I just had a major revelation over the Thanksgiving weekend. I realized that my social network includes many people within the healthcare industry and that those people, if they worked together, could have a dramatic impact on the future of healthcare. Some of these people work for “big pharma” or medical device companies. Others run successful non-profits or have launched healthcare technology startups. Some others provide consulting to the industry and have been responsible for many of the positive changes in healthcare over the years.

At the same time, I realized that there are a lot of people out there that still need a lot of help from the healthcare community. This might be support for an important initiative, the ear of someone who can bring a new idea or product innovation to life, or even help paying for a prescription.  I realized that it would be simple to bring together many of the people that could help fulfill some of these ideas and requests with those that need help. That’s why I created Healthy Thinkers.

The concept is simple. People submit their idea or requests to the community. The community discusses and votes up the best of these. From there, the community uses all of its social connections to make sure the idea or request gets in front of someone who can actually make it happen. It’s a “degrees of separation” concept. Among all the people that will read this post (and hopefully many more who will join the community), we’re probably only a few degrees of separation away from that key person. For example, maybe someone has an innovative idea for how J&J can improve its OneTouch diabetes monitoring products. I would guarantee that someone reading this post right now knows someone on the OneTouch product team. I’ve found out over the years that our healthcare “family” is pretty small.

I was inspired to put Healthy Thinkers together by a few things. First, it was requests that I received to help people out with healthcare-related requests. The first of these was the Diabetes Hands Foundation who asked me to help them spread the word about their Big Blue Test initiative. I did via this blog post and they far exceeded their goal (not just through my efforts to be sure). Right around the same time, someone asked me if I knew anyone at a certain medical device company so that they could contact them to ask for supplies for a mission trip to Africa. I did and this person got what he needed. And within days of that, an acquaintance asked if I knew how to get a discount on her new medication, as it was way too expensive for her. I knew someone from the product team for the brand she was prescribed and that person got my acquaintance enrolled in one of the brand’s assistance programs. It was a bit fortunate that I personally could help facilitate each of these, but I realized that I don’t know everyone and maybe I just got a little lucky.

So, not one to count on luck, my idea is simple: bring together a bunch of people who have connections throughout healthcare with those that need some type of assistance or support and start solving some problems. You see, I think we do an awful lot of talking, so let’s do something instead.

Pharma companies…you want to know how to get involved in social media? Get involved in this community and offer to help where you can. Nothing but positive PR awaits you.

Consultants and ad agency people…you want to use your skills to help people directly beyond what you do for clients? Join the community and use your contacts to solve some problems.

Patients, caregivers, non-profits…you need help or advice from some key people in healthcare? Come to the community and tell us how we can help.

Will this work? Well, here’s what I know. One of my favorite sites is Reddit. No one is going to claim for a second that this is a serious community of any kind (hilarious as it may be). Think of it as a much better version of Digg. Recently, I started to notice some people asking for real help on the site and actually getting it. I did a little more research and came across a post called “Reddit’s Astonishing Altruism.” Some of the acts include users paying for a shopping spree for a dying girl, helping track down a murderer, and bringing a family music heirloom to life (read that one for sure). However, I noticed that there two things on this list that Reddit shouldn’t have had to handle, but did: buying a new wheelchair for someone who couldn’t afford one and buying a new type of hearing aid for a young woman who was deaf since she was 7.

My question is why couldn’t our community handle this? For instance, our agency has worked with one of the leading manufacturers of wheelchairs in the world and I personally know someone who works for a leading hearing aid company. Knowing these folks, I’m sure they could have persuaded their companies to donate these items.

Call me idealistic if you want, but I think we can do better. I think we have a responsibility to do this and we can do a lot of good with very little effort. So, here’s your call to action:

Join Healthy Thinkers today. Here’s the link: http://healthythinkers.ideascale.com

• Register. Sign up and tell us who you are. You can be semi-anonymous if you’d like. If you’re a company that might be able to help, start monitoring this forum for places you can help. If you can’t do this, we’ll find you when we need you.
• Advocate. Spread the word to as many people in healthcare as you can. We need not only the people who can deliver on these ideas and requests, but also people who are going to submit them. So, don’t just tell the people around your office, share it with friends on Facebook too. Know people in the press? Tell them too.
• Participate. Start a post, comment on an existing one, and vote.
• Solve. If you see an idea or request you can help with, step up. Respond or pass it along to a contact who can make it happen.

If you want to spread the word about Healthy Thinkers, here’s some shortcuts. Click Like to share on Facebook. Include a comment so your friends actually notice it in their News Feed.

Or send a tweet about the community:

Tweet

We’ll be posting success stories as they happen and also updates on big needs that still aren’t fulfilled on the blog for Healthy Thinkers (still a work in progress, so bear with me). Also, the top ideas and requests will automatically be tweeted by the @HealthyThinkers Twitter account, so follow that to see what’s new and hot on the site.

Over the next few days, I’ll be introducing you to some volunteer “Connectors” who are going to help moderate the site, but also have agreed to use some of their extensive connections to make sure these ideas and requests get done. If you’re interested in becoming one, then send me a message.

One final point, Healthy Thinkers is a completely non-profit, non-promotional effort. There is no money to be made, so don’t join up if you’re looking to promote yourself or your company. I’ve already told you what the site is for, so I hope that motivates every one of you to take a look.

Once more, join Healthy Thinkers today. Here’s the link: http://healthythinkers.com

If you’re looking for a ton of social media insight or for the latest trends in digital technology in healthcare, today’s post isn’t going to cover much of that. If you want some of the former, then definitely check out “The Beginner’s Guide to Pharma Social Media.” For a bit of the latter, well, you’ll can check out pretty much everything else.

Today’s post has two purposes: first, to announce a major award that Dose of Digital just received, and second, to say thank you for your support in making this award possible.

As many of you know, I work for Bridge Worldwide, which is part of one of the largest agency holding companies, WPP. Each year, WPP has an internal contest called the Atticus Awards. In their words, “WPP’s Atticus Awards honour original thinking in communications services and are open exclusively to professionals working in WPP companies. Each year, extracts from the winning and other outstanding entries are published in the Atticus Journal.” You can follow the link and see some of the past winners, which last year included the outstanding books, The Brand Bubble by John Gerzema, and Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava (full list of last year’s winners here in PDF). Awards come in three levels for eight different categories: “Winner,” “Highly Commended,” and “Merit.” There’s also a “Grand Prix,” which is basically a best in show.

I’m pleased to announce that Dose of Digital was just selected as “Highly Commended” in the Digital Communications category in this year’s Atticus Awards. It’s a pretty big honor considering the competition and the past winners, which consist of some of the best and brightest out there. (Check out last year’s “Highly Commendable” winner in the Digital Communications category from Ann Mack at JWT called, “Privacy in the Digital Age [PDF].” Pretty timely.)

As part of this honor, I’d like to thank each of you for your continued readership and support. Without the encouragement I get from you (and the ideas), I likely would have given up on the blog a long time ago. Please let me know if there’s anything you want me to cover on the blog that you haven’t seen yet. It’s the least I can do. As regular readers know, I’m happy to give my opinion on whatever the topic no matter how much controversy I’m likely to stir up.

I also want to take a minute and congratulate by colleague, Bob Gilbreath, for being named a “Merit” winner for his outstanding book, Marketing With Meaning, in the Strategy category (feel free to congratulate him via Twitter at @mktgwithmeaning). If you ask me, that book was more than “Winner” worthy, but it must have been tough competition, as the eventual “Grand Prix” winner also came from the Strategy category. It’s pretty exciting to have two awards for our agency in a single year. If you haven’t read Bob’s book, get it. Get it especially if you work in pharma or healthcare. To me, the concept of Marketing with Meaning applies more here than to any other industry. If you want to see how, check out my series of posts on the topic starting with this one: “How Marketing with Meaning Can Save Pharma — Part 1.”

[Side note: the full list of winners for this year's Atticus Awards hasn't been fully released yet. I'll let you know when they are and where you can get a copy of the journal with excerpts from all the Winners and several other top entries.]

Again, thanks for your support and continued inspiration. Look out for more controversy coming soon…gotta make a run at that “Grand Prix” award next year.

My topic was Marketing with Meaning as it applies to pharma, which I’ve talked about here before in a three part post ( 1, 2, 3). After much preparation, I felt I was finally ready. I was the last to go and, because it would have been too easy otherwise, there was a major glitch with my slides. Instead of seeing the slides I supplied them and checked the day before, I saw “slightly” edited slides that had all the titles cut off or otherwise misformatted. Sometimes this resulted in nonsensical statements and, at other times,  the results were quite amusing. Either way, I had to improv my way through not just this difficult format, but also the additional challenge of a little mystery every time a new slide appeared.

If you want a copy of the ACTUAL slides, as they were supposed to appear, you can download them here. You’ll see the titles and, therefore, slides make a lot more sense this way. This also includes my speaker notes as well..

Pharma Marketing with Meaning Pecha Kucha (915 downloads)

Without further adieu, here’s my presentation:

In the end, it worked out fine and I was told my presentation was even better because I had to fight through the slide format issue. Of course, I think I should be insulted by this because no one saw my presentation the “right” way so they couldn’t actually make this comparison. But, hey, I’ll take it.

You can dig through the Twitter hashtag feed for the conference to see everything discussed and you can find the feedback that I received as well (I’m afraid to look). The hashtag was #epatcon and I’m @jonmrich.

Here are a few photos from my talk as well. (Photo credit to E-Patient Connections/Kru Research)

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Here’s the presentation on SlideShare. Click through to see the notes for each slide.

We’ve now established what the concept of Marketing with Meaning is and how it might relate to pharma. I gave the example of Baxter’s marketing for Aralast as a perfect demonstration of how it can work. I’ve also offered you a few  other examples from healthcare and other industries, which can be found on the Marketing with Meaning blog and in the free download of chapter two of the book.

Some people have told me that sometimes I oversimplify concepts like these. That is, they interpret my posts sounding as if I’m saying, “But, this is so simple…why in the world are you standing around doing nothing?!?” But having worked in pharma for many years, I realize, it’s never that simple. But I like challenges like that form my readers, so to show you that this is an important concept for pharma and one that they can and should embrace right now, I’m going to give you a three of examples of what Marketing with Meaning could look like for a few big pharma brands. I’ve somewhat randomly picked these brands, but if any of you skeptics think I “cherry-picked” these, just leave me a comment and let me know for which brand you want me give an example. (PS: I’ll take up that challenge for any brand in any industry, by the way)

Two disclaimers before I get into these. First, you’ll probably look at a few of these ideas and think that no one would want to engage with a pharma company in the ways I’m suggesting. You might be right. At least, you might be right today and I probably agree with you. But, if people won’t participate in my program because they don’t trust me, is the solution to never do a program ever again? No, the answer is to do the program and show that you are trustworthy. It won’t happen instantly, but if you do it consistently over time, then it will happen. These first programs might not have huge participation, but they’ll show the world that pharma can do it differently and in a way that they can trust and find very valuable. Second, I don’t have in depth knowledge of the marketing plans for these products. So, these ideas might be off equity and probably not in line with the brands’ marketing objectives. Not much I can do about that. The concept is what’s important, not the specific tactics. In addition, these ideas will certainly be controversial and difficult to get approved, but that’s sort of the point. We’re just going for a demonstration of the concept, not a comprehensive marketing plan. So, here goes:

Gardasil/Cervarix

I mentioned in part one of this series the controversy stirred up by anti-pharma people people regarding Natalie Morton’s unfortunate death. The anti-pharma people tried to blame it on the vaccination for HPV she had gotten hours before. It turns out that a massive undiagnosed tumor is what killed her. A sad story to be sure and one for which pharma companies got unfairly clobbered. I mentioned that a lack of trust of big pharma (no surprise to most of you) is one of the things that makes situations like this impossible for pharma to defend. It’s hard to listen to anyone telling you that all is well when you don’t trust them. That was the point of this Marketing with Meaning series. I think it’s the best way for pharma to get back that trust. As I said before, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen if we’re consistent.

These vaccines are to prevent the spread of HPV, which causes most forms of cervical cancer. HPV, of course, is usually spread by sexual contact. As you probably know, we’re a little uptight about sex here in the United States. Discussing the need for the vaccine also requires discussing sexual activity. To some degree, this is related to the debate about whether you give teens free condoms. Does it encourage or condone them having sex or is it simply an acceptance of the reality that they will have sex, so you might as well help keep them from catching and spreading sexually-transmitted diseases? I’m not here to answer that debate.

Discussing sex with your kid is pretty tough for most people. It’s uncomfortable (for everyone). Parents might not be sure how far to go and what level of detail to provide. And they likely aren’t aware how much their kid already knows. When your kid senses this, it makes the conversation even worse, so many parents struggle with this parenting challenge. In many ways, this discussion is like talking to your kids about drinking, smoking, or drugs. These can be uncomfortable as well for parents. But, parents have gotten better at these over the years thanks to some really good campaigns from government agencies, non-profits, and even manufacturers. The free download of chapter two of the book from Marketing with Meaning has a great case study about the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA) on page 42. They’re the people who brought you the “This is your brain on drugs” ads. But, they’ve left these behind to focus instead on educating parents about how to talk to their kids about drugs. Check out what they’re providing for parents on their site.

While weighing the risks and benefits of the HPV vaccine is an important part of the decision process being able to have a frank and open discussion about sex with your kid is a key part as well. A parent might think they can put off the decision to have their child vaccinated for a few more years because they aren’t sexually active when, in fact, they are. So, here comes the Marketing with Meaning part: why not help facilitate this discussion? Do exactly what PDFA did to help parents talk to their kids about drugs, but make it about sex instead. Help parents with the difficult questions, with the details, and with knowing when you should have the talk. No one’s providing this really well on a national level and it’s a great chance for a pharma company to demonstrate some Marketing with Meaning. This isn’t selling vaccines or promoting a brand. That comes over time when parents trust you more. This is providing something meaningful to parents who are your most important customer for these vaccines. You’ll be able to talk about your product later when they’re actually listening.

Enbrel

For those who don’t know, Enbrel is a treatment for moderate or severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It’s also one of the top ten selling drugs in the world. But what would happen if the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis started to decrease? What if someone was helping people slow the progression of or delay the onset of arthritis? Check out this campaign for Tylenol. You’ve probably all seen these billboards by now. What are they doing?

These billboards appear to be showing you a way to avoid taking Tylenol. If there are fewer people with headaches, then doesn’t their demand (and then sales) go down? Of course, what Tylenol knows is that providing this advice helps people create a better connection with the brand. People view these and believe that Tylenol isn’t simply out to make a buck, they care about your health. When you’re about to pick up a pain medication in the store next time, who do you turn to? The company that you know cares about your health or some private label store brand? Of course, this doesn’t create an emotional connection with everyone, but over time it has an impact. These ads are Marketing with Meaning. Yes, they’re billboards that are somewhat inherently interuptive, but you choose whether or not to read the words. When you do, you realize that they give a tiny, but valuable piece of information that can help in the future.

So what does this all have to do with Enbrel? Let’s take the same approach as Tylenol and help prevent those with the earliest stages of RA from progressing into the more serious, latter stages. It’s just like a headache medicine helping you prevent headaches. How can Enbrel do this? Exercise is an important part of preventing the progression of arthritis. Of course, some of the most debilitating effects of RA happen on the hands. They become painful and lose flexibility over time. You can slow this with proper exercise, but how do you exercise your fingers? Well, WebMD has an entire section dedicated to this. Any other ways, just in case you find those boring? Hint: if you’re writing a comment about how there’s no way to do this, you’re doing it. Typing and moving a mouse can be a good way to get some exercise in both the hands and fingers. Not too much to the point that your hands get sore or lead to carpal tunnel syndrome or anything, but enough to get people moving their fingers around everyday. But how do you get people to type? With a game.

The onset of RA typically occurs in middle age and women are disproportionately affected. This group is also big players of “casual games.” Seriously. Here are some stats from two sources ( Pew and ESA):

• Average game player age: 35
• 26% are 50+
• 36% of gamers 65+ say they play EVERYDAY or almost everyday (the highest of any age group)
• 50% of gamers are women

These are simple, often Flash-based games that can played quickly and might have an interesting rewards system. It’s games like Bejewelled.

You could create a game that requires you to use increasing amounts of finger dexterity (up to the level you can comfortably do) in order to get through puzzles or move onto the next level. Perhaps part of the play requires you to use one hand and quickly press a few different keys in order that are spread in different keyboard positions. The faster you do it, the more impact it has on the game. It doesn’t have to be complex (but it does have to inherently be a fun game and not just an exercise tool). You would make the game open to the public and it would just carry a small Enbrel logo in the corner. If you make the game good enough, you’ll help people prevent the progression of their RA, something they’ll be incredibly grateful for…something that will dramatically build their trust in you. And, if it’s good enough, the game will get played and spread around by people that don’t have RA, but it will also increase their trust in you as well. More trust with more people is just what pharma needs.

Lipitor/Crestor/or any other statin

I already gave you the Aralast example of providing free test kits for their drug. They have to because the disease is so rare that your average health insurance plan would see it as a waste because it would cost a fortune to find a handful of people with the disease. It would be a tremendous burden on the health system with little wide-scale benefits. So, Baxter takes that on as part of their marketing budget.

If we were in the UK right now, I could simply walk into the pharmacy and pick up a statin off the shelf. Statins are an over-the-counter (OTC) product there. There’s been debate about making certain statins OTC in the US and this debate will likely continue for some time. The arguments for allowing this is that more people will get treated. Presumably, this is because there’s far fewer barriers to getting an OTC product than a prescription one. There’s no trip to the doctor, no passing a slip of paper, and waiting for you pharmacist to fill the prescription…you just walk in and take what you need. The arguments against focus on concern about people managing their own heart disease; something, they say, should be monitored by a physician. I’m not here to declare who’s right and who’s wrong.

So, if the argument for allowing this focuses on giving more people access to these drugs by making it simpler to get treatment, can’t the prescription drug companies do this too? It’s a hassle to go to your doctor and get a blood test, wait for the results, maybe go back for a follow-up to discuss treatment, get a prescription…and on and on…you get the idea. Many people get their cholesterol counts during annual check ups, but not everyone gets one. So, why not eliminate some of the barriers? Take out the first few steps of the process by supplying at-home, cholesterol testing kits to those who ask for it. You already can get them without a prescription for about $15, so this isn’t completely crazy of an idea. Before you panic, let me tell you how it would work. Test kits can be made available through different media promotions, in-pharmacy displays, etc. The person gets the kit, takes the sample and mails it back. They can choose to have the results sent to themselves or to their doctor. You also allow them to request additional information about your company or your products, but you don’t keep their information. That is, you can’t keep the test results to use later on. Sorry, too much room for abuse there.

Here’s the simple math, which I admittedly haven’t done with absolute precision: is the cost of the tests (and processing) less than the incremental sales your product would get from people who would never have found out they had high cholesterol? If the answer is “yes,” then this is a simple decision. Let’s see…a test costs $12 to manufacture and process (I’m thinking bulk discount). Let’s assume that only one in four who take the test would actually be a candidate for statin treatment (based on this). That means you have to spend $48 ($12 x 4) to find one highly qualified and motivated patient (I classify them as such because they’ve had to do a lot to get to this point unlike, say, someone who just visited your website). Perhaps only one of the four actually goes to the doctor and gets a statin. That means, you have to spend $192 ($48 x 4) to get one motivated person a statin prescription. At around $130 per month, each person needs to take their treatment for an average of 6 weeks for you to break even. Of course, you won’t get every prescription, so apply your brand’s market share here as well. This doesn’t factor in the PR benefits and free media placement you should expect as well. Not sure if the math works (I think it’s actually conservative)? You could do this as a small, localized pilot to see what the rates of response are before going national.

Like Aralast, pharma gets to play the hero because they are reducing the costs within the healthcare system by absorbing some of the testing costs themselves. They are getting treatment to people who would go onto have severe heart disease without ever knowing it. But, you say, will people trust pharma to do this? As I said before, maybe they won’t at first, but enough people will. With those people as your proof, you show the world that you are doing this with good intentions and that there isn’t anything underhanded going on. It would be a slow process, but it would work over time.

There you have it. Three examples of Marketing with Meaning for three big pharma brands. These might not be ideal programs for these products, but consider them illustrative. Imagine what the people on these brand teams can come up with as they apply their intimate knowledge of the brand. I guarantee they’d be even better. These examples weren’t meant to say that these brands should do these programs, but more to demonstrate how it’s possible even for pharma to do meaningful marketing. Some already are, but if we can do it consistently throughout the industry, we can change public perception and get back to a place where people are glad pharma companies are around to provide them with life-saving or life-enhancing medications and not as something they need to protest against.

When you last left this blog, I outlined some of the big issues facing pharma marketing and provided a pretty striking example of how the lack of trust in pharma by many in the general public manifests itself. As a recap, I outlined three big problems that I think can be addressed by changing the way pharma companies market their products.

1. Horrible PR and public perception from  marketing tactics perceived as questionable
2. No public belief in the cost to value equation for pharma products (i.e., people don’t think they should cost so much, which means they think the products aren’t worth it)
3. Falling sales and profits

Sure, that doesn’t capture every issue, but whatever the issue, it likely fits somehow under catch-all issue number 3: falling sales and profits. My assertion was that a concept called Marketing with Meaning could improve all of these. For those who closely follow this blog, you’ll know that Marketing with Meaning is a concept developed by Bob Gilbreath, our Chief Marketing Strategist here at Bridge Worldwide. So, yes, I’m a little biased in thinking this is a really important concept that every industry and every company should understand and implement, but I’m also one of the biggest skeptics out there and if I didn’t think it was a fit for pharma, I wouldn’t be writing about it. Now…on with the show.

First, a little background for those not familiar with Marketing with Meaning. It’s pretty simple really. Marketing with Meaning is two things: marketing that people choose to engage with and marketing that itself improves people’s lives. It’s the opposite of interruptive, broadcast advertising. Simple enough, right? So, why is the first part important? Let’s look at some numbers, shall we?

• Do you like using TV ads as a marketing tactic? Well, IDC Research has shows that 2/3 of DVR owners skip commercials all or most of the time. For the most popular shows, Nielsen Media Research reports that 20% of ALL television viewers (not just those with DVRs) are skipping commercials.
• Remember telemarketers? Probably just a distant memory for you. That’s because 76% of Americans signed up more than 150 million phone numbers on the Do-Not-Call List within months. What’s the next list?
• How about Flash banner ads? Heck, our company makes them all the time for clients. Are these working? Well, 6 million Firefox users have installed AdBlock, which eliminates every one of these ads. (Even the Cannes Gold Cyber Lion winners like our “Can Hands” ad. Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Not a pretty picture. You’ll notice that digital marketing isn’t immune. People are just as frustrated with digital marketing that isn’t meaningful as they are with any other channel. So, what do we do? Well, the good news is that some companies have already figured out what to do. And while they may not be calling it Marketing with Meaning (yet), that’s just what they’re doing. “So what,” you ask? Our research at Bridge Worldwide shows that “the more meaningful people find your marketing, the more they’ll be willing to pay for your stuff, the more of an investment they’ll make in it emotionally, and the more motivated they’ll become to spread the word.” (from “The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with Your Customers by Marketing with Meaning“)

Sound like what you’re trying to do with your marketing plan every year? More people buying your products. More people creating deeper emotional connections with your customers. And more people talking to others about your products. You’re probably spending millions right now to deliver some of these goals right now.

You probably want an example of Marketing with Meaning by now. First, let me tell you what it’s not. It’s not cause marketing and it’s not marketing that is somehow against conspicuous consumption. Meaning in this case means “personal value.” It’s what you find meaningful. That’s going to be different for different people. A cause like saving the rainforests might not be important to your average teenage boy, but a funny, viral video he can share with his friends might be. He’s also not interested in a program that improves high cholesterol, but his father might be. Because everyone’s a bit different, there isn’t a one-size fits all approach. Like anything, you’ve got to match you meaningful marketing program to the needs of your customers. But, there are also many ways that you can be meaningful.

Now for the examples…

Samsung could have put more billboards all around airports that no one would have noticed, but instead, they paid to install charging stations for travelers like me who can never seem to find an outlet. And, by the way, they get to show me, a very grateful traveler who is charging up a bunch of electronics (which eventually are going to need to be replaced), some of their latest gadgets.

When Adidas bought Reebok in 2005 and threatened Nike’s domination in athletic shoes, Nike didn’t react like they always have by doing a massive media blitz. Instead, the reconnected with their core audience, die-hard runners, and created Nike+. In case you don’t know, Nike+ is a chip that fits into your Nike running shoe and syncs with your iPod allowing you to track your runs and get a little verbal encouragement along the way. It all connects back to a website that features a giant community of runners that now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. 30% of Nike+ users come to Nike’s site three times a week. That is, they CHOOSE to come to Nike’s website…three times a week. Is anyone choosing to do that with your website? Oh, one other thing, Nike CEO Mark Parker credited an 8.1% rise in quarterly profits just 6 months after introducing it to Nike+. Remember, that’s in the face of millions spent on media by the Adidas/Reebok behemoth to capture Nike’s share. It didn’t come close to working.

More? No problem. I’ve got hundreds of these. How about one that fits under entertainment? Yes, entertainment can be meaningful to some people and it can come in many different forms. If you haven’t seen the charging stations or used Nike+, I know you’ve seen this next one. Instead of spending millions on TV and print advertising, in 2006, Dove took a different approach. It created “Evolution” (credit to sister agency Ogilvy Toronto). A “simple” video all to support a campaign that would later be called “The Campaign for Real Beauty.” This concept was borne out of research the agency did that showed that 50% of women say that their body “disgusts them.” 50%. “Disgusts them.” Clearly, there was an opportunity to change that. So, with little hype (and no mass media buying), “Evolution” was launched. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have, it’s always worth watching again.

If that doesn’t stop you for a minute, I’m not sure what will. That video, thanks to a massive viral spread, has been seen more than 500 million times. How much would it cost you for 500 million impressions? How about 500 million impressions on people who WANTED to see your commercial? $500,000? $1,000,000? $3,000,000? Nope. Try $50,000. That’s how much “Evolution” cost to create. Sure, not everything is “Evolution,” but you probably don’t need 500 million views of your video. However, you probably want more than the few hundred or few thousand it has now. “Evolution” launched an entire campaign around improving women’s self-esteem. Meaningful, right? Effective too. The Dove brand, which was previously flat, grew by double digits during this campaign.

I’m not going to list every example here. We’d be on Part 9,381 of this post if I did. If you want more examples, then you’ll have to check out the Marketing with Meaning blog or, even better, you can download a chapter of the book, which describes a lot of these examples and many more. It’s a free trial (Hint: also can be a form of Marketing with Meaning). Download chapter two of the book here.

Well, maybe just one more example would help. Since I know my readers, I know that you’re all saying, “That’s all well and good for Dove or Nike, but we’re not selling shoes and soap. We’re making medicines here that save people’s lives and we’re pretty restricted in what we can do.” Both true. The products you sell prevent, treat, or cure diseases. What’s more meaningful than that? So, shouldn’t your marketing be just as meaningful? If you’re saving someone’s life with, say, a chemotherapy for breast cancer, does it somehow reduce the meaning of the product if you’re promoting it in a simple print ad? Doesn’t that cheapen what it does just a bit? I think it might. It almost certainly does in the eyes of your average consumer who sees almost all advertising as interruptive and irrelevant. And, yes, you’re in a regulated industry, but some pharma companies are already doing Marketing with Meaning.

Meet Aralast. Aralast, marketed by Baxter, is a treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency. It’s a pretty rare condition in which there are low levels or no levels of AAT in the blood. AAT is an enzyme that protects the lungs from neutrophil elastase (NE), another enzyme that is produced by white blood cells. Without AAT, the NE can attack healthy lung tissue. The result can be early emphysema and liver damage. Here comes the “good” news and bad news. Only 100,000 people in the US have this condition. So, it’s a good thing that it’s not more widespread. However, the bad news is that no one has ever heard of it, so no one knows (including your average primary care physician) to look for it. 95% of people that have the disease are undiagnosed. The result is late diagnosis oftentimes when there’s not much that can be done.

A critical marketing objective for Aralast is creating awareness of the disease and encouraging physicians to test for it. If we followed the traditional pharma approach, we’d consider a massive TV or print campaign to inform people that they might have the disease and to get tested. Sure, for most people that see the ads, it won’t apply, but perhaps it’ll reach those precious few where it could help. Of course, we’ll annoy and further distance everyone else, but that’s the price we pay, right? Maybe instead, Baxter should spend a fortune lobbying Congress and health insurance companies to make the tests mandatory. Again, more annoyed people than satisfied people.

What Baxter does is totally different. It gives away the tests (and the lab processing) to anyone who requests them. Concerned consumers can request the test and have their doctor administer the simple blood test and physicians can also request a supply for their offices. The test themselves are, of course, marketing the awareness AAT deficiency (just like our commercial would have tried to do). They’re also branded with the Aralast name. Marketing the product right on the test package?!? Isn’t that exploiting the importance of detecting the disease? Aren’t doctors turned off that the test has been commercialized? No and no. Why? Because the test is Marketing with Meaning. Once again, Marketing with Meaning is marketing that people choose to engage with and marketing that itself improves people’s lives. When it comes to these tests, check and check. Yes, people are choosing to engage with it. Doctors and patients alike are ASKING for the test either through the brand’s website or sales representatives. And, these tests are improving lives. Without access to the free test, many people wouldn’t have thought about getting checked and many others wouldn’t have received it because of pressures within our healthcare system to try to reduce unnecessary tests. (Thanks to Bob G for his post about Aralast, which I borrowed heavily from for this section)

The marketing of Aralast, which comes in the form of free tests for AAT deficiency, improves lives. The product itself clearly improves lives by saving people from early emphysema and liver damage. But the marketing does also. It increases awareness of the disease, it reduces the costs to our healthcare system, and it makes it easier for physicians to diagnosis a difficult to detect disease. It does all of this at the request of customers. People seek out Baxter’s marketing for Aralast (in the form of free test kits). Who’s seeking out your marketing?

So, if a modest-selling product like Aralast can do it, why can’t a top-selling drug like Lipitor do it?

In part three of this post (yes, there’s more), I’m going to tell you how Lipitor can do it. I’m also going to tell you how several other drugs from big sellers to niche products can do it too. Free Marketing with Meaning advice. Stay tuned for Part 3.

(Warning…here comes some commercialism, so if you’re easily offended by that sort of stuff, you should skip this. If you read on, you don’t get to complain later.)

Since you’ve made it this far, I do have to add one more thing. This is going to be a commercial, but I think it’s also Marketing with Meaning. One of the ways we spread the word about our agency, is via this blog. You won’t see an ad for Bridge Worldwide in your latest trade journal (though we did one once a couple years ago though) or at an exhibit booth at a convention. Instead, we invest in this, Dose of Digital (among other things). The Marketing with Meaning blog is, of course, another way we market our agency. We think the information we share in these blogs is valuable and is an example of Marketing with Meaning. You’re choosing to engage with it, right? And it improves people’s lives. Not in the way Aralast’s marketing improves lives, but it makes your job as a marketer easier (we hope). That’s improving lives. There are different degrees, to be sure, but you can always achieve even a modest improvement.

With that, I’d like to tell you about something we’re particularly proud of here at Bridge Worldwide. Last Friday was the official launch a book written by Bob Gilbreath, our company’s Chief Marketing Strategist (and my boss, so be nice). The book is called “The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with Your Customers by Marketing with Meaning.” While Bob was the author, we’re all really proud of the book and we have made it the cornerstone of what we do here at Bridge Worldwide. If you have read Bob’s blog or find what you’re reading here pretty intriguing, I encourage you to go get a copy of the book. Not only is it full of great examples, like the ones in this post, but unlike other business books, it tells you exactly how to bring Marketing with Meaning to your company. Step-by-step, internal and external.

Intrigued? How about a sneak preview? You can download chapter two of the book here. It’s a good place to start because it’s the first chapter that really sets up the concept of Marketing with Meaning and also gives some great examples.

One more offer…

Use Twitter? Then I have a request/offer. However, only do it if you’re buying into the Marketing with Meaning concept or read the chapter and liked it. I want you to tweet this only if you really think people should get book. It’s not supposed to be spam.

Okay, here’s the offer: I’ll send EVERYONE that tweets the following message an awesome Marketing with Meaning sticker (or 10…whatever…just share with your friends). There are going to be as cool as the Apple sticker someday, so get in on the ground floor. It’s not a massive token of appreciation, but if you’re a believer in the cause, you’ll want one.

Okay, here it is (please copy and tweet it EXACTLY like this or I won’t know you did it.):

Download a free chapter from the new book, “The Next Evolution of Marketing” Please RT http://bit.ly/twitter_bww

I’ll DM you and to get your mailing address after your tweet goes live.

Of course, if you’ve seen enough and are ready to buy some copies of the book, here’s the link to the book on Amazon. If you buy the book, I’ll send you stickers too. I could require you show me the receipt, but I’d rather it be on the honor system. Just use the contact page to let me know you bought a copy and where I can send the sticker (or stickers if you are going to share them with friends).

Okay, thanks for listening to my little commercial and for supporting the cause. Hopefully, you see how it’s Marketing with Meaning as well. If you’re interested in talking with others who are getting behind the cause, you can join the community. We’re just getting started.

There’s no question that pharma is in trouble. There seems to be a scandal a minute (whether real or created). Billion dollar fines seem to be the norm instead of billion dollar products. Sales growth has stalled for many and workforce cuts seem to come everyday.

That’s all pretty bad, but it doesn’t even capture the number one problem and it won’t come as a surprise to anyone: public opinion of pharma is terrible. Not just bad, terrible.

As a regular user of Twitter, I use Tweetdeck and one of my columns shows every tweet with the word “pharma” in it. Today, I noticed this tweet:

I thought it was maybe just one anti-pharma zealot. Then I saw it again. And again. And again. In fact, after searching, I realized there were hundreds of this exact same tweet (see for yourself). Hundreds of tweets all with the same message: a pharma conspiracy. Pharma conspiracy theories aren’t new, but this one stood out for me.

For those not familiar with the story, Natalie Morton was a 14 year-old in the UK who received a government-mandated injection of the cervical cancer vaccine and died hours after receiving it. In the UK, it’s mandatory for all teenage girls to receive the vaccination. For good reason too, it prevents a leading form of cancer, cervical cancer. A vaccine to prevent cancer. Imagine that. Back when Nixon declared a “War on Cancer” in 1971, how thrilled would be to know we had a vaccine to prevent one form of cancer? Instead today, it’s not seen that way at all. It’s just another pharma conspiracy to get more profits.

Back to Natalie’s sad story. Immediately after Natalie’s death, several news organizations jumped on the story. Here’s what Huffington Post ran. It appeared to every anti-pharma person that they’d finally been vindicated. Here was big pharma’s vaccine killing a perfectly healthy girl. Of course, none of them mentioned that 1.8 million girls had already received the vaccine without a single death similar to Natalie’s reported. Of course, the anti-pharma outrage should have stopped today, when an autopsy was performed and found that Natalie died from complications of an undiagnosed tumor. The medical examiner reported the following: “The heart was heavily infiltrated by a tumor which extended to the left lung. It was so severe death could have arisen at any time. The role of the immunization appeared to be minimal.”

End of story, right? Wrong. That’s when the tweets started. Rather than concede that the vaccination didn’t cause this girl’s death, she was used to infuse a little emotion into the anti-pharma zealots’ rhetoric. Yes, it’s really easy to fake a massive chest tumor during an autopsy.

Why is it like this?

Instead of praising pharma companies for potentially eliminating the approximately 11,000 incidences of cervical cancer each year and preventing about 4,000 deaths in the United States alone, “big pharma” gets beaten up. Why?

No doubt there are countless reasons, some of which the industry has brought upon itself with some questionable marketing tactics and scandals followed by massive government fines. But this isn’t the only reason. People are very passionate about the cost of the medications (but not very passionate about the costs of the other aspects of their helathcare). Since most people don’t know what an MRI costs and many don’t pay for a dime of the cost of one, they don’t get upset when their insurance company gets the bill. But when you pick up your prescription at CVS and have to shell out your cash, it’s a different story. That makes people mad.

Clearly, I’m not going to be the one to solve that problem. I’m not going to tell you I know how to completely fix all the PR issues pharma has. But I think we can make a dent.

So, let’s look at three major pharma problems:

1. Horrible PR and public perception from  marketing tactics perceived as questionable
2. No public belief in the cost to value equation for pharma products (i.e., people don’t think they should cost so much, which means they think the products aren’t worth it)
3. Falling sales and profits

Question: Can Marketing with Meaning improve all three of these?

Answer: Not overnight, but yes, it can.

Question: Does pharma really need this now with all of its other challenges to worry about like patent issues, healthcare reform, and increased government scrutiny?

Answer: Because of these challenges, there’s no better time.

Interested?

In part 2 of this post, I’ll tell you all about how Marketing with Meaning can do all this. In the meantime, you should read up on what Marketing with Meaning is all about. You can also register yourself for the upcoming E-Patient Connections conference where I’ll be presenting this concept (in 6 minutes and 40 seconds). If you do register, use promo code jr500 to get $500 off. Finally, a perk from this blog.

So today I’m here telling you how pharma can cut out the doctor all together. I’m not talking about DTC advertising, I’m talking about a world where pharma makes it unnecessary to go to a doctor’s office as part of the transaction of obtaining a prescription drug. Of course, today you need a doctor to write a prescription for many products. The patient then has to take it to his or her pharmacy to get the medication. That’s quite a hassle. Why not cut out having to go to the doctor? Sure, many Canadian “pharmacies” have made quite a living on this premise using their on-staff “physicians” to do a phone consultation with patients before writing a prescription; a prescription that I’m going to guess is only valid at the pharmacy they work at for many reasons. Naturally, I’m not recommending this approach.

I know that many of you are pretty upset at this idea right now, but bear with me for a moment. You’ll either be much more mad in a moment or intrigued.

Where did I come up with this hair-brained idea in the first place? As a routine, I try to stay on top of new developments in healthcare, especially new uses of digital technologies. A while back, someone called my attention to a company called American Well. I love the concept and what the company is about, but I never really thought of an angle for pharma marketing. Until now…

American Well’s simple tagline is: “The doctor will see you now.” That about says it all. What American Well does is provide a system that allows patients to talk via live chat, including video, with a physician any time of the day or night. Physicians are recruited by American Well and offered payment to be “on-call” during what might ordinarily  may be an off day. When you log into American Well’s system, you have some choices regarding which physician you’re matched up with. It’s not going to be your regular physician, but it’s going to be quality doctor who is willing to see you right now. They can’t do everything and they likely don’t have your full medical history, so think of it like a walk in clinic. Obviously, you can’t have them stitch up a cut or set a broken arm via the Internet, but for routine care, this is perfect. It could potentially save a trip to the emergency room for many and would be a godsend in the middle of the night for some tired parents.

For a moment, think about the economics of this for a health insurance plan. Compare what they save on walk in clinic costs and emergency room visits opposite what they pay for American Well’s services. Since health insurance companies are pretty interested in these economic aspects of care, they’re on top of this. If you’re a member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield in either Hawaii or Minnesota, then you’re in luck. Access to American Well’s service is part of your standard coverage. How nice is that? For the rest of us, we’ll have to wait to use American Well. It’s got to be a no-brainer that many other plans will be offering this soon.

But I don’t want to wait and neither should you. However, I don’t have the resources to launch this service for me and all of my readers. Hmmm, I wonder who might though?

Ah yes, pharma companies. Picture this. You log onto, say, the Singulair product website looking for information about seasonal allergies and you’re trying to figure out if this drug is right for you.  After a little research, you decide that you’re going to ask your doctor about it. Now, your allergies are pretty bad, but they’re not killing you, so you try to set up an appointment with your doctor. Two weeks out is the soonest they have available for your non-emergency. Over the two weeks, do you forget about Singulair? Do you even keep your appointment (especially if your allergies got a little better or your schedule forced you to cancel a few times)? Well, if you forget about Singulair or don’t show up for your appointment, Merck is out of a new prescription.

On the other hand, if Merck had licensed American Well’s platform on the Singulair site, then you simply could have clicked a button and spoke with a doctor that second. The doctor would have examined you (as best as possible via webcam), did a thorough history, and asked a few other questions before deciding which allergy medication was right for you. Yes, this doctor won’t know everything about you and they couldn’t do a full hands on physical, but you’re not experiencing chest pains either. The patient, of course, could ask if Singulair is a good option. This physician isn’t a Merck employee and isn’t paid by Merck, so she could pick whatever she thought was appropriate…just like if you went to the office. Managing this kind of condition might be a perfect case where the American Well model works really well. Merck had to pay for the service, but will more than make a return with this new patient now starting treatment.

In the traditional sense, this would be going around the patient’s doctor, but it’s not cutting the doctor out of the equation like a sketchy Canadian “pharmacy.” A qualified, licensed physician made a diagnosis and prescribed a treatment just as he or she does in their “real world” practice. How much different is this than someone going to the Take Care Clinics at Walgreens or similar concepts in many other chains including Walmart? What about stand along “quick care” or walk in clinics? Not much as I see it. In the case of the clinic at Walgreens, you’ll be seeing a PA or NPA in person. In the online version you see an MD (or DO perhaps) via webcam.

Since the physicians on the other end of the service are ordinary doctors looking to supplement their income a bit, they still get the same promotional attention from pharma companies as any other physician in the country. You aren’t likely to find doctors who will only write prescriptions for the company that is sponsoring the use of the service. Even if you could, I doubt that American Well would stand for that and I doubt that any pharma company’s legal team would allow it either. So, what’s wrong with a pharma company providing patients live access to a physician 24/7? Isn’t this an incredibly valuable service to the community? We’re talking an awful lot about healthcare reform right now and about how some people can’t afford to go to the doctor. Well, here’s a pharma company bringing the doctor to you…for FREE.

Am I missing something? Is there any possible way to cast this in a negative light? Perhaps some doctors who aren’t interested in being a part of the American Well program will be a bit upset, as they might lose some patient visits and they’ll claim (probably correctly) that it isn’t the same level of care that they could provide. Fair enough, but is the upside worth the downside? As a pharma company, you can break it down by cold, hard math. Is the value of the increased prescriptions more than the cost of the American Well system plus the loss in prescriptions from doctors who hold a bit of a grudge against the company? Simple math really. Requires some estimation, but not many factors to consider.

So, is this a potentially an amazing example of Marketing with Meaning or a horrible idea that hurts patients and physicians (and “the system”)?

Just to be clear, before you leave angry comments, I’m not suggesting that pharma companies try to cut off the relationship between patients and their doctors. Nor am I suggesting that this be a replacement for an ongoing relationship with a physician who can manage your health over time. Having said that, there are going to be more technologies available that make it easy for people to get the products and services they want using the methods they want. Healthcare is no exception. So, while this might not be the answer or a feasible marketing tactic for pharma, did you know it even existed? If not, what else is out there that you should know about?