value-based, was also echoed by the Pharmaceutical Executive article of September 16, 2021.

While doing so, companies will need to structure innovation in terms of health outcomes, affordability, and personalization, as the paper emphasized. It further added, ‘broader definition of innovation means products are no longer the central driver of value.’ Instead, innovation will be powered by an increasingly diverse stream of data that resides outside the confines of the traditional health ecosystem.

Covid pandemic accelerated the transition of this process of innovation, drawing its new focus on providing a seamless and holistic customer experience in the disease treatment process – supported by advanced analytics and this deeper understanding of customer segments.

Conclusion:

Many pharma marketers have possibly undertaken a sophisticated and credible market scanning exercise in the new normal, to assess by themselves what have or haven’t changed in their customer preferences and market dynamics. If not, I would encourage them to initiate it, at least, now.

Equally noteworthy, as the above HBR article wrote, in the post pandemic period: ‘Beyond geography, marketing messages need to be personally relevant, aligned to an individual’s situation and values, as opposed to demographics, such as age and gender.’

The objective is to create a personal connection between the customer and the brand promotional content, aiming to influence the prescribing and purchasing behavior, based on their psychographic to attitudinal characteristics. This process would require creating and screening lots of customized data, supported by sophisticated analytics.

From the above perspective, I reckon, deep insight on what have or haven’t changed in the healthcare environment alongside its customers, would be of fundamental importance for pharma marketers, in the new normal.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Leverage AI For Competitive Edge With Omnichannel Pharma Marketing

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Tapan Ray

With the requirements of strict compliance to ‘Covid appropriate behavior’ becoming critical for all, pharma reps’ physical access to physicians for F2F calls got severely restricted, across the world.

A paper from IQVIA of May 14, 2021, reported: ‘As patient visits shifted to digital in 2020, pharma was pushed to digital customer engagement at the same time.’ It further added, ‘there was a 75% decrease in promotional activity worldwide, and up to a 500% increase in engagement via remote channels. In my article dated October 19, 2020, I also wrote that the pandemic propels healthcare into a new and the virtual world, creating a new growth driver for pharma.

Looking ahead the above IQVIA paper envisaged – post pandemic, when the medical profession will get ‘busy with a backlog of patients returning to in-office visits, providers may prefer to continue engaging remotely with pharmaceutical reps via email or video conference.’ As this trend gains traction with greater application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it may prove to be a blessing in disguise, to excel in pharma business with greater cost-effectiveness and overall business productivity than the pre-Covid era.

I deliberated some of these issues in my article of April 05, 2021. However, my today’s deliberation would focus on the relevance of leveraging AI to gain a competitive edge in the changing dynamics with Omnichannel pharma marketing.

Let me start with a basic question – would Omnichannel marketing significantly help to achieve greater cost-effectiveness in pharma business as compared to the old normal?

Would digital transformations yield greater cost-effectiveness?

This point was also deliberated by the JAMA Health Forum on September 08, 2020. It found: “The switch to video meetings and online presentations has made drug promotion far less costly for companies – no travel expenses for sales reps and doctors, no fine dining events, and low fixed costs of producing video content that can reach a large audience. History and economics tell us that the lower the costs of doing something, the more firms will engage in it.”

The article further reiterated – now that remote working has dissolved the boundaries between home and office, sales reps can reach doctors in their homes, at all hours, ratcheting up the intensity of exposure to product messaging. Having validated greater cost effectiveness of the digital shift of the pharma business operations, including marketing, let me get back to some key findings of the above IQVIA report dated May 14, 2021.

The new customer engagement model will expand to remote and digital:

The above IQVIA research captured the following worldwide trends, vindicating the above:

The trend of customer engagement preferences and behavior is shifting toward virtual and in favor of remote channels.

Relationships won’t go away, but reps will need to shift their focus from relationship management to more scientific engagement to ensure that detailing adds value to the doctors.

Remote detailing is here to stay with in-person detailing remains at an all-time low.

Depending on the therapeutic area, telehealth visits will increase anywhere from 50% to 200% from pre-COVID-19 numbers, with both patients and doctors appreciating their value.

To stay competitive in this new reality, pharma companies will have to adopt new models of customer engagement across their entire organization with more agility than ever before.

Companies will need to quickly understand different customer preferred channels, types of engagements with them, and shift investments based on the new information they’re receiving.

Flawless integration of such information for precise execution is critical for remote Omnichannel engagement capabilities – to deliver the right content and services to customers, while measuring impact.

A few years ago in the old normal, on December 18, 2018, I emphasized that: “Pioneering ‘Omnichannel’ engagement is pivotal” in the pharma business. Let’s have a quick recap of this area.

Relevance of Omnichannel marketing in pharma:

For the last several years, pharma companies have tried to go beyond its traditional F2F interactions of sales reps with its customers, especially the physicians. However, Covid pandemic triggered a paradigm change in this area with a rapid increase in the use of multiple digital channels to offer remote interactive, and mostly live platforms to them. The channels, nature of content for each, time, and place of such personalized interactions, are selected according to specific customer preferences and are generally made available 24×7. The key objectives include, building customer loyalty towards pharma brands/services of the company and make them feel valued.

According to ‘Prognos Health’ - an Omnichannel approach in pharma includes a cross-channel strategy that seamlessly integrates content – both online and offline – to provide consistency across multiple end-to-end touch points

during the customer’s journey. This approach is especially important in pharma marketing where physicians tend to be short on time and are under pressure to make treatment decisions quickly for their patients.

A well-researched and innovative Omnichannel campaign when meticulously executed, is expected to be more effective, as it helps pharma players to reach the right customers, at a right time with the right content. Besides, it is more cost-effective, as by leveraging AI, it can help optimize the nature and quantum of promotional spend – based on previous outcomes and other measurable impacts.

According to Prognos Health, an Omnichannel approach in pharma includes a cross-channel strategy that seamlessly integrates content – both online and offline – to provide consistency across multiple touch points during the customer’s journey. That said, this approach comes with a challenge – clarity of mind for pharma marketers while taking each major strategic step in this endeavor.

Omnichannel marketing isn’t another name of Multichannel engagement:

It is important to note that ‘Omnichannel (all-channel)’ pharma marketing isn’t just another name of ‘Multichannel (many-channel)’ engagement. However, both will be able to deliver targeted contents to patients through several interactive digital platforms. These include smartphone-based Apps, specially formatted websites, social media community and the likes. But the difference is - ‘Omnichannel approach connects these channels, bridging technology-communication gaps that may exist in multichannel solutions.’

An article on why pharma marketers are embracing Omnichannel marketing, published in the Pharmaceutical Executive on June 30, 2021, highlighted: ‘An integrated strategy based on Omnichannel marketing is now increasingly replacing multichannel marketing.’ Nonetheless, any change from the fragmented and siloed multichannel approach to Omnichannel marketing would entail ‘simultaneous orchestration of channels across personal, non-personal, and media.’ This is essential to address the integrated needs of multiple stakeholders –consumers/patients, healthcare professionals, and payers. ‘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,’ the article said. No wonder, why Omnichannel pharma marketing is considered by many as ‘‘The Cinderella of marketing activities,’ as it were.

Omnichannel approach – ‘The Cinderella of marketing activities’:

The pharma players’ confidence in juggling traditional channels with digital means is certainly increasing since the onset of Covid pandemic. Interestingly, the L.E.K Consulting article on this subject, published on May 24, 2021, also articulated, why only an astute pharma marketer can handle it the way it should be.

It said, ‘true Omnichannel engagement — the integration, orchestration and tailoring of customer interactions across multiple channels to match HCPs’ profile-specific needs — has been the Cinderella of marketing activities. Although, multichannel engagement — the use of two or more channels that run relatively independently from one another — is increasingly in use, ‘the Omnichannel engagement model is altogether more dynamic and complex.’

Let me take this thread to flag, how dynamic and complex Omnichannel marketing is, to reap a rich harvest in the pharma business. Application of AI will be necessary to facilitate this process.

The role of AI in Omnichannel pharma marketing:

Although, drug companies have now the requisite tools for stakeholder engagement across several channels – Omnichannel marketing will prompt their marketers to clearly know – from relevant data analysis – the answers to some critical questions. These queries include – which channels to choose for the specific customers? In what frequency? What should be the right content for each?

Yet another article from the Pharmaceutical Executive, published on July 15, 2021, underscored: ‘The answers to these questions at scale – can only be achieved using AI.’ It further reiterated that in this process, AI creates a more personalized engagement. Ironically, in this scenario, “the artificial intelligence enables a natural experience – infusing humanity back into marketing and sales.”

Conclusion:

In the hindsight, many experts interviewed in the above article, feel that historically, pharma’s traditional product-driven marketing model has fallen short of delivering coherent and high-quality customer experience. This is sometimes due to internal competition between brands, besides lack of customer listening, and frequent employee turnover. Following this model – for a long time, alienated pharma companies, their customers, the patients, the public at large, and also the regulating authorities.

In the new normal, when Covid-19 pushes pharma to walk the talk of ‘Patient-Centricity’, the companies need to jettison its product-driven marketing model. ‘No matter how many apps and brand portals a company offers, the model was doomed to failure because it centered on the brand, not on the customer,’ as several hands-on global pharma leaders believe.

In this scenario, as I wrote on August 10, 2020, the drug players need to shift from disease centered care to patient-goals directed care in the new normal where Omnichannel marketing – backed by AI, will play a game changing role for excellence. AI will help pharma marketers use real time – unbiased data, to know what exactly a customer’s expectations are from the company, and deliver the deliverables accordingly, to delight them. From this perspective, I reckon, leveraging AI to gain a competitive edge through Omnichannel marketing, could be a game changer to win a pharma marketing warfare.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Pharma Marketing: The New Normal: Challenges of Change

Posted on June 28, 2021 by Tapan Ray

A lot has changed in healthcare marketing prompted by the Covid pandemic. Apace with these, lots of old problems continue to remain very much the same. The aforesaid was observed in a recent article, published by WARC, on May 21, 2021. Although, this analysis was done in the United States, it has a global footprint, as the disruptions are broadly similar, with a varying degree from country to country.

Healthcare marketing leadership, including the pharma industry in India, presumably, is taking notes of these critical changes, along with their degree of impact. These are the basics for required responses in India, while managing its snowballing effect, both global and local.

Today’s article will provide a bird’s eye view of this area, to encourage marketers continue with their ongoing deep-dive data gathering exercise. Then, comes sieving the ‘catch’ with cerebral power – before using modern analytics to draw meaningful inferences for strategy making.

Some macro-changes stand out:

Some of these widely visible changes, also captured in the above WARC article, include the following:

An emerging trend of re-orientation of the healthcare industry around patient outcomes.

Need to realize that health and safety are the currency that can be used to rebuild consumer trust across categories.

Increasing need to build deeper emotional connections with customers, going beyond product-oriented features, benefits, and intrinsic brand values.

Providing healthcare consumers more data and behavioral science-driven, personalized solutions to their problems – to drive better outcomes.

More people are realizing that: ‘Healthcare, after all, is about life and death, and those stakes have been tragically reaffirmed during the pandemic,’ as the above paper underscores. Thus, affordable “health and safety will continue to be a currency that brands can use to re-establish trust with anxious consumers,” the author reiterates. To steer a company in that direction the marketers need to create a pathway for success by joining several emerging dots in the new normal. Let give just a flavor of these emerging dots with three examples, as below.

‘The end point – the price point’ - re-emerging as a core value expectation:

Interestingly, ‘The end point – the price point’ for quality treatment outcomes is re-emerging as one of the core values and expectations of the consumers, especially facing an uncertain future that everybody is witnessing today. The health system is also transitioning from ‘pay for healthcare product and services’ – to ‘pay for integrated value-based care offerings.’ In the changing environment, many pharma players seem to have realized that customers are no longer interested in paying for brand values that serve mostly self-serving interests of the respective companies.

More healthcare customers are digitally savvy now:

Today’s brand values need to be in sync with what the perceived value of the customers, enhancing their end-to-end experience of the disease treatment process, more than ever before. For example, increasing number of patients are now choosing between F2F – in-clinic consultations and remote or virtual consultations, for non-life-threatening ailments. Some often do data-driven online assessment for different treatment value offerings, against what these would cost to them.

Purpose driven corporate branding is making better impact:

Pharma industry’s purpose-driven branding initiatives, in tandem with creating robust corporate brands, are drawing much greater public attention amid the pandemic. The list includes both the original product developers and their contract manufacturers. Even in India, many held with esteem – Corporates, such as, AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India (SII) for Covishield, or Bharat Biotech for Covaxin.

The same thing has happened world-wide with many other Covid vaccine and drug manufacturers, such as, Pfizer, Johnson &Johnson, Moderna, Eli-Lilly, Roche, and others. Interestingly, from the available data in the cyberspace or from word-of-mouth, several people have also inferred about comparative value offerings of each. At least 4 Covid vaccine manufacturers are showing-up in this year’s ‘Conscious Brands 100’ list of 2021. This is, apparently, unprecedented.

Demonstration of ‘patients’-problem solving skill’ with resilience pays:

As we all know by now, the drug industry as such – across the world, instead getting overwhelmed by the problem, pulled up socks and rolled the sleeves to find out scientific means of saving as many lives as possible, soonest.

Almost overnight, repurposing old drugs for Covid treatment and development Covid vaccines, racing against time, were initiated. The entire healthcare industry including, Medical Diagnostic and Devices companies and others, did not fall behind to offer reliable tests for Covid diagnosis, and other life support systems and equipment.

Alongside, Omnichannel digital campaigns of many companies, and favorable news reports amid the pandemic, made people realize the stellar role of the industry in saving lives and livelihoods – from the Covid menace.

Such examples include Pfizer’s What to know About Coronavirus webpage; Merck Inc’s Podcast: How Merck is looking at past epidemics and science to respond to the coronavirus outbreak; and India’s Mankind Pharma’s Mask My India digital campaign. It captures the stories of heroes, who are setting examples and doing more than their call of duty during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The campaign also spreads the message that ‘together we can all fight with deadly Coronavirus.’

Some pandemic-triggered India-specific challenges:

According to the April 2021 KPMG paper, Covid pandemic has brought to the fore some of the following challenges for the India pharma industry, some due to years of neglect:

Heavy dependence on imported API (60%) continues even during a national health crisis, including Covid vaccine related supplies.

Fragile public health care system and laboratory testing infrastructure and supplies of life support items. This primarily due to one of the lowest Government spend (1.56% of the GDP) on health. As a result, India currently ranks 155^th out of 167 countries, in terms of hospital bed availability (Human Development Report 2020) with just 5 beds availability per 10, 000 Indians.

Changes in health care consumption pattern – especially with the increasing use of e-health or telehealth, besides, online ordering of medicines through e-pharmacies.

Apart from these, it’s also noteworthy – how pharma demonstrated its healthcare ‘problem solving’ skill to save billions of lives from deadly Covid-19 and its mutants, attracting unprecedented kudos from all corners. To keep this initiative going – meeting customers’ core expectations, in my view, could indeed be yet another challenge of change.

Conclusion:

There won’t be any ‘one size fits all’ sort of solution to address such challenges of change. Neither is all company’s challenges the same, in a relative yardstick. Each company would, therefore, need to understand what the pandemic triggered changes in market dynamics and customer expectations mean to them to pursue sustainable business excellence.

Thus, each player would require to elaborately make data-based assessment and analysis, to figure out where they currently stand, so far are the pandemic-triggered changes are concerned. With similar analysis, they should also try to fathom what are their customers’ specific value expectations, which may now go beyond the value that their brands can deliver, but critical for branding success.

Accordingly, a value delivery strategy to be worked out, taking all concerned on-board – with a carefully crafted employee and customer engagement blueprint – and mostly Omnichannel digital platforms.

To successfully navigate through the challenges of change, pharma marketers need to wear a different thinking cap. They would also need to realize that treating pharma marketing as an intrinsic product value delivery system, and by just doing digitally whatever traditionally used to be done manually, may not help generate an adequate return in the new normal. From this perspective, giving shape to a robust, comprehensive, integrated and Omnichannel digital strategic game plan for the organization, is the need of the hour.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Being Eclectic – A Pharma Leadership Quality In The New Normal

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Tapan Ray

It’s no-brainer that since the onset of Covid pandemic, digitalization initiative of many pharma companies in critical facets of business operations, has reached a new high. The process is now fast accelerating with the adoption of avant-garde ideas, and scalable digital tools and platforms. Some of these initiatives may be incremental in nature, but several others possess game changing potential in delivering business outcomes.

This period of transformation is also an opportune time for pharma leadership to be more eclectic, while working out strategies to gain business momentum – outpacing the competition. As is being revealed, strategic inputs from a diverse range of sources – often from totally different areas, to meet fast changing customer needs and expectations, would immensely help in the new normal.

In this article, I shall argue on the need of being eclectic for pharma leadership to gain competitive edge, especially in the trying times. I shall elaborate this point with the example of an eclectic idea – Gamification. If used where it ought to be, eclectic ideas may help organizations to successfully navigate through unprecedented disruptions, especially, caused by Covid pandemic, in various critical areas of pharma business.

Gamification – an eclectic strategic tool for pharma:

Gamification – an eclectic strategic tool, ‘incentivizes people’s engagement and activities to drive results with game-like mechanics.’ Various companies, across the industries, are leveraging this technique for greater effectiveness in different business domains. This includes, driving employee motivation for sustainable performance excellence.

I discussed ‘Gamification in Pharma’ in this blog – about a year before the onset of the pandemic. However, its potential is being increasingly realized with virtual engagement becoming more common during Covid pandemic. Several drug companies are now imbibing Gamification techniques to offer greater value in several areas of business. These include, among others, chronic disease management, adherence to the prescribed dosage regimen, and also for training and development.

The core purpose and value:

The core purpose of Gamification is to effectively engage with both internal and external customers of an organization, with clearly captured details of their changing needs and expectations in the new normal. Game mechanics are basically the rules and rewards that build the foundation of game play. Game dynamics involve a set of emotions, behaviors and desires found in game mechanics that help foster engagement and motivate participants.

The broad process of Gamification entails integration of game mechanics on various existing platforms. These include, a website, online community, learning tools - providing target audiences with proactive directives and feedback through game mechanics that lead to the accomplishments of business goals and objectives.

According to BI Worldwide - a global engagement agency, ‘Gamification is about driving engagement to influence business results.’ When people participate and engage with gamification initiatives, they learn the best way to interact with the business, its products, services and in thereby in the brand building process.

It further says, the business value of Gamification doesn’t end with the participant. Engagement with game mechanics provides insightful data that can help influence marketing campaigns, platform utilization and performance goals. Every employee or customer interaction gives a better sense of where a participant is spending their time and what activities drive interest.

Application of ‘Gamification’ in pharma is a decade old now:

Gamification isn’t totally a new concept in the pharma industry. It was successfully tried by some pharma majors, at least, about a decade ago. Let me give below just a couple of examples from that period to get a feel of it:

Way back in 2011, Pfizer created the Back in Play game for European patients, to boost knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis, a disease that causes inflammation in the spine and pelvis joints. Interestingly, the game delivered a simple healthcare message to a notoriously difficult to reach audience 38 million times.

In 2012, Boehringer Ingelheim launched its pharma game – ‘Syrum’ on Facebook platform. This particular initiative is considered as an evolution in the pharma industry’s use of the social media platform. It gave the Company a new tool to educate and expand the knowledge of the general public about the challenges of its business. It also helped to improve disease awareness, besides allowing the company to conduct its market research.

Besides these two, other interesting Gamification initiatives taken around that period include, Zec Attack (Novartis), Silence Your Rooster (Sanofi).

Its potential in pharma marketing – and what to avoid:

Applying game mechanics to healthcare marketing could also help ensure that patients are activated, educated, and engaged throughout the duration of their care, driving both – business performance and patient outcomes. This observation was made in an article on ‘Gamification’, published in the Pharmaceutical Executive on February 28, 2019. Another article titled, ‘Gamification is Serious Business’ also reiterates, ‘Research and case studies from both the academic and healthcare space bring forth ample evidence that games can improve patient compliance and healthcare outcomes.’

However, if any pharma marketer enters into the gamification arena with greater focus on the desired outcome than on patient goals, or the games themselves don’t excite, engage, and motivate the users, the efforts may not succeed.

Gamified e-learning helps during Covid pandemic:

An interesting study on ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Learning,’ conducted by find courses, noted some interesting points. A few of which, are as follows:

Covid pandemic is fueling an unprecedented interest and opportunity for many people to acquire more job knowledge and skills, mainly to protect their future in uncertain times.

In tandem, people’s priorities when it comes to learning are also changing. Health-safety being at the forefront of many learners’ minds, they prefer mostly online courses, or heavily reduced classroom sizes - to maintain social distancing.

It has also been noted that many such learners often find virtual learning programs uninteresting and lackluster. Sensing this issue, many organizations, which include some pharma companies, are now using Gamification to augment learning effectiveness and build greater team harmony. Let me illustrate this point with an example from the pharma industry during the ongoing pandemic.

It’s more relevant in the new normal:

On June 04, 2021, Fierce Pharma featured an article on Pharma companies’ getting into gaming to boost retention, recall – and fun. There, it quoted a top official of the global pharma major AbbVie, who said: “Gamification has become more important and more impactful in the virtual environment.” The honcho further said: “The pandemic showed we need this now more than ever. – It’s given an extra push to what has always been core to what we do, which is retention and recall in a fun and engaging manner.”

The report elaborates, AbbVie Canada uses gamification to onboard new reps, district managers and brand managers as well as for national sales meetings. Instead of studying or reading up, AbbVie asks employees to do the advance work through gamification tasks and then follows with more tasks after the meetings to boost retention and recall.

The Global Healthcare Gamification Market Report 2021-2027, also vindicates this point. As it reported, utilization of new healthcare gamification applications based on mobile tablets and laptops, witnessed a good growth during Covid pandemic. It reported, ‘Healthcare Gamification Market’ is expected to reach US$35,982.7 million in 2027 from US$ 3,072.5 million in 2019 with an estimated CAGR of 36.2% from 2020-2027.

Gamification is now being used by pharma in India, as well:

Abbott India is using elements of gamification in its customer services through a: care program. As the company Press Release says: ‘This new healthcare service is designed with games, quizzes and recognition programs to support patients, doctors and pharmacists throughout the entire healthcare journey, from awareness and prevention to motivation to get and stay healthy.’

In India, since quite some time, many well-known non-pharma companies are successfully using gamification for employee engagement and hiring.

Conclusion:

Unprecedented disruptions caused by Covid pandemic have considerably impacted the business operations of virtually every industry in India – just as other nations, across the globe. Since the onset of the pandemic, non-covid related medical centers, fitness institutions or gyms remained shut. Getting F2F – in clinic or hospital care, especially for non-Covid patients were also challenging for several reasons, with virtual care being the only options for many.

Interestingly, with most interactions and engagements – including learning, training and development programs going virtual, ‘Gamification’ initiatives started gathering wind on the sail, in some of those areas. This happened mainly because, organizations, institutions and people were driven to look for digital and app-based solutions for all needs and necessities, for a sustainable progress in an uncertain future.

An article on gamification, published in the PharmaPhorum on March 21, 2021, reiterated the same. It said, “Gamification” – adding game-like elements into non-game or real-world settings – has become a popular concept in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and event industries, especially as virtual engagement becomes more common during COVID-19.’

With diverse applications and approaches, Gamification is quickly becoming a promising tool in various areas of pharma service and operations. These include, patient adherence, chronic disease management, preventive medicine, rehabilitation, besides better customer engagement, medical education, training, hiring and more.

From this perspective, in my view, pharma leadership now needs to more eclectic, and try using methods and approaches, such as, ‘Gamification’ – drawn from various other disciplines, in pursuit of excellence in the new normal.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Augment Pharma Customers’ New Value Expectations With Content Marketing

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Tapan Ray

‘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

PILMAN

A Tapan Ray Website

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