Communication at its best

Is it the desire of pharmacos to connect with the customers that is driving the healthcare communications boom in the country? Or is it the case of a new discovery of an old box? Nandini Patwardhan finds out.

'Getting the right message across in a right way' is a skill in itself, and not everyone is good at it. While the days of the already-overworked brand manager, sitting in the office and writing his copy, have passed; today is the age of experts. And so, plenty of healthcare communication agencies (ad agencies focussing on healthcare, pharma and biotech sectors) and big ticket ad agencies (having set up their respective departments and subsidiaries) are here to help pharma companies communicate more clearly to their customers.

Lintas Healthcare, Suddler and Henessey, Euro RSCG Life, McCann Healthcare, Sorento Healthcare, Oxygen Communications and many more of such firms are geared up to assist the drug churners communicate effectively to their customers—doctors, patients and other influencers.

Let's talk

"The need for communication comes from two levels—one is to talk about my product from an education point of view, and another from a brand point of view, trying to differentiate why my brand would be better than someone else's" - Susan Josi Managing Partner Sorento Healthcare Communications

"The very fundamental thing here is the fact that I need to communicate to my customers regarding my product, its benefits, its promise, the differentiating factors, and its newness in my range vis-à-vis the competition," spells out Susan Josi, Managing Partner, Sorento Healthcare Communications, a Mumbai-based communications firm, focussing on the pharma and healthcare industries' needs.

This fundamental need to communicate is seen across industry segments, pharma being no exception and like any other company in marketing, they (pharma companies) too need to communicate and be in touch with their customers and consumers. "The need for communication comes from two levels. One is to talk about my product from an education point of view in the context of new diseases, new drugs and new ways of managing old diseases. And from a brand point of view, trying to differentiate why my brand would be better than someone else or why the doctor should remember my brand," explains Josi.

"The increasing competition and lack of time inside the doctor's chambers has forced pharma companies to use other modes of communications to influence the doctor" - F X Coutinho Director-Marketing Indoco Remedies

Also, dissecting the industry, one might observe that a majority of pharma business runs on prescription medicine. This makes it imperative for pharma companies to communicate appropriate scientific benefits of the brand to the doctor to drive the market. Thus the preferred and effective medium for such promotion is one-on-one interaction between the company's Medical Representative (MR) and the doctor. "Thus the focus was on one-to-one interaction of medical representative with the doctor. But the increased levels of competition and lack of time inside the doctor's chambers has forced us (pharma companies) to use other modes of communications to influence the doctor," explains F X Coutinho, Director -Marketing, Indoco Remedies. "As a result, recently, more and more emphasis is given to branding and advertising, but through medical channels only," he adds.

Catalyzing the emergence

True, with passage of time, the Indian pharma industry has become much more competitive and has seen launches of quite a few patented as well as generic products. "Lets face it, an MNC's biggest fear is the patent laws. Also, in India, we were never guarded by patents earlier," states Josi. "Hence the problem they (MNCs) had was that if the biggest research molecules were to be launched in India, 20 copycats will come at one-tenth of the price," she adds.

Hence companies started focusing their attention on communicating to the customer (the doctor and at times to the end consumer), about the brand, its values and its advantages. Added to that, an increased emphasis on healthcare—preventive as well as curative, which has catalysed, in a way, an increase in communication. So if a patient wants to stay fit and diabetes free, he can go and ask for Majesta or SugarFree and not hunt for sucralose or aspartame.

Added to that, pharma companies are facing flak due to many drug recalls. What is worse is now, in addition to dealing with the dent it has brought about in their clean image, pharma companies also have to deal with curbing gossip, rumours and the half knowledge the general populace acquires. "Half knowledge is like double edge sword. The end user gets limited picture from the media which is more dangerous than having no knowledge at all," warns Coutinho. "He must be made aware of the reasons why the drug was recalled. This would help him in having better understanding about the disease and the treatment. Thus it is important to educate him by giving him the total picture. This is where the importance of reaching to the consumer plays a role otherwise it will unnecessarily ruin a good molecule and spread misconceptions," he adds.

All this has resulted in the emergence of healthcare communications segment and firms are trying to cash in on it. However, healthcare communications is a different ballgame altogether. The prescription part and the over-the-counter part of the business are governed by self-regulation and by legal regulations. And this is one of the many reasons why pharma companies are going to the experts.

Adding Value

There are quite a few healthcare communications firms. The Mumbai-based Oxygen Healthcare Comm-unications, with a plethora of clients. This agency takes care of all the needs of their clients. "We are the largest integrated healthcare marketing and communication services company in this country and as an organisation focussed on healthcare. Most companies are departments within larger firms with lesser focus," expresses Ashok Jain, CEO, Oxygen Healthcare Communications.

"In times when normal ad agencies try to service this market of healthcare, they make up by hiring one or two people who do. Now when these two leave, the entire thing closes down. So it is not a very sustainable thing," agrees Josi.

Thus all those catering to the needs of the pharma healthcare markets have been trying to present a strong value proposition, adopt a robust business model and offer an all round solution to their clients. Right from assisting in building the advocacy panels, to writing the copy, to managing the public relations, these firms offer all and more. For a stand alone firm, it is advisable to add a lot more depth in terms of services offered to counter the challenges thrown in by established wings/ subsidiaries of well-known advertising agencies. Thus if the industry is spending more on medical communication activities, on CMEs, etc, the stand alone firm as an agency should be stacked up to provide that one window service to the client that handles events or CMEs or publications because it becomes the brand custodian. "That is how internationally agencies and clients have done it, known agencies have bought smaller agencies and divisions. They have created thus their own set up, and they tie up with largest agencies then," states Josi.

"We (Sorento Healthcare) have been able to hold ourselves for last 12 years, because what we had to add was the communication part of it. While at the core we understand healthcare, we cannot digress from the fact that ultimately we are a healthcare communications company," says Josi. "We have people who understand communication and also the way of converting the basic insight into a communication output," she adds. The trick here is to have a creative team that understands the language of healthcare and convert the heavy-duty scientific data into simple consumer friendly output with a touch of creativity and lateral thinking.

Hence, the role of the firm is much more than the regular brand manager from the run-of-the-mill pharma companies. And as a result, agencies need to have very good people who have an agency background, who are good copy writers, who are extremely good with ideas and layouts and visualisation and account planning.

But this role as it is today has shaped after years and years of struggle for perfection. What happened earlier on was that the brand manager used to write the raw copies. The problem with the arrangement was the fact that though the brand manager understood the communi-cations part, he was not a copywriter and in most cases, could also not be in a position to ideate on a creative strategy. Another problem which agencies (established and budding firms) faced was a misconception that they are here to replace the Brand Manager. "When I did my research I found that internationally healthcare agencies form a $ 2.5 billion industry standing on its own feet and helping pharmacos communicate with the customer," reveals Josi. Hence convincing companies to 'leave the rest to the experts' was difficult earlier on, but with today's changing times, they have realised the need of expert help.

Last musings

A fact remains that healthcare communications is not a new phenomenon. Firms were there, servicing the clients from earlier days. However, it is the increased competition and heightened innovation with respect to pharma advertising that has brought the light on the advertising firms behind it and as such, not everyone is upbeat about the industry, though there is a certain amount of interest. "It (the focus of ad-firms on the pharma industry) has remained the same. Only that there is more innovation and 360 degrees approach as in any other industry," concludes Jain. "The future for healthcare communications is very good," opines Jain. However to survive, agencies will need to provide that value add, which neither their competitors nor their clients can come up with on their own. That value add will decide who the winners are.

nandini.p@expressindia.com