Comments on: Healthcare Marketing Needs Some Digital Natives

By: Reference | ED4134 bLogs

Reference | ED4134 bLogs — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:53:15 +0000

[...] http://www.doseofdigital.com/2009/04/healthcare-marketing-needs-some-digital-natives/ [...]

By: Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:01:59 +0000

Totally agree, Sam. This is true of many US pharma companies as well. I agree that this doesn’t give the diversity of experience needed on brand teams. High performing sales reps often make bad marketers and vice versa. They’re totally different skills. I see this changing a little bit in some companies, but there are very few “outsiders” who come into pharma companies from other industries to work on a marketing team.

By: Sam Walmsley

Sam Walmsley — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:24:00 +0000

I would also say that the recruitment policy of some pharma companies especially in Europe means that if you havent walked the walk as a sales rep, pharma wont consider canaditates for marketing/product managers role. If you are looking for a multi-channel approach to marketing within an organisation need to employ indiviudals with different marketing experience including digital, not just a high achieving sales rep.

By: Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:59:03 +0000

All great comments, Lorraine. Thanks for engaging in the debate. I can’t say that I really disagree with any of your points. It’s true that not all “Natives” are digitally savvy and not all “Immigrants” are digitally naive. My point was that those in the “Native” generation (as a whole) are more comfortable with digital technologies. Every study ever done on digital demographics shows this. And while your teens don’t care for SM or Twitter, they do care for something you likely don’t ever use. My nephew (15) sent 4,000 text messages last month. 4,000! I haven’t sent that many in my life. Let’s also remember that SM isn’t the only digital technology out there though the buzz might suggest otherwise. This Native generation does have something to offer that the Immigrant generation doesn’t. However, pharma hierarchy doesn’t really allow for younger people to occupy meaningful marketing roles in most cases. I’d like for pharma to look at some different places to increase their level of comfort with digital and I think hiring those that really speak the language is a good start.

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:37:02 +0000

Sorry, but I think this post reinforces a dualistic, ageist outlook and simplifies the issue of pharma’s resistance to SM.

There are plenty of Gen X-ers–and even a few Boomers like Seth & Guy Kawasaki to name a few–who get SM.

I’m a healthcare/pharma copywriter who creates a variety of interactive and other copy. I have a blog, am comfortable writing basic HTML and am active on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/WritersKitchen/)

My teens, however, eschew Twitter and SM. My son only joined Facebook this year when he was traveling in Europe and wanted to stay in touch with far-flung friends. He checks it about once every two weeks.

So much for generational generalizations.

I don’t think the solution is to hire “Natives” per se. The solution is hire the most creative, curious, patient-centric, tech-savvy marketers you can find.

Then give them the support they need to evangelize–with every expectation that they will butt against monoliths continuously.

Lorraine’s last blog post..10 Good Reasons to Start Cooking from Scratch