What makes a great Pharma marketer?
A bunch of friends and I have been debating offline about what separates a great from a good brand marketer. In our case, we've been focusing on oncology, but really it could be any pharma category from asthma to Zellweger syndrome.
To date, the answers and ideas have been stimulating and interesting, but we all agreed that none have really captured the very essence we were seeking to describe.
Until I read Brad Feld's superb post this morning. He was actually talking about what makes a great entrepreneur:
“A complete and total obsession with the product”
And I realised that's exactly what we were trying to describe for Pharma marketing.
If you're not absolutely obsessed with everything about your drug or brand, from scientific preclinical and clinical data to understanding market research on how your customers feel about it or indeed how anything impacts your product, then you're missing something vital.
Life is too short to just go through the motions.
Thoughts?
3 Responses to “What makes a great Pharma marketer?”
Actually, I disagree quite strongly with the statement at face value. I think too may marketers get obsessed with their product at th eexpense of what it’s supposed to do for the patient. Marketing should be all about the end users/customers needs – not the needs of the marketer to sell or wax poetically about his/her wonderful product. All GREAT marketing, no matter the field, needs to be centered on the CUSTOMER (or patient in this case).
Totally agree Bruce!
Sorry if it wasn’t clearer… taking things at face value without greater context can be a little dangerous :-). I wasn’t thinking about the actual product or marketer per se, but rather about how people view it, how you can better understand their needs in ways that the product meets.
That’s why I mentioned market research to understand your customers (could be physicians, payers, consumers etc) better.
well said.. to get inlined with the marketing at a pharma industry… get an insight with the latest trends to work around the marketing techniques..
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