Product Evolution (Biopharma) and Implications on Marketers’ Skills and Training

A recent industry study1 I had the privilege of working on found that one of the most disruptive forces affecting how the industry has traditionally promoted products is its move to evermore highly specialized medicines. Is this shift from mass market, primary care driven brands towards more targeted, patient specific, specialty driven products changing the nature of how we market, and the skills required to do so effectively?

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As a framework for examining this question, it’s helpful to look at it through the prism of two popular, industry specific marketing tools: the Buying Process and the Patient Journey. There’s little doubt that the shift in focus from primary care to specialty is moving our leverage points further up the Buying Process ladder. For example, today, effectively diagnosing determinant patient traits and tying them to a medication uniquely suited to treating those traits can be a more productive driver of success than espousing the treatment’s more traditional "brand" characteristics. This occasions a move up the Buying Process from “brand choice” (what my product does) to “evaluation” and “diagnosis” (where and when my product should be used), and, by extension, related leverage points for strategy consideration and resource allocation. Today, marketers are increasingly shifting their focus from product messaging questions like: “how do I increase share of mind?” to market development questions like: “how do I help patients identify their rare disease” and “how do I help doctors diagnose complex conditions my product is specifically designed to treat?” This is a profound change because, as marketers, we’re no longer just talking about the “medication” as our focus of communication but expanding it to include evaluation and diagnosis related processes and tools. This evolution in our approach is also taking on an operational and logistical nature where resources are now also becoming focused on developing productive “referral networks” that facilitate the Patient Journey from their primary care doctor to the often difficult-to-find sub-specialists who possess the tools and knowledge to close the circle on diagnosis, and prescribe the optimal treatment. Today, there are innumerable conditions that are uniquely treatable but where epidemiological models show only a small fraction of patients reach the right physician and are prescribed the most effective medication.

Where does that leave the marketer (and industry) whose experience has traditionally trained them to see their role as driving brand choice? Are we hiring for and developing the right skills for today’s marketers to build the brands of tomorrow? What shouldn’t change is the nucleus of their focus - the patient. With ever more specialized medicines, our brands have expanded beyond the pill to include it and all of its satellite services that help pave patient pathways towards the ideal treatments. Our marketing aperture is evolving. Today’s “brand” is expanding from a medication that drives better patient outcomes to one of multifaceted healthcare protocols and partnership that maximizes them. At their foundation, the study I referenced earlier on this topic has espoused that the successful marketer’s soft skills need not really change – collaboration, emotional intelligence, communication, distillation, divergent thinking, analytical capability remain hallmarks. What is changing (or should) is our expectations of how marketers define their brands and create differentiated "value". This has fewer implications for who we hire vs. how we train, the culture we build and what successes we decide to recognize. Our evolving environment is challenging us to imagine and define the marketplace more holistically, unlock new pathways linking patients to the right medications, and redefine the very notions of what constitutes a brand. By getting it right, we help more patients. And while that may underline a long emerging evolution in our marketing approach and brand definition, it also means there’s never been a more exciting time to be a marketer in our industry!

A final note: The paradigm shift isn’t just based on how we define the marketer’s role and their brands. There’s a critical technology-as-an-enabler component that can only be fully unlocked through a culture that is evolving towards a greater risk tolerance and commitment to innovation. An important topic I’ll explore more deeply in a coming installment.

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1 CCPE Commissioned BenchSmart Series on Marketing Practice in Pharma – 2021

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