The end of mass marketing is here but can the drug industry market one to one ?

Mass marketing is dead. Long live marketing to the individual. Make no mistake about it consumers do not like to be thought of as segments and they are redefining the way we think about and market to them. The good news ? They still go to product websites to get information but then they are going to go deeper online to find out if your products lives up to it’s promise.

First let me say that TV, as a channel for marketing, is not dead. It’s a great way to raise awareness of new products. However, once that awareness has reached a certain level marketers need to think about pulling consumers into the brand. For DTC marketers this has usually meant print ads or more TV ads that have little ROI (i.e. Cialis for daily use). While consumers look for more information and consult with others via social media pharma marketers, for the most part, continue to think “mass market”.

So how could pharma market to the individual:

• Print Ads-Why use the same print ad in a number of different publications when the demographics and psychographics are different. Why, instead of doing a standard print ad, doesn’t pharma use more advitorials to magazines that give consumers key information THEY want and help them cut through the clutter of all the health information on the Internet ?

• Internet: The standard rule of thumb for pharma marketers seems to be to develop a website and then purchase some keywords to drive traffic to the product website. Sorry but is Web 1.0. Today you need multiple home pages, each dedicated to a microsegment of visitors integrated with specific key words. You also need intuitive navigation on your website which is navigation arranged in the same way consumers go through the thought process of “do I want this product?”

• Internet advertising: If you’re advertising on the Web you should have a lot of different executions of online ads customized for each website’s audience. One ad does not fit all websites.

• Social Media: Instead of having one social media site you should have different social media sites for each microsegment that addresses the key barriers to conversion.

In my presentation The End of Mass Marketing I talk about some of the things that marketers can and should do today to make marketing more efficient and keep customers. If consumer packaged goods marketers lost as many customers as pharma they would be out of business. Stop thinking masses and start thinking individuals.

The End of Mass Marketing