E-marketing has progressed into a way for marketers to differentiate themselves based on experience with their customers and as a viable means to be able to realize one-to-one marketing in its truest form.
“The biggest transformation is that marketers are becoming much more savvy, with the help of their agency partners, and are finding ways to use different vehicles that are powerful in reaching people and increasing efficiency,” said Loreen Babcock, CEO of Unit 7, the Omnicom-owned CRM agency. Babcock has worked with healthcare clients including Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, J&J, Merck, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.
“If you look at Web sites or even direct mail being on the incline, it is attributed to marketers becoming much more relevant to their consumers and consumers no longer considering mail, junk mail. It’s having the same impact on the Web in terms of relevance and value.”
The next generation in online pharma marketing will also most likely rely on personal programs that are relevant and help patients succeed with their therapy.
“Consumers don’t just want to read information about a condition, they want to type in some personal information and get a custom health assessment,” said Brad Aronson, EVP of Avenue A | Razorfish in Philadelphia.
The future on professional healthcare will allow physicians to type in information about their practices at Web sites and search engines and print custom patient education materials, Aronson explains.
The companies that will succeed as marketers will most likely be the ones that take the time to really understand what their audience wants and expects from pharma companies, he says.
“Not only do we need to provide value, it needs to be in the format our audience chooses—whether on mobile phone, TV, PC, postal mail, e-mail or something else,” Aronson adds. “We need to tailor our messaging better.”
From the October 01, 2006 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
