The healthcare landscape is changing dramatically. The consumer has the power today because of their access to a wide range of information. With more expensive co-pays and the cost of healthcare continuing to rise, patients want to come in with all the information possible to make sure they avoid as little back and forth with the physician as possible.
Traditional forms of healthcare marketing aren’t hitting the same nerve they used to. Customers need more than billboards, radio spots, and traditional forms of advertising – they need to have their voices heard.
But here’s the problem: global marketing executives don’t spend enough time in the field with patients and healthcare providers. About half (around 35-40%) of your time is required to understanding the ever changing demands of patient and HCP needs.
But remember, it’s more about spending this time in the field with the patients and HCPs and less about advisory boards and roundtables.
Why Caring Counts
Imagine buying a gift for someone you’ve never met. The same concepts can be applied to developing and launching products without the voice of the customer as an integral part of the process. You can’t expect to fulfill the needs of people you’ve never met, talked to, or cared enough to get to know.
Customers are longing for a more personal experience. No longer do people want a faceless corporation to focus solely on product development; they want customer care and customer development, too. This is why spending time with patients, in the field, and on scene is so important. And this is why I’ve found my concept of Brand Diplomacy to work so well.
Customers want to know you are engaging with them and listening to them. They want to know you will develop a product launch that will actually benefit them.
I think of my work here with Straumann Dental. It’s a great example of a company with an excellent product that needed to implement brand diplomacy. To be most effective with a global launch, you need to understand how healthcare is delivered at the point of service. This means creating a team that is on the ground witnessing that “hand to hand combat” where HCPs perform their services and patients receive their treatment.
From the Field to the Boardroom
Living with the customer is worthless if you don’t implement what you learned from the process. You need to close the gap by taking what you learned in the field and applying it to the global launch.
Remember, launching an excellent product is about solving an intricate problem. Brand Diplomacy seeks to cut right to the center of the heart of the issue. Brand Diplomacy silences all the background noise, listens to the customers, and creates big solutions to big problems. Brand Diplomacy lives with the customer and it helps improve lives and revenue. Brand Diplomacy delivers the promise of an excellent product with the power of flawless execution.