The life sciences audience
Delivering a consistent brand experience for all stakeholders
Life sciences companies face a unique challenge when delivering omnichannel experiences that align with their brand promise due to the complexity of their customer base. Unlike other industries, life sciences organizations must consider a broad range of stakeholders, like:
Patient groups: Current patients receiving therapy, prospective patients, future and current caregivers, and patient advocacy groups
Provider groups: HCPs, nurses and support staff, hospitals, clinics, and community practices
Pharmacies: Brick and mortar, online, and specialty
Payers: Managed care, government, and private/commercial
Intermediaries: Pharmacy benefit managers, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and integrated delivery networks (IDNs)
Distributors: Specialty, full-line wholesalers, and retailers
This multidimensionality in customer groups results in diverse expectations from each audience, requiring a tailored approach to messaging and customer experience. For example, payers may prioritize health economic outcomes, while HCPs may focus on product efficacy vs. side effects, and caregivers may prefer to learn about how they can get access to the therapy, its cost, and how it will be reimbursed. Furthermore, delivering a consistent and tailored experience for all customer groups requires all internal teams to be omnichannel-enabled, from marketing to sales to field teams to supply-chain leads.
Creating a cohesive brand promise for a single customer is challenging enough, but the complexity increases as life sciences organizations strive to deliver a consistent brand experience to all audiences and enable their internal teams while maintaining cohesion. Gaining a deep understanding of each customer group’s needs is necessary to provide tailored messaging and consistent experiences. Equally vital is carefully examining how to provide and fulfill a consistent brand experience that resonates with all customer groups.
Life sciences organizations often prioritize multi-channel efforts, such as channel coordination and messaging consistency, when designing seamless interactions. However, this approach falls short of delivering enriched customer experiences that align with the brand promise and values. True seamless experiences require removing friction, ensuring messaging consistency, and optimizing operations while providing value-added experiences for all customer groups. If an organization is lacking in either element, it must refurbish both the seamless experience and overall customer experience.
But the life science industry’s complex customer interaction model presents yet another challenge that necessitates digital transformation. For successful omnichannel approaches that fulfill the brand promise and generate seamless experiences, organizations must enhance both the quality and the consistency of brand interactions across all customer groups. This involves delivering high-quality, relevant content and messaging and well-cadenced communications via digital and non-digital channels that resonate with various audiences and ensure a similar quality of experience for all.
