Digital Marketing

Digital marketing redux:

Pharmaceuticals take a second
look at e-detailing
Kim Ramko
is the Unisys Partner responsible for the global Business Intelligence practice and the CRM/Life Sciences practice for North
America. Kim has over 15 years’ experience managing information technology projects and specialising in SFA/Business
Intelligence solutions, application development, business process improvement for sales/marketing operations, and IT
strategies. Specific industry experience includes pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics, life and health insurance and
consumer goods. Prior to joining Unisys, Kim was a partner with BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting), where she was
responsible for building their Life Sciences/CRM practice

Michael Jarosch
is the Unisys Partner for the horizontal CRM practice in Germany and Central Europe, which focuses on developing strategies
and solutions centred around the value optimisation of clients’ customer portfolios and the transformation of companies into
customer-centric organisations. Michael has more than 13 years’ international experience in business consulting and systems
integration. His understanding of clients’ business needs in marketing, sales and customer service is based on the successful
delivery of large-scale customer relationship management (CRM) projects and systems in a variety of industries.

INTRODUCTION consumer (DTC) advertising? In sales? As

In the late 1990s, many pharmaceutical and
other life sciences organisations
experimented with e-detailing and other
forms of digital marketing in pursuit of
reduced costs and smaller salesforces. Peter
Lynch famously predicted that the internet
would replace field reps altogether. It
never happened. Revenue growth
continued to rise and salesforces expanded.
In general, pharmas were disappointed
with the results of their pilot projects and
have since regarded digital marketing with
a caution bordering on outright scepticism.
But with growth rates slowing and
returns on promotional investments
dropping an average of 24 per cent for the
top 14 companies since 1998 (according to
Datamonitor), many firms are now taking
Kim Ramko a second look. While clearly there was an
Partner
CRM/Business Intelligence, excess of hype during the first coming of
Unisys
Tel: +1 615 356 9513
e-detailing, there was also a conceptual
Fax: +1 215 986 9435 problem. No one seemed to know where
e-mail:
kimberly.ramko@unisys.com digital marketing fitted in. With direct-to-
part of customer relationship management
programmes?
The answer is, digital marketing is
everywhere. Every channel has a digital
component — from reps capturing
sampling data or sharing messages on
tablets or handheld devices, to product
websites and call centre scripts. Digital
marketing happens any time companies
use IT systems to capture, share or analyse
information about customers. In fact, the
analysis of customer data through the use
of business intelligence processes represents
a significant opportunity for companies
looking to generate more value from
digital marketing efforts. With increased
insight about customers’ needs and wants,
pharmas can personalise service and market
more efficiently. Knowledge management
offers another way for pharmas to
strengthen bonds with physicians by
giving them access to valuable online
training progam and learning tools.

134 Journal of Medical Marketing Vol. 5, 2 134–136 # Henry Stewart Publications 1745–7912 (2005)

So what is the outlook for digital
marketing today? And, more importantly,
what can pharmas do to ensure success?
According to recent studies by the Boston
Consulting Group,1,2 the number of
European physicians using the internet to
research treatment options is rapidly
catching that of the USA, where
essentially every doctor is online. In
Sweden, 74 per cent of doctors are online
and in Germany 64 per cent. A full 84 per
cent of connected European doctors use
the web in ways that influence prescription
decisions. In the USA, the figure is 75 per
cent.
Furthermore, the economic value of e-
detailing has become clear, even if
adoption has been slower than expected.
Physicians spend an average of 23 minutes
in an e-detail, as opposed to a few minutes
for in-person calls, according to a 2002
Scott–Levin study. And Gartner has found
that e-details are 100 times less expensive
than traditional calls and can be up to 400
times more efficient.
From a systems perspective, the news is
also good. Past IT investments have laid the
foundation for successful e-detailing and
digital marketing progams. Most pharmas
have also implemented the data warehouse
and analytics tools that can drive increased
return on investment (ROI).
The first step in any digital marketing
progam should be mastering the message.
As with traditional marketing, digital
marketing will not be effective unless
pharmas have something new or
important to say (eg messages about new
research or new indications). Because
physicians prefer independent, peer-
reviewed data, pharmas need to figure the
right way to provide it objectively or to
associate with the right sources. Online
channels can also be used to notify doctors
of new DTC campaigns, an area where
physicians are practically begging for
communication.
Once the message is clear, it should be
# Henry Stewart Publications 1745–7912 (2005) Vol. 5, 2 134–136
Digital Marketing
applied consistently across channels
through the re-use of content elements.
For instance, e-detailing scripts, with if/
then logic to personalise the experience for
physicians, can be re-purposed for reps in
the field as well as to populate product
websites. This also promotes message and
brand consistency.
Beyond messaging, strategic digital
marketing plans should be linked with
continuing medical education (CME)
programs. Participation in online
conferences and CME sessions is up 29 and
35 per cent, respectively in Europe and the
USA, according to the Boston Consulting
Group. Remote disease monitoring is
another ancillary area that, while not
marketing in the traditional sense, can go a
long way to strengthen relationships with
both physicians and consumers. Again, the
higher the levels of strategic alignment and
IT integration for these initiatives, the
higher the levels of return.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL
MARKETING?
Perhaps the greatest opportunity in digital
marketing lies in the application of
business intelligence (BI). Most pharmas
have too much information about their
customers and not enough ‘business
intelligence’. BI tools allow pharmas to
generate more value from the enormous
amounts of information they capture in
their own systems and purchase from third
parties. By promoting detailed knowledge
about individual physicians — their
preferences, prescribing histories, practice
characteristics and actual and potential
value as customers — pharmas can use BI
to achieve the holy grail of one-to-one
marketing: serving the right customer
through the right channel at the right
time. Further, the modelling and
segmentation capabilities of BI can help
Journal of Medical Marketing 135
Ramko and Jarosch
companies establish and maintain channel
balance and structure their sales forces for
maximum efficiency and productivity.
Innovative pharmas have learned that all
the customer information in the world
will not improve performance unless it is
translated into execution. An integrated BI
process can help pharmas make this
translation.
Knowledge management (KM) is
another area where digital marketing
efforts can increase customer satisfaction
and loyalty. Online training programs and
tools can help doctors meet CME
requirements and stay abreast of the latest
research — increasingly difficult tasks for
today’s time-pressed physicians. For KM
programs to be effective, however,
pharmas must not let organisational
boundaries become obstacles. Sales,
marketing and service groups should work
in concert with medical services staff, with
all data from KM efforts fed into business
intelligence systems for further refinement
of customer interactions.
The bottom line? Digital marketing is
everywhere, and it is here to stay. With
the use of business intelligence, digital
marketing allows pharmas to distribute the
messages that give them the best chance to
influence behaviors in line with company
goals. And there is no need or reason to
isolate digital marketing in any one
function. In fact, any digital marketing
136 Journal of Medical Marketing Vol. 5, 2 134–136
programs that are designed or deployed
independent of other customer-facing
activities are destined to yield
disappointing results. As pharmas revisit e-
detailing and other forms of digital
marketing, the firms that are able to align
the digital components of all of their
marketing, sales and service programs and
improve execution based on intelligence
stand to realise significant cost and
competitive advantages.
WHAT THE ANALYSTS ARE
SAYING
‘Pharma firms have made extraordinarily large
investments in traditional details, which have
generated extraordinarily high returns. As
growth rates slow, however, they must find the
diminishing points of return and apply
technology, in the form of BI and analytics, to
determine which customers to approach with
which messages on which platforms’. (Liz
Boehm, Forrester)
‘The good news for pharmaceuticals is that the
investment required for e-details for one million
doctors is essentially the same as for one hundred
doctors. By and large, the technology is already
in place to allow for one-to-one marketing and
for viewing physicians as individual P&Ls’. (Dale
Hagemeyer, Gartner)
References
1 Boston Consulting Group (2003) Vital Signs: E-Health
in the United States, January.
2 Boston Consulting Group (2003) European Physicians
and the Internet, March.
# Henry Stewart Publications 1745–7912 (2005)