Al Topin

Here's how it worked. Patients had illnesses, physicians diagnosed and treated those illnesses, and pharmaceutical manufacturers supported them by creating and marketing products to treat those illnesses better, with greater safety, or (insert unique brand benefit here). We as marketers helped to solve the core unmet needs of physicians and patients and to support the moment of truth in the physician's office—that moment when our brand was chosen because it solved the unmet needs better than any other option.

The job of the sales rep was to bring the brand story—data, mechanism of action, and brand benefits—into the physician's office. Probe for concerns, discuss the advantages, and ask for a trial.

Then the healthcare market began to change. More regulations, changes, and barriers coming soon to a market near you. Finding a customer's unmet need and filling it is just the starting point (in fact, exactly who the customer is now isn't always clear). To be successful, we have to look at the market differently, understand how multiple forces are creating a new dynamic at the point of care, and design our programs accordingly.

Back to the unmet need

Even with added influencers and barriers, we can safely say the key players in terms of core pharmaceutical marketing communication are the pharma manufacturer/marketer, the healthcare practitioner, and the patient. What we can't say is that they need the same things from a brand and a company that they used to or are impacted the same way.

Physicians, however, are another story. They now practice in an environment that's radically different from just a few years ago. New discoveries have made the science of disease treatment more complicated and the drugs in the physician's armamentarium more complex. Regulations and payment issues have added more than paperwork to their practice, and keeping up with it takes more and more of their already limited time. Patients walk into their exam room with stacks of articles downloaded from the Internet—some helpful, some misleading, some downright wacky. And they might not be alone—their caregiver is often in the office as well, expecting their fair share of the physician's time. If you ask today's physician what they need, you may hear something like this: "I'm not as comfortable treating many of my patients. I can't always treat their condition the way I'd like to or the way I've been trained to. I don't have the time to sit with each patient, explain their condition and treatment over and over, and correct the misinformation they have found or heard. I need more time. I need more help."

Add to that the fact that the prescriber isn't always the physician anymore. Physician assistants and nurse practitioners continue to grow in influence and bring a whole new set of needs into the equation. Patients have changed as well. They no longer salute the doctor's white coat and do exactly what they are told. They have multiple sources of information, loads of questions, and help from family, friends, and caregivers, and they expect to play a major role in treating their health problems (in spite of their lack of medical training, experience, or credentials). Led by the large, diverse generation of Baby Boomers, today's patients expect more from their physician and healthcare practitioners. They now see themselves as partners in treating their disease. And what do they need?

"I expect to play a role in this process. I can think for myself and don't take everything my doctor says as gospel (because quite frankly, my doctor doesn't give me all that much time). I need to be in control of my body, my situation, my disease."

Doctors are getting more frustrated, patients more assertive, and marketers more challenged. Discomfort and disconnects are everywhere. But so is opportunity...for companies and brands that are willing to embrace and work within this new dynamic in this multidimensional marketplace.