We spend the great part of our days at Catalina helping our clients communicate with their end customer, the patient who actually takes the drug they market. For some members of the brand team it’s a new and unique experience. Many have spent their time either focused on the health care provider or worrying about getting the undiagnosed and untreated consumer to “ask their doctor" about a product. Often, these clients find that the skills and principles they used in HCP and DTC marketing are useful and transferable to DTP (Direct To Patient) marketing, but there are differences. With that in mind, Catalina has been conducting research with patients across a variety of medical conditions to help us, and our clients, continue to expand our knowledge about “what patients want." The qualitative research has just finished and a large body of quantitative work will continue into 2011, but some early findings have emerged that should be interesting to View on Marketing readers. Talk With Me First, patients across all medical conditions expressed a strong desire for information, including that which is provided by the pharmaceutical manufacturer. The caveat is that they are likely to be skeptical of pharma-sponsored information until and unless a level of trust and relationship is established. That takes time, but it’s not as if patients are turning a deaf ear to the brand. In fact, a vast majority report reading the information provided with their prescription after they first start treatment. That’s a great opportunity to start a long-term brand-patient relationship. Walk With Me Next, patients told us that they quickly become tired of seeing the same message about their drug, repeated over and over. Repetition (sometimes erroneously confused with the larger concept of frequency) can work well in DTC advertising and the time-constrained world of HCP selling, but DTP is about establishing and growing a relationship. If you pass the test of providing accurate, truthful, useful information with your first communications, it’s a mistake to think that same message will continue to work with the same, more experienced patient. You quickly grow tired of a friendship when the other party drones on and on about the same subject, and the brand-patient relationship is no different. This means you will need to spend more time working on and reviewing a “stream" of messages, but the choice is to either do this or forego the relationship. Your call… Grow With Me If you (and hopefully the patient’s health care providers) are successful in educating the patient, you will often find yourself dealing with an increasingly informed and sophisticated patient. Some brand teams seem to think they can simply stop their patient-directed communications after the first few months, but this is a big mistake. Our long-term clients consistently find that adherence programs, including those that communicate with patients who have been on a brand for months or even years, produce enviable ROIs. In fact, as social media becomes an increasingly important part of the way we communicate and gather information, brand teams have a great opportunity to educate their most experienced customers/patients to the point they become product evangelists. This is where programs that communicate with patients at the point of care and point of sale begin to merge with both online and social media efforts by the brand team. POC/POS efforts are great at creating an increasingly educated and loyal consumer, while social media is an additional aspect of loyalty efforts and can excel at spreading the word about the patient’s experience. Used together, they can be powerful forces in the quest for both long-term adherence and brand growth. More to Come As noted, Catalina’s research into “what patients want" will proceed into 2011 and results will continue to inform us about patients’ perspectives and preferences so that we can help our clients maximize the effectiveness of their patient communications. If you want to hear more about this research, please contact Sue Ramspacher ([email protected]) or Paul Wilson ([email protected]), or if you are already a Catalina client, just ask your account representative to set up some time for Sue and Paul to visit. Personally, I’ll be leaving Catalina shortly after this piece is published to pursue some additional interests in the field, but will continue to remain close to both Catalina and this research. It’s just too interesting to pass up! n POC/POS efforts are great at creating an increasingly educated and loyal consumer, while social media is an additional aspect of loyalty efforts and can excel at spreading the word about the patient’s experience. Used together, they can be powerful forces in the quest for both long-term adherence and brand growth. Joe Meadows VP, Marketing & Creative Services Catalina Health Resources combines its vast knowledge of prescription consumption patterns with insights into the needs of health consumers to help brands better understand the needs of their customers and prospective customers. They then deliver brand-sponsored information directly to consumers via their physician and pharmacy. For more information, visit catalinahealthresource.com.

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