THE NEXT LEVEL PHARMA MARKETING SKILLS - AUTHORED BY TWO AI’s

This is the first-ever article on pharma brand management authored by two AIs (AI #1 - Artificial Intelligence = ChatGPT and AI # 2 Average Intelligence = A Human of IQ 118).

Here are some next-level pharma marketing skills that could help brand managers in Bangladesh and India to stand out in the industry:

1. Comprehensive Data Analysis:

With the increasing importance of data in healthcare, a good pharma marketer should be able to collect, analyze, and interpret data from various sources, including prescription data, clinical trials, patient feedback, and sales data from MIS.

This can help you better understand your target doctors, empathize with them and create more effective marketing campaigns.

Comprehensive Data Analysis (CDA) is the most crucial element of data analysis and is not possible without human intervention (just like this article).

CDA is of primary importance for a brand manager in crafting strategies.

2. Omnichannel Marketing:

Pharma marketing is no longer limited to traditional channels like Visual Aids or one-on-one meetings with doctors.

Think of all the ways a padocumer (patients as end consumers and doctors as primary customers) might learn about a brand today.

They might use a smartphone to visit your brand on social media channels such as Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Or they may watch your brand's YouTube videos on an iPad or a tablet.

They could also discover your brands microsite after typing a keyword into Google or Bing on a desktop computer. 

With the rise of digital marketing, it's important to have a good understanding of online platforms such as social media, email marketing, and mobile apps.

An omnichannel approach can help you improve engagement.

3. Personalization

Personalization is becoming increasingly important in pharma marketing, with patients and healthcare providers looking for tailored solutions.

Soon, maybe in a decade, personalized medicine will be the in-thing. Personalized medicine, also called precision medicine or individualized medicine, is a field of medicine in which decisions concerning disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are tailored to individual patients based on information derived from genetic and genomic data.

Personalized medicine centers on the concept that information about a patient’s genes and genome allows physicians to make more informed and effective decisions about a patient’s care.

By collecting and analyzing data on patient preferences, you can create personalized messaging that resonates with your target audience.

4. Healthcare Industry Knowledge

It's important for pharma marketers to have a good understanding of the healthcare industry not just in Bangladesh and India but over the world.

Keep a watch on the newer and changing trends.

Recognize that padocumers (patients as the end-consumers and doctors as the final authority in the Rx process) are our customers.

And if you desire loyalty for your brand, remember there is no substitute for a patient-centered approach in marketing. Doctors will love that. After all, the patient-centered approach is a natural outgrowth of H2H Marketing conceptualized by none other than Philip Kotler.

Acknowledge this and stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changes in the market.

5. Creative Thinking

With so many regulations and restrictions in the Bangladesh and Indian pharma industries, it can be challenging to come up with creative marketing campaigns.

Learn from outside our industry, the FMCG, the automobile industry, the paint industry, and start thinking outside the box.

By thinking outside the box and finding innovative ways to communicate your message, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors and capture the attention of your target audience.

Thinking outside the box can be made smoother when you as a brand manager work outside the AC offices and listen to the voices of patients and doctors from Churu, Icchalkaranji, CoochBehar Alwaye, Mymensingh, Sylhet, and Khuna - places that do not have airports.

6. Collaborative Skills:

Pharma marketing involves collaboration with a range of stakeholders, importantly F & D, finance, medical representatives, and first-line managers.

See the difference in the levels of strategy execution when you engage the field managers in the process of crafting a strategy.

Recognize the importance of field force and transform them into "knowledge workers" and make them your collaborators.

Develop a high level of emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional Intelligence is far more important than Artificial Intelligence for business success.

7. Good Marketing Practices (GMaP):

This will soon become the norm, and not by making UCPMP a law.

It is through the power of social media and what patients write on social media. Reputation management will play an important role in restoring GMaP.

Which doctor or the owner pharma company would like to damage a reputation built with great care and love?

It's through self-regulation.

Good days will soon be here. Be in tune with the next level of pharma marketing.

- Co-authored by ChatGPT & Vivek Hattangadi