Can Big Pharma leverage true empathy marketing?

Most of us have had to buy cereal, or shoes, or a car. Not as many have confronted  a terminal cancer diagnosis or had to alter our lifestyles because of chronic diabetes.

For consumer goods marketers, speaking in an empathetic voice makes sense. For pharmaceutical marketers, it’s not quite as clear.

“Empathy is a hugely powerful marketing tool if we use it gently, being sure to leave lots of room for error…”

-Seth Godin

Insights can lead to stereotypes and impersonal marketing

One thing pharmaceutical marketers avoid like the plague is ‘room for error.’ But when it comes to empathy marketing, room for error is necessary. It’s that messy space where the brand is no longer completely in control of the discussion.

Rather than letting go, we often rely on research that is just as controlled as campaigns we create.

Our instinct is to generate messages powered by research insights.

These insights are translated into assumptions. When we begin to assume motives, we lose the power to let consumers tell their own stories. We invent imitation stories and then seek permission of the consumers to endorse them.

Often times, those insights lead to generalizations about a culture (like “surgeons”) rather than a true understanding of the unique impulses of individuals. This is where empathy marketing from a traditional media standpoint is destined to fail. Traditional media pushes information to consumers. Sales tools and journal ads are a one-way street — talking to customers instead of talking with them.

Godin adds:

“Don’t declare that you know exactly why someone made a choice or predict what someone is going to do next, and why. It’s a great parlor trick, but you’re probably going to be wrong.”

We’re trying to tell their story to them, but in a voice that’s not genuine.

Social media adds that “real person” context

However, social media platforms allow pharmaceutical marketers greater access to their customers’ true needs — a participatory environment in which discussions replace sales calls. Engage in the conversation — the good, the bad, the ugly (Let go!) — and be surprised when you learn your customers can be your most unlikely engineers, marketers, researchers, and beta testers.

Additionally, pharma marketers must resist the instinct to make every point at which they interact with customers a ‘selling moment’, and turn them into ‘feedback moments.’ Moments where they receive illumination about improving their products/devices/drugs and how to better serve customers’ needs.

This is where ‘empathy’ really happens.