Thinking About Consumers

Thinking About the Consumer

I have been the public relations consultant to many brand teams whose products—medical devices, antibiotics and other therapies—are only marketed to physicians. In many cases, even recently, the product director nixes outreach to the public or to patients, reasoning that since the patient cannot purchase the therapy, why should scarce marketing dollars be earmarked to reach someone without “MD” behind his or her name.

Public relations practitioners instinctly know that it’s easier reaching the general public than the health care professional and often contort reasoning to justify outreach to patients in addition to medics. In the good old days, when marketing dollars fell like pollen on a spring day, virtually all marketers consented to earmark a few hundred thousand smackers to consumer-oriented public relations; after all, what was the harm?

Traditionally, the uber-PR strategies were to either inform consumers about condition XYZ and to prompt them to see their doctor if they thought they were so afflicted or to encourage diagnosed patients to ask their physician about a new treatment for an existing condition. The basis for this “ask” was often a new clinical trial or the word of a celebrity spokesperson. These are still valid strategies for many products.

But as resources contract and as new-minted MBAs who have not been infected with the PR germ join health care companies, we are continuously being challenged to justify reaching patients or consumers. What if the patient doesn’t care a fig about the treatment? What if all she cares about is getting vaccinated against shingles, HPV or dandruff and doesn’t care if the vaccine is manufactured by Merck, Glaxo or Ford Motors? What if the physician historically has selected the treatment and considers one therapy the same its rival?

Then does it matter?

Patient-centered public relations may not matter for some brands. Nevertheless, the question that always has to be asked is “what if…?” What if we could activate patents to ask doctors about treatment options? What if we could get them to understand unique or subtle differences between therapies? What benefits would the company accrue if doctors saw them as a true partner in patient health education? What if we could convince patients to be more compliant or stay on therapy longer? There are lots of disciplines that claim they can achieve these tasks. But can they? If public relations can, we’d be smoking’.

Even for products that are purely physician oriented, there may be substantial benefits to talking to patients, their caregivers and loved-ones and other consumers. Here’s why—

Studies indicate that doctors have a higher regard for pharmaceutical companies that demonstrate (not just claim) that they are helping patients. I recall one study (I think it was from RCC Research) that indicated that doctors would pay extra if they believed that the company was doing a good job in helping the patient manage expectations and the consequences of the disorder. Public relations isn’t the only way to demonstrate this, but it’s a darn good one.

As health care companies migrate from simply selling products to selling the concept of health itself, this may become even more important.

An ingredient of public relations is a comprehensive understanding of patient behavior. Better understanding of the “patient journey” makes for better marketing period.

Finally, add the abiding value of alliance building. The public relations team is generally the keeper of the keys to relationships with third-party organizations or patient advocates. The National Association of XYZ Disorder is not going to hawk one’s product, and yes, they always ask for money. However, advocates can be invaluable to helping smooth the way towards better relationships with key opinion leaders and with payors. One might not need advocates on sunny days, but wait till the storm clouds drift in.