The radical change to deliver patient- and customer-centric engagement
Part One – Insights and Innovation
Generating insights should be getting easier with the rise of digital technologies – why does it remain challenging, and what are the new opportunities?
Every pharma and biotech company seeks insight to underpin its marketing strategy – a fresh, not-yet-obvious understanding of customer beliefs, values, habits, desires, motives, emotions or needs that can serve as the basis for a competitive advantage (Sawhney). In the past, pharma marketers relied on relatively narrow sources of information to generate insights, but the rise of digital technologies has left them with a new dilemma: they have found themselves overloaded with data. A survey of 40 biopharma CEOs and marketing leaders revealed that, whilst there is more access to data, 57% feel they are struggling to make better decisions (Accenture, 2019). Why does the increasing amount of data collected by pharmaceutical companies not improve the identification of insights as greatly as we would expect? And what are the biggest challenges marketers currently face when generating insights? Our top five recommendations are:
- Re-evaluating the effectiveness of current sources used to drive insight
- Training teams to use these current sources to the best of their ability
- Improving teams’ ability to leverage insights effectively
- Considering the added benefits of new data sources
- Finally, assessing the capabilities of marketers to identify training opportunities to support the future whole-scale adoption of new data sources
New data sources – what are they, and what are their benefits?
To appreciate the vast range of information available to marketers, the table below identifies traditional and commonly used sources in pharma/biotech, newer sources used by some leading pharma/biotech companies and other industries, and sources that have potential for future use.
| Sources of information | Quantitative research | Qualitative research/face-to-face contact |
| Commonly used sources of information in pharma/biotech | ||
| Industry reports, company reports, market analyses, disease indications/treatments, medical journals/ drug trials, mega trends/consumer trends, cultural studies, competitor information, websites/newspapers/magazines, KOLs, NHS datasets, real-world data | Quantification of stages in decision-making journey, segmentation studies, brand health studies, concept tests, product tests/conjoint analysis, pricing research (elasticity, etc.), econometric modelling, other relevant ad hoc research, patient record studies | Focus groups/in-depth interviews with target customers, expert panels, opinion leaders/innovators, customer-facing teams within business (sales, customer care lines), structured feedback from sales reps to identify common themes |
| Newer sources used by some leading pharma/biotech companies and other industries, or sources that have the potential to be used in the future | ||
| Retailer information, buying/collaborating with genomics companies (Roche and GSK), real-world evidence (RWE) | U&A studies/consumer panels, shopper behaviour studies, wearables built into clinical trial studies, use of IQVIA and ZS to leverage their comprehensive data sets, leveraging AI | Consumer immersions, accompanied shopping, ethnography (spending time with the target market in their environment (workplace/home), social listening in patient chat rooms, leveraging AI |
From speaking to our consultants, who work with industry-leading professionals, it is their understanding that despite all these available data sources, pharma brand teams are still reliant on narrow sources of information to drive insight. Few pharmaceutical companies have invested in leveraging newer alternative data sources, and the pharma/biotech industry is far behind other industries in the data they use to generate insights. Consumer packaged goods (CPGs), for example, have been much quicker to adopt new non-traditional insight technologies/methodologies, such as social listening and various applications of artificial intelligence (AI). The slow rate of adopting new technologies in the pharma/biotech industry “may be due to a high emphasis on data validity, or a desire to make sure all data is defendable to a p=0.001 confidence level” (Kosloff, 2016). Yet “leveraging innovative techniques, using the best market research tools and analyses to understand customer behaviour in the right context, is key to creating competitive advantage” (Grogan, Smith, & Forsyth, 2008). So, what inspiration can pharma take from other industries to drive better insight?
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI has huge potential to disrupt market research strategies, providing new methods for generating insights.
| What? | A branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behaviour in computers (Merriam-Webster) |
| Uses | Qualitative data processing – written data, such as open-ended survey responses, are translated into quantitative results. By applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) and statistical analyses, the overall sentiment of a response can be assessed (Gaiger, 2020) Neuromarketing – a field of marketing in which the brain is studied “to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behaviour and decision making” (Harrell, 2019) Facial analysis – customers’ reactions to visual stimuli are monitored and used to evaluate the effectiveness of communication materials. The consumer industry has widely adopted this technology, but it also has potential in the pharmaceutical industry, such as evaluating communications materials aimed at physicians (Gaiger, 2020) |
| Benefits | Qualitative data processing – streamlines the process for analysing datasets that a market researcher would have traditionally manually processed, and may identify trends missed by traditional processing methods Neuromarketing and facial analysis – eliminates customers’ bias when assessing customer reactions to marketing content |
Social Listening
Other industries, particularly the consumer industry, are successfully using social listening to gain insights, and have implemented these into successful marketing campaigns. With the right code-compliance principles applied, pharma brand teams could also leverage such sources.
| What? | The “tracking mentions of certain words, phrases, or even complex queries across social media and the web, followed by an analysis of the data” (Awario, 2019), to monitor the market, customers and competitor brands in real time |
| Uses | Competitor benchmarking, reputation management and customer service |
| Benefits | Passive data collection provides insight into actual customer behaviours, something which traditional primary data collection methods rarely capture (Boon, 2018) |
Influencer Mapping
Nowadays, large online communities can exchange information and opinions unhindered by geographical location. Consumer brands have tapped into these communities to gain fresh insights and identify key online influencers they may wish to collaborate with.
| What? | Network-mapping communities engaged with healthcare topics on Twitter and other social media sites |
| Uses | Mapping digital healthcare influencers online can provide insight into what content and language pharma brand teams should create to engage effectively with customers (Lamb & Morrow, 2013). Influencer mapping also allows you to directly engage with digital healthcare influencers and build a relationship through finding mutually beneficial projects (Fisher & Michels-Kim, 2017), to spread awareness of brands |
| Benefits | Will enable companies to “gain easier access to patient insights by developing closer relationships with patient organisations in relevant clinical areas” (Accenture, 2019) |
Such innovative marketing strategies will require adaptation and strong collaboration with compliance and medical leaders to ensure that pharma/biotech companies operate within the strict industry regulations. Senior marketing managers will need to ask themselves:
- Will the current organisational set-up of pharmaceutical companies allow for such seamless collaborations?
- Is my team appropriately skilled and supported to use such new data sources to their best effect, interpret the findings, and apply them to the business?
- What steps will pharma companies need to take to adopt new technologies, such as AI, in future insight-generating strategies?
Generating insights – current challenges
Before exploring such new data sources, senior marketing leaders will need to identify: what current challenges do pharma brand teams face when generating insights, and how can these be overcome? One major difficulty pharmaceutical companies are experiencing is that insights often prove to be diagnostic, explaining current trends, rather than assisting with making decisions about the future (Beauchamp, 2018). One solution could be to implement in-market experiments using a so-called “Test & Learn” approach, commonly used in the financial and retail industries to improve the customer journey. This approach is “based on the idea of a clinical trial: trying an idea with a subset of customers or markets, and comparing the results for that ‘test’ group to results for a ‘control’ group that received no change” (Beauchamp, 2018). Unilever, for example, use a “Test & Learn” approach prior to airing their advertisements. Consumer surveys and software that reads facial expressions are used with a small test audience to determine whether the advertisement is effective (van den Driest, Frank, Sthanunathan, & Weed, 2016). Pharma brand teams could use such an approach to test and optimise ideas generated from insights, and rapidly generate new insights from these small-scale in-market experiments. Ideas could subsequently be scaled up, effectively using the insights generated.
Additionally, our consultants identified another key challenge: pharma marketers often don’t fully understand the difference between insights versus information and data. Triangulation of a variety of data and information sources can be useful to help get to insight, but generating true insight, which can be applied to drive a competitive advantage, is one of the “arts” of marketing and goes beyond data. Data and information often inform marketers about “what” is going on, but we need to think creatively to form insight hypotheses as to “why” patients and particularly healthcare practitioners (HCPs) do what they do and then test these hypotheses. To improve insight development, we suggest marketers focus on asking the “5 Whys” (Toyoda’s method) when interpreting key current customer behaviours, and organise brand team forums to discuss the “Whys” and form common insight hypotheses.
Instead of just asking “what” is happening, ask “why” it is happening.
New marketing capabilities – setting your brand team up for success!
“Marketing leaders must focus now on creating customer relevance through building an agile, living marketing organisation” (Accenture, 2019). A second critical question that must be addressed is: are pharma brand teams set up to effectively generate insight through the organisation? The importance of insights needs to be reflected in the capabilities of pharma brand teams. Brand teams will find it difficult to generate insights effectively if they lack the appropriate training, capabilities and incentives; therefore, training marketers to generate insights should be a top strategic priority. Training will need to include support for confidently using, applying, and interpreting traditional and newer sources of information, and for knowing when and why to apply them.
According to a survey of Pharm Exec readers conducted by InCrowd (Kosloff, 2016), one of the greatest barriers to gaining useful market insights is obtaining information quickly and in high-quality, actionable form. Pharma brand teams will need to tackle these issues if they are to effectively generate insights through the organisation. For example, AI will likely need to be implemented for more rapid, real-time data analysis; hence, it may be necessary to retrain employees in basic AI and recruit more AI talent. This emphasis on speed will also have significant implications for the medical/legal/regulatory approval process of pharma companies, which, in most cases, is not currently designed for speed, let alone real-time analysis and changes.
Exploring organisational changes may also be beneficial for generating insight through the organisation. For example, Unilever has taken the approach of separating its market researchers from marketers and other functions. These independent insight groups report to the C-suite (executive-level managers within the company) and have autonomy over their own budget, allowing them to hold “accountability for helping other functions achieve business targets” (van den Driest, Frank, Sthanunathan, & Weed, 2016). The insight groups then collaborate with marketing groups, forming a partnership.
Pharmaceutical companies should also consider developing a recognition/reward system for employees when they identify and act on insight. Some large consumer companies, such as P&G and Unilever, are incentivising their employees to discover insights via financial benefits. This does not appear to be the case in the majority of pharma companies. There are marketing recognition programmes or best-in-practice awards that pharma brand teams can receive, but these recognise the results of successfully implementing/acting on insights, such as increased sales, rather than the generation of the insights themselves. If we want pharma brand teams to generate better insights, senior leaders will need to work on creating better incentives for people across different teams/departments throughout pharma to identify and report insights to pharma brand teams.
Having highlighted the need for improved pharma marketer capability training, we propose that pharma brand teams should receive training in the following capabilities:
- Training in tech – Andrew Stephen, Professor of Marketing at Oxford Saïd Business School, argues it is vital that marketers develop a baseline knowledge about technology’s capacities — and limitations (Venkataramakrishnan, 2020). So, whilst marketers do not need to be data scientists, they do need some training to be able to understand the data, and its limitations, to generate evidence-based insights. “There is an increasing need for understanding what the tools and tech can do for [marketers]” … “it’s not just about waving our magical AI wand” (Venkataramakrishnan, 2020)
- Building curiosity – marketers will need to develop and nurture their curiosity and desire to gain a deeper understanding of their markets, customers and environments. Pharma brand teams should constantly be encouraged to question “How?,” “What?,” “Why?” and “So what?”
- Understanding the importance of insights – pharma marketers should frequently be reminded of the importance of insights, through case study examples, to motivate them to deliver actionable recommendations
Not only is there a need to build the capabilities of current marketers, but leading pharmaceutical companies will also need to expand roles within pharma brand teams by introducing new marketing jobs that reflect the demand for new skill sets. For example, a data ethnographer could be responsible for analysing numerical data to uncover a story about how customers interact with a brand and find new marketing angles (Pring, Davis, & Boland, 2019). For further inspiration, see Cognizant’s whitepaper on “21 Marketing Jobs of the Future”.
Practical changes necessary for delivering insight
With the increasing demand for patient centricity (see Part 3 when it is released in June 2020), we also propose that pharma brand teams revise their insight models to align with more patient-focused industry values. Patient insights are gathered as early as the clinical trial development stage and are continuously sought, even post-launch, to gain a deeper understanding of customer needs across the entire patient journey. Gathering insights is essential not only for patients but also for other customers, particularly HCPs. As the pharmaceutical landscape becomes increasingly competitive, with the rise of generics and fewer blockbuster drugs, brands must differentiate on factors other than safety and efficacy. Deep insights into HCP behaviour are needed to understand what motivates them to consider specific treatments for specific patients, and to tailor marketing efforts accordingly. With customer-facing teams operating under tighter restrictions, “sales and marketing teams’ freedom to manoeuvre decreases, [so] their efficacy must increase, something that can only be achieved by underpinning activity with superior insights” (Grogan, Smith, & Forsyth, 2008). With such increasing importance, the need to develop and leverage deep insights effectively has never been greater.
Conclusion
With the rise of digital technologies, new data sources and tools can help marketers generate deeper insights. The pharma/biotech industry, however, is currently finding it challenging to generate better insights, despite the many sources of data available. Senior marketing leaders need to assess how to support marketers in using traditional, as well as newer, sources of information more effectively, with capability training playing a vital role.
We are a team of industry experts, with services in capability, so if you’d like to talk to us about a particular capability need or business challenge relating to generating insights, please do get in touch with us to discuss how we may help you.
References
Accenture. (2019). Better Together 2019 Patient Services Survey. Retrieved from accenture.com: https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-106/Accenture-Life-Sciences-Better-Together-2019-Patient-Services-Survey.pdf#zoom=50
Accenture. (2019). Biopharma marketing: Harnessing change for growth .
Awario. (2019, September 17). Social listening: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it. Retrieved from Marketing Land: https://marketingland.com/social-listening-267175
Beauchamp, S. (2018, February 20). The Analytics Revolution of 2018: Transforming Insights to Action. Retrieved from PharmExec.com: http://www.pharmexec.com/analytics-revolution-2018-transforming-insights-action
Boon, C. (2018, October 15). The Future of Market Research and Insights is Passive Data Collection. Retrieved from GreenBook Blog: https://greenbookblog.org/2018/10/15/the-future-of-market-research-and-insights-is-passive-data-collection/
Fisher, G., & Michels-Kim, K. (2017, July 17). Digital opinion leaders (DOLs) and their role in pharma markets. Retrieved from pharmaceuticalcommerce.com: https://pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/brand-marketing-communications/digital-opinion-leaders-dols-role-pharma-markets/
Harrell, E. (2019, January 23). Neuromarketing: What You Need to Know. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2019/01/neuromarketing-what-you-need-to-know
Kosloff, J. (2016, December 8). The State of Market Insights in Pharma. Retrieved from pharmexec.com: http://www.pharmexec.com/state-market-insights-pharma
Lamb, A., & Morrow, P. (2013, September 2). Mapping influencers in healthcare. Retrieved from PMLive: http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/mapping_influencers_in_healthcare_493664
Merriam Webster. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence (definition). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artificial%20intelligence
Pring, B., Davis, E., & Boland, V. (2019, April). 21 Marketing Jobs of the Future. Retrieved from https://www.cognizant.com/: https://www.cognizant.com/whitepapers/21-marketing-jobs-of-the-future-codex4428.pdf
Sawhney, M. (n.d.). Insights Into Customer Insights. Retrieved from CRMProject.com: https://mthink.com/legacy/www.crmproject.com/content/pdf/CRM5_wp_sawhney.pdf
van den Driest, Frank, Sthanunathan, S., & Weed, K. (2016, September). Building an Insights Engine. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2016/09/building-an-insights-engine
Venkataramakrishnan, S. (2020, February 26). What marketers need to understand about their industry’s new technology. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/: https://www.ft.com/content/834cc9ce-3ba2-11ea-b84f-a62c46f39bc2
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