Pharma companies around the world spend almost USD 70 billion on marketing activities. Marketing of drugs, devices, and therapies directly to doctors is critical for any Pharma or medical device company to increase their brand value, reach and ultimately the sales. But, calculating the effectiveness of marketing activities is very complex and consumes a lot of time. Then how can Marketers be 10 times more effective with Pharma Marketing?
Even though measuring the direct effectiveness of marketing is extremely difficult, measuring the brand growth is achievable. However, the Pharma companies in India are still quite focused on bottom-line and seem to have ignored brand-building. Building and developing a brand is both art and science and Pharma needs to shift its focus in building a brand, which ultimately results in growth in sales. Among the various marketing approaches, content marketing is undoubtedly the leader. The research conducted by Professors at Columbia Business School highlighted that content marketing performs much better than detailing and physician visits. It also brings a two-fold increase in marketing effectiveness and physician recognition than other marketing activities.
According to marketing experts, content marketing can easily bring about 37% increase in Pharma company’s brand value. With content marketing, doctors remember and relate with brand much easily. The relationship built and strengthen through content marketing has a very strong potential to establish Pharma companies as a thought leader. Perhaps, one more reason to take content marketing seriously.
Challenges in Maximizing Marketing Impact?
First and foremost, as we have discussed in the previous articles strategy plays a pivotal role in marketing effectiveness. A comprehensive strategy which includes market access plan, delivery modes and most importantly content can only bring about effectiveness in Pharma marketing.
Following are the most critical challenges Pharma marketers face:
- Access to the market: Traditionally, pharma marketers have been dependent on field force to reach out to doctors to educate and promote them about products. Majority are still placing all their bets on field force. Though in the recent times, many companies have started flaunting their technological advents, even though most of them can be used only after the field force can reach the doctors. A large number of pharma companies are still reluctant to think about the other ways to reach out to doctors and don’t have market access strategy. Pharma companies who do not think about market access strategy, fail to reach out to all the potential customers for their products. Market access strategy not only includes ‘who’ and ‘when’ to reach but also must focus on ‘how’ to deliver the marketing message to the right customers at a right time. Without a market access strategy, Pharma companies are not only missing the boat but are also at the risk of being irrelevant for the doctors.
- Traditional Marketing will Soon Fail to Deliver: Traditional marketing activities which focused on banners and advertising will soon fail to deliver. How many of you remember what’s written on the signboard outside your office? 1% may be. Bannering and advertising to doctors bring about the same results. Traditional detailing is losing its effectiveness since doctors have hundreds of “me too” choices at their disposal and a very little time. There is a need to think beyond traditional detailing and physician visits and think more about brand value creation to stay relevant.
- Regulations To Dictate Pharma Marketing Soon: In the Indian context, the UCPMP Act is set to be mandatory. This act will reduce the direct interactions between doctors and Pharma companies. After UCPMP Act is completely rolled out, the Pharma companies who have relied on their field force will have to find alternative channels and methods to market their products. Organizations who have not tapped alternative channels are set to suffer with their marketing activities.
How Marketers Can Maximize Impact of Marketing?
Many Pharma companies have not defined the goal of their marketing activities. For the ones who have done so, their marketing goals are often found to be focused on increasing the sales. Only a handful of Pharma companies have thought of building their brand and delivering their core message to doctors. Companies who define their end goal have much easier road to travel than who are entirely clueless.
- Tap the Most Relevant Channels: A smart-phone and communication revolution in the last decade has tremendously changed the how communication and messages are delivered. However, many Pharma companies still think that traditional face-to-face interactions are the only way to communicate marketing message to the doctors. Doctors are becoming technology savvy and only few Pharma companies have plans to tap the doctors on digital channels. Digital channels such as doctors’ professional platform offer a great opportunity for Pharma companies. The early entrants on these platforms get the best head-start and surely will establish them as pioneers and thought leaders among the doctors.
- Innovate and Invest in Top-Quality Content: Pharma companies have a huge repository of great clinical insights. However, in this digital age delivering them to doctors in traditional formats is not a good option. The attention span of the audience in this era has substantially reduced to about 5-10 minutes. That is why Pharma companies need to collaborate with partners who have tested the formats and content that works well with the doctors on digital devices. Short, summarized clinical takeaways are very helpful to the doctors, which are also effective for delivering the subtle marketing message along with insightful content.
- Create a Multi-Pronged Strategy: Digital channels like professional platforms of doctors such as Docplexus have great potential to reach out to doctors in a very short time. Mobile devices are most efficient in communicating, educating and marketing products as doctors can access and interact with the content at their convenience. Pharma companies must utilize these this channels and engage with the doctors proactively. Proactive interactions which are insightful and but are not intruding help Pharma companies to gain respect and trust to stay ahead in the market. The ones who use the same strategy of aggressive advertising and bannering without projecting the brand values will stay behind in the race.
How Docplexus Can Help in Maximizing Marketing Impact?
With over 2,00,000 registered doctors, Docplexus is well equipped to help Pharma companies to corners of India. Every month 6,000 doctors join Docplexus voluntarily and through referrals from their peers. Docplexus has already established itself as a trusted community where exclusive clinical discussions are held every second.
In order to reach out to doctors with different learning goals and clinical needs, Docplexus successfully conducts webinars with eminent KOLs on a range of topics. We have also conducted CMEs for doctors on burning topics such as diabetes.
For our partners, Docplexus provides an array of options to communicate their marketing message. Not only that, we also help our partners to analyze the change in the mindset of doctors due to marketing activities. A measurable outcome is the most important aspect that helps marketers to build new strategies.
