Notes from the Back of the Book

Pharma Marketers: Eight Things We Might Learn From Zappos.com

Here’s my take after reading Delivering Happiness:  A Path To Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh CEO, Zappos.com, Inc. While it’s true that Zappos lives in a less regulated business environment than the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, Tony’s standards for communicating with consumers are now part of the context of our work. Patients have come to expect Zappos- level experiences.  This blog accepts that challenge:  what might a pharma company or hospital might look like if Tony were CEO…

Eight marketing insights for Pharma (or any healthcare or consumer business for that matter):

1. Are you sitting at the right table? If not, it’s never too late to change!  It’s easy to get caught up and engrossed in what you’re currently doing, and forget that you even have the option to change tables. It’s also easy to overlook that the game starts even before you sit down in a seat… Don’t let inertia win, be sure you’re playing in the right game—one that you can both win at and fulfills your goals.

 While Tony learned this lesson during a phase of heavy poker play, he switched tables quite a few times during his life, and certainly for Zappos, they switched tables when they shifted the company strategy to focus on customer service and experience as a brand differentiator. It caused a shift in their business model from one of drop-shipping to one of carrying their own inventory so that they could be in control of their customers’ experiences…What’s the game your pharma co is playing?

2. Be patient and focus on what’s best for the long term.  Poker teaches that you may win or lose individual ‘hands or games’, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters…Zappos has a track record of making decisions based on the longer term. Tony provides numerous examples of this e.g. free shipping in both directions, shipping upgrades to high potential customers,  turning down skilled new hires because they didn’t fit into the Zappos culture…Focusing on the long term and making the necessary tradeoffs is not a new concept, but one that Pharma and all companies bump up against every day.  Unfortunately, all too often, most decisions are made with a short term view and little thought for the long-term impact or consequences on the brand and/or the patient's health …

3. Never outsource your core competency.  Zappos learned that if they were going to build their brand to be about the very best customer service, that they shouldn’t outsource that department.  This meant that core competencies that they had built as an e-business, like inventory management and warehousing and/or customer service, couldn’t be outsourced. 

What are healthcare and pharma companies' core competencies? What happens when a new drug is licensed-in, but the clinical trials have not been done with the insights to optimize claims and information for physicians and patients?

4. A Brand’s critical success factor (CSF) must be the responsibility of the entire company, not just a department.  For Zappos, when they decided that they wanted to build their brand to be about the very best customer service and the very best customer experience, they believed that customer service shouldn’t be just a department, it should be the entire company. For pharma, customer service is largely not considered a true success factor let alone the responsibility of each and every person in the company.  Further, how many pharma cos like to call themselves patient –centric, yet we see inconsistent decision making, demonstrating that patient-centricity  isn’t the responsibility of each and every person in a pharma company ….it's usually the responsibility for a few members of a brand team, but is this enough to ensure consistency and success?  (What does it take to truely be patient-centric? Read Pharma: Is Your Brand Patient-Centered? 5 Critical Success Factors)

5. Culture is the best way to build a brand for the long term.  At Zappos, they believe that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers—will happen naturally on its own.  It’s Zappos belief that your company’s culture and your company’s band are really just two sides of the same coin.  The brand may lag the culture at first, but eventually it will catch up.  Your culture is your brand.  Zappos takes it a step further…core values are only core values if you can commit to them—and by commit, they mean that you’re willing to hire and first based on them…

If pharma cos had strong cultures of patient- centricity, and/or transparency, would we have situations where safety or clinical data was held back?  Is your company  guided by ‘committable’ core values?

6. Deliver WOW!  At Zappos, anything worth doing is worth doing with WOW.  "To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative.  You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected.  And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. ..Whether internally with co-workers or externally with our customers and partners, delivering WOW results in word of mouth. “

When was the last time that a doctor or patient felt a WOW and personal connection from a Pharma company?  How could Pharma achieve more WOW from more customers and patients? Every brand wants to achieve consumer buzz or to have patients advocate on their behalf…but what is the brand’s responsibility to help instigate this? Word of Mouth or WOW doesn’t just happen, it can’t be bought— it has to be earned…  Ask yourself:  What are things you (your brand or your company) can improve upon in your work or attitude to WOW more people?  Have you WOWed at least one person today?

7. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. Transparency is no longer a nice to have, but an imperative in today’s world. With the internet connecting everyone together, companies are becoming more and more transparent whether they like it or not. Both the good and the ugly can spread like wildfire by e-mail or with tools like Twitter and Facebook. Zappos lives in a world of transparency…Why can’t pharma and healthcare companies act with greater transparency and openess? Really?

8. It’s not just about the money, but about happiness. Cliché but oh so true!  Tony reviews different frameworks for happiness.  All roads lead to greater happiness based on an individual world filled with more passion and purpose—being part of something bigger than yourself.  Is there a greater purpose than helping people to live healthier and happier lives? Then why aren't pharma companies and the people in them happier?

Having had positive purchase experiences at Zappos.com in the past, I decided to revisit Zappos the other day when I realized I still needed hiking boots for two of my sons for camp.  When I hit the send button for free shipping I knew that I might not get the order in time, but I decided to put my faith in the Zappos culture and hope for a 'surprise' shipping upgrade…to my ‘joy’, I received a ‘fun’ email letting me know that my order had been upgraded!  Thank you Zappos! 

Here's the email I received:

Marketers: What Would Jake and Rocket Do? 13 Imperatives for 2010 (part 3 of 4)

What Would Jake and Rocket Do?
This is the third of a four part series for Consumer and Pharma/Healthcare marketers looking to tame the rigors of 2010... In case you're just coming in now, here is the first of the series: What Would Steve Jobs Do? And the second: What Would Google Do?

Who are Jake and Rocket you ask? Jake and his trusty dog Rocket have become icons of optimism, and Life is good ® America's little clothing brand that could-that is trying to spread good vibes all over the world. Having recently returned from a few days of holiday skiing in Vermont, and the proverbial t-shirt buying with ‘my three sons'... Life is good was all around us spreading their optimism and good cheer.

Here are some of Jake and Rocket's insights that all marketers-Consumer, B2B and Pharmaceutical/Healthcare - may want to pay attention to in 2010.

What Would Jake and Rocket Do?

1. Run like a dog. Dream on. High end destination.
Optimism, hope and dreams are crucial for human beings, healthy and/or sick...If you forget what it feels like to ‘run like a dog', take a look at: 19 Seconds of Pure Joy and Steve Woodruff's young dog experiencing snow for the first time! Or listen to Dr. Groopman speak about Hope and Medicine on NPR. You can also read Jen McCabe's blog on the importance of hope.

2. Consider yourself a lucky dog.
Go deep. Think out of the box. Don't knock something, build something. Create your own happy hour. This is not a year to wish you had more. Use any financial or human constraints to innovate...to build something big, to go deep. Constraints are not something to fear, but often spur innovation. Read 37 signals Getting Real: Embrace Constraints; a concept duly noted by Tim Brown and Matthew May's Change This Manifesto on Elegant Solutions (no.6 p 22)

3. Whatever you are, be a good one.  Style points count. Get dirty.
Successful people and companies raise the bar, and continually strive for excellence with every move they make...If you take nothing else away from What Would Steve Jobs Do?, think about the bar of excellence he sets and expects for himself and others at every step of the way.

4. Get outta town. If you don't go, you don't see. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn. Who feels it knows it.
Reading Tim Brown's book Change By Design, I was stuck by this quote: "Good design thinkers observe. Great design thinkers observe the ordinary." How true it is that you have to get out to see and experience what your customers are doing and thinking, and how they're interacting with the world. Yet how many busy executives actually do? And then actually take the learning and insights and share them across the organization and find rightful ‘owners' to turn them into action? (Brian Solis often speaks to this very need of leveraging what you hear in social media throughout the organization by insuring rightful owners.)

5. Mix it up.
We seem to be stuck in a world of X OR Y, TV advertising or web, traditional advertising or social media, facebook or twitter, branded advertising or value-add conversations...when we could be mixing it up and thinking AND...The consumer mixes it up, why don't marketers?

6. The little things in life are the big things.
How true it is that what we most often remember is not the big things or the big/expensive presents, but those little special gestures that let us know that people really appreciate us, trust us, care about us, and know us. (You can also read Linda Kaplan and Robin Koval's Power of Small)

7. Takers may eat well, but givers sleep well. Sometimes the best conversation is a game of catch.
We all know that building relationships is a give and take. What better analogy for two-way conversation than a game of catch? When your catching the ball, you can't be throwing at the same time...it's a rhythm of give and take... While it's never this simple, much has been written about how the new world of marketing is no longer about ‘sell and tell' or ‘push', but give and take (with more emphasis on giving than taking), remembering to listen first - sell later, adding value via marketing with meaning), earning trust a la Brogan's trust agents, and ‘earning' customer love and word of mouth.

8. Hold a true friend with both hands.
This is the year for quality over quantity and this goes for relationships as well. Only those that add value to your life will get your time and attention. Who are your true friends? Who are your most loyal customers? What do they need and want? How can you help? How can you bring them value?

9. The best things in life are free.
If you are around kids, how many birthdays and holidays need to go by before we realize that it's not the most expensive present that people/kids like, but the box that it comes in...The concept of Free is everywhere and shouldn't be overlooked or taken lightly. The web is full of content... so it's critical to create content with value or to organize content to bring value: ‘elegant organization'...Think free or the minimum you must charge or take out of the system if you want to maximize growth and usage. Read Jeff Jarvis' What Would Google Do? or Chris Anderson's Free: the future of radical price if you're still are unsure....

10. Change your perspective.
Experts in education suggest that adult learners should "jiggle their synapses a bit" by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own..."bump up against people and ideas" that are different. (NYTimes: Neuroscience-How to train the aging brain) If you are a ‘social media' guy, look at the world through other lens...most of the world still doesn't know what RSS feeds are, let alone use them...email is still the most widely used way to send others information...Marketers, look outside your industry for ideas, seek different perspectives that may bring new value to your customers' and patients' lives. Look to other disciplines, from science to design, for new thinking.

11. Write on. Read ‘em and reap. Keep Growing.
They say 2010 is the year that Content is King. We know that Links create value. Creating valuable content and acting as a ‘content curator' are critical new marketing and leadership skills...think "elegant organization".

12. Simplify.
With the number of emails, blogs, tweets, friends contacting us, more and more it will be critical to simplify and focus on what's most important. Only a few can stand out. Focus on less and make each ‘friend', ‘contact', ‘tweet', 'program'  more impactful and valuable...both simplify and 'elegance' are at the very core of both Steve Jobs/Apple and Google's success. Do You Have a Stop Doing List? (Also read Power of Less or Mathew May's The Elegant Solution)

13. Laughter has no foreign accent. We will never know all the good a simple smile can do. Celebrate.
Let's promise each other that we won't overlook a little laughter and smiles in our busy lives this year...(You can also read Dave Murray's 11th Lesson of Life)

 

Marketers: Which ones are most meaningful for you this New Year?
Which ones would most help spur growth and innovation for your brand and business?

Pharma and Healthcare Marketers: Which ones would most bring growth and innovation to our industry? Which ones would help bring back hope and trust? Value to our patients?

Stay tuned for part four of 4...What Will Pharma and Healthcare Marketers Do? What Will Champs in New Marketing Do in 2010?

Marketers: What Would Google Do? Ten Imperatives for 2010 (part 2 of 4)

What Would Google Do? What would the fastest-growing company in history and a model for thinking in new ways do? Even this week, Google makes waves with their launch of their new android-based Nexus One (MIT Says Yes).

Welcome to the second of a four part serious for Consumer and Pharma/Healthcare Marketers looking to tame the rigors of 2010... If you missed post 1, read: What Would Steve Jobs Do?  And by all means, I hope you'll stay tuned for What Would Jake and Rocket Do? And What Would Savvy Marketers Do?

"Once upon a time, all roads led to Rome. Today, all roads lead from Google." - Jeff Jarvis

What Would Google Do?

1.    Focus on the user and all else will follow. Design with simplicity. Google strives to provide the best user experience possible—from the user/customer’s point of view.  Google often forgoes paying for marketing and instead focuses on creating something so great that customers distribute it—it goes viral.

2.    Don't try to control content and distribution. Instead think about creating open networks that sit on platforms. Think in distributer ways. Go to your consumer whenever and however you can. This is the opposite of most companies (even still) that think centralized and make consumers come to them. They spend large dollars to advertise to attract consumers. Many try to make their home pages into destinations. In sum, while many internet sites think of themselves as an end- Google thinks of itself as a means. While many see the job of their home page is to take you to where they want you to go, Google sees its home page as the way to get you to where you want to go. Google distributes itself. It puts its ads on millions of web pages it does not own, earning billions of dollars for these sites and for itself. Google enables others to use tools as they wish. They know their own needs.

Think of your site as ‘answers for every question you can imagine’. 

3.    See yourself not as a product, but a service, a platform, a means of enabling others. Help others build value.  Google has many platforms to help its customers. e.g.: Blogger for publishing content, Picasa for pictures, Google docs etc.

4.    Cede control. Embrace ‘Publicness’ and openness. Transform your relationship with the public in every quarter in the organization. You may extend this new relationship in many ways from blogging, interacting with bloggers, enabling customers to critique your products or services (hard to do in Pharma) and sharing ideas.  Overtime, you may even truly involve customers in the real-time design process for products and/or services…

But 'Publicness' is about more than having a web site.   It's about taking actions in public so people can see what you do and react to it, make suggestions, and tell their friends. Living in public today is a matter of enlightened self-interest.  You have to be public to be found.  Every time you decide not to make something public, you create the risk of a customer not finding you or not trusting you because you're keeping secrets. Publicness is also an ethic.  The more public you are, the easier you can be found, the more opportunities you have.  (For more on privacy (and publicness) read this insightful blog by Jeff Jarvis.   

5.    Bring them "elegant organization". Ask how you can bring constituents, customers, community-even your competitors- elegant organization. Create value through links. Replace focus on mass market with focus on mass of niches. Understand that the economy is made up of a mass of niches-the aggregation of the long tail. Small is the new big.

6.    Extract the minimum value from the network so it will grow to maximum size and value.  In other words, charge as little as the market will bear.

7.    You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer. Google is looking to fuel greater innovation for mobile users everywhere with Android, their free, open source mobile platform. It sure feels like 2010 will be the ‘year of unprecedented mobile growth'...

8.     Move faster-not slower. Most companies say this in reference to making sure they move fast to develop new products and services. Google means this from a user experience because they know how valuable time is to their customers.

9.    Do one thing really, really well. Google does search, and in their continuous focus for improvement of search, it spurs other applications and new products/services. But they never seem to forget the role search plays in their business strategy.

10.    Great just isn't good enough.... Being great is a starting point, not an endpoint.  Ultimately, our constant dissatisfaction with the way things are becomes the driving force behind everything we do.

Is Google the only one who knows how to survive and prosper in the internet age?  Stay tuned.

What Would Steve Jobs Do? Six Marketing Imperatives for 2010 (part 1 of 4)

What Would Steve Jobs Do? This is the first of a four part series for Consumer and Pharma/Healthcare Marketers looking to tame the rigors of 2010...by taking a closer look and asking ourselves what three incredibly successful people and companies in business today would do...

The genesis for this series first came while reading Fortune's CEO of the Decade and The Decade of Steve, and thinking about the question that Apple executives asked themselves over and over during Steve Job's six month leave of absence in early 2009: What would Steve Jobs do? Recently, I picked up What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis (great book)... I hope you'll stay tuned for What Would Google Do? And What Would Jake and Rocket Do? And What Might Marketers Do in 2010?

As you're developing new products, services and/or marketing plans this year, here's a question to ask yourself at each major milestone and decision point...

What Would Steve Jobs Do? The threshold for moving forward: Would it pass Steve's test? In the past 10 years alone Steve Jobs has radically and lucratively reordered three markets --music, movies, and mobile telephones--and his impact on his original industry, computing has only grown.

"There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will." - Steve Jobs

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci

1. Know what consumers want. Paint a big-picture vision that will WOW your consumers and competitors. Create new experiences that can change the world...create a story. Create an adversary and a new way to win. In every story there's an antagonist-the hero fights the villain. Introducing the antagonist (the problem) rallies the company and audience around the hero. In Job's case, create and act upon a ‘digital lifestyle' strategy...He was a very successful ‘David' fighting Goliath... iTunes new paradigm, Macintosh launch in 1984 against IBM

2. Make it your business to know everything about your product area and company. Small details matter and are not to be overlooked. Steve is known for being involved in details you wouldn't think a CEO would be involved in. He's also well known for "One more thing".

3. Take full responsibility for the user experience. Apple is about being a system... In 2002, Steve told Time, "We're the only company that owns the whole widget -- the hardware, the software, and the operating system. We can take full responsibility for the user experience. We can do things that the other guy can't do."

4. Design is critical and must be perfect. He's a perfectionist to the nth degree. He has a willingness to be a pain in the neck to what matters most to him. (Time 2005) The company believes in "deep collaboration" and "concurrent engineering" so there are no hand offs...just flawless design. (You may also want to read Inside the Apple Ecosystem and Tim Brown's Change by Design)

5. Master the message. Simplify complex information. The message to the public is always consistent, simple, breakthrough, and expert at bringing the benefit(s) to life. E.g.:it's not just a 5GB iPod, it's 1,000 songs in your pocket; iconic "think different" campaign. Jobs practices the message over and over and only a few deliver it. He is also careful to avoid overexposure, preferring to speak only when he has new products to promote. He crates 'twitter-like headlines'. E.G.: Macbook air. The world's thinnest notebook. iPod. One thousand songs in your pocket. (You may also want to read Carmine Gallo's: The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs slide share and book.)

6. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Lessons he learned after he found out that he had pancreatic cancer. "Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma-which is living with the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the voice of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."  -  Steve Jobs

Healthcare Marketers:

What if Pharma and Healthcare products/services took full responsibility for the user (patient) experience?

What if Pharma and Healthcare designed the product and user experience to simplify the complex and encourage participative medicine?

What if Pharma and Healthcare mastered the message and dialog so patients and their caregivers immediately and easily understood the benefits and risks and could discuss it with their doctor and family?

Stay tuned for What Would Google do? (WWGD)...

My 13 Favorite Business Books of 2009

As 2009 comes to a close, I want to share my thirteen favorite biz books from this year that I found myself writing the most "Notes in the Back of the Book", and stimulating the greatest new thinking and ideas. The list of books covers social media, marketing and new marketing models, and innovation and leadership. For reference, here are also business book favorites by Fast Company, Mashable, Amazon and The Brand Bubble (John Gerzema).

If you're looking to better understand and excel in today's social media and web 2.0 worlds, here are four: Inbound Marketing is a must for anyone who wants to be found online, and is especially helpful for anyone who is actively considering how to get started with inbound marketing. Written by the leaders of Hubspot, they know what they're talking about. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith shows how people use online social tools to build networks of influence and how you can tap into the power of these networks to positively impact your business. Because trust is essential to building online reputations, those who traffic trust are "trust agents" and key people for any business.  Putting the Public Back into Public Relations shows how to reinvent PR around two-way conversations with traditional and new influencers, bringing the "public" back into public relations. Both are consistent thought leaders in the area of PR. Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik begins to bring accountability to web 2.0 online programs with focus on customer- centered thinking and measurement, and builds upon his 2007 book.

Of course, to participate in our ever changing digital and social world, strategic marketing and a deep customer focus are still paramount.  How is marketing evolving? In Marketing with Meaning, Bob Gilbreath outlines the next evolutionary step in a progression following direct marketing and permission marketing. The book calls for the end of "push and sell" marketing in favor of adding value to customers' lives. Excelling in marketing also starts with listening...In Listen First. Sell Later, Bob Poole outlines the benefits of listening FIRST. And to remind us about customer- centered marketing, I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss is a great read. Who can argue that companies like Lands End didn't get it right early on?

Eating the Big Fish still feels as relevant today as it was when it was first published. The 2009 edition is packed with new examples and Morgan's eight credos still worthy of consideration-especially for small specialty and biotech Pharmaceutical brands. In FREE: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson (Long Tail) argues that in the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all. He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with such models as cross-subsidies and freemiums.  But when you stop to think about the real changes in expectations that the web has brought about, this is a book to think hard about.

Tim Brown's Change by Design suggests that innovation in today's world means taking a design thinking approach, and one that is human-centered. The CEO of global design consultancy IDEO offers a guide for thinking and organizing our everyday creative processes.  A great book and a nice break  from so much focus on social media...

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is a must read for anyone looking to improve their own presentation skills. Why not learn from a master, who is consistently voted the most important CEO of the decade?  Knowing how to present is critical today, but this book goes beyond just presentation tips...Power of Less is a very useful reminder to focus (and act) on what is most important and forget the rest. It's simple and direct without the fluff. Born to Run, while not a business book per say, provides lessons in mind and body, and shows the advantages of anthropological learning from others, in this case a special Indian tribe from Mexico.

Favorite Business Books of 2009

1. Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media) by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

2. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

3. Putting the Public Back into Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business in PR by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge

4. Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity by Avinash Kaushik

5. The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect With Your Customers by Marketing With Meaning by Bob Gilbreath Listen First Sell Later

6. Listen First Sell Later by Bob Poole

7. I Love you More than my Dog: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad by Jeanne Bliss

8. Eating the Big Fish: How Challenger Brands can Compete Against Brand Leaders by Adam Morgan (2009 reprint)

9. FREE: The Future of Radical Price by Chris Anderson

10. Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown

11. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great In Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo

12. Power of Less The: Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential...in Business and in Life by Leo Babauta

13. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen by Chris McDougall

Other books you think should be on this list?

 

Books I plan to read in the New Year:

1. Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves by A Penenberg

2. Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta/What Would Google Do? By Jeff Jarvis

3. The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarella

4. Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation by Grant McCraken

5. Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations by Garr Reynolds (due December 28, 2009)

6. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (due out December 29, 2009)

7. Lynchpin: Are You Indispensible? by Seth Godin (due out January 26, 2010)

8. Rework by Jason Fried (due out March 9, 2010)

What about you? What's on your list to read?

 

Other blogs to read related to these favorite books of 2009:

If You Charged For Your Content, Would Anyone Pay? By Jonathan Richman Dose of Digital blog

Marketing With Meaning: Is there any other way? Advertising Age

Pharma: Are Current DTC Ads Meaningful? By Ellen Hoenig Notes From the Back of the Book blog

How Marketing With Meaning Can Save Pharma (3 Part Series) by Jonathan Richman

Book Review: I love You More Than My Dog - Small Business Trends

Pharma: Say NO To More Bullets! and Presentation Tips  by Ellen Hoenig

Pharma: Is Your Marketing Designed to Engage and Educate or Sell?  By Ellen Hoenig

For my list of top books of 2008 and 2007, click here.

Happy New Year to all! See you in 2010!

 

 

 

Pharma: Are Current DTC Ads Meaningful?

I just finished reading Bob Gilbreath's new book "The Next Evolution of Marketing. Connect With Your Customers By MARKETING WITH MEANING." Given my roots in package goods consumer marketing, I found the book and the examples ‘meaningful'... 

I whole heartedly agree that the next evolution in marketing is to move from ‘telling and selling' to providing value and ultimately, to improving people's lives.  I think too, this is one reason that so many consumer package goods marketers made the move to pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing-to help save and improve people's lives and well being...

What are marketers to do when consumers are not just immune to our messages, but they're ignoring us completely?

Create marketing that's meaningful.

What is meaningful marketing?

When your marketing is meaningful, people choose to engage with you in an exchange that they perceive as valuable. But engagement is only the beginning. Whatever your product or service may be, when your marketing is meaningful, the marketing itself adds value to people's lives, whether or not they immediately buy what you're selling. (This may cause a few gulps...but Bob Gilbreath goes on to promise that this is not just cause marketing...To be sure, making money and moving product are still the goal; if they aren't, it's not marketing.)

The bottom line for consumers is that they expect more from their brands on many levels--and the marketing with meaning model will help bring marketing more into the value equation.

Jonathan Richman at Dose of Digital wrote about some great ideas for pharma brands to consider and explore using marketing with meaning. So I thought I'd try something a little different to spark some further thought and dialog.

I took a look at DTC print ads over the last month  to see how they stack up to the book's Hierarchy of Meaningful Marketing.  Now we all know that looking at one DTC ad doesn't capture the 'whole brand's story'.  The print ad is only one step to driving action to the brand (or unbranded) website for more information and engagement...and a brand can run a 'campaign' of different ads (branded and unbranded), and use multiple media channels to tell a richer story...but it's a start.

And, if "every single interaction between a brand and a consumer is a marketing moment of truth" (Peter Blackshaw), is it not fair to look at what may be a brand's first touch, a DTC ad?

Yet, I feel the need to make at least one caveat.  Having sat in many a focus group for pharma brands, I can honestly say that for many consumers with a medical condition, or for their caregivers, learning about a new prescription product that may provide pain relief or prevent damage, is a HIGHLY valuable solution. This is an important distinction when evaluating DTC ads vs other ads for well known consumer goods...Additionally, unbranded ads have an easier time of providing more connected solutions by the nature of their goals and extra space due to lack of fair balance!

Having said that, I looked at the branded DTC print ads running over the last month in a variety of consumer publications (e.g., news, women's service, health, people, teen). I reviewed 35 print ads and attributed them to Gilbreath's three tiers of marketing that are increasingly meaningful to consumers:

• Solution marketing. Like the lower levels of maslow's hierarchy of needs, solution marketing covers basic household needs and benefits, for example, helpful offers, money savings, and hard rewards for purchase.
• Connection marketing. this represents a significant step toward building a bonding relationship between people and brands. It provides benefits beyond the basics of information and relevance to include something that is of deeper importance in the consumer's mind, ie., social outlets and creative expression.
• Achievement marketing.This corresponds to maslow's pinnacle of self-actualization by allowing people to significantly improve their lives, realize a dream, or positively change their community and their world.

Here's What I found:

Not surprising, most DTC print ads fall into the first tier-Solution marketing- by providing information and a trial incentive to encourage the first script. Many only make the first tier with the assumption that they're providing valuable information to help patients with their 'physiological and safety' needs through attribute and benefit messaging.

Of the 35 ads, I bucketed 31 into Solution marketing, of which 14 offered a trial incentive. (Of the ads with trial incentives, AcipHex, BenzaClin,  Symbicort and Yaz did the best jobs insuring that interested consumers would see the offer, and others like Concerta and DePuy used a BRC to help drive lead generation and trial offer engagement.)

In my opinion, four branded DTC print ads fell into Connection marketing, having made a stronger step toward building a bonding relationship between people and brands:

Crestor: focuses not just on the pill, but on the Crestor kit: information, tips and trial incentives. They also offer an interactive tour of an artery. (Can more be done to leverage consumer to consumer sharing, provide additional customization opportunities, and to continue to make heart health a wee bit more entertaining/fun?)

Epiduo acne treatment: highlights the interactive 'pathway to confidence' contest where they asked teens for ways that they build confidence. (Website very fresh. Can more be done to leverage this important idea about building confidence in teens which has the potential to be life changing?)

Toviaz: focuses not only on the pill, but the plan that can be shared with the doctor (Can more be done to provide more stuff for consumers to share with each other, more customization opportunities, and more fun, entertaining web interactions?)

Viagra: takes a different approach vs prior ads. This ad speaks to real insights and concerns for men, and speaks less about Viagra benefits and more about how to broach 'the talk' with their doctor. The ad also provides a fresh learning approach that may be able to be further leveraged on their website.

None of the branded DTC ads I reviewed accomplished what I believe Gilbreath was speaking to with his third tier: Achievement marketing...Of course there are other DTC programs in the market place that may have just not ran branded print this last month, or don't use print in their media mix--the subject of another blog...

Click on the images to view examples Ads/PDF download 

No doubt, a DTC print ad does not tell the whole brand story, and in many cases, consumers will go to the website where they may find more engagement and connection. Additionally, if the product is new, it may make sense to first communicate the brand's benefits...

Having said that, it looks to me like there is ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. Pharma DTC print advertising can and should evolve to providing more than basic product benefits to providing richer experiences and connections for consumers to share and feel good about. Brands should  take an inventory of all of their DTC touchpoints- online and offline- to be sure that each are doing their best to both reinforce the brand promise, and provide maximum value to the consumer.

Time to move from just selling to also helping...

What do you think? Any good branded print examples I missed in my 'non-scientific' point-in-time review, or that you want to share? Other thoughts on creating meaningful marketing?

Pharma: Say NO To More Bullets! And Presentation Tips.

This week, I came across two presentations that made me stop and refocus my thoughts on writing and delivering effective and engaging presentations. The first was a terrific five minute video interview of author Carmine Gallo (The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience) outlining the 5 points he attributes to Steve Job's incredible success as one of today's most engaging speakers. The second was the announcement that "Health Care Napkins", created by Dan Roam with Tony Jones, was the winner of the "World's Best Presentation 2009" by Slideshare.net and Business Week.

click on image to watch video on ABC 

The 5 Techniques that help make Steve Jobs a truly great presenter:
1. Introduce an antagonist. Every presentation is a theatrical experience: "Every great drama has a hero and a villain." Steve Jobs explains the problem and leads the way for the hero...
2. Twitter-friendly headlines. Each Apple product has a simple name and a short and concise descriptive headline or sound bite e.g. macbookair-"The World's Thinnest Notebook"
3. Sell dreams--not computer hardware, or a product. Jobs sells ‘transformative experiences'-what is it about our product that will change someone's life?
4. Practice Zen like simplicity-‘the elimination of clutter'. You won't see bullet points. You won't see many words.
5. Relentless Practice. Practice. And More Practice.

Here's the winning slide presentation by Dan Roam: Health Reform on the back of the napkin style.

You won't see traditional bullets or heavy text. You will see a great story unfold with interesting visuals and devices to engage the reader.

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

Dan Roam's lesson to us all:

There is no such thing as boring knowledge.
There are only boring ways to present it.

Two Great Books on Presentations
Having sat through many a ‘boring' PowerPoint and podium presentation, and having done my own share of, what we at BMS used to fondly refer to as, ‘deck a day' PowerPoint presentations for Sr. Management, requiring an abundance of time internally-focused vs. externally or customer- focused, I have become a huge fan of Garr Reynold's Presentation Zen and Nancy Duarte ‘s Slide:ology. Both books are excellent sources for kinder, simpler, and more visually pleasing presentations-and did I mention more engaging and effective? Both start with the objective and the story you want to tell; both encourage planning and storyboarding to get it right.

Common themes for better PowerPoint presentations:
1. Start with the end in mind; what is the story that you want to tell?
2. Know your audience-what is important to them?
3. Outline your content; sketch out objectives and ideas in pen and paper. Plan in ‘analog', with no use of technology-storyboard the presentation
4. Have a sound, clear structure throughout (this is more than an agenda page up front)
5. Be vigilant about clarity of message-- only one idea to a slide
6. Put yourself in the shoes of the audience and ask "so what?"...if it's not relevant, cut...
7. Bring each point to life. This means minimal use of bullets and copy, and heavy use of visuals, photography and color (If you have charts of data, you might consider handing this information out separately at the end of the presentation...)
8. Good presentations include stories. The best presenters illustrate their points with the use of stories, most often personal ones.
9. Keep it simple, but not simplistic
10. The more you are on top of the material- the design, flow and rehearsal, the more success.

Pharma: Just Say No To More Bullets!

Now is the time for Pharma to rethink how we present information to colleagues, partners, physicians, customers, government. By taking a few lessons from these experts, more time thinking about how to craft content and message, Pharma can begin to tell more engaging and effective stories that the audience may actually want to listen to, learn from, and take action.

Won't you join me in saying NO to more bullets, and YES to initiating a new way to communicate?

Additional Helpful Links:

Presentation I did to FDA Risk Communication Advisory Committee: Considering Neuroscience to Improve Communications

Sample Slides By Garr Reynolds
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas On Presentation Design and Delivery

Think Like a Designer

Ten Reasons Presentations Will Make It Big in 2009 -#2 Speakers

 

Pharma: Is Your Marketing Designed To Engage And Educate Or Sell?

As Marketers, we've long been conditioned to "sell", also known as the fourth Marketing P: Promotion.  Increasingly, however, the world of Marketing is shifting from a model of selling and shouting to one of listening, engagement, dialogue and education. Pharma is no exception to this change.  A recent study by about.com outlined in eMarketer points to success with current pharma advertising, but also highlights opportunities for improvement that are consistent with the continued shift in consumer mindset.

Key Takeaways

Following diagnosis from their Physician, most consumers use the web to find more information about their condition, a smaller percent use search engines to better understand treatment options or the particular medication that they've been prescribed.  Only 35% trust what the doctor says and fill the prescription without further search or education.

Currently, more than four in 10 Internet users told About.com that pharma ads made them aware of treatment options and educated them about symptom and conditions; 17% felt like they could speak more knowledgeably with their doctor because of pharmaceutical advertising.

After seeing healthcare ads, 38% of respondents said they talked with their doctor and 36% researched the advertised drug online. In addition, 13% of Internet users visited the pharmaceutical company's Website.

When surveyed about what would catch their attention, Internet users were most likely to say info about specific conditions (29%) and medication side effects (28%); also information about how to cope with the condition (20%), followed by free trial offers (18%).

How Can Pharma Continue to Improve Engagement and Communication?

1. Combine 'relevant' education into every communication; surround the target consumer/patient with a mix of branded and unbranded communications, and branded and educational messaging. 
2. Consider where the patient is along the treatment pathway and customize engagement to reflect information and education needs. Adding a personalized touch can dramatically help improve trial or web sign-ups. (See more on Personalization in my next blog)
3. Don't be afraid to speak to the potential side effects; balanced benefit and risk information is what consumers (and FDA) want.  Most consumers recognize that along with the benefits of a particular treatment comes some side effect(s)--why not provide the information upfront, including potential ways to deal with the side effects...This might also begin to instill a bond of trust and authenticity...Moving forward, pharma companies will do well by providing easy to understand risk-benefit comparisons for consumers...
4. Shout the condition that your medication treats to increase stopping power. While this might sound obvious, many online and off line DTC ads continue to overlook the need to scream the condition they are treating. With the onslaught of messages that a typical consumer sees each day, this is a costly mistake, but one that is relatively easy to fix. (Marketers and Advertising Creatives alike often hate to shout out the condition thinking its redundant or isn't visually elegant, but its often the single best way to immediately grab your patients' attention. It usually takes one round of qualitative for marketers and their agencies to be convinced...)
5. Don't just focus on your medication--Help patients and their families treat and cope with the 'whole' condition and the 'whole' person.  This goes beyond providing a few tips or tools or links to third parties...and goes beyond any one advertisement.
6. Listen First-Sell Later.  Everyday consumers are telling  us that they don't want to be sold to or shouted at, but engaged in a meaningful conversation, to hear from others like themselves. How best to understand someone's needs and wants if not by listening first? 

Bob Poole has written a great book with many, thoughtful nuggets to consider: 

Customers and prospects know their problems much better than you do.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that you already have the solutions. To assume you know the solution before you really understand the problem, is like a physician writing a prescription before making a diagnosis. 

Learn to listen -really listen. It's how you establish trust, rapport, and relationships.

Listen. Create value. Follow through. Keep your word. Maintain the relationship. Listen more.

Stop being a salesperson. Become a solutions provider. You'll be much more productive. It's more fun. And, it's the right thing to do.

People have to buy YOU before they buy anything FROM you.

Burn your story into the hearts and minds of the people who want-who need-to hear it. We can all create and tell stories that are entertaining, educational, and emotional.

What kind of fun are you building into your business? When is the last time you did something fun with your customers?                                                                                                                                                                  

Pharma: Which do you do first, Listen or Sell?  As an industry, isn't it time we made listening a greater priority? If we listen first, won't engagement and increased sales follow? Thoughts?

Pharma and Marketers: How Do You Elegantly Use What You Have?

Pharma and Marketers alike, as we approach the end of summer, perhaps a little introspection is warranted? 

In the latest McKinsey Quarterly, Dan Vasella, CEO and chairman of Novartis, shares his personal approach to management and leadership, and discusses health care reform, the economic downturn, and executive compensation...During the discussion on compensation, he poses an interesting question worth pondering:

 "...I think it much more important to ask, 'How do you use what you have?' It's like with talents you have, do you really use them for the best of society? Do you give something? How do you use the money you have? Is it just to have more zeros on the bank account at the end of the year? Or do you do something right with it?"

So in these tough economic times and with healthcare reform looming, might it not be important for each of us to ask:  How does our business, or our brand(s) use what they have?

How do we use our talents to add maximum value?

How do we use our financial and human resources to create maximum benefit with the minimum effort? [loose definition of an elegant solution. For a more comprehensive one: "marked by concision, incisiveness and ingenuity; cleverly apt and simple, as an elegant solution to a problem."- Webster's New World Dictionary]

What should we stop doing? What should we keep doing? Do we need to add something to the mix? [Ideally, we choose to stop doing more than we choose to add and we should actively question keeping 'sacred cows' in the mix...]

How do we use our budgets to do something right for our customers in addition to generating a positive return financially and/or qualitatively?

During planning, it is typical to look to reach for the maximum budget we can get...we're all used to thinking that innovation comes from big budgets and big resources...but what if that wasn't true?

The vast majority of the millions of innovative ideas have zero budget (Toyota is a great example of this).  Looking for the killer app can be a deadly trap if your bias is something other than realizing that the greatest innovations in the world generally spring from resource constraints...

Lesson: if you want to change the world, you need the ability to see extreme resource constraints as the very source of sustainable innovation. - Matthew E May Author of Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing

For me personally, across my 20+ marketing and consulting career, the times I've innovated most successfully have been due to having the toughest constraints going in...

And by the way, if you haven't read Matt's second book, In Pursuit of Elegance, you should pick it up and find out why elegant ideas have four characteristics: Symmetry, Seduction, Subtraction, and Sustainability.

It also has perhaps one of the most elegant forwards I've read in a while, by Guy Kawasaki-Author of Reality Check and co-founder of Alltop.com

While brevity may not cause elegance, long-windedness certainly prevents it. In that spirit, here is a 140-character foreword. Why 140 characters? because that's the limit of a Twitter "tweet."

"Less is the new more." Easy to learn: symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability. Very valuable to do. Step 1: Read Matt's book!!"

Also for a good summary of Matt's thinking, read Guy Kawasaki's interview with Matt: In Pursuit of Elegance: 12 Indespensable Tips

Any thoughts you want to add?

Pharma: It's All About a People-Driven Economy, Stupid!

All summer, I've been watching a nearby farm's crop of sunflowers grow and reach for the sun...In taking some pictures this weekend, I couldn't help but notice all the bees busy pollinating these sunflowers. Interesting, it is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee. (Wikipedia) How does this relate to Pharma and Social Media Networks?

Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. The most advanced of these are eusocial colonies found among the honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees.

Eusociality (Greek eu: "good/real" + "social") is a term used for the highest level of social organization in a hierarchical classification.

1. Reproductive division of labor (with or without sterile castes)
2. Overlapping generations
3. Cooperative care of young

So where do we humans fit in? How social are we really? Is Social Media a close cousin of Eusociality?

1.       Division of Labor:  Social Media pundits often say that social media actually helps us to be more efficient by reducing overlap of work and creating more effective division of labor... "Social media is not a waste of time; it actually makes people more productive. We no longer look for the news or things of interest-they find us,"  says Erik Qualman in his new book Socialnomics.  How many patients prefer to learn from each other? Trust advice from friends, family and other patients?  How much time does this save each new patient or their family?

2.       Overlapping generations:  Chris Anderson's groundbreaking book, The Long Tail,  describes the ability of the Internet and Social Media to easily and effectively service small interest groups...to reach and impact people with common interests (and overlapping generations) vs. the traditional demographic targeting of mass media.  Even without the Internet, overlapping generations has existed for centuries in social communities, bonding common interests passed down by word of mouth...When sickness takes us, we share a common bond with others--having less to do with age and more to do with common medical experience and learning potential of patient and/or family caregiver...

3.       Cooperative care of young: I'm a huge believer in the common African proverb:  "It takes a community/village to raise a child"...or to raise a new generation of marketers and community builders? Social Media is all about original content, learning and sharing what we learn from others and staying in touch with the people that we trust and can help us care for ourselves and our families...How does social media help you care for others?

So, if insect pollination accounts for 1/3 of our food supply, how much do we think social media connections accounts for in our economy?

According to Erik Qualman's Socialnomics: it's no longer about the economy stupid...

It's all about a people-driven economy, stupid...

Pharma continues to take 'baby steps' into the world of social media--What are Pharma's next big steps to get closer to a people-driven economy?  Sounds to me like social media is only part of the answer.  Pharma must also include a move to greater, genuine patient-centered marketing...putting the needs of the consumer and their family at the center of decisions throughout clinical development and commercialization, and encouraging greater dialog and shared responsibility between the doctor and their patient...

Any thoughts?