So you think social media can't hurt you?

Sep/08/2008 02:17

For quite awhile I have been writing about the impact that social media can have on prescription drug brands. If you read Pete Blackshaw's book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Customers Tell 3,000 you know that social media can indeed impact brands and that marketers had better listen to what customers are saying. Want an example? Well read on as I demonstrate an example of some negative social media around Cymbalta, Lilly's antidepressant.

Depression is a horrible condition that can affect not only the sufferer but those around him/her. Lilly has done a great job with their DTC campaign using the "depression hurts" theme but could there be a storm brewing around Cymbalta and side effects, particularly withdrawal ?

There is a website dedicated to Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms and there are a LOT of people who are posting horror stories about their attempt to stop taking withdrawal. The stories on the site range from really bad withdrawal symptoms to minor withdrawal symptoms to people who are afraid to stop taking the medication but desperately want to stop. A visit to Cymbalta.com shows that there are warnings about suddenly stopping the mediation but no mention of the withdrawal symptoms.

Well of course the first thing any good marketer would want to do is to check to see if this is a widespread problem or just a few disgruntled customers. I checked Google and found that in fact searches for Cymbalta withdrawal have been increasing steadily in the last 12 months.

googlecym

So if you are a customer focused DTC marketer you:

(a) Do nothing because to admit that there are potential withdrawal problems could hurt brand sales.

(b) Ignore these people: how dare they post stuff like this.

(c) Focus on the positive and ignore the negative. Cymbalta helps a lot of people overcome depression.

(d) Understand that in today's customer focused wired informational world we had better address this issue but do it a way that engages our audience, does not talk down to them and with credible information. Also we should make HCP's aware that some patients may experience withdrawal if they decide to stop taking the medication and provide some materials on how patients can minimize the symptoms.

Which one would you chose and which one would Lilly chose says a lot about transparency and how they feel about their customers. Lilly's motto is to provide "answers that matter" and this is one area that they need to address before it snowballs.