Peter Gordon on Origami Marketing / Aloysius Butler & Clark

Peter Gordon on Origami Marketing

A Kind of Origami

So, how do you give a name to something that’s been around forever, but is being used in a new and different way? Marketing to the Life Sciences has meant many things over the last several years, encompassing pharmaceutical, diagnostics, molecular diagnostics, medical devices, bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, to name the major players.

Now, developments in many of these fields are beginning the long road to integration. As the disciplines named above have become more defined, they have started occupying the same space. These disciplines are now actually affecting each other—and affecting the developments of each other.

So marketers for these products are now faced with having to think outside their own discipline. This means more than just thinking outside one’s own box. It also implies thinking inside someone else’s box—and maybe a lot of them at once.

From Quantum Leap to Fold Change

Diagnostic and genomic tests are now being applied to pharmaceutical decisions. More than 10 years ago, quantitative PCR made possible the monitoring of viral load in clinical trials, which led to the approval of the first-generation reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors, helping to save countless lives. Today, the use of genomic data can optimize the ability to define discrete populations in clinical trials, leading to the development of highly targeted drug therapies. And a process for identifying and quantifying circulating tumor cells gives oncologists a powerful tool to optimize the therapy decision-making for a breast cancer patient. And the examples go on and on.

What are the implications for marketers? The new world of multidimensional analysis and product development does not imply some sort of “Unified Theory of Life Science Marketing.” What it does imply is the recognition of numerous dimensions and places where these disciplines interact. These may be simple boundaries, but they may be areas where disciplines fold back on themselves. And of course there will be intersections of several disciplines. For example, a genomics test indicates that a patient is, in fact, one of a subset of the population that will respond to a given therapy. The therapy (which could be a pharmaceutical or gene-based) is administered, and its effectiveness is measured with one or more in vitro diagnostic tests, or a molecular imaging study.

More examples will undoubtedly occur to you as you look at your own Life Science discipline and the landscape you dwell in. You may see your marketing challenge as kind of an origami puzzle, with different shapes meeting others at odd angles, with small or large junctions and hinges connecting them.

Origami Marketing

It is not critical to understand how all of the other disciplines function. It is critical, however, to understand how—and where—these disciplines affect the one you dwell in. It is necessary, therefore to know where the hinges are, those areas of convergence that connect you with the disciplines that will further the efforts of all.

The challenges may be biggest for pharmaceutical marketers. Accustomed to communicating with prescribing physicians and pharmacists, these marketing professionals must set their sights on a much wider audience. They must craft new messages, requiring the ability to understand and communicate with other healthcare disciplines: radiology and molecular imaging, pathology and laboratory medicine, risk managers and nursing management, even genetic counselors.

Folding the Messages the Right Way

How does the offering play to this multidisciplinary audience? It depends how adept they are at folding the messages in to an integrated whole that is both creatively compelling and scientifically supported. It isn’t rocket science; it could even be harder—more like Air Traffic Control, in which managers are evaluating a host of vehicles in three dimensions, in every conceivable vector—often extremely close to one another. And of course everything must be done on time, regardless of the weather.

But for marketers, the challenge may be more like the fable of the blind men describing the elephant (“An elephant is like a tree,” said the fellow holding a leg. “No, it’s like a rope,” said the chap holding the tail.) Each prospective audience comes to the party with its own set of contextual variables, its own set of conceptions—and misconceptions—surrounding your offering and its relationship to their needs.

Beginning the Folding

Obviously, one begins with a thorough analysis of the needs of each target audience. The critical questions and message streams that flow out of this analysis guide the communication with each audience.

Then the logic of the message streams needs to be fleshed out. These are the statements that underlie the target audience’s process, which begins with the objection and ends with a decision (usage, purchase, etc.) Once the marketing communication strategies are developed, the message streams can be refined, and the USPs can be finalized.

Is it a Crane Yet?

Are we done? Do we have an origami figure? No, we only have several target-specific efforts or campaigns. Now comes the real hard part—the heavy folding. Like the creation of an elaborate origami bird, the process now requires the various facets of the offering to be rationalized into a cohesive branding structure.

Each message stream and the strategy that underlies it must be tested and evaluated from the perspective of each of the target audiences. Where are the touchpoints? How does this message impinge on the world of target A, on target B, on target C? Once you have taken all of your audiences together and cranked them through each of the targets, you should have discovered:

Where the commonalities are.
This is the gold we seek, those key messages that serve as the foundation for the brand across all segments.
Where the differences are.
This is where you show your value, by creating expressions of the brand that serve different purposes, and different prospect needs, without contradicting each other.

Now is it a Crane?

It is if you can take each of your different edges and planes and decide that they meet at well-defined creases, and that the combination of folds results in a recognizable final offering and a structure to support it. This structure is evaluated by testing each of the message streams to ensure that they are:

Believable
Each target audience must be convinced that what you say about the offering is true—and that it has true value to their particular area of expertise.
Supportable
All claims must be supported by legitimate data that are relevant to each prospect’s particular needs. These data, for example, show the oncologist not only that the number of circulating tumor cells allow them to make specific treatment decisions, but also how this count enables them to do that.

If your final figure withstands this multivariate scrutiny, then maybe you do have a crane. Or a bird that better suits your offering. It may not necessarily be symmetrical. In fact it may be a bit messier than you would like; life has a way of not conforming to the exact strictures of an artificial system. But don’t be bothered by the little wrinkles—it means you have tested this construct and found it robust. Now it’s time to see if it flies…