8/3/2019 Use of iPad in Pharma S&M

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VIEWPOINT

T a r g e t e d m a r k e t i n g is n ' t 'u n f a i r a n d d e c e p t i v e '

Jay Boiling

President & CEO,

Roska Healthcare

Advertising

IN A RE CENT MOVE a con-sortium of organizations —thePublic Interest Research Group,Center for Digital Democracy,World Privacy Forum, andConsumer Watchdog—filed acomplaint with the FTC alleg-

ing that, "Health marketers areusing digital data on consumersto promote medical products andservices" and trying to "influenceconsumer behavior in some ofthe most personal and profounddecisions they will ever have tomake...'"

The 144-page filing s a weightytom e, stuffed to the gills withexamples and coched in pointed

language, accusing websites likeQuality H ealth or WebMD and

pharma companies of deceivingconsumers by offering healthinformation a s the bait to attractunsuspecting consum ers whoseinformation is then mined forhighly targeted marketing. Theconsort ium admonishes thehealth industry for abrogatingthe right to privacy, exploitingpersonal medical informationand delivering marketing mes-sages geared to consum ers' spe-cific medical needs.

Perhaps most worr i somewithin the complaint is not thealleged "unfair and deceptivemarketing practices." It's thatthe complaint does not containany sense of balanced a rgument.Not one single paragraph setsout the many benefits custom-ers can reap from targeted mar-keting. Without help, how doeseach health seeker find exactly

the right information in the vast,digital universe? Google " asth-

ma aw arene ss" and 13,000,000results p o p u p in (approximately)0.09 seconds.

Targeted marketing, on theother hand, can put the rightinformation into the right con-sumers' hands quickly and effi-

• Improve patient health out-comes and reduce the burdenof chronic diseases;• E n c o u r a g e p r e v e n t i v emedicine;

• Enhance the quality of patient/physician dialogue;

• Improve medication adher-ence/persistency rates; and

Without help, how does each healthseeker find exactly the right infoin the vast, digital universe?

ciently. And, som etimes it willbe information that might savea life.

In a nation of people notori-ously lax about taking care ofthemselves, targeted marketingoffers a unique o pportunity to:• Educ ate and motivate con-sumers to take better care ofthemselves;

• Actually decrease the inci-dence of off-label use.

Without access to consumerdata, healthcare marketers cando no more than post informa-tion on the w e b and hope that theright consumers find t. Consum-ers are left to navigate unaidedunless healthcare m arketers haveaccess to their data .

P h a r m a m a r k e t e r s using iPad t o t h e i r a d v a n ta g eAntoine

Jacques

Marketing direc-

tor, Europe,

IBA Molecular

COMPANIES worldwide seethe iPad as the latest tool to

connect with customers, andthe healthcare industry is noexcept ion . However , ra therthan as a consumer marketingtool or health application, somehealthcare com panies find theiPad's biggest ad vantage is inthe hands of their m arketing andsales forces.

Healthcare and pharma mar-keters can —and are—evolvingtheir approach via tactile com-puter tablets like the iPad. A

marke ter's goal is to ensure that

clients perceive and capture thefull value of a company's prod-ucts. Given the increasing battleto capture customer attention,in particular within the genericsindustry, a sales force's abilityto effectively convey value mes-sages within a short timeframe isessential. The iPad is a true m ar-keting weapon because with it,

sales can deliver value proposi-tions more effectively, therefore

iPad provides sales a n d marketinga fiexibie presentation approach,giving th e power to communicatewith relevant information, per-sonalized to fit the customer'sneeds. Rathe r than one-size-fits-all brochures or static laptop lec-tures, sales and marketing createindividualized, interactive presen-tations. Further mor e, as IT and

digital media become increasinglycomm onplace in the practitio-

A marketer's goal is to ensure thatclients perceive and capture thefull value of a company's product

maximizing a campaign's impactat the individual client level.

Health and m edicine are com-plex, specialized and ever-chang-

ing sectors. Technology like the

ners" office, this reinforces thesignificance of multimedia andIT in the sales approach.

Internally, this technology

helps marketers monitor cam-

paign effectiveness with bottom-up reporting, giving real-timevisibility to critical sales processesand data. With centralized infor-mation and real-time updates,mark eters guard brand consis-tency while providing sales withñexibility. Fmally, with iPad appli-cations, marke ting gains moreinsight into fiel d sales activities,

and can better understand inter-nal/external clients' responses tovarious messages. Consequently,the iPad helps perform closed-loop marketing in a more struc-tured , effective way.

As an industry, we have justbegun to tap the potential ofthis interactive new technology.Though the technology is new,our ma rketing goal remains thesame; intelligent communicationto help advance and improve

health and medicine.

8/3/2019 Use of iPad in Pharma S&M

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