PRforPharma

Discussions about social media, PR and marketing for pharmaceutical companies

Posts Tagged ‘Pharmaceutical marketing’

Can Online and Offline Relationship Building Influence the Pharma Acquisition Price?

August 11th, 2010

By now you’ve heard that Genzyme is in the midst of heated discussions with several pharmaceutical heavyweights to be acquired—a list that is headed by sanofi-aventis. While perhaps a popular decision amongst investors, this looming acquisition is not welcome news to everyone. This past Sunday, the Boston Globe ran a piece that highlights patient uneasiness with an acquisition of Genzyme.

In many cases, patients are oblivious to what company supplies their prescription. What makes Genzyme so different that the mere thought of an acquisition has patients expressing concern? Is it the drugs the company manufacturers for rare disorders? Partly. But this alone is not enough to stir up fears in the minds of patients. If and when an acquisition does happen, the medication will still be offered. The real reason patients taking Genzyme drugs are concerned is summed up in one word—relationships.

The Globe story is peppered with personal anecdotes of patients that have formed long-lasting relationships with the company. This type of commitment ranged from personal phone calls from the CEO, Henri Termeer, to personal case managers for each patient to the ability of the company to connect patients with other patients suffering from the same ailment. With competitive products just now entering the market from the likes of Shire Pharmaceuticals, this is what keeps patients loyal to Genzyme.

There is little doubt that this patient loyalty adds to the attractiveness of Genzyme as an acquisition target. So what should companies like sanofi make of the jitters being expressed by patients?

For starters, this developing storyline highlights the importance of relationship building. Patients no longer hope for a relationship with the pharmaceutical company—they expect it. Pharmaceutical companies need to be evaluating all facets of their business to determine how they interact with the patient. Transactional relationships are fleeting—relationships built on trust and commitment are not. Pharma companies need to stop thinking about their customers as “consumers” and start thinking about them as patients.

Before any company moves forward with an acquisition of Genzyme, they better have a clear plan outlined on how to maintain the relationships that are the core of Genzyme’s business. Some patients have already expressed a willingness to move to competitive products if that relationship is damaged. This would take a huge chunk out of the benefits of acquiring Genzyme. Consider that for a second. We’ve talked a lot about patients driving health decisions, but what about them driving acquisition decisions.

Is that a bit of hyperbole? Maybe, but just a little. Patients demand relationships with pharmaceutical companies—online through social media and offline. The companies that excel at forming those relationships will attract more loyal customers, create better health outcomes and ultimately add to the bottom line. This is where the pharmaceutical business is headed.

9 comments »

Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Genzyme acquisition Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media sanofi-aventis

The Pharmaceutical Social Media Oath

August 4th, 2010

Raise your right hand and repeat after me:

I (Insert name here of pharmaceutical marketing executive) do solemnly swear to focus on the patient first in all my social media efforts.

I will ignore the desire to chase shiny objects, will not refer to Facebook as a strategy and will focus on setting a clear social media strategy before putting a finger to a keyboard.

All key stakeholders across the company regardless of department will be involved from the onset of a social media engagement (yes this means legal, regulatory and IT).

I promise to spend time listening to the social media communities I intend to engage with before I make assumptions on what they want. I will commit to always representing myself and my company in an ethical, authentic and honest manner.

When offering content or having discussions on social media platforms, I will not resort to promotional messages and will instead aim to offer educational and helpful resources. I will not merely use social media as a megaphone to shout messages to the masses. Rather, I will seek to engage in a dialogue on a one-to-one basis whenever possible.

I will expect a crisis to occur and when it does, I will avoid knee-jerk reactions such as shutting down all social media channels. There will be a crisis communications plan in place even when regulations limit what I can say. I will let patients know that they have been heard and offer alternative ways to get information.

When I receive criticism via social media they will not be discarded as some rogue, disgruntled individual. They will be considered carefully and remediation will be taken when warranted.

I will insist on social media measurement but not blindly demand ROI without a true understanding of what ROI is—a lagging indicator. When I measure social media, it will be with a more sophisticated set of metrics tied directly back to my original strategy (see sentence two).

Above all else, I will make helping the patient my central goal and will walk away entirely if that ever changes.

17 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Taking on Too Much Too Fast in Pharmaceutical Social Media

August 3rd, 2010

When work commences on a pharmaceutical social media proposal, the immediate inclination is to jam the plan chock full of everything that can be done. You want your creativity to shine through and the potential of social media to be clear. To achieve this goal every crazy idea that crosses your mind finds its way into the plan.

Considering what can be done is important. It provides you with a benchmark for future program ideas and allows for the type of big-picture thinking that is needed to move social media forward. But a word of caution: focus first on what can realistically be done.

It has become abundantly clear to me the more I talk to companies interested in moving forward in social media that an all or nothing approach will more often end in the “nothing” part of the equation. These types of proposals scare of pharma marketers that are still surveying the scene. Rather than excitement the result is trepidation.

Instead of throwing out Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, mobile apps, augmented reality, Foursquare and any other social media idea you can dream up—why not go back to the basics? Start with listening by a well thought out social media monitoring program. During the course of this program, you will get a feel for what your community is lacking, what your opportunity to add value might be and what the rules for engagement are. This is invaluable information as you dive deeper into social media. A good social media monitoring program will tell you where to focus and what to contribute.

As I’ve advocated for in the past, there is a case to be made for social media in stages and on a budget. It allows the building blocks to be put in place before going full steam ahead. Taking on everything at once is akin to throwing the roof on a house before the frame is up—it’s bound to come crashing down.

The “big” ideas should not be ignored nor should they be left out of plans entirely. But aren’t we better served focusing on what can realistically be done before focusing all our energy on what can be done in a perfect world? Because I have news for you, it ain’t a perfect world out there.

9 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Social media for pharma

Content Creation: Where Pharma Social Media Goes to Die

July 8th, 2010

Congrats! You’ve decided to embark on a pharmaceutical social media odyssey. It will be a rewarding endeavor. You’ve done everything right up until this point: focused on the Return on Health of the patient, set your pharma social media strategy, outlined a crisis communications plan and hired a pharma social media agency. You are ready to go.

For the first few weeks everything is humming along like a well-oiled machine. You engage regularly via Twitter, have quickly cultivated a base of patients on Facebook and have managed to churn out several blog posts. Everything was going swimmingly as enthusiasm ran high. But slowly, something changed. The pace of followers decreased, posts don’t seem to come to life as readily and your Twitter engagement gets pushed to the backburner as that budget meeting looms.

What happened?

Your pharma social media strategy met the fate of many that have gone before it—a lack of content creation. What started out well-intentioned and maybe even well-planned met its match. Content creation: where pharma social media goes to die.

Social media programs often start out with the best intentions. But what many people fail to realize is that social media is difficult. It takes dedication. It takes time and it takes internal resources. It’s not as simple as simple as throwing up a couple of random 140 character thoughts every once in a while.

Content creation is a long slog. Before you make the commitment to social media, survey the content you already have in house. If you have a vault of videos that have gone untouched, that might be a good place to start. Do you have an internal newsletter that might transition well to an external blog? Think about using that as part of your content creation strategy. And as rudimentary as it sounds, consider creating an editorial calendar to outline predefined topics for blog posts and assign authors. This will create some accountability at the outset. Eventually, you won’t need the calendar as a set of people will become engaged and motivated to post on their own. But that won’t happen overnight and creating some urgency through a set timeline of posts will keep momentum moving forward.

Content creation is in many respects the linchpin of social media engagement. It is a wonder then that it often spells the demise of many efforts.

9 comments »

Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Failing to Empower the Empowered Patient

July 7th, 2010

A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to have dinner with a bevy of social media powerhouses including: Marc Monseau of Johnson and Johnson, Laurie Edwards, Jack Barrette from WEGO Health, Shwen Gwee from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Paul Levy from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, e-Patient Dave deBronkart and Alicia Staley. As you can see, this was the type of conversation that does not happen frequently enough—a melting pot of patients, pharma people, hospital executives and agency wonks. The conversation ranged from new babies, to babies on the way, to social media strategy, to the challenges of searching for information on rare diseases. But what stood out to me the most during the course of the conversation resulted in both satisfaction and frustration. The Holy Grail for pharma social media remains empowering the patient.

That was a satisfying piece of information in the sense that I’ve long trumpeted the need for social media strategies focused on the Return on Health of the patient. It’s always nice to affirm that you are not crazy. It was frustrating because what I heard from the table was it was a need mostly going unmet. What became apparent to me during our dinner was that this is not a problem that can be solved by pharmaceutical companies in isolation. Just like pharmaceutical social media engagement should not take place in a vacuum, creating a healthcare system where the patient is empowered to play a larger role in the decision-making process requires systems thinking.

Pharmaceutical companies can lead the charge in part because of their unique access to information but also because of their substantial sphere of influence. Pharmaceutical companies have access to the best information available on treatment options, dealing with side effects and current research. Like it or not, they also have pull on capital hill, with insurance providers, in the doctor’s office and with the patient. Pharmaceutical companies must serve as the catalyst to empowering the patient.

But the process can’t stop there. As agency people, we tend to focus our energies on swaying the folks that write the checks. In order to truly empower the patient, we need to broaden our field of vision. How can we expect the empowered patient to achieve a good outcome when doctors are incentivized to see more patients and not spend more time with patients? What good is an empowered patient if she can’t find information on the latest clinical trials on her rare disease because search algorithms do not lend themselves to uncovering that information? What’s the use of an empowered patient if doctors are not trained to take input?

I admit I am raising a problem far too complex for me to solve—something that requires brains far smarter than mine. But I am smart enough to realize that pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media alone will not empower the patient—we need the collaboration of lawmakers, insurance providers, hospitals, doctors and patients.

Even with this complexity, it all centers on the patient.

13 comments »

Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media PR for pharma Return on Health

A Culture of Nitpickers

June 25th, 2010

I recently watched a video on the kitchen-gadget company Oxo. While you may not expect it at first glance, Oxo is widely regarded as a world-class product design organization. It’s the kind of company that routinely thinks of ideas of the: “why the heck didn’t I think of that variety?” The video was on the company’s design philosophy and had a quote that struck me as particularly interesting: “We are a culture of nitpickers; we have to be to get it right.”

The idea behind the nitpicking philosophy is that every product-design decision is put through a firing squad of questioning. Only if you try to poke holes in your own concept will you ultimately create the best product possible—no detail is too small. Of course, most people when pressed would say they loathe working with nitpickers. They slow down the process, obsess over small details and can’t see the big picture are the common complaints. But in pharmaceutical social media, a healthy does of nitpicking might be just what the doctor ordered.

Let me explain. Ask a pharmaceutical executive to describe a typical social media person and you will get something that describes a person long on creative juices but short on strategy and project management skills. This results in an abundance of “big ideas” with little idea of how to implement those ideas or the business drivers that make that a reasonable course of action. This creates false promises and failed programs.

A culture of nitpickers would approach this process differently. Once a big idea is pinpointed, the next question is: “does this make sense given the goals we have (presumably) outlined?” This would be followed by a series of detail-oriented questions that delve into the minutia of a social media engagement. Should we allow comments? If so, should they be pre-approved or in real time? What will the terms of engagement be? What are grounds for deleting a comment? How will we handle adverse events or a disgruntled patient? You get the picture.

Creating a culture of nitpickers is not about stifling innovation—just ask Steve Jobs. Jobs is the Grand Poobah of nitpicking and few would accuse Apple of a lack of innovation. It’s about marrying the “big ideas” with the “little details.” Pharmaceutical social media is too often happening with only big ideas and no concern for the details. Maybe it’s time we start acting like the company that invented rubber-handled potato peelers and become a culture of nitpickers.

10 comments »

Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media

Pharmaceutical Companies Among the Least Liked on Facebook

June 23rd, 2010

According to research from Hubspot, pharmaceutical companies are among a group of the least liked industries on Facebook. Hubspot has evaluated a dataset of 500,000 Facebook groups and come up with an average fan base of 624. The pharmaceutical portion of that dataset looks to have (the exact number is not provided) an average fan base of 550-575—slightly below average.

These numbers are all well and good but my question is this: should we be judging social media success purely on the ability to amass a large following?

For the record, Hubspot makes no such implications in the post outlining the data, and instead merely presents the empirical data it has found. But much of the chatter I’ve seen thus far in the dreaded pharma social media echo chamber uses this data to bemoan the lack of success pharmaceutical companies have had on Facebook. Blindly interpreting data as a benchmark for success is a futile exercise.

For starters, did anyone actually expect the pharmaceutical industry to be higher than average when it comes to the fan base it has accumulated? We are talking about an industry that is fighting long-held distrust, strict regulations and sensitive topics. The hill is a bit steeper for healthcare companies than it is for the movie industry (the most liked industry according to a separate post). Frankly, I’m a bit surprised that the pharma industry is that close to average.

The more important issue at hand is the idea that Facebook fans is an accurate measure of success in social media—particularly pharma social media. I don’t buy that. It should be part of the equation but it provides only a small glimpse into the success of your social media strategy. In the pharmaceutical industry, we should be taking a closer look at the level of engagement of your established fan base, whether it is trending up or down and how active and vocal that community is. These are all a blend of objective and subjective measures but provide a far more accurate picture of social media success.

The empirical data presented by Hubspot is useful in that it provides a top-level sense of the interest in pharmaceutical social media engagement. What it does not evaluate is how long the group has been established, what purpose it intends to serve, what benchmark for success has been determined and how active the group itself is. These are all critical factors in evaluating success in pharma social media.

12 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharma on Facebook Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Who Owns Pharma Social Media? Who Cares?

June 15th, 2010

Back in December, I wrote a post centered on the social media land grab. This is what it boiled down to: agencies have recognized that social media presents an opportunity to add a revenue stream. Of course, agencies always follow the money and suddenly everyone was looking to grab a piece of the proverbial pie. It didn’t matter if you were a branding shop, a digital agency, an ad agency or a PR agency—everyone had a story as to why they were best suited for social media.

Unfortunately, that conversation has continued unabated seven months later. Debate is running rampant on who owns social media. But my question is: who cares?

The constant debate about who owns pharmaceutical social media is not only useless chatter; it’s detrimental to the industry. While an ad guy is selling a campaign concept and a PR guy is selling the idea of building a reputation—the pharma marketer is left scratching their head. We often counsel our clients on clarity and consistency of message yet we muddy the process for the very people we are trying to convince. I may not have learned much in school but one thing I do know is that confusing the buyer is not a recommended selling tactic.

So to all my cohorts out there on the agency side, who are we trying to convince—ourselves or the prospect?

Instead of making a decision based on the type of agency you are considering, I would encourage pharma marketers to focus on a different set of criteria. Ask questions that cover:

What is your process for setting strategy?
What is the most compelling reason for us to be involved in social media?
How will you handle a crisis communications situation online?
What is the goal of our engagement on social media?
How will you help me identify, create and extend the value of my content?
How will you identify the appropriate audiences for me to engage with?
How will you measure success during an engagement?
What departments do you plan on getting involved internally (i.e. legal, IT, etc.)?

These types of questions and many more will provide you with better insight on the right social media partner. It might be a digital agency, or it might be an agency like mine. But if the debate continually focuses on who owns social media—they are not right for the job.

12 comments »

Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media PR for pharma

Pharmaceutical Call Centers: A Path to Social Media Success

April 27th, 2010

Much of the pharmaceutical social media conversation has focused on the need for change from the market tactics of yesteryear. The argument goes something like this: “agree or disagree, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most distrusted and its public perception is overwhelmingly negative. Why? Fair or unfair, many point the finger at the barrage of DTC ads as a sore point.” Using that logic, the strategy tends to be something to the effect of “change everything.”

It’s not all wrong. I for one have been a proponent of pharmaceutical social media as a step in the evolution of the industry’s marketing. No doubt, the pharmaceutical marketing has been evolving over the years to fit better with a business less focused on blockbuster drugs and mass markets and more concerned with areas of high unmet needs and building relationships. So by all means, move forward with radical changes to the way you form marketing strategy, but don’t disregard your past entirely—you might miss a crucial lesson.

Today, Wendy Blackburn from InTouch Solutions reposted an article that she authored (originally ran in Med Ad News) focused on how pharmaceutical companies can take a more customer-centric approach to marketing (similar to my Return on Health concept). Within that post, Wendy briefly mentions an interesting point: “patient support call centers have been around a long time. What’s so difficult about duplicating that experience online? Why not empower a corporate spokesperson to speak online on behalf of your company and your brand?”

This is an example I’ve used on occasion before: if pharmaceutical companies can trust call center employees to handle patient support functions, why can’t they replicate that process for an online team? There are really only two (honest) answers to this question. The first is that online platforms expose the companies to added risk and exposure to the FDA. The issues are the same as what might be handled in a call center but when dealt with in a public manner, the feeling is that companies are being watched. Call centers don’t face that challenge. Second is a problem of scale. Call centers provide a finite and defined environment. The company can control (to some extent) the calls it takes in a day, the hours it receives calls and the process for responding. The real-time nature of the Web makes this level of control impossible. That’s really about it: too much scrutiny and not enough resources.

Yet, people tend to ignore examples of the past even if they have worked. Call centers have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the most part. So here is what it comes down to: do you trust your call center employees more than your communications manager?

12 comments »

Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical Call Centers Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Notice to Pharmaceutical Marketers: Facebook and Twitter are Not Social Media

April 26th, 2010

I’ve said this a few times before; but I think it’s worth repeating based on a number of conversations I’ve recently had with pharmaceutical marketers. Here it goes: Facebook, Twitter and blogs are not social media. I repeat, just because you throw up a Facebook page does not mean you have a social media presence.

A Facebook page without interaction is nothing more than a Website. A Twitter handle without engagement equates to an RSS Feed and a blog without open commentary may as well be a company newsletter. The point? Social comes first in social media for a reason. Far too many pharmaceutical companies focus on the latter and ignore the former. The results can be disastrous in an age when executives are demanding quantifiable ROI and quick results.

The most value that healthcare companies can be derived from social media stems from connecting directly with customers (in the case of pharmaceutical companies: patients, doctors, healthcare providers, insurance providers, etc…). This is where you will hear invaluable feedback on your product or brand, come to intimately understand the decision-making process for requesting a certain prescription, learn the types of information most valuable to the patient and earn the type of trust that creates loyal brand advocates. Anything short of that is marketing as usual.

Sure, there are some additional benefits to establishing a presence on social media channels that can be achieved without being truly social such as search engine juice. If you churn out enough content focused on the term “cancer research” you will probably rank higher in search results. But what about all the other content organizations are churning out on the same topic? Are you present in those conversations? If not, you are missing an opportunity to extend your social media presence, provide simplified access to information and establish a new relationship with your company. There are important touchpoints outside of your own social media presence that should not be ignored.

As a social media marketer, focusing on the tools perpetuates the myth that this is just a fad and purely tactical in nature. Fads do not get a sizable portion of the marketing budget and tend to fizzle out in due time. My advice: stop focusing on the “media” and start worrying about the social.

12 comments »

Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Facebook for Pharmaceutical Companies Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Twitter for Pharmaceutical Companies