pharma multi channel marketing - sanofi experience
DESCRIPTION
In a rapidly changing digital world there is much potential for pharma to up its game and effectively use the internet to market products. Lucy Brake talks with Andrew Moore, Sanofi’s Sydney-based Multi-Channel Marketing Manager, about how he sees pharma can best take advantage of all that is on offer.TRANSCRIPT
1 www.eyeforpharma.com/au
Digital Power Harnessing Multichannel Marketing Opportunities
In a rapidly changing digital world there is much potential
for pharma to up its game and effectively use the internet
to market products. Lucy Brake talks with Andrew Moore,
Sanofi’s Sydney-based Multi-Channel Marketing
Manager, about how he sees pharma can best take
advantage of all that is on offer.
In today’s brave new world of marketing the focus is now on starting a conversation with an
audience rather than simply delivering a message about a product to a customer. Sounds simple
enough but with such varied modes of communication being available it can be tricky to create this
conversation across many channels and to target the right audience. A few industries seem to be
successfully tackling this challenge but the pharma industry appears to be lacking behind. With so
many opportunities available to pull a customer to a product rather than pushing that product,
multichannel marketing offers an increasingly valuable tool for reaching customers.
The benefits
Moore says that it is all about taking an integrated approach. The different channels that are
currently available include tools such as email, social medial, texting, digital publications, normal
print, websites, direct marketing and digital advertising. The success lies in getting the conversation
going across many channels but ensuring it is effectively targeting what your customer wants to hear
and then talk about.
From Moore’s perspective the key benefits from multichannel marketing come from being able to
quickly move resources to target audiences, and that is reliant upon ensuring the analytics are
properly set up and delivering the information you need. “From the customer’s point of view
multichannel marketing also provides an integrated view of a brand and the company”, he explains.
“It enables us to serve the right content, at the right time, in the right way to the right customer”.
2 www.eyeforpharma.com/au
Being effective
With people having access to information at so many different stages during their day, such as at
home on the iPad, at the office on a desktop and during their commute on a smartphone, companies
need to be able to deliver their message in a wide range of different ways.
A report recently published by Capgemini Consulting and the MIT Center for Digital Business looked
at how effective different industries were at taking advantage of digital marketing. They pointed out
that the pharma industry is one of the beginners in capturing the digital advantage and is now only
just building capability in analytics. The report concludes that pharmaceutical industry see threat in
digital transformation but less opportunity than other industries do, perhaps because of regulation:
“Many are building capabilities in analytics and worker enablement, but most firms are just
beginning their digital journeys leaving many opportunities untapped”.
Moore supports this conclusion and believes that the pharma industry has a significant way to go to
before it is really taking advantage of the digital technologies like social media, mobile, analytics and
embedded devices to change their engagement with customers and business systems that is already
business-as-usual for some of the other industries digital leaders.
A bright future
The integration of devices is set to change how the industry markets pharmaceutical products and
this is one arena that pharma can gain some serious mileage. Moore points out that devices, such as
smartphones and tablets, and their apps make a significant difference from sales force perspective.
Certain apps can access data about the use, compliance and adherence of a product and allow data
to be returned from the real world use.
Examples of such products are the innovative Sanofi BGStar® and iBGStar® blood glucose meters.
These digital devices were designed as a direct result of the needs and desires of diabetics. Moore
says that it is highly likely at some point this will become a mobile device using a digital tattoo that
can read blood glucose from sweat and wirelessly transmit information.
One of the challenges for the industry in getting the devices to market is that there can be a delay
while products are tested and approved by regulatory bodies. This is where some of the emerging
markets may get a lead on the more traditional markets, where their R&D and innovation is high and
the regulatory system less onerous. In this regard the European and American pharma industry is
3 www.eyeforpharma.com/au
closely collaborating with regulatory agencies to enable the digital technology process to become
more efficient and to look at innovative ways to smooth the pathway to approval. “Start-ups and
sponsored agencies are looking to test apps on behalf of the industry to facilitate more streamlined
approval”, observes Moore.
An area of technology development that is particularly appealing to Moore is the innovative devices
that are supported by start-ups with cloud funding and he believes that we will see a whole lot more
disruption in this space. Take the Scanadu Scout for example, which is the first medical tricorder with
sensors that can read vital signs and send them wirelessly to a smartphone in a few seconds. This
device was funded through the industry-leading platform Indiegogo which uses powerful social
media tools to launch funding campaign for innovations. To date this medical device has supported
its own development by raising nearly USD $855,000 from over 4000 funders.
The other area he sees potential is in the shifting emphasis to wellness. “Healthcare is moving from
simply treating sick patients to developing programmes and apps to assist with wellness and
improving peoples’ quality of life”. This offers immense opportunities for the pharma industry to
innovate and to use all of the different channels available to market back to the world and their
customers.
Multichannel marketing is definitely here to stay and whilst the pharma and biotech sector has a
fantastic legacy of R&D its rather cumbersome model may hold it back in allowing connection with
end users. The great thing, according to Moore, is because pharma has lagged behind for some time
it does provide opportunities for companies to get systems in place. “We are an industry with
traditionally high margins, long lead times and well known patent expiration but now everything is
changing so fast – with data and analytics widely available we just need to grab the digital
opportunities and see how we can make a difference to people’s lives”.
Hear more from Andrew at the eyeforpharma Sales & Marketing Excellence conference, 8-9 October
in Sydney. For the full agenda & speaker line-up visit www.eyeforpharma.com/au
Contact: Lucy Fisher, Vice President, eyeforpharma T: +44 (0) 207 375 7225, E:[email protected]