The Emerging Breed of Healthcare Marketing Service Providers

By Donna Vetter

It’s full catastrophe living in big pharma nowadays and outsourcing is essential

Those of us who have been around for decades never thought we’d see our industry suffer so severely: Budgets have been cut to the bone, staff has been “right-sized” to a skeleton crew and there are company-wide freezes on hiring. At the same time, the bar has been raised in terms of sales quotas and market share targets, we need to go digital with everything, don’t forget about closed loop marketing and be sure to stay well within today’s legal and regulatory boundaries. Oh, by the way, that miracle drug in the pipeline that was to become the company’s most promising new brand ... well, development has been halted because it’s not likely to receive FDA approval and, remember, patent expiration is looming on the cash cow brand. Over the past year, I’ve witnessed more than one brand team struggle to keep their collective heads above water under a crushing wave of work and expectations. It’s far beyond task saturation and impossible deadlines. The intensified demands and pressures on brand teams today have resulted in an even greater need for external brand management support. So whom are they turning to for the needed resources to fill capacity gaps and get the job done? Traditional consultants? Network agencies? Or recently displaced marketers who tout themselves as “freelancers”? In their desperation to produce results fast, pharma brand teams are figuring out—through trial and error—which external resources are best equipped to truly deliver on their current needs.

Observations about external resources that fall short

Let’s start with traditional consultants. Most of us wince at the mere word “consultant” because it carries the connotation of those who create dazzling PowerPoint decks filled with lofty ideas, complicated schematics and the latest buzzwords. Problem is, those shiny new ideas sold in at staggering prices often hit an unforeseen roadblock while you’re left alone to drive them to the implementation level. And what counsel does your traditional consultant offer at that stage? Jonathan Baskin put it well in his recent book, Branding Only Works On Cattle, with his tongue-in-cheek statement about branding consultants in particular and their “statute of limitations”: “You can’t expect results until I’ve moved on to another branding job, or won a new client who can replace you when you fire me.” I think you get the point about traditional consultants: They tend not to be there when it’s time to explain the results of your project spend to upper management. So what about the huge network-agency-of-record deal your company has in place? Surely they must have the right resources to help. After all, there is a designated agency for professional promotion, another for consumer, and there’s the med ed agency, PR agency, digital agency, and a couple others who do, well, no one knows exactly. Seems like a logical choice, so you call them. They appear: a robust, fully billable team. Before you finish explaining your need they assure you they can deliver on it, then quickly move on to an explanation of the team org chart (which seems to include everyone imaginable) and the blended hourly rate that covers a mix of personnel from junior to senior level involvement. Sometime later that week you receive a brief that truly lives up to the word—a bit more detail about the deliverable would be nice—and, of course, the cost estimate. In the end, they disk-release a predictable, off-the-shelf tactic, and the only people who seem to have touched the project (at that blended hourly billable rate) are a mid-level account executive and a junior copywriter. Guess the others were busy working a new business pitch. Finally, there is that displaced old marketing buddy who is freelancing while hunting for a staff position. He/she is great, focused and committed until that permanent job offer finally arrives from another company. Then he/she needs to wrap up quickly and exit.

So whom do you turn to today to get the job done?

It’s the new emerging breed of strategic service providers. Wait a minute … who exactly are they, what can they do for me, and how do I recognize them? Excellent questions and easy answers:
  1. They’ve typically worked on both sides of the fence. Most have, at a minimum, spent 20-plus years working client-side brand management, executive level agency positions, and perhaps even vendor-side analytics or another equally important discipline related to healthcare marketing and/or commercialization planning. They’re experts at navigating the constant change surrounding all of our brands and us.
  2. They’re out there by choice, not necessity. They are business-savvy entrepreneurs with a solid industry reputation. They’re characterized by their high energy level and commitment to quality, actionable deliverables. Importantly, they have a track record of success both in staff positions and as independents and can provide credible references and recommendations for both.
  3. They can deliver scalable projects driven by truly customized teams. These strategic service providers can work as individuals on projects that are relatively small in scope or quickly mobilize effective, multidisciplinary alliance partners to deliver on larger-scale assignments. They’re well networked and know how to build high-performance teams to get the job done. These teams are composed of only essential, reputable talent to accomplish the project—excess staff is not forced into the project to keep the overall agency or consulting practice highly billable.
  4. Most important, they recognize that their success is directly linked to the success of you and your brand. They know their reason for being: delivery of actionable solutions that work. No hidden agendas; when you buy their time or commission a project you get true dedication, focus, and results you can depend on—and no push to sell in their corporation’s business idea du jour.
So, let’s state it simply: What’s in it for you when you partner with the new breed of strategic service providers? (a) Individuals or a customized team composed of the right talent—and only the right talent—to get the job done; (b) truly dedicated professionals who have the ability to operate at the high-end strategic level and the willingness to drive ideas down to the implementation level; (c) contracts that span only the specific needs of your assignment; and (d) competitive pricing because they don’t carry the overhead of large consulting firms or network agencies.

Bottom line

The model for successful brand management is being reshaped by the unique offerings of these next-generation healthcare marketing service providers. It’s time for pharma brand teams to critically evaluate how and when to engage them to maximize performance. Getting it right means getting your job done well, on time, on budget and with a true partner who is with you every step of the way.
Donna Vetter brings deep insight and a unique perspective to healthcare marketing, shaped by 20-plus years of experience on the pharma side (Pfizer and Schering-Plough), analytical side (IMS Global Services), and agency side (Grey Healthcare and Publicis). She currently offers a wide range of marketing and communications services and solutions to her clients. She can be reached at DVetter@att.net.