Trends I Hope Not to See in 2009
New Year's Eve is only a day away.
By on Dec 30, 2008New Year's Eve is only a day away. One of my favorite things about that night (besides the basic drinking and revelry with friends, of course) is watching midnight strike, hour-by-hour, around the world on TV. An early Happy New Year to all my pharma comrades around the globe!
The flip of the calendar year is definitely a time for reflection. Unfortunately the economy is something that is very heavy on everyone's minds, at least here in the U.S. Here's hoping 2009 brings us all a year of things to be positive about.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the business impact of the national (and no doubt international) economic mindset, especially to pharma and its agency partners. Here are some things I hope I do not see in 2009 as a result of the down economy:
1) Reduction in spending on ROI measurement. Though its always been a challenge to track ROI in pharma, we have some new tools at our disposal such as Crossx (see Crossix.com). Measuring ROI is critical, and we were just now seeing pharma start to hold its agencies accountable beyond pretty pictures. Now more than ever, shouldn't marketers be able to identify what is working best to justify and prioritize marketing spend?
2) Pharma shies away from social, mobile, and other emerging media. 2008 saw the birth of several pharma YouTube channels, J&J bought a patient community property, and a small pharma presence emerged on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Pharma is still only cautiously sniffing around social media, and they are far from embracing mobile, apps, and other new tools and channels. Take a que from other industries and continue to experiment and embrace these new media!
3) Reduction in investing in market research & creative testing. Market research drives strategy. Then testing confirms you're resonating with your audience. While research and testing are all-too-easy line items to omit from one's budget, done right, these will actually save marketers money by guiding them to do things right the first time.
4) Agency window shopping. The grass is often greener on the others side, and companies might think they can get a better deal elsewhere by putting an account up for review. While we as an agency based in the U.S. Midwest are consistently priced very competitivitely, weve seen other agencies come in and try to undercut to get the our business. I would not be surprised if agencies who've traditionally shied away from pharma are suddenly visible to make up for lost automotive and financial accounts. Ultimately, switching agencies for a lower bid means prices will eventually increase anyway. And remember -- it costs money to transition projects, especially ones like sophisticated Web sites and custom-made applications. Not to mention loss of productivity, momentum, and historical knowledge. Tracking and measurement will suffer too.
5) Lower investments in product pipelines. The industry is already seeing the effects of weaker pipelines than decades past. I am no expert in this arena, but I am guessing the time to decrease pipeline investment would not be now. Goodness knows there are still plenty of maladies to treat and diseases to cure.
6) Less prescriptions filled by patients. Unfortunately, we already know this is happening. Patients are extending their prescriptions and they aren't going to the doctor as often. I especially hope this trend corrects itself soon, or in the U.S., we may be facing an either bigger health crisis than one of cost. Anyone out there developing a medication designed to counteract the effects of patients not taking their medications???
And a few trends I look forward to seeing more of:
1) Agencies will work leaner, have less waste. While it is fair to say this is a mantra my independent agency follows no matter what the economy, we see a lot of bigger agency partners behave wastefully in an up economy, and this gives us all a bad reputation. Does that 300-page Web site REALLY need a wireframe for every page? Does that client meeting in San Francisco REALLY require 10 agency people to attend? Big holding companies such as Omnicom are making across-the-board cuts, and more will come. A symptom of a down economy, definitely - especially in certain sectors. But I would challenge that almost any agency out there could tighten their belts and be better stewards of their clients' dwindling dollars.
2) Increased clients focus on ROI. Obviously this goes hand-in-hand with #1 above. My main point is a desire for marketers to focus on strategies and tactics that have been proven to work, instead of focusing in areas in which they personally are the most comfortable (such as print or mail), or focusing on the newest, shiniest ideas with the best sales pitches.
What's on your list?