In the U.S., is pharma focus shifting from branded to unbranded?
Fellow blogger Jon Richman blogged recently that "Every pharma company seems to be moving towards the realization that simply providing information about its products isnt enough.
Does this mean pharma is moving towards more unbranded or disease-state marketing over branded communications? It really depends on who you ask.
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 whats 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 Ive 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 dont 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.
Whats best for your brand - unbranded or branded? Depending on your objectives, who youre trying to reach, and where they are in the treatment decision, its likely youll need a mix of both. But if the pendulum is indeed swinging back from heavily branded to more unbranded advertising, I dont think its a bad thing for pharma right now. It is definitely not a bad thing for consumers.
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Wendy Blackburn, Intouch Solutions, a digital marketing agency specializing in pharma
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