Industry leaders from Bristol Myers Squibb, Otsuka, and GSK share insights on transforming pharmaceutical marketing through customer-centric approaches that bridge traditional silos.
The pharmaceutical industry is witnessing a significant evolution in how companies engage with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients, as omnichannel strategies become increasingly sophisticated. During a recent panel discussion, leaders from major pharmaceutical companies shared their experiences in developing more personalized, patient-centered approaches to marketing.
The Evolution of Pharmaceutical Omnichannel Strategy
Denise Dalton, who leads worldwide omnichannel strategy at Bristol Myers Squibb, highlighted the industry's shift toward true customer centricity. "What excites me now is that we're all here talking about this. It's not just one individual or one team saying we really need to think about that n of one customer," said Dalton. "The technology is currently there for us to leverage and really embed within our organizations."
Abby Canlas, head of the Omnichannel Center of Excellence at Otsuka, emphasized that today's omnichannel approach is fundamentally about understanding customers.
"Historically we always wanted to be customer centric, but now we have the data and the operations to understand our customers, evolve to where they are, and let them tell us what they require and what they need,"
Canlas explained.
John R. Wall, who leads the content team at GSK, brought a unique perspective from his previous experience in e-commerce at Wayfair. "It's really exciting to come to pharma at a place and time where some of the great learnings from other personalization platforms can be applied to something that's not nearly as important," noted Wall. "In pharma it's all about the story. It's all about the patient."
Reimagining Content Development for Personalization
The panel identified content creation as a critical area requiring transformation. Traditional pharmaceutical marketing typically revolves around campaigns with fixed messaging, but effective omnichannel requires a more dynamic approach.
"We need to flip how we think about content," urged Dalton. "Instead of that claim, chart, and table, we need to think about five claims, three different ways to display that data, and four different charts so that I've got that speed and ability to really flip what I'm saying to whom I'm saying faster."
Wall emphasized the importance of relevancy over volume. "What I really like to think about is relevancy—understanding what's relevant to a person or an audience and creating content that is tailored to that audience," he said. He cautioned against measuring success by output alone: "So often I hear my friends and colleagues talk about how much they did, how many assets they created, how many channels they're on... but that isn't patient focused."
Putting Patients at the Center
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the critical importance of keeping patients at the center of all marketing efforts. The panel emphasized that effective omnichannel strategy requires understanding both the patient journey and the HCP journey simultaneously.
"It's the combination of the patient and the HCP journey. As the patient is living with their disease for two years, three years, the information that physician needs is very different than the patient that walks in and says, 'I have these symptoms and I don't know what's wrong with me.'"
explained Dalton.
Wall highlighted the importance of considering the entire patient journey, not just the initial prescription: "One of the things I think we don't talk enough about is that it isn't just that first script. Part of the journey is also when you stay on something, and your physician helps you throughout the entire journey."
Cross-Functional Collaboration and Implementation
Successfully implementing omnichannel strategies requires breaking down traditional silos between departments. Canlas emphasized the importance of cross-functional teams that include "the entire commercial customer engagement, commercial operations team, the brand team, medical, legal, regulatory, and privacy."
The panel agreed that involving compliance teams early in the process is essential. "Having very good conversations and transparent conversations with your compliance colleagues are just key," said Canlas. "Leaning in, bringing them in that level of inclusion earlier in any experiment that you're looking to do, any sort of journey mapping exercise, is so key."
Measuring Success Beyond Activities
When asked about the most impactful KPIs for omnichannel marketing, the panel emphasized business outcomes over activity metrics. "MBRX [market basket Rx]," Canlas stated firmly, "because that is the culmination of all of the efforts. That means that physician and that patient have made a choiceful decision to start therapy."
Wall cautioned against metrics that focus solely on output: "Often I hear my friends and colleagues talk about how much they did, how many assets they created, how many channels they're on... if at the end of the year those people write in their self-input, 'I created a lot and I did more,' then we're measuring the wrong things."
Key Takeaways
1) Patient-centricity drives effective omnichannel: "It's the combination of the patient and the HCP journey... You start with the patient, identify then who are the HCPs in that moment," said Canlas.
2) Content strategy requires fundamental transformation: "Instead of that claim, chart, and table, we need to think about five claims, three different ways to display that data, and four different charts," explained Dalton.
3) Cross-functional collaboration is essential: "It's bringing the entire commercial customer engagement, commercial operations team, the brand team, medical, legal, regulatory, and privacy together," noted Canlas.
4) Measure business outcomes, not activities: "MBRX is ultimately the most customer-centric KPI," stated Canlas, emphasizing the importance of measuring actual patient impact.
5) Consider the complete patient journey: "Part of the journey is also when you stay on something. And your physician helps you throughout the entire journey," Wall emphasized, highlighting the need to support patients beyond initial prescription.
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