EyeforPharma release exclusive interview with one of the leading, award-winning thinkers in European CRM and eBusiness for Pharma

London, UK, 24 September 2007 - This month, EyeforPharma and DigiRedo spent the afternoon with Fonny Schenck, the 20-year veteran from Johnson & Johnson, just recently departed after 7 years pioneering award-winning programmes in CRM and eBusiness integration, multi-channel optimisation and SFE support. He is now leading the CRM practice at Across, based in Belgium (www.a-cross.com).

The conclusions? Ignore the newly accessible e-voices of patients and physicians at your peril; Don't use 'we're a different type of industry' to excuse the slowness in achieving CRM excellence; And why we’re now in the eye of the storm as Pharma marketers.

To see the full video, visit the homepage for the 7th annual Pharma Marketing Congress, Barcelona, October 25-26 2007: www.eyeforpharma.com/marketing07/tw

A synopsis of the interview…

CRM as a culture not a tool
Fonny explained to us that CRM just a few years ago was still a visionary project for most pharma companies, a high-tech concept that could deliver better knowledge and access to customers. Now it is nothing less than a necessity. Yet many companies remain unable to shift the focus of marketing and sales teams from using CRM as a reporting tool to embracing CRM as a culture, thus missing the greatest potentials it can deliver.

Adapting CRM as a culture means pharma can achieve something profoundly helpful - their sales, marketing and other teams will be able to view customers from the same perspective, including all significant interactions (and their cost) between the company and the customer. Next to delivering more opportunities to deliver tailored messages and materials, this will help to produce more accurate ROI and effectiveness assessments at the customer level.

Look outside the industry
To find the best examples of effective CRM, Fonny says you need to look outside the industry. Tesco is an excellent example of how to capture data and use it properly, creating personalized messages for its millions of customers that go beyond broad segments but really get at each individual. Being customer-centric is a simple (and profitable) way of life for their marketing teams. Many pharmacos meanwhile are still only piloting more advanced CRM concepts such as segmenting customers based on attitude and preferences, and delivering customized messages.

Yes, we are in a different industry. But this cannot be used as an excuse by Pharma marketers for not becoming more customer-focused. The life of a Pharma marketer is changing and to stay ahead of the game they will need to embrace business and customer intelligence, analytics and CRM. These are necessary aspects to understand when moving from product-centric marketing to a more customer-centric approach. This is the only way we will be able to guarantee customer access going forward…and, like other industries, we will need to measure and track our progress in this field - and go beyond the occasional customer satisfaction survey.

Ignore the online voices at your peril
At the same time, we are moving away from push-marketing into a blend of push & pull, while at the same time the new web 2.0 community features are boosting the impact of peer-to-peer communications, which physicians have always viewed as more important than pharma-led efforts. To ignore this trend will be folly.  As an industry we must learn to work with and participate in these new environments and we have to learn quickly. Informative conversations are happening all the time around us right now - and successful companies will leverage them to be used in business plans and value creation. Calculating the ROI of such a network is certainly a great topic for a meeting like this…

The situation now
Last year, at Pharma Marketing 2006, there were many predictions about imminent challenges and how we could hope to resolve them. This year Fonny hopes to see the change in industry outlook and execution one year on, whether valuable lessons have been learned and acted on. With a number of industry case studies at Pharma Marketing 2007 there should be plenty of light shed on the state of the industry now, and how much further it can go in achieving its aims.

The path to tread in the future
The fundamental challenge for Pharma Marketers right now isn't to find a really great channel that is effective at generating scripts like sales forces have been in the past. The holy grail is about not exhausting any one channel and that means using them in the right way - and with the right customer.  It is about how marketers can execute the fundamental shift from marketing at our customers towards marketing for and with them. It is also about starting to address the new customer groups - authorities, consumers, other HCPS, in a cost-effective and customer-focused way. Fonny will look further at how this can be achieved during the Congress, as he explores how we can be customer centric, while at the same time safeguarding profitability and building trust.

More exclusive interviews
EyeforPharma will be conducting 2 more exclusive interviews with two of their keynote speakers prior to the Pharma Marketing Congress, Barcelona, October 25-26.

To be the first to hear about them, you should sign up for our regular update on the congress, at www.eyeforpharma.com/marketing07/info.shtml

If you haven't seen the full range of topics and speakers, the fully updated programme is available for download from www.eyeforpharma.com/marketing07/brochure.shtml

NB: The €200 earlybird discount runs out September 28th. To secure your place register securely at: http://secure.firstconf.com/pharma/marketing07/register.htm

For more information visit: www.eyeforpharma.com/marketing07/tw

About EyeforPharma
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