Who killed DTC marketing?
The main culprits are risk aversion and a misplaced emphasis on doing instead of thinking.
By on Aug 9, 2010The main culprits are risk aversion and a misplaced emphasis on doing instead of thinking.
I hate to say it but most DTC marketing is as dead as Mel Gibsons career.
Its dead because pharma marketers refuse to change with the times and acknowledge empowered patients.
Sure, some pharma marketers are going to use the Were a regulated industry excuse.
But the fact is, today more money is wasted on ineffective drug marketing at a time when the drug industry is finding it harder and harder to spend money for marketing.
What led to the demise of DTC marketing?
Well, a lot of things, but this writer believes that the primary causes of the decline in DTC marketing are the rise of epatients and mistrust of big companies due to the worldwide recession.
More and more people are going online for health information, and 20-40% of pharma product website traffic is coming from outside the US.
In addition to all this, the huge popularity of social media has allowed patients and consumers to talk and listen to each other like never before.
We are more likely to have more in common with someone thousands of miles away than our neighbors, thanks to social media.
I will be the first person to admit that social media is not the answer to a pharma marketers dream, but there is something else going on here that most pharma marketers have overlooked.
The primary users of social media and online health information are women.
Believe it or not, they use the Internet differently than men.
Research has shown that women are open to brand messaging via online marketing but they want more relevant information.
They want brands to know more about them, and that is where pharma marketers have dropped the ball big time.
What consumer products marketers are learning is that mass marketing is dead.
Its now about marketing to micro-segments and reversing the traditional marketing funnel to influence influencers and get them to become brand ambassadors.
For the most part, pharma has not embraced personalized CRM programs.
For most, pharma markets are all about new scripts and throwing mud against the fan and hoping some of it sticks.
They still believe that people are going to see a DTC TV spot and run to their physician to ask for an Rx at a time when less and less people are going to their physicians.
Pharma marketers have a chance to get to know their customers, and what they want in information, to help them navigate the complex world of online health information.
Instead, they have chosen to invest the minimum amount of money for online marketing, including CRM, at a time when online is becoming more important. (Scratch your head at this puzzle).
Hell, most pharma companies are not even doing usability studies at a time when usability is more important than ever!
Why is this happening?
Its happening because there are too many MBA marketing people in pharma who like to quantify everything they do.
The problem with that, of course, is that every one of your competitors is doing the same thing.
It also happens because, to them, doing TV makes them a star.
They can get wined and dined by their ad agency while the interactive marketing people beg for more money.
It also happens because they have maybe one person developing their emarketing strategy and overseeing execution.
But most of all, it happens because DTC marketers are risk averse and dont want to make waves.
Its better to be a well-lubricated cog in a machine than a linchpin at a time when I have to fit in so not to risk my job.
Its sad actually.
At a time when people are turning to the Web for health information, DTC marketers are ignoring them under the guise Were a regulated industry. (For more on epatients, see The empowered patient - what it means for pharma and Adherence and the empowered patient.)
Eventually, DTC marketers will have to change, but it is going to require an infusion of new talent and people who can balance consumer needs with brand objectives.
Until that happens, DTC marketing will continue to fade to irrelevance until people are just doing, not thinking.
Maybe were there already. Im not sure. But unless things change, there just might not be a need for consumer marketing people at big pharma.