Pharma Marketers Battle New Challenges In This Mobile Information Age

Marketers are battling a new dilemma against the changing methods of information. In the high-paced world of technology, maintaining a meaningful presence will ask for unfamiliar methods to stay relevant, and pharmaceutical marketers are feeling this challenge the most.  Technology has evolved to provide almost all the information a doctor or patient would want to know, when they want it, from wherever they are. This includes drug information, treatment options, condition research and more, all from their mobile phones or tablet PCs. MediaPost has narrowed down the key questions being asked by the pharma marketers in the confusion:

• How can I earn the physicians’ attention and trust?
• What distinctively practical information, tools and resources can I offer in support of my products?
• How do I leverage our current understanding of treatment adherence to develop programs that patients/consumers will accept, embrace, and follow over time?
• How do I cast a sufficiently “wide net” to attract an audience — consumer or professional — while staying within the boundaries of labeling?

There are no simple answers to these questions, but a new perspective can be taken for advancing on.  Here’s what MediaPost recommends:

• Assessing the competition: What level of quality and what type of responsiveness have doctors and patients become accustomed to in the digital domain? (Note: Pharma companies now compete with not only other pharma companies, but with the likes of Google, Amazon, Dell and Up-to-Date.)

• Making learning fun: Can we redesign promotional medical education as an enjoyable game for doctors and consumers — something they enjoy and seek out, rather than tolerate?

• Reaching the point of care: Can brand marketers provide value-added mobile tools that speed delivery of relevant information about their products to the point of care, for doctors, or to the point of use or healthcare decision-making, for consumers?

• Enhanced services: Can we provide better service to clinicians when they have pointed questions about our products? For example: can we restructure, streamline, and simplify the point of contact between clinicians and medical affairs departments that support specific brands?

• Communicating differently: What is out there — or what is in development — that would elevate brand marketing from simple reach-and-frequency efforts to greater relevance in the context of clinical care (for physicians) and health maintenance (for patients). Are there new forms of information architecture, of real-time opinion gathering and sharing, of motion media design, of epidemiologic or behavior trend detection and reporting? Do any of these advanced communications tools merit exploration in the context of product marketing?

Changing how we present our information is the greatest task within the strict rules of pharma marketing. Being cautious, not afraid, of these constraints can lead to a successful adaptation with the new world.

Related posts:

1. Consumers Rely More on Social Media. Marketers Beware.
2. Trends for Mobile Applications (and their stores)
3. Physicians and Specialists Adopting Digital and Mobile in Record Numbers
4. How Healthcare can Benefit from Mobile and mHealth
5. Google Chrome Web Store Announcement (and what it means for marketers)