Unlocking The Potential of Multichannel Marketing in Brazil
No longer seen as simply an alternative, Multichannel Marketing (MCM) is increasingly becoming a core strategy in Brazil’s pharma industry. eyeforpharma speaks to André Veloso, Multichannel Manager for Pfizer Brazil how to leverage this practice in the region.
André Veloso believes that to successfully implement MCM in a pharma company, there are four things that must not be forgotten: “Know your target and which technologies they have access to, fit the right content for the right channel, be relevant, and measure and promote results.”
Brazil’s pharma industry has an interesting history, and is still very much based on the traditional channels of interaction, sales force and HCP oriented events. However, as Veloso points out, over the past two decades, the market has changed a lot in terms of approaches and strategies mainly due to three factors. These is an increasing presence of the regulatory agency who is looking more closely at the relationship between pharma companies and physicians, generics have made an entrance into the market which has increased the importance of the pharmacies and drugstores in the market, and new technologies have arrived which have changed content availability and have forced companies to think about new ways to provide information to HCPs.
Veloso points out that Brazil’s pharma industries are still learning how to position themselves on the MCM environment. “There are a lot of initiatives that are very successful if considered as a stand-alone action, but usually not developed under a single corporate strategy.” Over the past couple of years, companies are looking more closely at MCM as a core strategy, and there are now a few very talented professionals on the marketplace which he says are now shaping the market, and building very strong digital presences.
“If things are improving on the side of the MCM professionals and capabilities in our market, we still have a lack of support from the top management, in the sense that MCM is still not as embedded in the organizations as it should be.” This, Veloso says, usually means that MCM managers spend a lot of time fighting for resources and budgets when they could be working on generating results. He believes that time needs to be spent on improving the measurement and communication of the real return on investment of digital initiatives. “This is something that has been requested by the top management but has not been delivered in a convincing way in many countries.”
Business Intelligence and segmentation
You will be able to identify some physicians with a profile of interest in personal calls, some interested in attending events and interacting with peers and, of course, some of who prefer to interact through digital media.
The evolving field of MCM means that it is increasingly being seen as a key strategy for pharma businesses, including the effective usage of Business Intelligence and segmentation to define MCM strategies.Veloso believes that MCM should be considered as part of the marketing mix from the beginning of the planning process, not just as an alternative for increasing reach. He says there is a very simple reason for this: “HCPs are demanding new ways to receive and look for information themselves, through the web and digital channels.”
He comments that if you think about the planning process, it all starts with the segmentation, which considers potential and contribution but does not consider the best way to communicate with physicians. “By including this variable, you will be able to identify some physicians with a profile of interest in personal calls, some interested in attending events and interacting with peers and, of course, some of who prefer to interact through digital media.”
Implementing segmentation at such a point in the process will enable marketers to make the right resource allocation and optimize initiatives in all groups, ultimately leveraging results on and offline. This can be done in all countries, but the difference in Brazil’s pharma market, Veloso observes, is the size of the digitally-integrated group and the maturity to use this approach on new channels where MCM and Business Intelligence need to work hand-in-hand. He stresses that to develop a good MCM strategy it is absolutely necessary to use existing data on physicians’ habits and profile, and when creating a campaign or a project, to have the capability to monitor results and to use this feedback to improve upcoming ones. There is also a second important usage of segmentation. This is the capability of (based on the behavior) prescriptions and interest, to customize content in a way that value can really be delivered to each individual customer and the effect of a project is multiplied. “This is something that can only be done through the digital media, what shows a little bit of the potential you have to deliver the right message to the right customer of MCM – and, even better, with the capability of monitoring and measuring each component impact when supported by Business Intelligence.”
Becoming more relevant to HCPs in Brazil
To be even more visible in the Brazilian pharma market, Veloso says that MCM needs to be focused on customer needs and avoid doing things just because they are trendy. He has seen many companies that started projects on portals, social media and other channels to be innovative and then a year later were not able to sustain the content feed or to generate traffic by having new services and offers. “Especially in a country like Brazil, with more than 380,000 physicians that are spread out in a large area, you need to think about all the hurdles you have, from the poor infrastructure in some areas through to the differences in formation and access to information.” This means that campaigns need to be carefully planned and executed, or any efforts will be lost in the “sea of medical information” that is available in Portuguese.
A doctor in a hospital, who stays the whole day on the Intensive Care Department, would be very different from the ones that would be applied to an Ophthalmologist.
For this reason Veloso explains that there is no solution which fits all needs when talking about MCM in Brazil. He offers the example of how strategies for a doctor in a hospital, who stays the whole day on the Intensive Care Department, would be very different from the ones that would be applied to an Ophthalmologist, who stays the whole day at their private practice. “That’s the main reason why the Brazilian MCM market has been evolving tremendously in the last few years.” He says that the industry have a group of people leading this change that really understand these differences and are adapting the MCM strategies and projects to achieve specific targets and results.
Veloso has some interesting last thoughts on unlocking the potential of MCM: “Do not forget - innovation is good, when it is time sustainable, with consistency and quality. Don’t create a digitally-addicted physician only to leave them to move to a more relevant competitor offering.”