I am sure many pharma managers currently suffer from bipolar disorder of Phygital (courtesy: COVID-19). Most of you must be overwhelmed with a burst of new knowledge and are probably forced to ‘byte’ the digital bullet. In times of uncertainty, instead of going with a strategy that you think is best, it is better to choose data-driven decision-making. A strategy that uses data to inform business decisions is often quite de-risked.
“DATA” is the core element which gets stacked in an orderly fashion to build business Manhattans. Data driven decision making (DDDM) is a process that involves collecting data based on measurable goals or KPIs, analyzing facts, reading patterns from insights, and utilizing them to develop strategies.
Having experienced the ground reality and having moved through the ranks, I foresee a paradoxical future for pharma in making a strategic choice between subjective and objective data sets for decision making.
The life of the Pharma marketer has always been a juggling act (Two hands, Three balls, Endless Effect! A Lifetime of Performance) of managing multiple aspects with adept emotional and mental skill sets. All this, while trying to remain sane in a dynamic and confusing world. As the marketer takes time to make sense of his environment, he attempts to find answers to perennial marketing questions such as:
- How is the campaign performing?
- What are the new avenues to target customers?
- Is the messaging, right?
- Are the vendors on track with their deliverables?
- Are metrics that we track insightful?
Amongst all this, comes another tool that he needs to understand and get trained on – “Digital Marketing”
Pharma has always fished for meaning in the sea of Data. Although much has been incorporated in research and drug discovery with data computing and AI analytics, the marketing and sales operation has often played catch-up with times.
The data collection and analysis techniques in pharma marketing are often primitive and mostly subjective (Rep dependent) when compared with allied industries FMCG/ Banking industry/ Travel / Hospitality that have no intermediators (direct customer connect). Often, to catch up on operational aspects, we lose the overall customer focus and spend significant time and effort on non-important priorities.
Many of you may have experienced the following face-offs.
- It takes about 7-10 days for the monthly sales figure to reach the marketer desk. This often needs further scrutiny of goods return / credit notes / carry forwards for Qtr. adjustments / Trade vs Tender business / Rate difference etc. all floating in multiple excel in different format and version. Now compare this with the real time data flows that are used in FMCG / Banking / Travel / E- commerce.
- Cleaning the customer data base is a perennial exercise, despite the existence of Sales force effectiveness departments: duplicate entries, wrong names and addresses, mapping and tagging to the right field colleague. Often, core coverage and call averages are mere numbers with no actionability attached.
- Customer Journey Mapping is missing altogether – No single window dashboard for visibility of touch points or accounting of cross-division overlaps. Compare this with banks where all accounts of a single customer are merged under one master account.
- Customer insights are intuitively built on subjectivity and dependency of the frontline field colleague / product manager and are in complete sync with their attrition. This causes priorities to change with a change of hands
- The daily reporting on CRM portal are gaming zones played more from a compulsion to document, rather than through a strategic mindset.
- Rx potential of doctor, doctor persona, ROI, growth traction etc. all these KPI metrics are subjective and have the biases of our field colleagues.
- No repository of brand history is maintained, and continuity is lost due to frequent shift in vendor selection and preference.
The list is an ever growing one and all of this is linked to sales outcome. This means that if numbers are being achieved – the orchestra is making music to ears. If not, it is time to change the composer i.e. marketer
The ushering in of digital marketing with objective data points powered by data analytical tools (Power BI / Google Analytics / Datorama/ Marketing Cloud) is something which is extra-terrestrial to pharma and hence, the reluctance for acceptance and embrace. It is also very likely that digital may shift the power to the bottom of pyramid, a situation likely to challenge the ego of the orthodox pharma mindset.
What is the pervading split personality in the Pharma Marketer
The million-dollar question here is, how does one marry highly subjective information and data points that are highly dependent on intuition of the field personnel (Phy+), with NEW data streams that flow through digital touchpoints (+Dig)? Marrying these two points will help to arrive at a common denominator (Phygital) for decision making. Further, during times of crises, which data points does one place one’s trust in?
The smoke screen of data-subjectivity is a big dampener to the adoption of digital in pharma, unlike in other industries where the data is sourced directly from customer and subjected to AI analytics for decision making and productivity.
Any strategy/tactic that is dependent on a variable and inconsistent database leads to frustration, confusion, unproductiveness, job dissatisfaction and blame-game for pharma marketers. Therefore, standardization of the data collection process, is of paramount importance for actionable insights, analytics and agile workways.
With the right approach, data analytics can be a leading source of competitive advantage for the pharma marketer. Pharma have an opportunity to use enterprise analytics to drive digital transformation and re-define the customer experience. To accomplish this, data and analytics leaders must create a data-driven culture focused on delivering business outcomes. Top leaders need to go beyond thinking and talking about digital transformation as ‘the new oil’. Data has unique economic characteristics that render it potentially more valuable to pharma business than any other fossil fuel.
To learn more from industry experts, join Digital Pharma Excellence Academy – an initiative by MedicinMan in partnership with CredoWeb for Indian pharma/device/diagnostics and disposable industry professionals and learn from the 40+ series of webinars on various aspect of pharma sales and marketing.
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