Customer-Centric Marketing in Pharma: Putting the Customer First

Today’s patients in the 21st century are more thoughtful and well-informed, with access to various medical options. This empowers them to use or refuse products based on more than just brand name. As a result, the traditional marketing strategies that involved establishing relations with healthcare professionals (HCPs) are no longer effective.  

Marketers must take extra steps to overcome this challenge and connect with their target audience. As the saying goes, “Data is the New Oil,” serving as the fuel for developing customer-centric marketing campaigns.

These campaigns go beyond merely selling products; they aim to educate the audiences and guide them toward making informed decisions. Let’s explore customer-centric marketing in the Pharmaceutical industry in greater detail…..

The Role of Customer-Centric Marketing in Pharma

Increased brand loyalty and trust

Building customer-centric marketing strategies helps position the pharmaceutical company as a trusted partner in healthcare. Such an approach also demonstrates the company’s commitment to the well-being of its patients, thereby increasing trust. This improved trust results in long-term relationships with HCPs and patients and improved brand loyalty.

Aligned marketing goals and customer needs

A crucial advantage of putting the customer first is that the marketing campaign easily aligns with the customer’s needs. By understanding the customer’s journey and pain points, marketers can create effective marketing campaigns that include personalised offers and experiences. Consequently, the developed campaign is aligned with the customer’s requirement, allowing the company to attract and retain more customers.

Optimised marketing resources

By implementing customer-centric marketing techniques, the developed marketing campaigns become more relevant to HCPs and patients. Consequently, engagement improves, as do marketing returns. As a result, it improves the return on investment in marketing campaigns, thereby allowing companies to use the available marketing resources and budgets better.

Putting the customer first should be the primary strategy of pharmaceutical companies because, ultimately, their revenue depends entirely on customer perception. To this end, pharmaceutical companies can implement various customer-centric marketing strategies.

Customer-Centric Marketing Techniques: How to Make Marketing Customer-Friendly?

Here are some unique marketing techniques that can help bring customer focus to pharma marketing:

Develop personalised digital content

Digital resources like apps, websites, and videos can be tailored to specific medical conditions and treatments. By creating personalised content, companies can better align their marketing campaigns to customer needs, improving engagement and awareness of the brand. Personalisation can be achieved by including interactive tools on websites and apps, offering content in multiple languages to increase accessibility, and creating interactive guides on disease treatment and management.

Another method is to run segmented email campaigns. These campaigns map the patient’s journey and share content accordingly. For example, newly diagnosed patients will receive educational content about their disease and treatment options; patients undergoing treatment will receive reminders and tips to manage side effects; and patients who have completed treatment will receive information about lifestyle management.

Develop personalised marketing messages

Patients often feel overwhelmed after being diagnosed with a disease. Try developing empathy-focused campaigns to address patients' medical aspects and emotional and psychological challenges. These campaigns may acknowledge a patient’s fear of diagnosis and treatment burden. To this end, patient stories can be used as they are more relatable. Creating such personalised messages humanises the brand.

Support and build patient communities

Pharmaceutical companies can also create and support patient communities. This strategy does not directly promote the brand, but it does associate the brand with putting the customer first. For example, pharmaceutical companies can create online forums for patients with specific diseases. Companies can also create branded platforms or apps for particular health conditions, giving patients a safe and trustworthy space to discuss their treatment and challenges. These approaches support the emotional needs of patients, creating trust and deeper connections between the company and the patient.

Various pharma companies have implemented these techniques, but a notable example is Novo Nordisk.

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company focusing primarily on diabetes care medication and devices. It has implemented various customer-centric marketing techniques to improve patient engagement. The most notable of which is the Diabetes Patient Assistance Program.

The Diabetes Patient Assistance Program provides eligible patients with free medication. This program aims to improve patient outcomes and has positively impacted the lives of various patients. The program includes 10+ medications, like ozempic and insulin, and medical devices, such as NovoPen Echo.

Overcoming Customer-Centric Marketing Challenges

While these customer-centric marketing techniques for pharma seem relatively simple, their implementation will likely face challenges. Here’s how companies can overcome some of the challenges.

Difficulty in obtaining and retaining data

To achieve personalisation, pharma companies require a lot of data. Healthcare apps, surveys and online discussion forums are important sources for extracting the data needed. However, companies cannot retain this data for an extensive period due to regulatory guidelines and data irrelevancy concerns.

To this end, pharma companies can obtain extended data retention consent from patients. The developed apps, forums, and communities can be linked to healthcare devices such as smartwatches and health trackers (Healthify Me, Google Fit, etc.) to obtain real-time data.

Difficulty in navigating regulatory compliance

Regulatory compliance is a top priority for pharmaceutical companies. However, navigating these guidelines while putting the customer first is difficult. Pharmaceutical companies should invest in robust compliance management systems. The system can implement strict data privacy measures, conduct regular audits to identify compliance concerns, and determine whether necessary permissions are obtained with relevant data.

Fragmented customer base

The pharmaceutical industry's customer base is divided into HCPs, patients, regulatory bodies, insurers, and pharmacy benefit managers. Therefore, developing customer-centric marketing techniques is not as straightforward as consumer products like soap. Each group has different priorities, which makes developing a single strategy difficult. However, while the other customer groups are essential, the healthcare provider exerts the highest influence. Hence, companies must respect the role of HCPs, whose recommendations influence patient choices.

Conclusion

The pharmaceutical industry is shifting towards a customer-centric marketing approach as patients become more well-informed about diseases and their treatment. Pharma companies have implemented various techniques to improve customer focus, such as personalised messaging campaigns and digital content. This shift has several benefits for pharma companies but is limited by stringent regulatory guidelines, a fragmented customer base, and difficulty obtaining customer data. However, the simple suggestions herein allow companies to prioritise the patients.

FAQs

1. What is customer-centric marketing in pharma?

Customer-centric marketing focuses on providing personalised and patient-oriented experience rather than product-focused experience. It includes understanding the patient’s journey, addressing their needs, and fostering support.

2. What is the role of digital tools in customer-centric marketing techniques?

Digital tools allow companies to engage directly with patients, offer personalised content and support their journey. Digital tools used include patient portals, apps, and social media.

3. How can pharma companies overcome regulatory challenges to improve their customer centricity?

Pharma companies must work closely with regulatory bodies and legal and compliance teams to create customer-centric marketing strategies to ensure no noncompliance issues.