Ahead of the marcus evans PharmaMarketing Summit 2017, Bryan Cohen discusses why pharma marketers need to view the journey through the consumer’s eyes

1. Interview with: Bryan Cohen,
Digital Platform Lead, Promotional
Operations, Pfizer
“Pharma customers want us to
understand their medical journey. They
want a relationship and direct personal
communications. Companies that are
well regarded and respected today form
relationships with their users, but that is
not easy in the pharma industry,” says
Bryan Cohen, Digital Platform Lead,
Promotional Operations, Pfizer. “Building
a relationship is not about providing
tons of information but really under-
standing where people are in their lives,
their concerns, and what information
and sources they trust, then getting the
right information to them at the right
time,” he details.
Cohen is a speaker at the marcus
evans PharmaMarketing Summit
2017, in Florida, May 11-12.
What does “viewing the journey
through the consumer’s eyes”
mean?
It is about putting ourselves in the
consumer’s position, looking at what
they are going through rather than
trying to sell them a product. Tradition-
ally, Marketing & Sales take a very sales-
centric journey. What we do, especially
in the digital space with social media,
multichannel and omnichannel
marketing, is try to put ourselves where
customers’ concerns are. When
someone has been diagnosed with
cancer, their concerns expand beyond
just the medicine. They do not care
much about the name or brand when
they are worried about their health and
family. We try to provide resources to
answer the questions they have that
impact their life, and ultimately health,
more than the medicine they are taking.
How can they ensure data moves
seamlessly between channels?
There are very strict regulations for
pharma over what personal data we can
collect, so we cannot utilize information
or engage with people as easily as Apple
can. We have to switch our mindset,
and be part of the conversation that a
customer is having in the larger
community. It is no longer a one-to-one
relationship. We use unbranded health
enhancement campaigns, encourage
people in different spots along their
journey with advice on improving their
health and diet. Campaigns are not
about our products.
What can pharma learn from other
industries?
There is so much to learn. It is both a
curse and a blessing that we cannot
jump on the latest channel as fast as
other industries. We can look at what
other companies are doing, what works
and what does not. We have to drill
deep to get those learnings and design
our campaigns accordingly.
We do not have to hit every single social
media channel, but look at those that
can augment what we are trying to do.
What tools or technologies do
pharma companies underutilize?
How is your approach unique?
To execute omnichannel, storytelling or
relationship building, you need a strong
centralized content management system
to manage images, videos and text, to
easily drive content through various
channels without incurring fees and
delays from agencies. The sooner the
content is created, reviewed, approved
and out in the market, the better it is.
Marketers often look at channels
individually rather than as a whole.
We must get better at gathering
analytics as well as reducing it to the
point where marketing managers can
execute based on that information.
In pharma, there is a general lack of
understanding the value of the assets
we create and how they can be reused
or leveraged without additional cost.
We do not make money off our content,
yet we create more than many
traditional publishing companies. There
is tremendous value there.
We have to
switch our
mindset, and
be part of the
conversation
that a customer
is having in
the larger
community
Understanding the Consumer Journey
in Pharma Marketing Today

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About the PharmaMarketing Summit Spring 2017
The 15th PharmaMarketing Summit is the premium forum bringing pharmaceutical
marketing executives together with solution providers. The Summit offers an intimate
environment for a focused discussion of key new drivers shaping Pharmaceutical
marketing and sales. Taking place at the JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes, Florida,
May 11-12, the Summit includes presentations on digital marketing, brand strategy,
generating new revenue streams, relationship marketing and optimizing multi-
channel marketing campaigns.
www.pharmamarketingsummit.com
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