Redefining CRM in the era of Facebook

It is finally here.

A virtual network to connect people to a common base. Facebook is a formidable tool, not simply for the social shananigans of gossipy exchanges or voyeuristic peeks into your friends' lives but it is also extremely helpful in giving what are often tedious professional relationships a little casuality and light-heartedness.

It took me a while to use Facebook. I was little reticent in the beginning but soon found my email inbox assuged with numerous 'invitations' and didnt want to appear prudish to all my 'friends'- which is a generic term that includes faraway relatives, primary school friends whom you've never spoken to even back then and almost forgotten ex-colleagues who had somehow never failed to let slip some unsavoury details about you to your boss. Now, I check my FB- an affectional acronym for Facebook- on an almost daily basis to get the dish on whats happening in these acquitances' lives. While it hasn't developed into an obsession yet, which I happen to know, Facebookititis is pretty prevalent. I happen to think it has evolved into an almost perfect mode of communication for professional networking.

I just wish that the FB-revolution had happened earlier in my early days of repping. Then I would not have to visit the same doctor 3 times in a week with Starbucks' latte and Polar sugar rolls just to befriend him enough to try my samples and prescribe my loot. If FB had been available then, it would have taken me half the number of visits before I'd had found and sent him a FB friend invitation with a virtual sizzling hot latte with the click of the mouse on a Starbucks application. Heck, I could've saved the effort in filling out the claims form too!

FB is changing not just social norms but also professional relationships. It makes you visible and involved. It turned what was once a tension filled customer-rep relationship into something a little closer to friendship, making it easier to break the ice at the next sales call. But it is also a double edged sword. Reveal too much of your personal details (the likes of petty name calling, gossip mongering, changing your relationship status from married to single to its complicated once too often, thinking expletives are cool, posting distasteful stuff from youtube) are just going to work against you and your carefully crafted professional image.

Thing is, very few people are able to separate their personal and professional lives properly. Almost everyone i know in senior management have a way of preening their professional image to project the right tone for negotiating or attaining any form of corporate objectives.

And FB doesn't distinguish between that. C'mon, FB doesnt even care if your 'friends' are your 'call-in-the-middle-if-the-nite' buddy or 'stab-u-in-the-back-whenever-i-can' ex-colleague! And by relating, socializing and communicating with all the people in your list in the same way, you are certainly breaking down whatever professional impression that you have been building up.

FB is a force to be reckoned with and has provided us with a great new tool of communication, but we must be able to identify its limitations and decide how to make it work to our advantage.

That's enough for now, gotta check out who just sent me that super-poke!

pushing the boundaries

I read recently that the cost of developing a drug lies between US800million to 1.2billion. Holy Crap! that's a hell lot of money for any molecular structures. Imagine, if all the pharma companies are to pool their R&D kitties together, its sufficient to bailout the troubled Wall street titans. Those banking fat cats ought to take a leaf out of pharma's compliance stance.

Anyways, before I digress into further naunces on the finance industry, 800 MILLION! obviously, that includes billions of petri dishes, thousands of bleached and starched lab coats, hundreds of centrifuges, top executive's bonuses, real estate costs and various other stuff that will just blow your mind off as it had done mine to splitereens.

This is the true reason why pharma remains a high-risk business. After deducting the huge costs of research, there is often no safety net in sight for the returns of investments until after the drug is launched for a period of time. With the increasing difficulty in approval filings lately, it is only going to chip chip chip into our patency period.

As any PM knows, managing the PLC of a drug is probably one of the most challenging given the brief lifespan of any chemical entity. so much bang is expected for the buck invested.

I advocate pushing the limits to achieve these market objectives. I mean, if the company is going to be investing 800M for that chance to make a difference -at least to shareholders- i dont see why we on the marketing floor have to adopt a play-it-safe approach in our competitive strategies or other marketing tactics that works to serve our objectives.

What's wrong with a little more aggression in sales and promotion? Obviously, its a rheotorical question. While I'm totally partial to appropriate corporate governance and the SAPI code, I'm simply jaded and unmotivated by all that abounds in the industry. It's pretty much monkey-see-monkey-do.

pharma promotion is so highly regulated and restrictive in Singapore that it is stifling any innovation or creativeness in the talent pool (what talent pool?!) I feel that failure to employ and engage into innovative ideas that is relevant to the marketplace will lead to a staid and improbable competitive environment, leading to non-attractive, repetitive activities or worse, a marketplace that competes only on price. That end serves nobody any good.

Jargons- Simply annoying!

Along with people coming in late for meetings, co-workers stealing credit, loud and ineffective managers, the use of business jargons are right up there on my list of pet peeves.

Sure, some level understanding of common business practises are necessary for communication but i think more managers are sprouting them to be seen as a knowledgeable insider. I do find my blood pressure boiling over at a tacky catchphrase being used once too often.

In no particular order of irritation factor:

1. 'I-get-where-you're-coming-from'
2. 'Think-outside-the-box'
3. 'take-it-offline'
4. 'core competencies'
5. 'value propositions'
6. 'leverage'
7. 'synergy'

It absolutely jars me when when the word 'strategy' appears in more grammatical morphologies than the english language permits. A typical management meeting often accomodates the likes of a few irritating marketing folks who rattles on an on about 'strategic focus','strat plans', 'strategizing', 'strategic levers' yada yada... we got your point the first time round, stop waffling and get to the substance now won't cha.

As if sitting through a meeting heavily laden with corporatespeak is not painful enough, these days, drug reps are joining in the fray. While it is unfair to assume that all drug reps are not clued in on general business concepts, there is a good majority who are still pretty unaware of what goes on in the backoffice.

An overzealous rep repeatedly tried my patience when he kept bringing up suggestions to improve the 'positioning' of the brand during team meetings. not that have a superiority complex issue, but i would be much more receptive to his ideas had he actually displayed any indication of knowledge in the area of brand positioning. After a once too often push to adjust the pricing of the drug (which drug rep never thinks their drugs are overpriced?) which he attribute to a case of 'poor positioning', i lost it and asked him for the definition of the word in marketing terms. He never brought up the subject again.

or the time when all I hear from a fellow manager's presentation is an avalanche of jargons. from the time he started about the 'strategic focus' to 'leveraging on existing strengths' to highlighting the 'unique selling proposition' to creating positive 'value propositions' to key 'customer segments' to 'going forward' with 'launching new initiatives' etc etc... it's marketing 101 all over again..

CME fatigue

In the 'monkey-see-monkey-do' world of pharma marketing, it is rare to find a gem such as Nexium (AstraZeneca) and Lipitor (Pfizer) whose market leader status are the resulting of pure marketing genius which turned the 'me-too' drugs into the global phenomenon that they are now.

CMEs in my opinion, no longer serves as a reliable lever given that every brand in the market are doing it. Last I heard, distributors are holding their own CMEs for post-patent products in the hope to regenerate some new interest.

And certain companies too, have led the pack into organizing GSAs (Group selling activities) led by drug reps to less than impressive results if i must say. The proliferation of these GSAs have caused the rest of the industry to follow suit and develop an industry norm.

From what doctors have candidly professed, they are simply there to enjoy the food and collect CME points. And with the abundance of these meetings, they can well afford to pick and choose which to attend.

Given the common pool of physicians that most pharmas are courting, high- level GPs, cardiologists, oncologists, ENTs, psychiatrists, and various others, it is little wonder that they are suffering from CME fatigue.

Like how one particular cardiologist said it: "I see 30patients at each clinic, after which I'm accousted by 3-4 drug reps with nothing interesting to say. I'd rather pay for my own lunch and be spared the repetitive drug spew.'

With the dwindling number of attendees and the increasing number of poorly organized CMEs, it is perhaps time for the industry to think if it is all worth it in the end. A mediocre event will perhaps put your A&P back $80 per head and given the recent inflation, it may not generate the kind of ROI that we like to imagine.

That is not to say that we shouldn't hold anymore CMEs for that is still the most effective way to get out message out to the people who matters. But it is time to relook and finetune it to an art. Bringing back the crowd through more professional content, credible speakers, knowledgeable exchange to provide value for the audience is more important than putting on an event for the sake of meeting some KPIs and stressing the reps to deliver the audience.

Food for thought: Does a B.pharm make a better product manager?

Ok, I know this is a highly sensitive topic. but c'mon, this industry is swamped with B.pharms. It does seem like a very natural career option for a pharmacist to venture into. I mean does anyone knows drugs interactions, mode of actions, even the difference between pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics like they do?

Thing is, it is unlikely that a PM with a B.mktg or BSc can win in an argument with a fellow B.pharm when it comes to pharmacology or pharmacy practice. However, being in a sales and marketing set up as most of us are, the critical question is does a B.pharm serves any additional advantages when it comes to devising solid strategies and working the market? Afterall, most of us are peddling clinical know-hows rather then pharmaceutics.

The pharmaceutical industry is a businesss organization much like all other businesses be it automobiles, aviation, consumer items, telecommunications. Does the general broad business principles and concepts apply differently to pharma?

Pharmacists are an important asset to the pharma industry, just like MDs or MBBS as they are known here. They provide the structural backbone for R&D and bridging that to marketing and operations. It remains to be seen, however, if they make better marketing or business brains.

Supply Chain- what's that?

The recent furore over Mattel's Sesame Street toys have created major panic amongst parents worldwide and deprive many children of their favourite playtime toys. But the incident has probably caused the most damage to Mattel, who'll find itself stuck with a huge inventory of withdrawn and unsellable goods. But more damagingly, it has cost Mattel its reputation.

Being a veteran in the toy industry,Mattel is a well loved brand trusted to deliver superior and safe toys for little kids. Although the crisis was caused by a long-time supplier in Hong Kong which has outsourced its toy production to a factory in China who used the unapproved paint, Mattel could not shirk off any responsibilities. And ultimately, the corporate image has taken a dip and it would take alot of intensive PR to reinstate consumer confidence.

So what has this got to do with pharma?

It all boils down to supply chain. If Mattel had been a bit more vigilent in tracking its supply chain, it would have been able to arrest the situation before it'd erupted into the full-blown crisis that has become. There is no place for comfort zones and complacency in business.

In Singapore, the product mix for most pharmas are limited and most of our stocks are obtained from single source, on wherever whenever is available basis. Most of the time its handled by an administrative clerk overseen by the regulatory manager. Local PMs i noticed, hardly bother very much with supply issues.

This sort of lassie faire attitude may cost the company at best some inconvienieces, at worst, loss of customers. It about time supply chain management emerges from the back end and be made a shared responsibility much like HRM.

Commonly encountered problems in local pharma are usually the likes of insufficient stocks due to inaccurate sales projection. One have to understand that inventory management is a real tricky business. Too much stocks ordered in will lead to high cost of storage, too little will lead to a negative impact on sales. However, it is still in the PM's purview to provide a close estimate of stock movement based on sales projection. Another sticky problem which has a more disasterous consequence is goods withdrawals due to manufacturing or ADRs. In my opinion, the longer history of supplying the product the plant has, the less likely it is to produce defective packaging or other hiccups. While sourcing for a source may not be in the PM's usual scope of responsibility, it may still be worthwhile to have a little idea on his/her products' origins.

Product management in Singapore is in reality, very little more than A&P management. If we want to be considered true brand managers, we have to be able to handle more than just organizing events and developing collaterals.

Food for thought II- Disease Awareness Programs

HSA guidelines on Disease Awareness Campaigns, 2004

http://www.hsa.gov.sg/docs/GuidanceOnDAC1Nov2004.pdf

Food for thought:

How many DACs currently carried out by pharmas conform to these vaguely-lined standards? And how many PMs and MMs are acutely aware of the existence of these standards?

Inheriting a legacy- Branding

"When Tony Blair became Prime Minister, the sun shone. When Gordon Brown took over, it rained. ... It was noted that, on 10 May, when Blair announced his resignation in his Sedgefield constituency, the heavens opened, and it has been raining ever since." - The independent 8th july 2007

Figuratively, the weather outlook for a PM(ahem.. product manager in this context) is very dependent on the work produced by his predecessor. Inherit a blockbuster post-launch and you're on your way to market share nirvana, inherit a ADR-plagued dudbuster and you'll be perspiring so hard even your sweat glands are metabolized.

Unfortunately, unless you are a boardroom politician, getting to handle any specific brand is usually down to luck. and in this highly mobile industry, hardly any PM exist to manage one product from day one to patent expiration. In some cases, a product may see anything form 5 PMs in a decade.

Indeed, this may not be optimal for a brand's development especially if companies are serious about branding. There is a wildly successful cardiac drug (simply by its impressive efficacy and lack of direct competition) that possess an incredibly schizophrenic identity, from the multiple switching of PMs (combined with the complication of a dual-company co-marketing arrangement) who decides an academic approach at one time, a commerical angle at another, a mediocre me-too compliant stance and a distasteful comedic campaign all executed within the PLC. it only managed to reach its present state of success recently when it could (& should) have been achieved way earlier.

MMs have a major role to play in maintaining the continuity of a brand, regardless of the mobility of its middle brand management. the cost of failing to do so comes at building tenable brand equity. However, all too often, the newbie would rather opt for a contrasting approach from his predecessor, preferring to do things differently, hoping to juxtapose his competencies to the senior management who usually do not query as long as general (ie sales) objectives are being met and market share is achieved.

Exercising such attitudes may lead to a misleading impression that brand objectives are met (unless it ascertained through KPIs) when in fact brand equity remains low with the business being sustained by sheer efficacy alone.

Time will be able to tell when a new entrant comes in and alter the market share equilibrium.

for the meantime, I'm waiting to see how PM Gordon Brown's drastically different foreign policy (esp towards the US) will show against former PM Tony Blair's pro-US stance.

its cycle meet again!!

Brand Planning's almost over and.... its cycle meet again!!

Cycle meetings, some companies call it POA, others commercial meet, no matter how fancy the terms, its essentially the same thing. The huge difference is on the budget allocation. Some companies prefer a hotel-do while others settle for the in-house arrangement.

Unlike the kick-off meetings in January, the mid-year meetings are usually less stressful for the regular PMs, the bulk of the plans have already been dished out in the beginning of the year anyway. This would simply be a recap of YTD performances and (highly) possible mid-year budget hikes!

Still reeling from massive changes in the brand plan from the senior team, PMs now have to spend late nights harriedly preparing the slidedecks (pretty much cut and paste versions of the past POAs), liaising (ie chasing the pants off) with vendors and suppliers to ensure that the mockups of new collaterals are at least presented at the meeting, obtaining quotes for pens and other gimmicks, ordering reprints, getting SMs to commit to sponsorship numbers for the rest of the year and getting grumpier by the day cos the boss expects 'this' POA to be different, to be jazzed up, to excite, incite and never say 'buay sai'.

It does seem rather unfair, that the SMs only have to prepare 2-3 slides outlining sales performance and directions while the PMs does a whole lot more (and i heard the former gets a bigger paycheck!) and doesn't get his/her popularity ratings any higher with the sales team.

As a matter of fact, most reps dread the cycle meet. the dull repetition of the cycle plans and unoriginal showings of most tactics combined with the extremely unpleasant prospect of being picked to do a grand detailing in front of the entire company put most reps off.

But it is an important meeting. it allows the team to re-align themselves to the brand's objectives, understand market changes and obtain new directions. Management does not need to constantly try to generate a pseudo sense of excitement amongst the team. Simply ensuring that the plans are credible, deliverable and conjuring a successful consequence that is attainable will be sufficient to motivate and drive a sensible sales team.

Compliance is a dirty word...

The Straits Time, Tuesday, July 3 2007

As if it hadn't already been difficult to do much things in pharma, with the corporate governance thing sweeping across industries globally post Enron, Worldcom, etc.

Locally, the SAPI code of marketing practises became more stringent several years ago due to complaints from the medical fraternity on the aggressive and seeemingly 'unethical' marketing by some companies. The launch event of a new drug back in 2003 raised plenty of eyebrows for the extravagant event location held in a 6-star hotel with night stay's thrown in for the participant, premium booze, top range entertainment and even childcare services! No doubt the participants made up largely of doctors across the sectors were delirious. (It is rare to be given such treats in their profession. The general population by and large thinks that doctors should be doing charity works and earning peanuts compensated by the immense amount of compassion they possess.) this triggered off a massive anti-xxx company campaign by its competitors who propagated these sentiments to the authorities and various CMBs of the hospitals and created their own tit-for-tat strategy of offering cruises to nowhere, golf clinics, wine appreciation classes, the list goes on. The fact that the launch event was spilled over two days with a robust and continous CME program was totally negated.

SAPI then responded with an elongated code of marketing practices and a new algorithm for companies to air the grievances and formally lodge a complaint against another. (this resulted in several clash of the titans meetings between a couple of long feuding giants) Suddenly the marketer is told to tone down, keep a lower profile, increase vigilence...

Come to jan 2007, the IFPMA came into the scene, releasing a new international code of marketing practises in which marketers had to spend hours reconciling with the sapi code and attending the legal counsel's training. the IFPMA simply offers tighter control on an already barren environment. (in the local context)

Compliance is a necessary evil. without governance, organizations behave like humans. Integrity will succumb to greed. It is good for the industry to self-regulate rather than to have the regulatories intervene when its too late. Negative perceptions have particularly serious implications for pharma due to the nature of the products and purposes that it seem to represent.

Looking around, PMs are latently devoid of compliant ideas, support (be it medical, legal, financial or administrative) are lacking as everyone is watching out for his/her own turf. if compliance is ALL that drives a company's decisions(and i know of some companies that do so), no matter how minute and non-consequential, conduction of day to day marketing and sales practices, protocols will multiply, processes will get stifled, creativity and innovations will erode and pretty soon we may not even need marketers anymore (as it is, we are already enroute to that eventuality)

Brand Planning II- Not again...

Speak to any PM lately and chances are his/her reply to a simple how are you would be "I'm sooooooooo busy, it's crazy..." I'll suggest you give a cursory good luck and dash for your life. For those unfortunate or clueless ones who cannot manage a timely escape, you can be sure that you will be unloaded with a whole barrage of "It's sooooooo mentally taxing, doing this marketing plan... oh, another brand meeting with the MM/GM/RBM again.." zzz

Indeed, the annual brand planning is no trivial affair to be scorned at. It is one business process that is absolutely necessary to analyse past performances, anticipate market dynamics and business impact, predict and assess future growth, evaluate cost and pursue sales strategies for the whole of next year.

Managing the day-to-day affairs can wear a PM out with hardly any time to sit down and evaluate present situation nor contemplate on future directions. Therefore, brand planning season is a great exercise to formalise the plans.

Although brand planning officially commences from May-July for most companies, PMs shouldn't only think about it come mid-year. It should be a continuous effort throughout the year. thoughts should be given to brand development and discussed about. this could greatly alleviate the load and seriously prevent the slew of unorginal and totally uncreative work that abound in local pharma.

One of the most annoying buzzword whose use is bordering on abuse is 'strategy'. every marketer is throwing it around and short of wearing it across their chest, really annoys me. Thing is, there are plenty of PMs out there who can't even tell between a strategy and a tactic! (no kiddin') Certainly one need not have gone to business school to become a PM but spewing 'strategies' incessantly is a real earsore to most knowledgeable people.

When questioned as to what grand 'strategies' they have dreamt up for their respective brands, you get the run-of-the-mill patient assistance programs, new pricing strategies (drop price/increase bonus?!?!), improved CRM through >SF optimization, running local trials (retrospective usually), increasing no. of GSAs (hello? how'd you get here?)

I know I've long lamented on the lack of creative and innovative talents in this industry. There are some brilliant ones whom I'm proud to have acquaintance of and witnessed the superior intellect, great amount of analytical prowess that complements an adventurous spirit to pursue brand leadership. However, the bulk of which, still leaves much to be desired.

...recommends a heavy dose of "LSD" or "Lead, Speed and Differentiation" to encourage innovation in Asia. A country’s desire to always stay in the "lead" lends a sense of urgency to its people to innovate. Speed, through government agencies working in partnership to meet the needs of businesses, helps shorten the lead time for companies. And differentiation, through identifying niche areas where few are staking their claim, helps sustain a country’s competitive advantage...

Lim Siong-Guan, Chairman, Singapore Economic Development Board, World Economic Forum on East Asia http://www.weforum.org/en/events/WorldEconomicForumonEastAsia2007/index.htm

PR case study- Beyond media relations (Novartis)

Novartis Institute of tropical diseases
www.nitd.novartis.com/


The dengue epidemic is headlining all the dailies and news station for weeks now. it has reached somewhat of an alarming level. Not since SARS have we seen the MOH, NEA and the government taking such rigorous measures to contain the disease which seem to be worsening by the day.

Public education of prevention and treatment is also at its all-time high. I even see photocopies of news articles pasted all over my residential compound reminding us to take special care to prevent the breeding of the darned mozzies. I've received a rather thick package of what i believe (i kinda threw it away without reading) to be similar information in my mailbox sent out by the NEA, there are TVCs, radio announcements, and all forms of public disbursments related to this problem.

If you had bothered to read beyond skimming through the news, you'd have noticed that everytime an expert opinion is sought and quoted, besides the spokesmen for the authorities, the 'dengue experts' tend to be from the Novartis Institute of tropical diseases.

Set up as a public-private partnership with EDB, the NITD focuses on finding new drugs for tropical diseases and have set their sights on dengue and tuberculosis research. so far, they have some publications to show for its efforts, although there hasn't been any significant breakthroughs yet, it is said that a vaccine is on the horizon.

well, if there is a company i would like to be employed with right now, its got to be Novartis. i mean, who wouldn't like to be associated with a hero? I'm sure that when it planned the NITD as a corporate citizenship project, building a positive company image was a top priority.

With all the bad rep that pharma worldwide is getting, it does make perfect sense to portray oneself as a 'caring', 'give-back-to-the-society' pharma. it is a definitive differentiating factor across the industry. although most other companies have tried to employ such tactics, it is often too contrived and consumers are apt at detecting hypocrisy.

so what you may ask? that's a global initiative, not that it would have any bearings on the local business side of things. but i beg to differ. positive consumer sentiments is not easy to achieve. it may be opportunistic PR, but the amazing goodwill that has been generated is not to be scoffed at. as of now, almost every singaporean (who reads the news- i know plenty in pharma that don't!) will know of Novartis as the company that invests heavily into R&D and are experts on diseases that matters in this part of the world, and this could include doctors who may prescribe other novartis' products.

thing is, the NITD has now become a leading authority on dengue and would have the ability to influence policy making pertaining to the disease. and if a vaccine should avail some time soon, NITD would have scored on both commercial and PR fronts!

Most local pharmas engage PR agencies as part of their marketing campaigns (tends to be brand specific) and usually requests for as much media hits as possible. this forms the bread and butter of the firms and they are quite able to deliver on it. however, if i am going to be spend a good portion of my a&p in PR, i would write my own press releases to maximise my budget and exploit their competence to consult them beyond media relations (what is it? i may blog but i don't give out free advise!) PR now has evolved beyond the media to become an essential business tool, its about time pharma evolves from its old-skool form of marketing too.

Sex, drugs and rock and roll

Yesterday over lunch, my friend who also happens to be a sales manager in a pharma firm was grousing to me about 'reps these days'.

she'd observed in a recent party, hosted by a high-profile GP during which he'd invited many pharma reps to his clinic, that almost all of them had brought alcoholic drinks (SAPI-are you listening?) and later went on to shamelessly solicit for business during the continous rounds of drinking. When the GP asked them to drink up, they'd audaciously agreed on condition that sales of a minimum of 100boxes of whatever they are touting will precede.

this sales manager also noted that most of these reps belong to big, established companies and consisted mostly of young, attractive female reps who are not hesistant in flanking the sides of the GP to get his attention amidst the din of the revelry (and debauchery some might add)

so what exactly is it that had incurred her disapproval i queried.

it's the absolute inappropriateness of everything. from the alchohol, to the open solicitation for sales, to the tight white tops the girls were wearing, she adds. since when did we ever had to resort to such overt sexuality to peddle our drugs in the past!? she heaves.

maybe times have changed? perhaps we have become, gasp- old? as for using sex appeal to sell... i do feel that a teeny dose of sex appeal in a subtle manner may enhance the selling process if it is able to get a customer to become more receptive towards a rep. let's face it, the world is full of sexual overtones and sales people in particular, are acutely aware of this, some industries, like banking, have taken full advantage of it to great success, and if one can harness and package it in a sophisticated manner to achieve their end objectives, why not?

however, i do agree that in pharma, an ethical (or percieved) disposition is important. this is because we are dealing with products that is meant to extend and enhance human lives. to embark on a less respectable way of selling would be trivialising this greater purpose.

with millions, billions of dollars poured into providing sales support with clinical trials, adequate marketing and improved processes, it is unnecessary, seemingly wrong even, to consider a need to resort to less savoury methods.

Sure, market is tough, and getting increasingly so. government reimbursements are limited and contentious, lack of product innovations, NCEs are having difficulty getting from bench to bed, reduced consumer confidence in pharma, escalating costs and decreased yield. but with such challenges facing the industry, shouldn't it be bracing together to create a new identity which can propel it into a new era of consumer confidence through ethical r&d, public/patient education, social responsibilty programs, etc

As marketers, we must be careful to ensure that lever spends are being put to greater use than in excessive wining and dining. and if need be, to enforce compliant entertainment practices that is consistent with the brand equity and protective of the corporate image.

And for the less-clued in rep, do give some thoughts to the kind of image you'll like to project and retain in the customer's impression. self-respect and restraint does more good for the soul than incentives can. and if the latter is so important, perhaps you should consider a sales career outside of pharma. the meagre incentives in pharma are hardly worth tolerating the humble doctors' bad jokes, tantrums or idiosynracies

Tongue-in-cheek- Doctors... make yourselves useful

Amongst the various stakeholders who exists in the pharmaceutical industry, doctors are undeniably the single most important. without doctors, there can be no pharma.

Pharma and doctors share a highly ambivalent relationship. pharma represents commercialization and profits, while doctors are synonymous with ethical and moral impartiality. but the reality always tend to lie in the grey between black and white.

Doctors rely on pharmas to provide educational grants and financial support towards research in the pursuit of clinical exellence while pharmas are dependent on doctors to prescribe and endorse their products. How these objectives are achieved by either parties are sometimes not as straightforward as it appears. One thing, however, is certain. the two are unable to exist without each other. whether anyone like it or not, it is a perfectly symbiotic relationship.

In this industry, client servicing is arguably the most critical element in ensuring positive sales output. doctors are a diverse bunch and reps are often very adept at profiling and dealing with them.

Some companies employ complex programs in the profiling of doctors, but i prefer to liken them to common household items:

The Sponge- You know this type, the one who will graciously open the door to his office to you, engage in friendly banter and flashing his wide grin throughout the sales call. Just as you are about to let your guard down, he asks if your company is taking anyone ( meaning him) to so-and-so conference in europe this year. every visit will be followed by a request (suck, suck, suck) for a regional sponsorship, lunch, golf game, printing of his clinic namecard, new stethescope, all your samples, pens, your lunch box...

Leaky tap- usually a GP during his lull period. before you have the chance to introduce yourself, he will be showing you around his empty, barren clinic, lamenting about the bad economy, inflation, high rental/overheads, poor patient load, etc. His sob stories are so excrutiatingly painful that you'll end up buying a bottle of vitamins/milk powder/wound dressing from him so that he'll let you off.

The Kettle- there is bound to be one in every product's KOL list. this demanding doctor needs plenty of attention that you have to keep watch 24/7 over him. he has such a low boiling point that he is constantly blowing steam. and when u do not react in time to switch off the antagonizing factor, you will be sure he will be making hellava lot of noise.

The Dettol- tends to be a specialist practising in a public hospital. may be a policy maker or has high influence level in the hospital. has a purist streak that causes him to drone on and on about the importance of evidence-base-medicine, shooting off references from clinical trials, clinical guidelines, etc. craves to be perceived as a academic and will often adopt a moral high ground when dealing with pharma whom he considers as a toxic contaminant to be eradicated.

The Crystal Ware- reps require special prior approval from the bosses before taking this doctor out for a simple lunch. for this high-maintenance doctor, there is NO simple lunches. most of their clinics are located at Mt Elizabeth and the favourite place du jour is iggys at regent or tatsuya at crown prince hotel. no meal is complete without a 1978 vintage bordeux or a nicely brewed sake. don't even think of getting a glimpse of this doctor if your A&P is not within the top 10.

The toothpaste (aka squeezer)- ahhh...i shan't go on. we are all pretty familiar with this one.

The search for innovation

Big players in infocomm

Wonder if they'll ever introduce sexily-clad models in medical conferences?

If you haven't been living in Timbuktu, you'd known that Singapore is playing host to the mother of all infocomm convention in this part of the world this week. I made a brief trip down to the expo just to busk in the exhilarating air of innovation and rapid advancement (albeit in the technological -ahem?? field)

For a regional event, describing it as massive seems to be an understatement, it is goliath, more impressive than most of the international medical conferences that i have attended. And this is merely for the expo, i did not register for the lectures.

If pharma is a trillion-dollar industry as quoted by oprah winfrey, then infocomm must be a mega-hexa-bazookazillion dollar industry. As i walked around the booths, i smell money, an obscene amount at that! What intrigued me most was that many companies (no small players) are offering their products and services for free! it is absolutely mind-boggling. i wonder about the invisible revenue streams and if i'm missing out something that these tech geeks have sussed out.

before i proceed, let me clarify that i am not posting in the wrong blog, i have not digressed to a non-related industry. my attendance at communicasia was to learn about the ever-evolving and highly morphological industry who is always at the forefront of things. While it is important to keep abreast of clinical and scientific information, one must be able to spot trends in an increasingly-converging world. and infocomm plays a big role in the current and progressive future of healthcare. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Infocomm%20Adoption/20060406150532.aspx

have i gleaned anything useful? plenty, but i'm not about to go into details with the techy stuff. instead, i gathered some perspective (which are always useful) about how disparate pharma is from the rest of the other industry. And even within the industry, how dissimilar pharma marketing is across the globe.

for you see, in pharma, things are pretty mundane and predictable. our product offering (drugs, devices, nutritionals, supplements, etc) business models, sales channels have remained the same since civilisation began trading. with the immense amount of governance the industry is subjected to, hardly anyone dares to challenge conventions. this in turns, stifle business innovations and marketing creativity.

This fact is even more glaring in Singapore, unlike US, where DTC promotions are permitted. Without the advertising portion, how then do the PMs spend their A&P? sponsorships (primarily, in various facades), marketing collaterals, samples, sales incentives, etc. Big YAWN for the consumer marketer.

It would be convenient to blame tight compliance for the lack of brilliant ideas, but surely a good marketer should be at the forefront of trends to understand market dynamics and identify opportunities. Looking around, you'll spot the typical PM spouting endlessly of strategies but when it comes to executions, they consider a trip out to the field as gathering market intelligence and holding a CME as action superieur.

Its about time too, that this industry sheds the grossly inadequate title of product managers in this age when IMC is being embraced if they expect their effectual outputs to include the rest of the 6 P's.

Brand Planning I- Tis' the season...

Mid year. Its the time of the year again... brand planning season for most companies.

Late nights in the office, meetings after meetings of brainstorming and strategizing, phone calls overseas afiliates to gather last minute information and tips, video conferences with bosses on key deliverables, rushing to complete the slidedeck, dry runs after dry runs with the direct report, making harried changes to the final marketing plan and with bated breath (some fingers crossed) preparing for the main presentation to the management team.

Typically, this is the most dreaded time of the year for the average PM. having to slog through at least 2months from initial planning to the roll out during a cycle meeting. What the sales team gets to see during the kickoff meetings are usually far from the primary plan. It would have already been through a series of information gathering, thorough analysis, assumptions and projections, many layers of changes and approvals before the plan is deemed refined enough for execution.

But if you think the PM's life is tough, consider the marketing managers' torment, of having to sift through tons and tons of rubbish masquerading as strategies. (of cos this is not entirely true, there are some marketing managers who can't tell the difference too!) this is also the time whence the marketer gets to prove their mettle, but sadly, most plans remain generic, even textbookish! strategies are usually weak and tactics unoriginal and uncreative. (There are brilliant exceptions of cos' but they don't make for very good blogging. I'm referring to the crappy majority which we can all identify with.)

There are hardly enough given to market analysis and vision in spotting trends and opportunities are sadly lacking. Assumptions are usually made intuitively rather than analytically. Most marketing plans are cut-and-paste versions of the old, expansion of the globally provided long-range plan or rip-offs from other brand plans.

organizations should set some kind of expectations in place. to have a check measure to ensure that their marketers fulfil the minimum competencies and skills, but importantly (and sadly overlooked), to possess critical reasoning that is essential for delivering the best results.

On the campaign trail- Part II

Over the weekend, Wyeth's Prevenar held its inaugural PAW walk at Bishan Park. I'd picked up the flyer at my child's music school. I'd almost decided that it may be nice to take my child for a stroll in the park, afterall there aren't many outdoor events organized for babies and toddlers (so what if i may be assaulted with messages telling me about the ills of pneumoccal infections, how vaccination is finally able to help, blah blah..), until i realised that it starts way too early in the morning.

Admittedly Prevenar has mananged to run an excellent post-launch DTC campaign, it has all the hallmarks as far as outbound marketing is concerned, the right segments were targetted effectively, well defined value proposition, great promotional mix, clear and consistent PR and communications.

As a consumer (my kid got vaccinated even before it was listed in most of the institutions), my first exposure to Prevenar was from a TVC of a poignant cartoon clip which told of a child suffering from the aftermath of a pneumoccocal infection. thereafter, i started seeing similar toned ads in the dailies, parenting magazines, and other below-the-line media.

When my doctor told me there's a new vaccine in town (besides Rotarix-which GSK didn't seem as keen on aggressive promotion), i'd already known all about Prevenar and its indications. I have no need for the glossy brochure he handed me detailing the benefits of the vaccine.

It would all have ended there, after all AIDA had been satisfied, and the company would've pocketed a neat profit. but Wyeth ploughed on, i continued to read (although by now, i merely skim through) about the various manifestations of pneumoccocal diseases, causes, treatment, prevention, etc, etc from Mind Your Body and other heavyweights in healthcare publications. Any dissonance, should i have it, would have totally sublimated by now.

Soon these messages started appearing in numerous popular local websites. nevermind that not all of them are parenting nor healthcare sites. the very wide penetration and prevalence of using internet media is for the first time being seen in a pharmaceutical product. While other brands have created internet sites for disease education, etc, Prevenar is using e-marketing as an advertising tool for a wider reach.

This is especially so when they were publicizing the PAW walk. I am sure the media vehicle had swung into action, everywhere i turn, i see a (e-) brouchure in the GP/specialist/hospital clinics, .com and even .gov sites, dailies, trades, the list goes on.

The repetition has gone to me. I soon found myself sharing Prevenar information with other parents. I have become the ideal consumer.

Sure, other pharma brands have used internet marketing, public relations and creative communications before. but what makes Prevenar stands out is that it has managed to keep its IMC tight and seamless. While most other brands tries to dip their toes into PR and retract when they have satisfied the no. of hits to justify the spend to the senior management team and then quickly change tack to run a patient program or a clinical trial which is perceived to have a more rapid and direct impact on sales, Prevenar perseveres and continue to build upon its selling story. Most marketers understands that a successful campaign needs time to develop.

i have a hunch that there are a lot more synergy between their pharma and consumer divisions who has a long standing tradition in paediatric nutrition amongst other products. However, in terms of pharma marketing of an ethical drug, i consider Wyeth to have scored a real winner with this campaign.

On the campaign trail- Part I

i applaud Pfizer's latest campaign for its painkillers as evident from today's issue of MYB. the entire OBC was of a striking cartoon of an old man in pain and invertedly, one of a smiley face. it is an ad calling for contributions of testimonials from the public on their battles with pain. contestants can stand to win up to $2000.

in this highly and increasingly regulated industry, DTC is a strict no-no. and under normal circumstances, Pfizer's competitors will be questioning if there has been any breach of compliance. Does the offering of prize money equate to inducement to prefer a certain brand of painkiller to another?

but what makes it legit is that this contest is held under the auspices of two organizations- with strong medical links and relevance. the corporate involvement is reduced to purely one of a financial sponser, unbeknownst to the consumer that this whole campaign was probably drawn up in the boardroom of the drug manufacturer.

further inside the same issue of MYB, there is another ad for a public forum that costs $10 including light refreshments. having been a sufferer of chronic pain (not just in the neck from too much corporate wrangling) i too, was interested in registering to attend until i realised that it is a pharma sponsored talk (similarly endorsed by the same organizations) i decided not to attend as i can already anticipate the pitch and flow of the talk in my mind. but i have no doubt it will be a successful event even without my humble participation.

i am not criticizing Pfizer for its efforts. instead, i think its brilliant. its about time the pharma industry try to push the boundaries wrt its marketing. it has been too conservative for too long. i love the simple and understated approach that Pfizer have taken to steer a human interest angle towards as uninspiring a condition as pain. i have no doubt the company will launch into a full scale PR campaign hereafter to highlight the plight of chronic pain sufferers (and how only a particular brand of painkiller will have the perfect blend of feature and benefits to alleviate their suffering.)

this is not the first of its kind in pharma marketing, nor the most creative, but it is by far, one of the most succint. too many brands try to encapsulate too many objectives into their campaigns and this often leads to consumer confusion.

Pharmaceuticals are unlike FMCG. the consumer doesn't have to make informed, conscious decisions when it comes to buying shampoo. for drugs, without the possibility of DTC in this country anytime in the next century, pharma companies have to educate the public on the medical conditions which warrants a specific type of treatment. this will undoubtedly elongate the already complex consumer decision process. and when a pharma campaigns tries to educate the public on a highly specialized subject such as disease and treatment, it has to make it easy to relate a certain treatment to a particular disease. this is more complicated than it seems, and even the best executions will fail to sustain an overloaded campaign.