Social media in Indian pharma – are we ready?
Posted 10th October 2011 in Articles, Commercial | 9 comments
Dinesh Chindarkar
MediaMedic Communications
Being one of the fastest growing markets amongst the emerging ones, all eyes are on India. There could not be a more opportune time for the Indian pharma industry than NOW. With a strong manufacturing and R&D base, the industry is poised to deliver.
The market
Market dynamics are changing rapidly. With a vibrant population of 1,200 million, more than 50% of which is young, the domestic Indian market is set to grow rapidly too. Newer, modern healthcare facilities are being set up to meet the growing need. Moving towards being a hub for medical tourism, India has evolved over the past decade and organized pharmacy chains and wellness chains are now being created. Increasing urbanization, growing middle class, rising literacy rates and a strong economy are all positive drivers for the Indian pharma industry.
The technology
The government has also encouraged technology for the past two decades, and the result is greater use of IT, improved internet usage (though still a long way to go), and particularly the depth of mobile penetration. It always amazes every outsider visiting India to see the usage of mobile by the masses. Currently India boasts of around 850 million mobile users and has an amazing rural penetration.
Social media
On the other hand, the Internet users too are increasingly on the rise and there are around 100million of them currently. Out of these, the social media sector is growing very fast and expected to cross 45 million users by next year. Startlingly, recent statistics show that 45,000 users are added everyday to this rapidly growing network. The BUPA Health Pulse Survey published last week showed that 90% of Indian internet users searched for online health information and 60% searched for specific medicine information. This poses a big opportunity for pharma and healthcare marketers.
“It always amazes every outsider visiting India to see the usage of mobile by the masses.”
Though the advent of social media in India started late compared with global standards, the growth has been very rapid in the recent past. Traditionally and culturally, Indians nurture relationships both on professional and personal fronts and have close bonds socially and with the family. This is one major reason for early adoption. Though Orkut took India by storm 4 years back, since then Facebook has caused a major shift in this and now boasts of over 30 million users. LinkedIn is used for professional networking by around 10 million users today and the numbers are increasing daily. Twitter user statistics are also sharply on the rise and India features amongst the top 10 countries actively using this micro-blogging platform.
Will the Indian pharma industry embrace social media?
Can the consumer statistics in India be leveraged by the pharma industry, through digital and social media?
Certainly YES! But currently, the industry is too unsure of what CAN be done.
Unlike the western world, India does not have strong patient communities since the focus had always been on the ‘treatment’ areas and acute conditions. But now as India shifts to the ‘preventive’ healthcare and chronic conditions there will be more focus in this area. Patients and their relatives are increasingly talking about both ‘illness’ and ‘wellness’ issues online. The rapid growth in the lifestyle disease over the last decade has further fuelled the need for ‘patient community groups’.
The industry is strictly regulated for the prescription products, but the non-Rx products are advertised directly to the consumer. All communication though, has to be ‘responsible’ in that it must not violate the existing ‘Drugs and Magic Remedies Act’ and the Code of marketing Practice set up by the governing bodies.
With this in view, there is no reason why the industry cannot take advantage of this emerging media and embrace it.
Applications of social media
Keeping the conservative nature of the Indian industry in mind, however, the first step could begin with mere ‘listening’. In other words understand the consumer’s concerns and use this market research data to develop communication and marketing strategies for both non-Rx as well as the Rx products (for doctors and pharmacists).
Social media listening can provide pharma companies a wealth of healthy insights. Users are talking on twitter about their diseases conditions, seeking help on microblogging sites and expressing concerns on Facebook. It has shown an emerging pattern in various health conditions including heart diseases, diabetes etc.
Keeping the laws in mind the next step could be to move towards ‘engagement’.
“…90% of Indian internet users searched for online health information and 60% searched for specific medicine information.”
The future growth drivers
Social media usage in pharma and healthcare has just begun in India. Future growth depends on:
• How quickly the doctor, pharmacist and the consumer becomes more internet and mobile savvy.
• How open the Indian pharma marketer is to understanding and accepting the changing scene.
• How fast the Indian pharma marketer will ‘learn and be ready to play’ the new game.
• Who amongst the innovator marketers will take the lead and capitalize on this emerging medium.
Social media needs a different mind-set. As the consumer evolves, Indian marketers need to adapt; and the ‘decision makers’ in this area must support the ‘doers’ to utilize this new exciting medium. All levels of marketing personnel will first need to ‘educate’ themselves to be able to apply this effectively.
Just last week, the healthcare hashtag #hcsmin (healthcare communication social media India) has been registered with the twitter handle @hcsmin_india and there has been significant activity seen around it. This clearly shows that India is poised for the next growth taking into perspective the existing healthcare needs of consumers, increasing technology access to all and the robust economy.
About the author:
Dinesh Chindarkar is a pharmaceutical marketing professional from India with over 14 years of experience in various aspects of pharma and healthcare communication. He is the co-founder of MediaMedic Communications – a healthcare communication agency based in Mumbai, India. He has been actively involved in introducing newer media including digital and social media, healthPR in the Indian pharma and healthcare industry. He has also co-founded the healthcare hashtag #hcsmin for India.
For more information, email Dinesh at dinchin@yahoo.com. He could also be reached at +91 98206 00312 or follow him on Twitter at or visit www.mediamedichealth.com.
Do you think Indian pharma is ready to embrace social media?
12th October 2011, 08:20
Hi Dinesh
A Nice article. You are absolutely on-dot when you speak about starting with "listening". This is true considering the conservative nature that you had indicated. One of the ways I try to initiate social media usage with my clients is by asking them to start with social-media-as-a-listening-tool. True, it works. After sometime, they start participating with the right perspective automatically. So you have a winner there in your article. Kudos for your observations on the same.
#hcsmin is a good step too. I strongly feel that the "early movers" should strive to promote the basics and take the responsibility of educating it in a proper perspective rather than to hype about it. Which means that, at every opportunity, they should give free lectures about Social Media tools in forums other than social media to get others onto SM usage.
Pharma has a great opportunity. I feel the industry is unsure of what can be done because they are yet to understand the basics of Social Media Tools. Another issue is they learn these new-age tools and try to apply old-age marketing tactics which obviously will back-fire rather than help them. So the way forward is proper learning of these tools and using it with a strategy in place for the long-term.
Once again, thanks for sharing this and look forward to much more from Pharmaphorum. Good Job. Keep it up!!!
regards
Varadh
13th October 2011, 11:39
Hi Varadh,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation.
Given the traditional mindset, it will be some time till the pharma cos here adopt to these emerging medias, but if that is integrated as a part of the overall marketing mix, it would make a lot more sense. SM listening is no doubt a first step towards this direction.
#hcsmin though has happened early, the quantum of conversations and quality is getting better, which are positive signals as we move ahead. The 'enlightened' should take promising steps towards awareness and develop the market.
There is no doubt that Pharma has a huge opportunity and varied applications provided authentic and responsible communication is adhered to. A successful digital strategy drafted within the pharma regulations and newer digital tools by the first movers will start rolling the ball in that direction.
Best
Dinesh
13th October 2011, 14:33
Hi Dinesh
Thanks for sharing a very good article, which covers major relevant points of a relatively new idea to us. While cajoling the Pharmaceutical Industry to look positively at Social Media for Marketing, you have succeeded in encouraging the people - the readers of this article- to look at it positively as a potential useful information center in future.
While 50 + age group is skeptical about anything advertised in public domain (because of cheating galore episodes in the 1950s & 1960s), the new generation is not at all scared of but is inclined to use it more. Thus your analysis of having a large young generation offering immense opportunities and increased chances of success is apt.
The only worry is misuse of the platform.
Given the over-zealousness of the Product Management in general & that of marketing personnel looking for a quicker breakthrough, means there could be taller than factual claims, which a common man would not be able to decipher. This could be seen sometimes in the Visual Aid or Leave Behinds used for communication to doctors. What then about the community at large which is not technically competent to analyze it?
Hence I feel that setting up of a strong, independent body- not of advertisers alone for checking the ethical content, but that of impartial/eminent medical/technical personnel (without conflict of interest) to verify correctness of the content, is desirable. If the body can give the article or input a rating on a scale of 10, that would be welcome.
Dr Ulhas Ganu
14th October 2011, 05:27
Dear Dr. Ulhas,
As a senior veteran in the Indian industry, your feedback is much appreciated.
Since the emerging medias are still evolving globally, the laws are slowly falling into place. In India, since we are way behind, regulations too will come. Hence I clearly mentioned in my article as well as in the comment thereafter that ‘responsible & credible communication’ is a must.
Your suggestion of setting up a monitoring body is a good idea and in the US & the Europe largely, the steps on regulations are falling into place. Till such a time in India, ‘self-regulation’ will be the key. The ‘young’ nation that India is and the innovations that the country has done in the recent years, I feel very positive about usage of these emerging medias for a good cause provided they happen within the boundary of ‘responsible, ethical & credible communication’.
Thanks again for writing.
Best
Dinesh
18th October 2011, 12:00
Hello Dinesh,
This is a good article. I have started to look at the industry in a different limelight. Probably as a pharma brand manager in the industry, we are just caught up at looking at things from the ‘traditional selling’ perspective only. I did some research on these newer avenues in last week and strongly feel that the pointers you mention have a lot of value.
Though I do have doubts how fast the industry will change. The doctors on one hand do not have the time and the mindset of the industry is traditional. “Who will check emails?” was a common question my bosses asked when I talked about email content marketing to doctors 3 years ago. What is your take on it DInesh?
Thank you very much for taking the effort to summarise the scenario in India so very aptly!
Shriharsh Pandya
19th October 2011, 13:33
Hi,
The article is good but there is a huge gap between social media and Indian pharma. I work closely with the field and know the attitude of the medical fraternity. Barring a few they are very busy and even averse to learn anything new.
For that matter even electronic patient records have not succeeded so far in India. Technology is brilliant at the R&D front here but the marketing dept of pharma and the medical fraternity are still miles away from it.
I hope that the pharma takes a break sooner from its regular monotonous promotional tools & ways and adapt the newer mindset, though I have my own doubts on it.
Ajay Bhatia
20th October 2011, 07:38
Hi Dinesh,
I wonder about the applications of social media in pharma & healthcare. The way FMCG marketers are doing it proves a point, but it is so very different with pharma. Its bounded with regulations, the sales happens through a doctor and one cant advertise a medicine. So at the end of the day there are no ROIs measured.
Thats where I have serious doubts about its application in pharma.
Regards,
Neha
20th October 2011, 08:01
Thank you for your appreciation. As you rightly mention the pharma industry in India has to change their 'traditional' AND 'selling' mindset as a first step. Both are different and deterrent issues. Social media is here, its happening all around us and we need to move with time.
Regarding your doubts I agree that it will take some time to change, but it will happen. I remember my industry friend Milind, who took ahead the then new concept of 'elearning solutions' in pharma a decade ago, and he similarly faced stiff reactions. But the mindset changed and now it is not just a well accepted concept, but an indispensible part of the industry. Infact the broader outlook of the technology only came out when it was adapted. The same is the situation with Social Media.
I hope this answers your question to some extent.
Best
Dinesh
22nd October 2011, 05:46
Hi Neha,
There is no doubt that the applications of Social Media for FMCG marketers are very clear unlike pharma. Hence in India there is a big growth in digital agencies and lots of activities on the SM front. But the digital agencies do not understand pharma. Pharma needs a very different approach to the subject. Given its nature and the regulations that prevail, pharma cannot use the 'FMCG route'; but there is a far deeper application of SM in here. ROIs can be measured even in pharma, provided a problem is defined and the company is very clear what has to be achieved out of it. SM cannot be an independent channel, but has to be a part of the overall strategy with a very clear and a broad vision.
Best
Dinesh
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