A Milestone Week

It was a milestone week for this blogger ... my 100th blog post and 700th Twitter follower, all in one week!

I thought it would be a good time to say THANK YOU to all the followers out there. I always enjoy your comments and thrive from your feedback, both here and on Twitter (@WendyBlackburn). Even if you don't agree with what I have to say, it's always good to know someone's listening.

Thanks for helping make ePharma Rx a fulfilling project -- and even more importantly, hopefully a helpful resource -- in the ePharma world.

- Wendy

Increase ROI with Smarter Segmentation

Thank you to Intouch colleague Jen Klingensmith for this excellent ePharma Rx Guest Blogger contribution!

In a down economy, marketers are evaluating their efforts to ensure they’re getting the most bang for their buck. One key factor in improving ROI and brand identity is becoming more targeted in your marketing vision. Segmentation, therefore, must go beyond the formulaic approach of "we make drug X to help people with condition Y." Take, for instance, the following female consumer.

Case Study: Female Consumer

Ranking the Case Study's Priority
Based on the information presented and your overall marketing vision, there are two different ways you might interpret where this woman ranks in priority.

If you are creating a community Web site or forum to learn how people with her condition manage without medication, she is highly relevant to your intended audience. Alert her to your new site or branding materials.

However, if you are creating an e-mail blast with an incentive of getting reduced-cost prescriptions, the fact that she has standard co-pay prescription coverage and does not take medication would tell you that the probability of her responding to your offer is low.

While it may take some advanced preparation, looking beyond basic indication targets provides higher rates of relevance between your audience and your brand, and ultimately improves your ROI.

In the March issue of DTC Perspectives, Kevin Clancy, Chairman of the marketing consulting firm Copernicus, refers to this approach as tapping into problems and pains. Clancy recommends looking into the factors of life events, treatment attributes and benefits, and the intangible emotional responses that move people from prospects to consumers. Likewise, Forrester Research encourages marketers to “[gain] a better understanding of the consumer targets for a given offer, involving deep technology adoption (tech ownership and attitudes), behavioral, attitudinal and demographic segmentation.”


For more information on how Intouch Solutions can help you refine your segmentation to create smarter targets, contact us at getintouch@intouchsol.com.

Don't Be a Social Media Whiner

I have a confession. Some of my Facebook friends are whiners. "Jane is soooooo tired again today," or "John is thinking this terrible week will never, ever end."

That's okay every once in a while - everyone has bad days - but the repeat offenders really get old.

I don't see any whiners on LinkedIn. Because that's a place for professionals, and professionals don't whine. I don't find whiners on Twitter because, well, I choose not to follow whiners on Twitter. Unfortunately online communities and forums can be a magnet for these types as well. And bloggers who tend to be negative all the time are a turnoff to me, too.

My boss is always reminding me to stay positive. It's a good motto in life, and it's an even better motto in social media. That goes for whether it's your personal brand or your marketing efforts. If all people know or see of you is what you post, tweet, or blog about online, don't you want that to be positive? Impactful, insightful, yes ... but also positive.

Staying positive takes work. It is all too easy to default to whining and negativity. But my very-Southern mama used to tell me "don't say anything at all unless you have something nice to say." She was right.

I'm not saying I'm 100% positive all the time myself - those close to me know better. But I do try to be conscious of it - while both online and off.

So I'll leave you with a book recommendation on a somewhat related topic. It's a quick read with an important message, written by two ad-agency women in New York. It's a few years old but one of the business books that has resonated with me and our agency philisophy the most: The Power of Nice.

Happy summer reading! And stay positive.

Be Sure Your Digital Agency is the Real Deal ....10 Questions to Ask

Not surprisingly, I've been hearing about situations lately where traditional agencies are adding digital capabilities. By the same token, digital agencies are adding offline capabilities, as evidenced by digital agency Razorfish's recent foray into creating a TV spot. I've blogged a lot in the past about agency models, and Ad Age recently weighed in as well.

It's a hot topic and an ongoing debate. Eventually we'll all probably meet in the middle. But I don't think that's necessarily the best thing. Here's why:

Digital capabilities can't be added overnight. (Certainly the same can be said for offline/traditional capabilities, too.) At my agency, we've known for ten years the interactive channel is a difficult channel to master. There are many layers, pieces, parts, and people that need to come together to make a digital project successful. From ideation and strategy all the way through execution, digital requires a complicated, sophisticated, and unique approach, and once you have that mastered, there is always some new technology to learn around the corner.

Our agency's technical staff are in-house for a reason - quality control, innovation, and flexibility - and I am amazed on a daily basis at the magic they bring to our projects. I can't imagine us being as responsive or as creative for our clients if we were trying to wrangle freelancers or direct a sister agency from afar.

If you had a brain tumor, would you ask your family doctor to also be your brain surgeon? Digital requires specialization. When you hire a digital agency, make sure it's the real deal. Here's how:

1. Quiz them on their digital capabilities. Ask them if they outsource.
2. See what they say when you ask "How is digital marketing different than traditional?"
3. Ask them what their hosting setup is, and how their development, staging, and production servers allow for an organized and phased approach to medical/legal/regulatory review.
4. Ask them what percentage of their staff are technical.
5. Do they have in-house search marketing, email marketing, online media, analytics, and emerging/social media teams? How long have they had them? And if they only recently added digital expertise, how'd they do it? (Bought another agency, built from ground-up, merged with a sister agency, etc.)
6. Have they ever built, using in-house resources, any apps, widgets, gadgets or games?
7. Ask for their case studies on user experience.
8. Are their designers and writers Web-based, or traditional-turned-Web? (If the latter, buyer beware. They are very different, no matter what anyone tells you.)
9. Are their strategists' and account teams' backgrounds based in digital, or a more recent add-on to more traditional experience?
10. Ask for the bios of the team you'll be working with. This is completely acceptable and helps ensure you get the right digital-based staff on your team.

Only you will know the "right" answers to the questions above, based on your own needs and your brand's objectives. But at least asking the right questions is the first step to ensuring your digital agency is, in fact, the real deal.

Is it Really All About Social?

I was sitting in a meeting last week discussing Web marketing. We were lamenting that, while we're excited social media has finally grabbed the attention of pharma clients, we don't want them to therefore neglect the digital marketing basics.

It wasn't so long ago that marketers were crying,

"forget about the Web site,
it's all about SEARCH!"

Now it's:

"forget about the Web site and search,
it's all about SOCIAL!"

It was a good reminder that, with many things in life, it's never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. Least of all the social basket.

Moral of the story for the pharma marketer? Don’t "forget" about any of it ... search, unbranded and branded Web sites, eCRM, email marketing, partnerships, online advertising ... It’s all important in it's own right. Work with your agency to find the right mix for your own brand's objectives. But please don't dump all your budgets into social.

In preparations for 2010 planning (wow, 2010 already?!)... yes, see if you can weave some social programs into existing strategies. Yes, push the envelope.

But also be sure to look past the hype with a level head, and you'll be fine.

The Twitter Craze in the Context of ePharma

With special thanks to guest Intouch blogger and Emerging Media Planner, Jason Ary! The following article appeared in the latest issue of the "Intouch with ePharma" newsletter. To sign up for future newsletters, just visit our signup page.

An Intro to the Twitter Craze
Over the past few months, it seems like we’ve been inundated with this Twitter thing. So what is Twitter? How does it work? Where is its place in the online spectrum?

If you are asking yourself these questions, you’re not alone. Twitter is the hottest topic in the online frontier that celebrities, companies, advertisers and ordinary people are all trying to understand right now.

Twitter 101
Twitter is a microblogging platform that provides instant communication for instant gratification in a short-attention-span world. People can communicate with, or “follow,” virtually anyone around the world. The backbone to Twitter is the “tweet” – a short, 140-character (or less) message that can be used to inform others of what you are up to, pass on links to important stories, or participate in “tweeting convos” on particular subjects between other users.
The ability to quickly dispatch messages through Twitter to your followers, who can then “re-tweet” your post to their friends, allows for quick and viral spread of information in ways no other medium can match currently.

Twitter’s Impact on the Health Care Industry
The medical and pharmaceutical communities are beginning to see the value behind Twitter. Engaging consumers and HCPs with relevant material at the right time has been a constant challenge for the health care industry. Twitter gives the industry a way to overcome this challenge.

How can pharma utilize Twitter? Here are a few ideas:

• Enhance customer service – Trained customer service representatives can answer consumers’ questions promptly and provide helpful product information.


• Brand reputation management – Quickly dispel product myths and misinformation and provide appropriate messaging.


• Patient-to-caregiver advocacy – Improve communication between patients and caregivers.


• Communicate the bad with the good – Quickly communicate safety issues or product recalls.

A few pharmaceutical companies already have ventured into the Twitter waters. AstraZeneca uses Twitter to post company announcements and press releases. Boehringer Ingelheim uses Twitter as an audience engagement tool — posting seminars, expert comments, sharing conference information and articles.

Even physicians are tweeting. Recently Dr. Joel Wallskog and his orthopedic surgical team performed a twittered knee-replacement surgery with live, ongoing Twitter updates. Surgeons taking part in the operation took turns giving Twitter updates to followers asking questions about the surgery. The goals of tweeting during surgery are to comfort and educate consumers who might be undergoing the same procedure in the future and to provide instant, unique insights to HCPs and medical students.

Twitter’s Impact on PR
Businesses already have realized the impact Twitter has on addressing important PR situations. You might have seen in recent weeks the disturbing videos of a Domino’s pizza employee contaminating food that was served to customers. Addressing PR disasters like this can be challenging, and efforts often are considered “too little, too late.” However, Domino’s management utilized the same techniques the offending employees used to get their video out there: online social mediums.

According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, nearly 70% of the conversations surrounding this marketing nightmare took place on Twitter and YouTube. Realizing this is where the conversation really was happening, within 48 hours, Domino’s posted video statements from the CEO on YouTube, as well as a specific Twitter account to address consumers directly within the online social space.

While Twitter’s value goes way beyond crisis management, this example provides a good glimpse into the value of being able to quickly relay short, important messages to relevant people and institutions.

Are You Tweeting Yet?
In March 2009 alone, traffic/users on Twitter increased 131% in one month. With Oprah’s Twitter show, Ashton Kutcher’s race to 1,000,000 followers with CNN, and the buzz of celebrities using Twitter, it is the hottest social medium portal on the Internet today.

What are you waiting for? Check it out today at http://twitter.com/. And be sure to follow Intouch Solutions at www.twitter.com/intouchsol and Wendy Blackburn at www.twitter.com/wendyblackburn.

Is Pharma Focus Shifting from Branded to Unbranded?

Jon Richman had a nice post today on his Dose of Digital blog titled “RealAge, Wii Fit, and Pharma Marketing.” I’m a fan of the Wii Fit myself, and the game has definitely come up in brainstorms around Intouch as a way to reach new audiences, set within the healthy living conversation.

But there was actually a single sentence in his post - unrelated to the Wii - that sparked the idea for my post today:

“Every pharma company seems to be moving towards the realization that simply providing information about its products isn’t enough.”

Does this mean pharma is moving towards more unbranded or disease-state marketing over branded communications? It really depends on who you ask, which I’ve blogged about in the past.

It is interesting to note, however, (and some of you may remember) that providing “unbranded” disease state information is actually exactly how pharma started out on the Web. In the early days of the “World Wide Web,” first-generation versions of MSWatch.com, DiabetesWatch.com, and other content-rich sites like these provided support and helped sufferers better understand the chronic diseases they were living with. The branded message was secondary, and often completely absent. You might be surprised to learn (or remember) that some of these sites even had what’s now considered “social media” components, with features such as online forums, chat rooms, and other forms of user-generated content.

Pharma marketers were just beginning to experiment with the new online medium, and focusing on disease management felt more “comfortable” than just lambasting and broadcasting brand messages back then. It felt less self-serving. It was a way to test the waters of this exciting but confusing new medium.

It has only been within the last few years that I’ve seen marketers steer away from heavily unbranded or disease management approaches to a more centralized focus on BRAND BRAND BRAND. And with that uber-branded-focus came two things:

1. A bad reputation for Pharma
2. Further scrutiny from FDA

Think that is a coincidence?

I get it. Pharma marketing VPs ask tough ROI-related questions like “how does this disease.com site help my bottom line?” That can be a tough question to answer if you don’t have your strategies lined up properly. But if you do - and if you have decent tracking and analytics tools in place - you can prove the value of your unbranded programs.

What’s best for your brand - unbranded or branded? Depending on your objectives, who you’re trying to reach, and where they are in the treatment decision, it’s likely you’ll need a mix of both. But if the pendulum is indeed swinging back from heavily branded to more unbranded advertising, I don’t think it’s a bad thing for pharma right now. It’s definitely not a bad thing for consumers.