How Is COVID-19 Redefining The Pharma Marketing Efforts?

Let’s face it: hardly, the industry is left, that’s not get impacted after the corona outbreak. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 has brought unexpected changes everywhere and forced the companies to refine the processes and operations to stay in the market. The pharma and life science companies are no exception, which has experienced drastic changes in the last few months due to the cancelled reps’ visits to the HCPs clinics, improved need for digital engagement, and sharpened e-detailing needs.  

As Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, and an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. There is always something valuable that can be derived out of difficulty, adversity, or change.”

So is the case with the corona that has disrupted our lives with terrifying changes, but there exists a myriad of opportunities when pharma and life science companies respond to the challenges positively. Especially, the pharma marketing segment can make the most out of the corona crisis.

Interested to know how pharma marketing influenced due to corona? Take a sneak peek inside it:

 

Virtual engagement facilitation

With the reduction in the in-person reps visits and face-to-face meetings, the pharma marketers need to change the standard commercial model of interaction with HCPs. Leveraging the technology solutions to overcome the barrier is all-important. Realising the need, the companies are encouraging marketers to use video consults or tele-health solutions while engaging with HCPs.

The silver lining in the pandemic is the digital detailing which was already in use for years, but not getting widespread adoption, which is now utilized, to the fullest. The opportunity lies in data that reps can use to personalize the interaction and engage the HCPs with the medicine they need just the way they are doing before during in-person interaction.  

Marketing strategy needs gala changes

Different HCPs are affected differently from the COVID-19 and experiencing different pressures and barriers, which makes it essential to approach the HCPs accordingly.

For instance, supply chains disrupted, risk level increased, the taxed healthcare system is changed, and treatment protocols are modified, which is distinctly impacting different types of HCPs. In such cases sending the promotional messages to HCPs to buy their drug won’t work anymore. The marketers have to be proactive while sending the messages to the HCPs on different channels because HCPs can be engaged only when they are reached out with the ‘real drug need’ message on the channel they prefer.

Digital media engagement

Since the pandemic started, pharma marketing has increased the spending on digital content or advertisements. The reason behind the increased spending on digital media is the patients and reps are home bound or sitting idle, and unable to reach out to the point of care, that’s where digital media helps in catching the maximum attention.

For making the content relevant, impactful, and actionable, the target audience can be reached out and converted with great ease. Not in the long run, but during the crisis, the digital content supplementing the tele-health solution will temporarily replace sales reps’ visits and detailing.

Measurable changes in marketing investment

Adjusting the marketing behavior following the changed consumers’ health behavior has resulted in improved digital media marketing efforts. To maintain the advertising presence, the pharma companies need to spend heavily on digital media. Though, the unique advantages of the high investment are hidden in plain sight.

Moreover, the increased marketing investment is more HCP-focused because physicians are the first point who accept the medicines marketed by the reps, and then they are advised to patients. It’s high time to increase the market share and build awareness in new markets with digital media marketing rather than sitting idle for months, and waiting till the pandemic gets over.

Directly shipping prescriptions to the patients

Post-corona outbreak, the gala changes are observed in patients’ behavior, that are a substantial drop off in doctor visits. However, the patient population suffering from chronic illness urgently needs medical attention and medications, and the unavailability of the medication increases the risk levels.

The pharma marketing can fill the gap by creating a digital channel where patients can request the prescriptions to refill and delivered to the doorstep. When the tele-medicine opportunities evaluated relative to disease states, it helps in resolving limited access to HCPs and medication problems and identifying the usage variation pattern in medication consumption.