Adherence-Driven Marketing: Bringing Balance to the Brand Joe Meadows, Vice President, Marketing & Creative Services By following some basic principles and working with experienced solutions providers, companies will find that investments in adherence-driven marketing produce attractive, ongoing results for both their brand and their patients. One of the most significant changes in pharmaceutical marketing has been the realization that there’s more to the marketer’s job than just finding new patients and battling for market share. Fortunately, pharma invests in a big way once it embraces an idea, and programs aimed at keeping patients on therapy are flourishing. It’s a positive change, but practicing adherence-driven marketing requires a delicate mix of art and science, and it’s still not fully understood by many in the industry. Like most new ventures, it takes time for marketers to become truly proficient at holding on to their patients. Even the language is still in development. Terms such as compliance, persistency, and adherence are batted about in a loose and interchangeable way, causing the purists to cringe and sometimes confusing the rest of us. Personally, I don’t care what you call it. I’m just happy to see my colleagues in senior marketing positions funding these efforts and insisting that they be included in a brand’s — even a company’s — strategic plan. The balance it creates is healthy for the healthcare system as a whole, and I believe it creates a more defendable position against those who think pharmaceutical marketers are mere disease mongers peddling me-too products. It’s also a smart business move. Well-designed and properly executed adherence programs pay financial dividends that can be proven and repeated. I’m sometimes asked by brand managers about what they should focus on in their patient adherence programs. While each brand is different and marketers need to invest in the time and research to understand their own patients, I usually remind them to be mindful of at least three important things. Segmentation Leads to Relevance Segmentation is a basic part of marketing, but it’s often forgotten in adherence programs. Increasingly, these patients are trying to control more than one medical condition and your product may be just one of the medications they take on a regular basis. Take the time to develop messages and “paths" within your adherence program that deal with at least the larger segments of your audience, and remember that these segments and message paths may be based on the patient’s ongoing decisions about their therapy as much as traditional factors such as age or gender. It’s also important to remember that you can create and deliver relevant programs without knowing the patient’s identity. Experienced solutions providers are happy to help you with this. Don’t Abandon Your Patient I’m often asked how long an adherence program should last. I usually answer by asking how long the person wants to keep the patient on therapy and loyal to their brand. While some may disagree, I think it’s illogical to lose contact with your customer if you can maintain and strengthen that relationship and still maintain an attractive ROI. This does present some challenges, including a need to create fresh, relevant content for your programs. But making the effort to meet the ongoing information needs of your patients will also present you with opportunities. Patients with whom you have had long-term contact and who have been digesting information you supplied may be much more likely to tell others, including their provider, about their positive brand experience. This could become an increasingly important benefit of adherence programs in a world where social media and connectedness play important roles in who we trust, and where we obtain our information. Adapt Your Program to Meet Changing Needs Amazingly, some marketers think they can create an adherence program, hand it off to a few solutions providers, and just forget about it. That’s a prescription for lackluster results. Your adherence program should be designed to adapt to a patient’s changing needs, and when possible it should try to anticipate those needs. Two examples that have impressed me are the speed at which companies have added copay assistance programs to their existing adherence efforts, and the increased emphasis some have placed on their patient assistance programs. Both are likely related to the tough economic times we’re currently experiencing, but they show a willingness to think about the needs of patients and address those needs with practical solutions that deliver value to the patient at a time when it’s most needed. I think that will pay dividends for these brands when better economic times return. Adherence-Driven Marketing on the Rise The rise of adherence-driven marketing is a positive change for the pharmaceutical industry, but most marketers are still building their experience base with it. By following some basic principles and working with experienced solutions providers, companies will find that investments in this area produce attractive, ongoing results for both their brand and their patients. n Catalina Health Resource Catalina Health Resource connects healthcare companies with patients and consumers by delivering useful, relevant information in trusted environments that preserve patient privacy. For more information, visit catalinahealthresource.com.

Download PDF