Re-Think Your MCM Journey

So, where are we now?
I recently have spoken with a few industry leaders at pharmaceutical industry conferences and inevitably they ask “Neil, how can I re-organize the way we do business to maximize my Multichannel and content marketing strategy?” This conversation inevitably leads to a series of specifics about the challenges faced in our industry once implementation is at hand. I’m sure if you’re reading this that you have had many conversations both online and offline about Omni-Channel Marketing and how this new dynamic system is fitting in within marketing throughout the pharmaceutical industry. Companies have now shifted their focus from implementation of applications and software to the strategy of managing and automating marketing, creating a more profitable and effective marketing and communication capability in our quickly evolving pharmaceutical market environment. The Omni-channel approach of evaluating channels, content and messaging within a fast-acting system has become the reality of achieving success. Obviously, the focus on changing and implementing software to improve your marketing system is over. Let’s take a look at this new landscape…
The Shift in Landscape
In my experience, shifts within a business marketing paradigm can be achieved effectively three system change categories:
1.A change in the dynamics of your system
2.A change in the nature of platform and/or
3.A change in the method of execution
Omni-Channel marketing requires a change in all of these categories. The new industry discussion has been how to best become a leader in the paradigm shift from Multi-Channel marketing to Omni-channel Marketing. Pharma and biotech executives are now searching for the optimal way to leverage the success of their legacy multi-channel marketing strategy which has largely been driven by the digital channel only into what I refer to as the Omni-channel ‘system of success’. This includes the physician or HCP with the appropriate and targeted message, utilizing the correct message and the optimal time of impact.
However, thinking of this next generation method of marketing as an extension of the Multi-channel Marketing (MCM) approach will slowly breed failure. How is this you might ask? Because Omni-channel marketing is a system and each marketing system has fundamental principles, with supporting information that inherently will be inefficient without the application of the Omni-channel disciplines. Create and nurture the understanding to support the development of strategies to address a business transition to this new way of effectiveness for implementing the pharma-specific strategies of success (This includes proper advanced measurement which I will review in a future blog). The Omnichannel approach is not just any strategy, but strategies which have a very high probability of working when applied.
In conclusion, if there is not understanding of the true nature of how Omni-channel-marketing and how this new way of operating will help your specific business challenges, you will have a new system that doesn’t address the issues at hand. Essentially, these changes will result in greater costs and less efficiencies. This is can be avoided by defining and organizing how your fundamental marketing works before implementation or what systems thinkers refer to as the process of defining your ‘Mess’.
Next Post: Defining the Drivers of your “Mess” to Create the Omni-Channel Solution