In today's highly integrated marketing environment, more and more marketers are developing their own custom content as part of their advertising and marketing programs.  According to Junta42, "business marketers are allocating almost 30% of their marketing budgets toward the creation and execution of customized content.  In 2008, 42% of marketers said they would increase their content marketing budget."

Custom content is becoming more of the norm across many verticals, including the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device arenas.  Consumers are looking for helpful, educational information about conditions affecting them or a loved one.  Marketers have begun to embrace this need for information, and are now providing educational content online via websites, RSS feeds, emails, blogs and videos, and offline via direct mail, doctor office booklets, and many other formats.

As with any marketing, we must start with the target audience: Who are they?  What do they need?  What do they want?  How do they want to be communicated with?  In the pharmaceutical and medical device space, consumers have become extremely leery of information provided by the industry.  Thus, it is increasingly important to provide content that has immediate relevance and that clearly shows the origination of information.  For example, providing references at the end of an article can make a major difference to the untrusting consumer eye.

Different stages of the audience life cycle can also affect the type and placement of developed content.

Continue reading "Custom Content" »

Posted by Ed Feather at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pharmaceutical companies in America spend the majority of their marketing dollars on sales reps, sales materials and free samples of drugs for the doctors' offices.  However, less than a third of all sales-visits result in an interaction with the doctor, and those that do, on average, last for less than 30 seconds.  This means that conversations that do happen are less and less meaningful to the doctor and end up more as a delivery of free stuff.

One effective way that sales reps do get to meet with doctors is with a "free lunch." While some see this as a conflict of interest , others see it as a highly beneficial method for sales reps and doctors to discuss the current drug details, research and other important information.

Since these meetings do happen, pharmaceutical companies should take advantage of these opportunities to provide doctors with truly educational tools that will help them in their interaction with patients.  Yes, an update on the product label to show the current marketing message, or comparison with competition is fine, but something more substantial and meaningful will go a lot further. 

And, while materials produced by pharmaceutical companies are generally biased, with the purpose to sell, it is possible to develop highly educational materials for patients that provide a lot of very good and very helpful information.

Sales reps need to be trained to understand the current consumer marketing campaigns and tie-ins with physician marketing pieces, so they can help doctors understand what patients are hearing and what they will ask.

When reps are not able to meet with doctors they often leave branded brochures and tchotchkes such as mouse pads, pens, pads of paper, medical models, tissue boxes, etc.  These can be a great way to keep the name of a product top-of-mind with the doctor – assuming the doctor and his/her staff want them.  Some, such as educational models, can be very helpful for doctors.  But, tchotchkes can also cause problems.

Continue reading "Do Doctors Listen to Sales Reps?" »

Posted by Ed Feather at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Patrick Clinton, Editor-in-Chief of Pharmaceutical Executive magazine, uses the terms “the Vioxx moment” and “the Avandia moment” in his September 2007 “From the Editor” column. He describes these as “the moment when a safety signal has been detected on a drug, and no one yet knows for certain whether it is real or not – the moment when pharma companies and FDA alike set themselves up for a kick in the teeth.”  In other words, do we tell people that someone died while taking our drug, or should we wait to see if anyone else dies?

Obviously, when a drug makes the body more likely to have a heart attack, disclosure is imperative – up front – so patients and doctors can discuss and weigh the risks of drugs, disease and other life issues they already face.  Some drugs treat serious, life-threatening diseases, but also have potentially serious side effects.  For some patients these drugs should never be used.  For others, those same drugs are a godsend because the patient would otherwise have had no chance at all of survival.

I worked with GSK a number of years ago to market Avandia, a drug that treats certain symptoms of type 2 diabetes. We were very careful to include all of the important risk information in the marketing pieces we created.  Our direct mail packages were large fulfillment mailers designed to provide patients with more information about Avandia, including all of the FDA-approved important safety information – with several points about heart failure as a possible side effect.

At the time, I felt very good about marketing a product like Avandia, because I believed that it was providing a vital benefit to many people with type 2 diabetes who could not control their blood sugar through other options.  Today, after the addition of a black-box warning to the Avandia packaging, I still believe that the drug is right for some patients and not right for others.  As always, that is for the doctors to decide.

As marketers, it is our responsibility to ensure we do everything we can to be truthful. While the goal is to sell more product, it should not be at the cost of public faith in medicine, nor at the cost of lives.  We must ensure that we include ALL of the safety information in a clear format that everyone can understand.

Print and online media generally afford the space for longer disclosures of safety information.  But with TV we may find ourselves foolishly searching for ways to shorten the fair balance while staying within FDA regulations.  In the end, if the safety information is not clear, and someone misses an important, life-changing piece of information, you have failed.

My advice: stick with integrity.  Do it right the first time.  Continue to elevate a positive profile for the pharmaceutical industry.  And help healthcare providers, and their patients, make the right medical decisions based on ALL of the necessary information.

Posted by Ed Feather at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to the PEW Internet & American Life Project 80% of American Internet users have searched for health information on the web.  Most start at a general search engine to find health information, but eventually narrow their search to a health portal or a disease specific site.  Finding health information on the web is easy, but finding the RIGHT information, and information that can be trusted or easily understood is another story.

According to the American Academy of Physicians (AAP) there are now more than 24,000 medications on the market, and many have Websites with reams of product and disease information.  Combine this with the many health portals such as WebMD.com, CDC.gov and MayoClinic.com, and consumers often have more information than they can handle.  This means drug marketers need to be more and more careful about the information they provide online and how it is presented.  Is it enough?  Is it too much?  Is it easy for the target audience to find the Website, read the information and to understand it?

Continue reading "Making Medical Marketing a Little Easier to Understand" »

Posted by Ed Feather at 05:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As a general rule of thumb the more complex the technology and the more expensive the investment, the more players that are involved in the decision making process.  Not many companies empower one person (or even department) with exclusive decision and purchasing authority.

What does this mean for marketers who are trying to influence this long and complex decision?  First, you need to understand the people involved in the decision and each of their roles’ in the process.  Talk to your sales team, talk to your customers, utilize syndicated research (Marketing Sherpa’s Business Technology Marketing Benchmark is a great resource), sponsor a brief survey…find out what your up against, find out what makes them tick. 

For example:

• Senior staff may be charged with the brunt of the groundwork – researching the solutions available to solve their problem.  How do the solutions interact with legacy systems?  These folks may be more impressed with the technology than others.  They want to understand how your solution will improve their life (and I don’t mean personal life)…

• The CIO on the other hand, will be more concerned with how the solution advances the business goals of the organization.  Marketing Sherpa notes that in many cases they’ve seen the CIO come in at the last minute and often overrules a senior staffers recommendation.

Once you understand who they are, then you can develop targeted communications that address each of their individual needs.  This can mean slight tweaks in messaging as well as the offer.  Test and refine, test and refine.

Increasing awareness across all individuals involved in the decision making process (combined with a solid solution) will increase your sales. Try encouraging dialogue between the involved parties – incorporate refer a colleague functionality in to your communications.  Give the decision makers and influencers something to talk about.

And test and refine, test and refine.

Posted by Kara Tierney at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When you go out to the movies, do you go to watch advertising? Do you go to learn about diseases? Or do you go to be entertained? I’ve loved going to the movies since I was a kid, but the experience has really gone downhill over the years with the high costs of tickets and snacks, and fewer and fewer films that are worth paying to see.

The short ads that play before movies begin can be entertaining, as they often fill the time when people are still getting popcorn or finding seats.  But in the near future, if you visit theatres in select cities, you will be able to experience a 58 minute long pharmaceutical ad/disease awareness documentary.

Continue reading "Another Reason To Skip The Movies" »

Posted by Ed Feather at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How to Better Communicate the Benefits of Your Bioproduct

Biotechnology is coming of age. There are well over 200 medicines and related products created from biotech techniques currently available, and FDA approval of biotech drugs is expected to outpace pharma approvals over the next few years.

However, as biotech companies move from R&D-focused activity to commercialization, they will be challenged to make the transition from successful developers to successful marketers. A key factor in their success will be clearly communicating the benefits of emerging classes of biological drugs, such as Mabs and multikinase inhibitors that target causes or pathways of disease. Their stories can be more complex than the traditional pharmaceutical model of how a particular chemical addresses certain symptoms.

Clear, consistent communication helps build a sustainable brand for a product—a brand promise that has staying power in a volatile marketplace. There are certain steps biotech firms can take to make the benefits of their products readily understood and embraced.

Continue reading "Making the Complex Simple" »

Posted by Michelle Boudreau at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the ultimate mind bend – here’s a special report on whitepapers?  Okay it’s called a “special report” but you and I know this is a whitepaper on whitepapers.  Does this signify a cosmic event? The end of the universe as the comedian Louis Black would lead you to believe because there’s a Starbucks on all four corners of an intersection?

No, it reinforces the value of whitepapers and the need to write a good one in order to stand out in the sea of whitepapers. They are valuable content in the technology industry – particularly when a prospect is in decision making or buying stages.  Here are three tips to help increase downloads, content, and pass along and separate your paper from the masses.

1. A smart title. Keep it to the point (not funny or trite).  Try testing whitepapers names to see which receives more downloads.  Michael Stelzner author of the book “Writing Whitepapers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged” and founder of www.whitepapersource.com suggests trying numbers in titles.  For example, “Ten things you need to know about compliance”.  The title is one of the most important factors on whether your paper is read, not an afterthought or something that should be left to a technical writer.
2. Keep it short and relevant.  While a short whitepaper sounds like a contradiction, we all know how hard it is to find the time to read a 25-page paper.   Instead try 4-6 pages and make it’s direct and easy to scan online.
3. Use key words. Using the right key words in your abstract/paper summary will help ensure your paper can be found via search engines and within your site.  You wrote this great content – you want it to be easy to find and determine whether it’s relevant for them.

Keep in mind that whitepapers are a valuable marketing tool and should be given the same attention and care that a high profile ad campaign warrants.

Posted by Kara Tierney at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The pharmaceutical industry continues to have major concerns about potential future tightening of FDA regulations, specifically around direct to consumer advertising (DTC) for prescription medications. While there are some politicians who would like to see DTC advertising disappear, this type of regulation would be devastating to the pharmaceutical industry and to the consumers who currently receive a huge benefit in disease awareness education through DTC advertising.

The pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to confront the issues they face with congress. While there are no quick answers to the outcomes of political process, I think the pharmaceutical industry can continue to improve its position with congress and with consumers by doing more to show that the industry truly cares about the people who use its products.

Continue reading "Super Bowl Launches Future of DTC Advertising" »

Posted by Ed Feather at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)