Disease BRANDING !

Interesting to note, the healthcare industry works in reverse manner. Actually the main reason being, restrictions on advertising in this industry. While, it is also been argued that the Indian consumers hardly get influenced by Pharma Drug / Product advertisements, doctors promoting advts, etc. With the advent of mass media and information age, the consumer has become knowledgeable enough to decide. Now the consumer is the king coz they take their own decisions. In such scenario promoting products becomes very difficult, add to it the launch of more products in the same category creates a very competitive environment for the products/brands to survive.
So then what can be the right medium to promote / publicise Healthcare products?
These products are often managed by Product Managers more experienced in marketing and armed with MBAs. They think only on Rol, exceptionals think about MAR-COM (Marketing & Communication).

It is important to promote the disease category, brand the diseases and inform the consumers about diseases. Some of the important diseases which enjoy Brand status in the market are listed below:

1. Breast Cancer
2. AIDS
3. Bird Flu
4. Headache
5. Sore eyes (Conjuntitis)
6. Heart Attack
7. Dog bite (Rabies)
8. Diabetes Day
9. Blood cancer (Leukemia)

Consumers are aware about these above diseases and its effects. They are empowered with knowledge to understand the symptoms, asking for help, diagnosis and treatment. Mass media gets the credit to promote among the patients/ consumers. Patients often debate with Doctors on possible treatments for these diseases.

The media informs consumers / patients and doctor answers queries, it is a two way process, which creates a lasting impact in the minds of consumers. Branding diseases also helps to create awareness resulting in more patients and diagnosis. Early diagnosis helps to provide early treatment, saving the patients lives.

Now, the time has come for ICMR to soften of restrictions which they had laid.
I won't be surprised if tomorrow patients start performing diagnosis on themselves and consult with the doctor online for help...

Publicity of CMEs

Continuous Medical Education, in short CME forms an important part in a doctor’s career. They begin their career attending CMEs which is essential to update their knowledge and end up themselves as speakers at CMEs. According to ICMR a doctor has to attend a particular no. of CMEs per year to upgrade themselves on latest developments in their area of specialization.

Informing media about CMEs and getting publicity for the same is very difficult or just next to impossible using the traditional methods of Public Relations. Doctors & clients often demand media publicity for such programs.

I agree pitching for stories and inviting media for it, is very difficult, but possibility cannot be ruled out. The PR consultant can take few steps to understand the CME:

1. Meet the concerned doctor and understand everything related to the CME, its benefits for Doctors, Patients and Society.
2. Get all the details from Client on this CME like schedule, speakers, topics of discussion, case study presentation, etc.
3. Speak to other well-known and established doctors practicing in this area of specialization and understand the CMEs importance from their perspective.
4. Scan and track online (internet) for news featuring these doctors quotes, to understand the area of specialisation of medicine.
5. Check whether any news is available on that particular specialization of medicine and related to the CME.
6. Source unique case studies from the concerned doctor, which will prove helpful to pitch to media.
7. Now draft a note based on all the info available and sought approval from the client.
8. Based on this available information prepare a strategy for media coverage.
9. Pitch to media (preferably meet media personally) and discuss this story with them. E.g. pitch to two mainline and two vernacular publications for stories. It is quite easy to invite two mainline pubs for an interaction with the concerned doctor. For vernacular and other media press release can be disseminated.
10. Invite at least three trade media publications to attend this event.
11. Post the event get a small brief on all the topics discussed and presented. Also get the presentations. Pitch to all the trade media publications based on the info available.
12. Also send this detailed information to all the doctors who were unable to attend this CME.

A Communication Consultants job is not only to get coverage but also inform all the stakeholders. The hospitals newsletter should contain information on such CMEs which could later be sent to Health correspondents of publications as reference material. Mailing such newsletters also highlights the healthcare provider’s initiative to upgrade knowledge and inform about new developments.

MEDIA and DOCTORS!

Or can we say doctors and media? Any which ways doctor's always Love giving their quotes for various stories which the media often covers. Doctors also love their publicity and they cherish that media knows them by their name. The most important thing which fascinates a doctor is a pic of his case study along with him and story on successful surgery.

The trend of hiring journalists / correspondents specially dedicated to health beat started around 1995s. These correspondents mostly reported human interest stories; they also covered unique case studies / surgeries. Most of these stories require doctors quotes so the story is factually correct.

But interestingly the more quotes start appearing in media on specific diseases / surgeries led to doctors publicity. Readers regarded such doctors as experts in their specialties and start spreading word-of-mouth publicity, thus helping the doctors to gain more patients.

The real boost came when doctors realize this and how it was connected to their business. The doctors also knew ICMRs restrictions for advertisements in Healthcare sector.
What actually started happening is doctors started hiring services of PR Agencies, a new boost in Healthcare scenario!
But when something unregulated starts in any business it leads to lot of chaos.

The important aspect to realize is only publicizing doctors, won't help, it has to be 360 degrees. From free diagnosis camps for patients, to seminars, to doctor patient relation manners & etiquettes training, information articles on diseases and speaking to media on various issues will help in the long run.

Importance of COMMUNICATION in Healthcare

Every industry has realised the importance of communication. The constitution itself proclaims Right for Information. This same stands true in Healthcare scenario. But their is a difference, because a small mistake in Healthcare Communication can create a huge crisis. Healthcare is related to Wellbeing, Life, Health, basically connected to us HUMANS. Hence entitles for utmost care in communication.

The Healthcare sector has realised this and to the birth of specialised communication consultants like Bioquest, Imprimis Life Therapy, Sorento Healthcare, Watermelon advertising, etc. It is rightly said "Need is the Mother of Invention", so it is important to understand this sector companies, their offerings and briefs. These specialised consultants have resources trained and experienced to understand the nitty gritties, issues, Government policies, Information on new innovations, discoveries, etc.

In Indian scenario Healthcare Communication is mostly managed by experienced resources, but it still lacks the understanding coz doctors themselves are not involved. The international trend involves doctors coz they bring with them the understanding on those Healthcare subjects/issues.

India lacks Healthcare professionals, so it is very difficult to involve them as resources in the business of Communication. Now, what can be the probable solution to this problem of resources?

According to my suggestion the Healthcare Communication Consultants can use experienced Medical representatives as advisers. They are lots of Medical Representatives working for different Pharmaceutical companies, Lab automation manufacturers, etc. Medical Representatives interact with doctors daily and equipped with information on specific diseases, they also have understanding on Healthcare issues and policies. Medical representatives are the marketing executives of the Pharma companies and also their Brand Ambassadors who often meet the Doctor’s (Clients).

It is also important to take help from KPOs working in Healthcare sector coz, they are the people who conduct surveys, prepare reports on diseases and drugs, which are then shared with the key doctor’s. This helps the doctor’s to get better understanding about the products/ drugs.
But, taking into account ICMRs (Indian Council of Medical Research) liberal policies in this era, lot of Healthcare companies are investing to develop communication strategy, to differentiate itself from the competition. This industry is also experiencing lot of lobbying through govt associations, media and policy makers, so the portfolio of the Communication consultants has also grown or increased. It is difficult to predict how big Healthcare Communication industry will grow. But the Indian Healthcare Industry is expected to grow @ 12% annually taking the total worth of this industry to US $25 billion (approximately Rs. 1, 00,313 crores) by 2010.

No new innovations by Indian Pharma companies?

Indian Pharma companies have experienced a lot of R & D developments in recent few years. The innovations have placed these Indian Pharma companies amongst the top elite Pharma companies in the international scenario. This industry according to Ficci reports is growing @ 26% which is more faster rate than the retail sector.

The Pharma sectors traditionally have been investing funds in R&D and Clinical Research Trials. But in the recent few years a lot of investment is put aside for International Acquisitions, Research in new molecules and Patents. Though these companies have been competing with international counterparts to reach the top position in terms of net value of the company, innovations at the bottom of the pyramid haven’t seen any light of the day. I mean the no improvement in the training of the MRs, the sales representatives and the Brand Managers. The sales reps still carry the same old visual aids and the research papers to pitch about the company product to the doctors. Actually to think about it, I feel the Medical Representatives are the most neglected lot in the Pharma companies, coz nobody feels they are driving the company’s sales.

By the statement What at the bottom of the pyramid? I mean to say the people who directly impact the growth of the company; the other people are indirectly connected to the growth of the company.

The Marketing & Sales departments haven’t seen any innovations in last 20 yrs. The MRs (Medical Representatives) still visit 10 docs and 5 retailers as per the set target, show them the same brochures and visual aids, the same pitch and lastly the research reports. The only new development that was seen, late in the year 1998 was KOL based PR stories in publications, but can we consider it an innovation?

On an average when a new product is assigned to a Brand/Product manager he is given a budget to market the product which is peanuts. In that budget the marketing manager has to

Conduct product training for all the MRs,
Brochure development providing a brief on the product,
Conduct Research on the product stating how superior the product is from its competitors,
Sponsor CMEs of KOLs which helps in spreading the word of mouth publicity on the product and
Prepare visual aids to be given out to the doctors when the MR visits the doctors.

The Brand Managers decisions are mostly based on RoI, leaving a very little scope for innovation. He has a target to achieve, and advertising is out of question because prescription drugs cannot advertise as per the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical research), so uses the age old techniques to push the product details to the doctors.

Now once this is done, the Sales Managers job is to drive the sales of the products so he sets targets for the MRs to meet doctors. The Sales manager thought process is simple meet doctors and more doctors, meet them often, also meet retailers and more retailers, this will drive the sales of the products. Actually the Sales Manager knows the doctors will listen to the MRs only once and the next time will skip the meetings, but he knows of only one thing that will drive the sales, he doesn’t try to innovate something new which will help his team to achieve the sales target.
Doctors are fed-up of the same old story of the drugs and medicines, watching the same old visual aids, pitches from MRs, etc; this often forces them to skip the meetings with MRs, which are then bound to be quite boring.
But the BIG question is, whether any Pharma companies are doing anything to improve this situation? If the Pharma companies are not able to innovate something new to help in marketing their products, sales of the drugs might be affected in the long run.

What the Pharma companies really need is some great innovation at the ground level where sales of the products are been driven, word of mouth publicity another big avenue yet to be tapped and recommendations of the drugs. The Pharma companies should hire some ad agency to ideate or pitch to NID to think of some innovation which will be the greatest innovation for the MRs.
The story appeared in Financial express was a review of a book named:
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Select-segments-to-dominate/350276/ The Marketing Mavens by Noel Capon: The article talks about Pfizers innovations at the Sales level, this is what the book had to say…
Pfizer rigorously schools its field salespeople to ask questions and feed information back to the firm. Target expects all employees who travel—whether on business or pleasure—to write reports on trends in other parts of the world. This kind of information gathering can give your business an edge. It can pinpoint needs that customers don’t yet recognise—needs that by definition won’t show up in traditional data gathering. You should be striving to meet and exceed customer expectations not only by solving their current problems, but by anticipating future ones, and then proactively devising solutions in existing and emerging market segments.