It's time to admit who really has control today

Jul/25/2008 07:46

“At the end of the day, the single most important thing for managers to do in this age of consumer control is to simply lead. Opportunity is everywhere, and because lines of ownership are so fuzzy…everyone is capable of reaping the dividends of small or bold acts of leadership.” This quote is from the author of a book that ALL marketers need to read called “Satisfied customers tell three friends, angry customers tell 3,000. It is the reality of new media and the new age of consumer and patient empowerment.

The realities of the marketplace today are downright frighting for marketers:

-The consumer is control of the message with the ability to leverage different types of media

-Web is an “echo chamber”& transparency engine into marketing events & processes

-Points of exposure & engagement are magnified by Web 2.0

-Search and brand reputation share symbiotic relationship

-Customer service (how we “listen and respond&rdquo

might just be the “new marketing”March 3, 2008 Edition

While these might be OK for a consumer packaged good company a lot of pharma marketers will throw their hands up and say “I know this but we are a regulated industry”. To this I say BS !! Yes pharma is a regulated industry but there are ways to be aggregators of the brand and engage our audiences around a brand conversation as long as safety measures are put in place. Let me give you an example.

When working on a relaunch of a major corporate website our research indicated that customers wanted to talk to one another about the brand and products. As such we developed a message board that could be integrated within the website by medical condition where people could post stories about their experiences and even arrange to talk to one another as a result of registering on the Website. After working to get this tool developed the lawyers came back to us and said “we don’t have the personnel to monitor the message boards” and as thus it had to be cut. This is what OUR customers told us they wanted and yet we could not implement because “we didn’t have the people”? This is not a customer focused organization and is not a way to build relationships with customers and patients.

There are many key factors that are driving social/consumer media right now and they are:

1. The need to be heard- “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” . People are sick and tired of the feeling of not being able to do anything about the high cost of gas and the economy, among other things, and want to sound off. This also translates into pharma products as any visit to a message board will tell you.

2. Desire to connect with one another- Just look at the message board for newly diagnosed cancer or type-1 diabetes patients. These people are often devastated and overwhelmed with information and want emotional support and help.

3.Low barriers to entry- Anyone with a computer can get online and create a BLOG or VLOG. It’s easy to do and with Mac’s taking more and more share people can do it with just a couple of clicks of the mouse.

DTC marketers need to rethink the whole relationship with their customers and target audiences. Pushing information to them is no longer an option and frankly is a waste of DTC dollars. More of the DTC budget needs to be moved ONLINE but along with the bigger dollars comes the responsibility to show that the online channel can in fact lead to a better ROI. It can be done but people have to be added to eMarketing NOW and that included analytics that show management that the Web is effective at providing a positive ROI.

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Mor and more US Adults are online and more than 90% have access to the Internet yet all pharma marketers
have done is to deploy push informational sites that do little to engage consumers.