The challenge of marketing against social media grows.

A recent study by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost show brand perceptions and purchase decisions for 38 million in the U.S. are now influenced by social media. The study reported high levels of influence:

• 23.1 million discover new brands or products through social media (up 22% from 2010)
• 22.5 million use social media to learn about unfamiliar brands or products (up 9%)
• 17.8 million are strongly influenced in their purchase decisions by opinions in social media (up 19%)
• 15.1 million refer to social media before making purchase decisions (up 29%)

There’s also been an increase in the number of consumers accessing their social media accounts via their mobile phones. As noted by Chuck Martin, Director of the Center for Media Research at MediaPost Communications, “This move to mobility combined with the increasing influence of social media during the purchase process has great implications for marketers, who will have to look at location as well as which product purchases are most affected.”

Flowtown has a great infographic (see below) to help elaborate on the topic:

Related posts:

1. How Fortune 100 Companies Are Using Social Media
2. Hospitals and Social Media
3. 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

Cymbal Interactive just launched a new white paper and online presentation articulating an approach to help healthcare companies identify the job of digital for their brands and products. You can read the white paper, Accelerating the Buying Cycle, or view the presentation to see how digital can help you.

Filled with compelling statistics and insight, we are confident this paper and presentation can help you refine your marketing efforts.

When used wisely, digital and interactive media can push your prospects through the purchasing cycle, and increase the likelihood they choose your product over your competitors’. To do this, relevant and customized information has to be available at the “inflection point”—where customers are on the cusp of making a decision and their business is yours to win (or lose).

Related posts:

1. The Job of Digital Marketing
2. The Future of Healthcare Marketing is Digital
3. Trends for Mobile Applications (and their stores)

A recent survey released by Knowledge Networks shows that healthcare providers are readily adopting electronic health records and other digital technologies, including mobile. One of the key takeaways from the research, as noted by Jim Vielee, Senior Vice President at Knowledge Networks, is that “marketers must adjust to the needs of plugged-in, increasingly busy doctors in everything they do – from the platforms they use for messaging to the time they expect to have with prescribers.” Shortly after this survey was released, Spyglass Consulting Group reported another exciting study regarding physician communications:

• 94 percent of physicians are using smartphones to communicate, manage personal and business workflows, and access medical information.
  • Physicians are showing a clear preference for using the Apple iPhone (44 percent) over the RIM Blackberry (25 percent)
• 78 percent of physicians interviewed were experiencing difficulties accessing and communicating with colleagues in a timely manner.
  • Physicians report they are overwhelmed by the daily volume of communications received from colleagues, care team members, and patients
• 56 percent of physicians interviewed were concerned about lack of standardized processes for transitioning care between colleagues.
  • Patient hand-off process used by hospital-based physicians and the patient referral process used by community-based physicians are informal and ad hoc which can introduce medical errors into the patient care process.

How does this affect healthcare marketing?

According to Jim Vielee “Health care professionals are embracing new technologies that promise more control and convenience; we cannot help but see a connection between the use of smartphones for e-detailing and an anticipated drop in time spent with sales reps. These trends seem destined to magnify as health care reform takes effect, creating dramatic upswings in doctors’ case loads.”

A closer look at the data

This table shows the Knowledge Networks data that PCPs and specialists are actively seeking convenience and control

	PCPs		Specialists
	2010	2008	2010	2008
Using electronic records	50%	38%	52%	42%
Expect to decrease sales rep time	14%	9%	12%	8%
Own smartphone	55%	–	62%	–
Use smartphone for e-detailing*	17%	–	18%	–
Use smartphone for surveys*	29%	–	24%	–

And as they find information online, they are turning less and less to sales reps. According to Knowledge Networks:

• 12 percent of specialists and 14 percent of PCPs said they expect to decrease the amount of time they spend with pharmaceutical sales reps in the next six months.
• 17% of PCPs and 18% of specialists who have smartphones are using them for e-detailing and higher proportions
• 29% of PCPs and 24% of specialists use them to participate in on-line surveys

Opportunities for healthcare marketers

While the data clearly shows that initiating and/or extending campaigns into the digital and mobile realms will increase impressions, engagement is another challenge. What providers need are help, support, and clarity, and also consistency of messaging across sales forces, print, and online media.

Related posts:

1. Trends for Mobile Applications (and their stores)
2. Consumers Rely More on Social Media. Marketers Beware.
3. Pharma Marketers Battle New Challenges In This Mobile Information Age

There are a lot of workplace wellness programs… ours just happens to be free, fun, and incredibly viral. In an effort to instill healthier eating and lifestyles into our company, we identified a way to incorporate fun, emotional connections, and social pressure to create a viral workplace wellness program

The concept: “Go potty, move your body”

Execution: Use Fit Deck cards to randomly choose a new work out everyday. Use a white board to show participating members, as well as number of exercises completed. Every time you go to the restroom, do the exercise of the day. Complete exercises in public… at any given moment, expect to walk around a corner and see something like this:

What do you think?

How can we make it better?

No related posts.

How are mobile application stores (and the apps within) changing and creating opportunities for marketers?

Jupiter Research released a new white paper that predicts the growth of app stores, and apps within, and provides some very relevant information as to where opportunities are to better reach and engage potential customers. You can sign-up for the study and download the white paper at Juniper Research online.

The most compelling takeaway, as show in this chart from the report below, shoes that valued-added service (VAS) offers the most growth potential. As marketers plan to extend the reach into the mobile application world, developing apps that have in-app billing options for ongoing services, subscriptions, content, etc. will likely be the most successful. This trend is consistent with our strategic recommendations in defining the job of digital for health care brands. The takeaway: create more opportunities to engage with patients and other potential customers to keep them engaged with your brand and products.

Related posts:

1. How Healthcare can Benefit from Mobile and mHealth
2. Physicians and Specialists Adopting Digital and Mobile in Record Numbers
3. Google Chrome Web Store Announcement (and what it means for marketers)