Overcoming Brand Planning Fatigue

July 27, 2010

Overcoming Brand Planning Fatigue

Filed under: Marketing Effectiveness,Patient Marketing,Professional Marketing,What We Think — Tags: brand plan, consumer, integration, level of evidence, medical, PR, professional — dreinhardt @ 12:24 pm

Ok, you’ve filled out all the templates, collated all the print-outs, and presented 100+ slides in less than an hour . . . What do you really have? An Integrated Brand Plan?

A Marketing SVP recently responding to a question regarding the level of integration within the plan he had created, “Yes, we have an integrated brand plan . . . we’ve stapled the professional plan to the consumer plan to the medical plan to the PR plan.” You get the idea.

Take a cold read of the plan during your next flight. Ask yourself for each initiative: what is the level of evidence behind this? Has the strategic partner provided that evidence? Are there ways to strengthen the level of evidence before you give the final green light?

At the end of the day, you’re accountable for the initiatives — doesn’t your career deserve the highest level of evidence?

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July 11, 2010

HCP CRM Best Practices…The Chupacabra of Pharmaceutical Marketing

Filed under: Marketing Effectiveness,Professional Marketing,What We Think — Tags: anecdotal, best practices, CRM, evidence, HCP, HCP crm, unbranded — kyork @ 10:29 pm

In the south, we have our version of Bigfoot called the Chupacabra. One of those elusive creatures…rumored to have been seen, but with little to no documented evidence to testify to their actual existence. If you think about it, this is really what CRM programs directed to health care providers are all about.

Sightings are popping up all over – nearly every client we work with has mentioned that their agency is pushing for some web-based initiative to MDs or Nurses that comes directly from the pharmaceutical company. Most of these are on the unbranded side as the risk threshold appears to be somewhat lower and the supposed acceptance rate among HCPs goes up. But where are the best practices for this type of program? The truth is, you’ll have a hard time finding one and so will your agency if you ask them to show you what others in the industry are doing.

Before you embark on a HCP CRM program, insist on evidence to support the effort and make sure it goes beyond anecdotal reports.

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