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I’m passionate about the value the pharmaceutical industry brings to patients…but I never cease to be amazed by just how bad the industry’s reputation is. The media, members of the public and even some healthcare professionals themselves tend to view the industry in a negative light. In the last few months alone there have been…
What is it that gets you, as a marketer, excited? Are you all about the strategy or all about the tactics? Do you get excited about where you’re going or how you’re going to get there? George Patton famously said “good tactics can save even the worst strategy, bad tactics will destroy even the best…
For all the buzz around social media, we still keep coming across people who say “It’s not for us” or “we don’t think it’s important” or “do me a favour – this organisation hasn’t even got its press releases right yet.” But it really doesn’t matter whether you’re into social media, ready for social media,…
The dictionary definition of ‘benefit’ is ‘an advantage or profit gained from something.’ Although we may be clear about the benefits of our product, it doesn’t mean that the same benefits will be perceived or valued by our customers. So what is the secret to communicating value? The starting point must be to understand which…
The NHS and the pharmaceutical industry are often quick to criticise each other; the NHS for not funding a new therapy or only allowing use in a limited patient cohort; the pharmaceutical industry for ‘over’ pricing a new drug or ‘over selling’ its benefits. There is an increasingly mature relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and…
There was a time when planning was easy. We undertook a robust internal and external analysis, developed our OTSW, identified the major opportunities and threats and bob’s your uncle the marketing plan evolved. Alas no more! We have started to adjust to a world in which rationing really bites, a world in which cost constraint…
Whatever your definition of marketing, the 4 Ps of product, price, promotion and place are ‘where the rubber meets the road’. Philip Kotler says that the “Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response.” But do we as pharmaceutical marketeers leverage the ‘mix’ as well as we…
What is marketing? There are a myriad of definitions but few would question that the very essence of marketing is to be found in the understanding and fulfillment of customer needs. Getting the right product to the right customer in the right way and at the right price. But, how does the pharmaceutical industry measure…