
In pharma, we have historically used ‘share-of-voice' as a lead measure of commercial success.
As they say, what you measure is what you get. And so we created bigger and bigger sales forces, incentivised by customer visits. And bought more and more ad space to make sure products couldn’t be missed.
The more pervasive issue with the measure is it has contributed to a very inward-facing marketing approach. One that pushes product messages in search of short-term wins, with little consideration for what customers want or need.
Thankfully that’s not an option anymore. The pandemic slammed the door on unhelpful sales tactics and put the onus on pharma to prioritise adding real customer value.
Success is no longer going to be measured on who shouts the loudest, but who listens best to provide meaningful customer-centric support. A more appropriate measure of success is ‘share-of-mind’.
What is ‘share-of-mind'?
It’s essentially a measure of how memorable brands are. When a customer is in a buying / prescribing / decision-making situation, which brands come to mind? Example metrics could be unprompted brand awareness or (if your market is big enough for Google to pick-up trends) share of search.
Why is being memorable important?
Simply put, 95% of the time customers aren’t in the market ‘to buy’. The 95-5 rule is more a heuristic and may not translate directly to healthcare prescribing. But the premise is sound.
The goal of marketing should be to make sure when that ‘buying’ decision comes, your brand is the one that comes to mind...
MailChimp knew this... (MailShrimp is pretty hard to forget)
As did State Street Global Advisors with the famous Fearless Girl
Being remembered is important in pharma too
But this is healthcare. In such a rational, scientific world, is it as simple as being more memorable?
There is a theoretical and a human nature answer to the question.
Starting with the theoretical...
When thinking about how brands grow, as Byron Sharp famously postulated, we need to consider both ‘physical availability’ and ‘mental availability’ (aka share-of-mind).
‘Physical availability’ is the ability for a customer to physically access a particular brand when they choose to. For a prescription medicine this is no simple task. It relies on a number of complex processes including a license, and in many markets, reimbursement. Then there's hospital formularies, protocols, distribution and potentially other hurdles. Most of which have whole functions dedicated to delivering.
Assuming all this is under control, we can then consider 'mental availability'.
As Nobel Prize winning Psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes; when given a choice between multiple options humans tend to go for the one that comes to mind most easily.
Given the lengths it takes for a medicine to become 'physically available', the often limited clinical differentiation in many categories, and the well-known time pressures associated with healthcare delivery today, it wouldn’t be completely surprising for treatment decision making to have an element of impulse.
It's safe to say the more ‘easy-to-mind' a brand is, the more likely it would be chosen.
And then there’s the human angle...
Marketing theory aside, memory is primarily a function of emotions. And as human beings, we are naturally going to gravitate towards – and remember – brands that add value to our lives.
Would you remember the brand that followed you round the internet trying to sell to you or the one that provided a seamless user experience, entertaining content and genuinely useful services (so much so, you recommend them to your friends and colleagues).
When given a choice between comparable medicines, clinical decision makers are going to remember and more likely to choose the brand that is genuinely helpful.
How do we build pharma brands people remember?
Let’s use Tom Roach’s modified funnel as the framework...this is so much better than the traditional inward-facing awareness to conversion purchase funnels. Doctors don’t go through their days considering which medicine they are going to use next. They think about their patients, their colleagues, their families and how their football team is going to get on at the weekend.

This modified funnel helps us look outwards and map how brands can interact with the customer’s experience (not the other way around).
Building
Building 'share of mind’ amongst a broad audience of current and future prospects is not something we do well (if at all) in pharma, for a few reasons:
We prioritise prospects as those that prescribe medicines, when in fact there are multiple audiences that impact the end goal of treatment choice
Our marketing is almost entirely product focussed which narrows the potential reach (and arguably, its impact)
Detail aids and product ads are not memorable and often not what customers need
The answer, again, is look outwards. Ask your customers, what is the biggest challenge they face in managing [insert disease]?
Use that as your starting point and try and solve it. Ditch your rational ‘but this is pharma’ instincts and embrace new possibilities. The solution will inevitably involve a broader target audience and rely on the cross-functional expertise of your organisation and agency partners. It may not involve your products at all but, if grounded in human insight and executed creatively, it will help build mental availability for your brand.
Nudging
This is the activity we currently see as ‘top-of-funnel'. The promotional webinars, sponsored symposiums, patient case studies etc. Activity here is much more likely to be product-related, although doesn’t have to be to nudge someone closer to prescription.
Connecting
This is where the fruits of all that omnichannel labour come in (hopefully). We provide simple, relevant, informative experiences that summarise product information in a compelling way and connect the customer to the people that can help.
In summary
This isn’t a linear journey, nor is it a short-term one. Top-of-funnel, brand building is a long-term play and one that requires commitment – both financially and emotionally.
But the untapped potential for pharma brands is huge. From adding real customer value to enhancing brand reputation. From breaking down functional siloes to galvanising teams.
Building share-of-mind is not the goal for all activity. But it’s the missing piece of the marketing jigsaw that will not only help brands grow but help people too.
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Thanks for reading.
At The 4th Partnership we help build healthcare brands people care about. Drop us a line if you’d like to chat about how we could help you.
See you next month for more OUTSIGHT°.
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