Sailing uncharted waters can be exhilarating and rewarding – although some may find it safer to pull out the GPS and not drift to far from paths already mapped. Making your own way can be risky, so it may be worth your time to make sure that the legwork hasn’t already been done for you.
 
Case in point: DTC, or direct-to-consumer advertising. For many medical device marketers, this is an alluring yet precarious strategy to consider. Medical device as an industry is still in its adolescence compared to mature Pharma. But it helps to keep in mind that although you may feel like a pioneer, Pharma’s been there. Pharma’s had many a success and many a fall along the way, so there is a rich amount of learning to be had to make the most of a potential endeavor before you even start. In other words, learn from their mistakes.
 
So what can we learn from them? Well big budgets help, but they aren’t always necessary. Targeting Oprah’s viewership with fat broadcast media flights isn’t the only option. Have you identified a small target population with a chronic condition in need of a solution that they spend hours searching for online? Why waste precious advertising dollars shouting to them when they’re watching American Idol to forget their worries, when your device can appear right before their eyes at the moment they are actively seeking the answer to their prayers... a solution that your device may be able to bring them. Let them Google their disease and see your message when they are most apt to read it. Pharma’s already mastered the art of Search Engine Marketing, and you can, too. Targeted? You bet. Efficient use of marketing dollars? Heck yes. Not everyone has the luxury of a Pfizer budget.
 
What else can we learn from Big Brother Pharma? Well, spending smarter is easy to swallow, but how about checking your ego at the door? What if I said, “Stop using your logo.”? (gasp!) Another highly successful and emerging trend in DTC involves detaching the brand from the message. Who among us consumers aren’t a little wary of Madison Avenue? The less sales-y, the more credible. Makes sense, right? Create a site totally devoted to the problem your device solves (and don’t forget to drive traffic to it). Offer a robust resource for patients to learn about their disease and symptoms. Give them a place to talk to other patients just like themselves. Offer them a platform to hear specialists provide answers. Then at some point you can redirect them towards your brand elsewhere online, once they’re engaged. Then you’ll start to reap the rewards. Build a community, build a relationship, build a brand loyalist.
 
So just remember, device marketers, the course has already been charted. No need to redraw the map, just put up your sails and sell.

There are a lot of hot topics these days in the pharma world. Does the sluggish economy mean the end of big pharma? Are the days of the big brand over? What’s going to be the next big thing? Biotech? Combo pharma/devices? It’s anyone’s guess.

There’s no topic, though, that seems to be getting as much press as the big question of DTC advertising. Everyone wants to know if the days of DTC are over. I was recently asked to comment on this very topic for one of our well know trade publications.

No matter what your opinion is of DTC advertising, it’s difficult to argue the point of whether or not it works. It works.

But will it keep working? Only time will tell. I think for the big conditions DTC will grow. For the rarer, less known conditions, product managers will have a harder time getting the budget dollars for mass marketing. They’ll need to go to a more targeted approach.

That means more insomnia ads, and less ads for Seasonal Affective Disorder. When the budgets cut come (and I think they will) the smart marketers will turn their attention squarely to the web to reach their patients. The less common the condition, the better the content needs to be.

So are the glory days over? Maybe for some folks, but not for others. After all, who can sleep when gas is over $4 a gallon and eating a tomato could kill you?

What is the objective of marketing communications? Most of our clients would answer this question with the obvious answer “to sell my product or service.” In traditional healthcare brand advertising, the objective is to create awareness or an attitude. Meaning what do you want patients or physicians to think or feel? In direct response advertising, it’s pretty simple; the objective is to always motivate an action. In other words, what do you want them to do? Great direct response advertising has stopping power, delivers an offer, motivates a response and is a one-on-one, person-to-person sales call. And most important of all is measurable! More and more healthcare marketers are beginning to embrace this practice because of its tangible results. However, developing a direct marketing campaign is a process. There are multiple components a marketer must step back and think about before considering implementation.

    1. Establish benchmark goals and develop a financial plan
    2. Determine media strategy
    3. Decide the offer and make it irresistible
    4. Create a message that motivates response
    5. Determine fulfillment plan
    6. Define the metrics for measurement
    7. Build a database
    8. Analyze campaign results carefully
    9. Monitor and optimize the campaign on a regular basis
    10. Test and retest

In the end direct marketing is pretty basic. It’s about getting the right message to the right person at the right time. But remember it’s not just about contributing to your bottom line sales numbers, also think of it as enhancing your customer database. Because in the end that is a true representation of your future business. Have you done your homework?

Do you remember the last time your sales reps sat down with a doctor and spent a few minutes chatting about your new drug? And how deftly they used the detail aid you spent months developing, perfecting, and crafting into the perfect message with the perfect visual? Can’t recall, huh? It’s probably been a while.
 
Did you know that 93% of sales calls on doctors last less than 2 minutes? Today’s physicians have patients to see, insurance to file and tests to run. Now they also have email to read and Blackberrys to check. Not to mention thousands of medications that change almost daily.  Who’s really going to have time for a nice chat about the arachidonic-acid cascade in the GI tract?
 
So how do we solve our time-challenged doctor issues? We’ve got to stop relying on salespeople. They do a great job, sure, but they can’t do it all. Especially in 120 seconds. Marketers have got to start thinking outside the sales call. We need to aggressively look to the web, to things like YouTube and video searching. Find those PDAs and use them to get the doctor a better message, one that’s tailored to him and is relevant to his practice. And don’t forget about those journal ads, either.

Look, no one likes a big fat visual aid more than an ad agency executive, so this is hard for me to admit. I love being able to tell the story of my clients’ products. That means we have to stay one step ahead of our targets, which these days, means running. So get your sneakers on and get those ideas going. You’ve got less than 2 minutes.

We’ve all heard enough already about social websites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn exploding in popularity. Social networking is all the buzz these days. And we all know that if the internet is good for anything it’s finding a stage for niche subjects to have their day in the sun. So the rise in niche health social media sites should be no surprise.  If you buy into the doom and gloom of the looming recession then the latest the Forrester Research report makes an interesting argument that marketers should move dwindling dollars from traditional media into social media like word of mouth, blogging and social networking. Here are a few examples of healthcare niche social networking sites:
 
DailyStrength.org: Gives patients and caregivers a place to join a support community, write a journal, share videos, and even send other members a virtual “hug.”
 
PatientsLikeMe.com: Community for people battling devastating diseases that provides a platform for collecting and sharing real world, outcome-based patient data.
 
ICYou.com: The YouTube of health care, ICYou.com offers over 1,500 posted videos on everything from recipes for diabetics to vlogs from cancer patients.
 
ReliefInSite.com: A web-based pain assessment and tracking diary that empowers patient’s to receive better and faster treatment by sharing their pain diary with their doctors, nurses, pain specialists, therapists, friends and family members.
 
Sermo.com: Accessible only by physicians, allows the 50,000 strong physician community to tap “the wisdom of crowds” to help them accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments.