InPharm | Dominic Tyer
The
last few years have seen an explosion of interest in digital marketing in the
pharma sector, reflecting the wider revolution brought about by sites like
Facebook and Twitter, and mobile devices in the shape of smartphones and iPads. But has marketing to pharma’s core audience of healthcare professionals
really been revolutionised by digital media?
Beneath all the excitement and hype, the truth is that digital marketing
has not claimed a significant part of pharma’s marketing budgets. This isn’t to
say digital marketing hasn’t had a major impact, but neither has it become the
dominant medium for marketing to doctors some had predicted. In terms of how
much of the average marketing budget goes on digital, the total is surprisingly
low.
Consultants Across Health conducted an annual survey of the sector’s
digital landscape, seeking the views of nearly 200 European life sciences
executives.
Lookingat marketing excluding sales expenditure, the survey found around 7%
of the budget went on digital, with other estimates even lower at around 5 per
cent.
Talking to a handful of leaders in the field, the message is clear -
digital media has great potential to help pharma communicate with doctors and
other health professionals, but this potential is currently often untapped
because of a lack of understanding about how best to use it. Marketers need to
build up a more sophisticated understanding of digital media in order to
realise this potential.
Realistic expectations
“Digital is a core part of everything sales and marketing do,” says Alex
Butler, Johnson & Johnson’s EMEA marketing communications manager. “But that doesn’t mean it’s good enough to just do an e-detail or have a
tablet computer or a website to sell to people. We’re still at a stage where
there is some really good stuff that goes on, but we need to stop thinking and
talking about using ‘digital’ and talk instead about how we do it well. I think
that’s the major challenge,” he adds.
Another senior marketer put it bluntly, this love of new websites generally
sees marketers “waste a lot of money on websites that doctors don’t go to”.
The almost negligible 7% share of the marketing budget is surprising for
many reasons, not least because of the excitement about the possibilities
offered by the digital realm. So what are the reasons for this low uptake, and
will we ever see a greater shift towards digital marketing?
J&J’s Alex Butler says marketers are happy to embrace ‘digital media’ -
the real challenge is persuading them not to invest in the wrong kind of
projects.
For example, he says there remains a widespread assumption that a branded
website is needed to promote to the healthcare professionals. “I often ask - do we need a brand website - is that really appropriate? If
we’re going to use iPad for our sales materials, are we using iPads
appropriately? Is it networked and linked, does it work in real-time, are we
crowd-sourcing information, and are we doing it properly.”
Decision-makers
Digital decision-makers will typically be brand managers, with e-business
managers giving advice.
“In the most part digital decision-making still seems to sit with the
product managers and brand teams,” says Mark Prince, director of Binley’s
OnMedica and winner of the PM Society’s inaugural Digital Pioneer award in
2010.
Mark, a former product manager with Lundbeck, says decision-making is
maturing thanks to the growth of a multi-disciplinary approach in medium to
large firms. Some companies are now also adding influential digital ‘leads’ and
sometimes digital medical ‘leads’.
“These are often UK, European or even sometimes global positions. I believe
we will see many more of these ‘leads’ over the coming months and years,” says
Mark.
Ben Tilly is marketing channels manager at Sanofi UK. “The role here is
really about being an advocate of best practices. Making sure we’re offering an
integrated strategy and approach.”
Tilly says it has been a ‘tick-box’ exercise in the past, where a product
is launched and the first thing the market team think they need is a website.
The website would carry all the branding, but will ultimately never get
followed up, never get any visits and is ultimately a bit of a waste of money.
So the idea is to clearly move away from that approach.
“We tell the brand team: you can launch a website with your brand splashed
all over it, but at the end of the day, healthcare professionals are probably
going to know more about the drug than the reps will, they’re really not going
to learn anything from a website,” says Ben.
“You’ve really got to start thinking outside the box and thinking more
about the therapy area than the brand - that’s the way we’re going to influence
healthcare professionals, by being a company that can show itself an expert in
their field and can help to make their job better.” Gary Monk is UK managing
director at Across Health, a former product manager at Janssen and winner of
the PM Society’s second Digital Pioneer award. He says marketing decisions are
being moved away from individual territories.
“Much of pharma’s decision-making is being concentrated at regional
centres. This includes not only campaign planning but market research, strategy
and the development of digital tools & processes.” He says this trend helps
create a consistent approach to marketing, increases efficiency and ensures
best practice is applied.
But he adds: “The risks are the centre becoming too powerful and processes
too inflexible. For a brand manager at a regional or local level, a ‘novel’
approach may be identified that is outside the centre’s sphere of expertise.
There will be pressure on the brand manager to leave innovation to the centre
and not adopt the ‘new’ tactic. In my experience, a centralised approach is
good for embedding process but poor for innovation.” Is digital integrated into the marketing plan?
The answer it seems, is that digital is rarely truly integrated into the
plan. Asked if digital opportunities are in their budget and marketing planning
processes, 4% of respondents said ‘not at all’, 18% said ‘no, but it is
changing’, and 53% said “yes, this is the case for several brands”.
• Just 19% of respondents to the survey said they integrated digital into
the marketing for all their brands
• Some 26% of respondents include digital opportunities in their budget and
marketing planning processes for all their company’s brands.
So how are marketers deciding which elements of the marketing mix to use
for their brands? Mark Prince singles out budget and reach as important considerations
when weighing up the relative merits of different media.
He says: “Pharma budgets are being squeezed and cost-effectiveness seems
more important than ever. In many circumstances, digital initiatives can
provide a cost-effective alternative to more traditional marketing with
detailed and timely metrics. However, it should be noted that the most
effective campaigns are likely to be those that involve multiple integrated
channels.”
He says doubts remains over using social media to communicate with doctors
and whether, from a strictly business perspective, it will actually increase
sales and profits. He adds: “The most popular uses of digital are in mobile,
e-details and elements that help to build relationships with healthcare
professionals.”
For Across Health’s Gary Monk, decision-making should be customer centric,
and seek the best channels to meet healthcare professional and patient needs,
and business objectives. But he notes this is often not the case.
“In reality often the decision is based on comfort and experience with a
traditional approach. The issue is that pharma have tried digital most
significantly, i.e. websites, the yield has been so poor, it then generates
dissatisfaction and subsequently produces a mantra of “we have tried digital and
it does not work”.
He says a trial and error approach is common, “with the emphasis on error,
rather than evidence-based decisions”.
Measuring success
If digital marketing is to flourish, it must ultimately contribute to the
bottom line.
This means digital has to stand up to scrutiny about how it measures up
against the more traditional elements of the marketing mix.
Sanofi’s Ben Tilly says: “As a central team of excellence, we can only give
as much guidance and have as much influence as they [our marketers] want to
listen to. We present them with some pretty harsh facts and statistics based on
research we’ve done and the way we’ve identified doctors’ and healthcare
professionals needs.
“In the past we would have sat round a table, looking at a couple of examples
of a website or an email campaign, and make some spurious assumptions without
really putting any hard evidence behind those.”
Ben Tilly adds: “My approach is to conduct in-depth research - have some
time with healthcare professionals and really understand their behaviours and
how they’re interacting with pharmaceutical companies on a daily basis, what
their perceptions are of reps, websites, etc. Pharma marketers tend to stick
with what works and, given that there’s no new money coming into budgets as
belts are tightened in accounting departments across pharma, so they’re fearful
of taking money out of one area to put it into digital.
“It would also be pointless to invest in digital that doesn’t work, or is
not aligned to your strategy. So doing something like a new Facebook page, for
its own sake, is a waste of time.”
Mark Prince: “Pharma has learnt to speak the language of digital, but it
still lacks understanding of how it can fit with brand objectives.” Pharma
marketers now generally understand that any digital project (especially online)
is only going to be as successful as the number of customers that engage with
it.
“However, there is then a risk that this becomes a numbers game focusing on
unique visitors or interactions.”
Engaging your audience
In reality, engagement is often far more important, and decision-makers
need to understand how much engagement they need to achieve their objectives
and make sure this is included in their measurements. ‘Dwell times’ and minutes
on message are often overlooked as metrics, but are amongst the most important.
“Most pharma companies would not launch a new sales aid or marketing
campaign without following up with a Detail Follow Up (DFU) but how many
commission a DFU to follow up on digital campaigns?” Mark adds: “We need to
remember that it’s not just about the numbers, but also about the quality of
engagement. Sometimes less is more!”
Gary Monk: “This is where a centralised process can help to align the
business around digital and integrating it into the marketing mix. Best
practice can be shared and processes set up for things like tablet detailing,
virtual rep etc. It is important the centre listens and gathers best practice
in each market rather than just pushing out a rigid ‘one size’ approach.”
He concludes: “We’re at an in- between stage with digital marketing. It is
now seen as part of the marketing mix, but companies are struggling to
integrate it. To do this there’s a need for up-skilling and a common approach
within companies.”
DIGITAL DO’S AND DON’TS
• Don’t build a website without good reason
• Don’t assume iPads or the latest gadgets are the answer
• Don’t assume you know what your audience wants without asking them
first
• Don’t think you have to use Facebook, just because it’s there
• Don’t ignore engagement metrics
• Do think outside the box
• Do look at the therapy area rather than the brand
• Do seek advice from your company’s ‘digital lead’
• Do look for best practice across your company
• Do make evidence-based decisions
Dominic Tyer is web
editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma
blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.