Notes from the Back of the Book

2010 Outlook: 10 Ways to Win With Patients and Improve DTC Efforts

[Full article: 2010 Outlook: Doom and Gloom For DTC? 10 Points for Winning with Patients, published in DTC Perspectives, December 2009]

Despite many gloomy predictions for DTC advertising and the pharma industry overall, there's never been a better time for marketers to forward their brands and consumers' lives with new thinking about what constitutes patient marketing in the 21st Century (DTC 21).  Ten prescriptions can help improve focus and strengthen DTC efforts in 2010.  Important media and technology trends are also "musts" to actively consider for those who want to bump impact and value.

1. Adopt an updated definition for DTC that considers the full picture of how consumers will interpret and interact with a brand TODAY. This calls for attention beyond "big bang" marketing spends, and begs for identifying meaningful levers to drive education and growth. DTC is no longer just an awareness or acquisition vehicle to move "eyeballs" through a linear marketing funnel; it's every influence and touch needed to bring new information and education, help convert, instill loyalty and inspire advocacy.
   
2. Consider "long-tail" marketing; don't be afraid to focus on smaller targets that matter. Long tail marketing has the potential to treat consumers as individuals with unique interests and needs.
   
3. Go to your consumer--surround them where they get their facts, learn, and socialize.  Today's consumer is not looking for your marketing messages.  Study after study points to both the growth of the Internet, and the fact that consumers and e-patients get their information from multiple sources. (The Social Life of Health Information - PEW Internet and American Life Project) Depending on your target, this suggests a mix of relevant touches and begs for the right combination of off line and on line media and social media tactics.
   
4. Move beyond selling to engaging and providing meaningful marketing and value. Look for new ways to extend patient value, and support a more positive customer experience along each and every touch point. This also means giving consumers and e-patients what they are looking for and not just your "brand sell". Engagement requires looking at each patient as a unique human being who, by the way, would "rather not e your customer" (After all, who wants to have a chronic condition and take medication for the trust of their life, whether it be your rand or a competitors?). Think hard how you might provide relevant value real-time, every time. To improve engagement, 6 C's are crucial:  1) Content that is based on meaningful insights and provides context; 2) Customization via new ways to personalize treatment, process or support; 3) Conversation is encouraged for better service, learning and sharing: 4) Confidence is built with trust and transparency; 5) Community Connectedness - directly or indirectly- create your own, or better yet, tap into an existing one; and 6) Consistent Commitment is demonstrated to your customer base--no one shot deals here.
5. Consumer power is a fact of life requiring brands and companies to walk and talk "patient-centered" -- consumers are finely tuned to what's valuable and authentic. Ask yourself one simple question over and over:  Will this bring meaningful value to our patients?
   
6. Keep your brand's strategic core strong and grounded, despite the onslaught of messages and tactics, and the speed with which they require action.  A strong core requires a compelling and relevant brand promise that focuses every strategy and tactic so they're synergistic and supportive. The payoff is staying on message by protecting the brand from chasing every new, cool digital and new media tactic coming your way.
   
7. Insist on elegant solutions that do more with less. Smaller budgets don't negate innovation and may have just the opposite effect in spurring new thinking.
8. Don't overlook the details. While they may seem small and trivial, find out which are important to patients and their families.  This can help instill better ROI efficiencies.
9. Refresh brand metrics and measurement to drive current brand objectives and initiatives. Think beyond traditional reach and frequency measures and try to ensure a flow of metrics and measurement from beginning to end of the patient "buying process" for maximum learning.
   
10. Be the best listeners in you category. Listen with vigilance, and act on learning across the organization. Listening, and what you do with your learning, is the responsibility of the entire organization.  Be sure that each 'tweet" or customer learning gets mapped back to a rightful "owner' in the organization.

In 2010, important media, social platforms and technology trends can't be neglected. Below are some helpful questions to ask as media and technology continue to quickly change (yes...an understatement!):

Pharma: Are you ready for 2010?  Despite continued budget tightening and generic growth, and open areas such as health  reform and  FDA social media and web guidelines, it's going to be a big year for those willing to step up and experiment with new ways of marketing and 'not marketing'...What do you think?

 

Other Suggested Reading:

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson. Wikipedia's summary of long tail here.

Pharma: Are Current DTC Ads Meaningful? The Next Evolution of Marketing My Book review.

The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with your Customers by Marketing with Meaning by Bob Gilbreath, Bridge Worldwide

Susannah Fox, PEW Research Center: The Social Life off Health Information, Twitter and Status Updated, Fall 2009

Pharma: Is Your Brand Patient Centered? 5 Critical Success Factors by Ellen Hoenig, MedAd News, November, 2009

I love You More Than My Dog: 5 Decisions that Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty In Good Times and Bad  by J. Bliss

Strong Brand Core: More Core Than Ever? 

Pharma: Is Your Marketing Designed to Engage and Educate or Sell? My book review of Listen First Sell Later by Bob Poole

Pharma: Do You Elegantly Use What You Have? My book review of In Pursuit of Elegance by Matthew E May

Photo Credit:  Courtney Justice/The Cournell Group

Video Games: Key to the Future of Pharma and Healthcare?

Full Article Published in PharmExec.com August 5, 2009. 

Everyday new results suggest that health games and virtual worlds bear the potential to be "game changers" by improving education, provoking greater engagement, and engendering positive behavior to enhance health and wellness. 

While more clinical studies are still needed, preliminary results are beginning to demonstrate proof of principle.  In the wake of the 2009 Games For Health conference, the article outlines five factors for why you might start to take health gaming seriously, as well as key lessons consistently described by the speakers, to provide a perspective on what may be involved in bringing Health eGames into 2010 planning and beyond. (For a summary of the two-day event, along with the associated marketing implications of healthgames, see PharmExec guest blogs "The Next Frontier" and "Can Healthcare Games Change the Game of Healthcare?")

Gaming for Health: Five Factors

1. Games are not just for kids, or teenage boys, but are increasingly played by digital moms and 50+ consumers
2. Games enjoy broad penetration--in the US, 68% of households play computer or video games
3. America faces serious health issues that need extra attention e.g., diabetes, obesity, lack of adherence. Games can provide a fun and innovative way to reach new audiences.
4. Early success stories for health games suggest meaningful public health benefits. Four examples of health games with measurable clinical results are outlined in the PharmExec article.
5. Serious players are supporting the growth of health games, including health insurers such as Humana, and foundations like Robert Wood Johnson, Annenberg, Lance Armstrong and Sesame Workshop's Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Bring More to Your Brand's Arsenal

Games for health can provide many benefits to a brand-- from education and entertainment, to improving adherence or training (See Marketing Implications). As you plan for 2010 and beyond, consider these seven lessons for boosting health game development, as presented by this year's Games For Health Conference speakers:

• Focus on FUN--Keeping up the fun factor takes creativity and insight
• Provide relevant value through absolute clarity of the target, the desired customer experience, and the unique value proposition
• Personalize the experience wherever possible
• Keep it simple. Deliver a guided experience that is easy and doesn't make consumers have to think too much or work too hard.
• Think 24/7 experience. Consider many channels and platforms
• Maximize social interactions via sharing, support, and competition
• Keep metrics and measurement front-and-center

Healthcare games hold huge potential for the pharma industry, by both engaging consumers and improving health and brand outcomes--all in an interactive electronic format that will be an important part of consumers' lives for many years to come...

Games for Health may even represent pharma's chance to leapfrog Web 2.0 straight to Healthcare 3.0...Can you imagine?

What do you think?