A New Era of Accountable Marketing
A massive structural shift is happening across the pharmaceutical industry that demands new skills, new tools and new ideas in the marketing suite. Brand leaders are looking to their agency partners to take on critical new roles in data-driven channel planning, marketing innovation and ROI modeling and analysis.
Old Questions Have New Urgency
Doctors call it the hand-on-the-doorknob question: that critical thing that’s been on the patient’s mind the entire appointment, but isn’t asked until the doctor’s hand is resting on the doorknob, readying to move on to the next patient. “What about,” they ask, “… this rash or symptom or fear?” The doctor inhales and starts a much longer conversation.
In healthcare marketing, that hand-on-the-doorknob question happened predictably at the end of key presentations and pitches. “Oh, one more thing,” it started, “how will you measure the effectiveness of this approach?” The strategist would take a deep breath and launch into an answer, often full of caveats around what data could actually be accessed. The questioner would nod, satisfied, knowing hard numbers were unlikely to ever take shape.
Now, major disrupters in the pharmaceutical industry have put the spotlight on quantifying value, measuring impact and taking the smartest risks. Those old hand-on-the-doorknob questions have new urgency and new expectations. Today, they’re the first questions asked and the ones that demand the clearest answers and deepest scrutiny.
We first started to hear the pronouncements at the end of 2011. The FDA had just approved the first generic of Pfizer’s ultra-blockbuster atorvastatin (Lipitor). Not only was Lipitor too big for Pfizer to easily replace, it was one of several drugs (Zyprexa, Plavix, etc.) near the end of patent life that were too big for the industry to replace. In fact, the most promising compounds left in the pipeline were much more likely to be specialty therapeutics than mass market changers.
It was the end: The end of the blockbuster era.
That cliff has been well-covered. What we’re seeing now is how organizations are evolving in response to it and what new trends are forcing even more change. This new era of accountable marketing is being shaped by three major disrupters ...
