Marketer’s takeaways from ASCO 2019 - Part 3

Marketer’s takeaways from ASCO 2019 - Part 3

Combination of shock, awe, and inspiration- Part 3

The American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting took place in Chicago May 31 to June 4, 2019

Background: Over 40,000 people converged on Chicago’s McCormick Place recently for the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting. It resembled every major medical conference I have been to- people, advertising, and scientific promise everywhere.


PART 3: Someone is going to get a “Below Expectations” on their performance review

Marketing is hard. Like a lot of things in life, there are countless ways to spend money and to take action. Getting the right efforts in the right combination to help your brand dominate doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s magic.

Academics will tell student marketers to “think like their buyer.” Good advice. In fact, the more we know about our customer’s behaviors and values, we become more likely to get the message and vehicle correct. In the world of biotech, it appears some brands think that health care providers are still consuming information like our conventioneer grandparents: the lack of access to information made them want to get a bag full of brochures on their hotel door handle each morning so they can peruse through product literature.

...an experiment was about to occur.

I left my hotel room early the first morning at ASCO to the pleasant task of picking up the now fallen bag of 14 visuals impeding my way to a decent coffee. As a former marketer, I was in awe of a technique that I thought we mothballed when customers moved to cell phones with screens. To honor my scientific training, an experiment was about to occur.

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The Chicago Marriott Marquis has a beautiful, sizeable executive lounge with great coffee. So, that morning after the spilled brochure incident, I set up ARSENAL office hours there from 5:30 am to 9:30 am. Expertly positioned to see patrons coming and going for their coffee and breakfast, I decided to take notice on the promotional bag situation. The marketers dropping big bucks on the visual aid and service fee must expect patrons to review the material. There was a lot in that bag, so a few minutes would be required to sort through and read something.

I did not see one person bring in the bag

Result: after 4 hours, 3 coffees, and 100 emails, I did not see one person bring in the bag or contents to the lounge. Let’s hope, for the responsible marketer's sake, people stopped there hasty exit from their hotel room and sat down to review the contents. What was that famous line about hope and strategy?

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The point is that great marketing is about cracking the code to place a message where it induces favorable action. How do you consume promotional information? How do you react when the bag full of advertisements impedes your hotel room egress? I know plenty of people that feel bad about grabbing a newspaper because they can read it on their tablet and not waste the paper. Health care providers aren’t that different from you and me. Because of that, we need to move past the old customs and honor the marketing code of right message, right place, right time.

The goal is not to "do things"...

If the goal is to spend the budget and “do things,” the responsible marketers will get kudos. However, if the goal is ROI or customer engagement, there will probably be a performance rating south of meeting expectations.

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ARSENAL ADVISORS advocates for ambitious life science executives to access and spread brilliant ideas. We create opportunities for brilliant ideas to spread and help the life science industry accomplish its shared goal: to improve and extend patients lives.

Our research and insights are free. Grab them here at: www.arsenal-advisors.com

Santos Torres, Jr.

Visionary Marketing & Sales Executive | Strategic Approach | Marketing Efficiency | Ophthalmology, Optometry, Neurology, & Rare Diseases | Start-Ups & Established Companies | Alumnus @ Bausch + Lomb & Pfizer

5y

I cannot agree more!  Marketers have to run their brands like it is their own business.  They should be measure on ROI per tactic.

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