According to a new eyeforpharma survey, the Australian pharma industry is slow to adopt new sales and marketing models and wary of social media.

By Andrew Tolve on Mar 2, 2010

According to a new eyeforpharma survey, the Australian pharma industry is slow to adopt new sales and marketing models and wary of social media. Andrew Tolve reports

While Australian pharma and biotech companies recognize the need for new sales and marketing models, they generally fail to prioritize the development and adoption of new models in their current spending patterns. Thats the conclusion of an eyeforpharma survey conducted by the Vedere Group.

The study also reveals that Australias pharma industry is moving at a near glacial pace when it comes to embracing and investing in social media tools.

A dichotomy may exist in pharma and biotech organizations whereby the analysis and strategic development of new sales and marketing business models is not receiving an adequate level of internal attention and resources within companies, the authors of the study report.

If this gap exists and goes unrecognized then it is [our opinion] that significant inefficiencies will be created with organizations, leading to a loss of competitive advantage and decreased profitability.

Becoming more customer-centric

The study canvassed 76 senior sales and marketing executives from 27 pharma and biotech organizations in Australia. Respondents included sales and marketing directors, business unit directors, product managers, sales directors, and SFE managers and marketing strategy analysts. Those who participated completed an online questionnaire in November 2009.

Nearly unanimously, this pool of respondents agreed that current sales and marketing models are unsustainable and in need of revamping. Some 88 percent agreed or strongly agreed that marketing models need to become more customer-centric, and 76 percent agreed or strongly agreed that its become necessary to study the models of other industries like the financial sector.

And yet when it comes to prioritizing their budgets, the refining of sales and marketing business models placed a distant fifth behind medical education, product launches, and brand and rep performance. Developing new campaign management tools came eighth, the study found, and developing marketing talent was one of the lowest budget priorities.

The need for more competitive and cost effective sales and marketing business models is a recognized need in the industry, the authors wrote. Once again we appear to see a discrepancy between where the cost of the industrys activities is being recognized and the line of functions that would be expected to be responsible for implementation.

The role of KAM

Key Account Management (KAM) presented a similar incongruity between recognition and spending, with 75% of respondents believing that KAM improves a products value proposition and 71% feeling that KAM enables a stronger partnership with key customers.

And yet developing KAM tools and strategies constituted the seventh highest spend category, way behind the mainstays of medical education and product launches. Additionally, only 23% of respondents believed KAM is well established and part of everything we do.

Missing out on social media

As for social media, the study found that Australias pharma and biotech companies do not understand social media nor do they actively invest in it. Some 75% of respondents said their companies dont use blogs as a sales or marketing tool. A similar percentage reported they dont use medical professional social networks or patient social networks.

The vast majority of respondents dont personally use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, or blogs. LinkedIn is only online exchange they partake in, and patient websites are the only online forums their businesses take advantage of.

Thus, its not a surprise that social marketing, eDetailing, and eMarketing are neglected in these companies current spending patterns, according to the study. Some 48 percent of respondents agreed that my company does not understand how to apply eMarketing and social media concepts in our business, and an additional 20 percent said their companies exhibit only mediocre comprehension.

That the disparity between personal respondent use of social media and the general population data on utilization should be so great was potentially one of the most interesting findings of this study, the authors wrote.

Given that, ultimately, all technology trends have significantly impacted the healthcare market, they continued, it can be assumed that consumer and professional use of social media will become a factor which will need to be understood by the healthcare market. What position should be taken in pharma and biotech sales and marketing strategies may be unclear at this stage; however, the current lack of utilization and investment prioritization can probably be defined as a potential issue for marketers.

To download the full report, please click here.