The times are a changin'
Mar/04/2007 08:06 Filed in: DTC
Environment
Baby-boomers, the biggest demographic segment, are reaching that point in their lives when they are going to start having health problems. The psychographics of this generation is quite different than other segments. They are quite skeptical of "the establishment" having grown up with scandals and war. Now it seems that nothing has changed; we are in another war that is dividing the country and more corporate scandals are in the headlines everyday. How does this translate to the current state of DTC marketing? Many ways...
First, customers are going to be skeptical about your message. They are going to go to your competitors site and talk to others to determine which product is right for them. Second, if their doctor doesn't truly engage them in their health care discussion they may look elsewhere for treatment. Now this is a change ..we have heard before that the "doctor" is in fact the gatekeeper of health treatment recommendations but the landscape is changing. I heard it loud and clear in my research last month with Type 1 diabetics: their doctor is a good choice of information on the disease but not on treatment options.
Why is this happening? Well let's look at from the patients point of view. I asked my research participants "how many actually sit down with their doctor to talk about different treatments or review their current overall health?". The answer was very few. One person in fact said "I'm lucky if I get more than 5 minutes with my doctor I seem to spend more time than that with the nurse". Another said "I came in with a host of questions about my medications and my doctor told me to go to one of the health websites for more information". I knew this was coming but the comments from my research subjects caught me by surprise. I expected this trend to be evolutionary but now it seems that it maybe more revolutionary.
It's tough to be a doctor today. In addition to overhead like staffing the costs of malpractice insurance has skyrocketed with the increased litigation. In order to make a practice profitable physicians have to see as many patients as possible, they just don't have the luxury of spending a lot of time to hear patients concerns anymore. Let's also remember that insurance companies limit what physicians can charge for most medical procedures as well.
I predict that the changing of the guard, the power shift from marketers and physicians, to patients is going to continue and grow faster than we anticipated. Here are some things that DTC marketers can do to meet these challenges:
1. The good and the bad- Patients want to know the good and bad about taking your medication. Be upfront clearly explain the side effects and more importantly what percentage of patients get these side effects. The higher the value equation the more mistrustful your audience is going to be.
2. Connect your patients to each other- People want to talk to other to see what their experiences are like. Experience marketing is about connecting patients to each other so that they get a feel for what it's like to chose your therapy and answer questions that marketers may not have thought of.
3. Move away from mass marketing to mass customization- TV is great for increasing awareness of your brand but once that awareness is at a certain level target specific patient segments with specific messages via the Web using behavioral targeting.
4. Refine the message- As your product moves through the life-cycle refine your message as you identify triggers for treatment. Learn all you can about people who are your customers; "why did they chose your product?", "what advice would they give to others who were searching for treatment choices?"
5. Finally, take off your marketers hat and think like your customers. Understand that there is way too much clutter out there and it's going to be hard to get your message to your audience. Do more with less !
Yes the times are a changing but the problem is that DTC marketing is still relatively in it's infancy. DTC marketers are still learning but the lessons maybe outdated before they are taught.
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