Medical Marketing Becomes an Origami Crane – Part III

Authors: Kathleen Dunn and Peter Gordon

Part III. Origami marketing – folding the messages

It is not critical to understand how all of these scientific disciplines function. However, it is necessary 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, and probably a smaller patient population. They must craft new messages and be able to understand and communicate with other healthcare disciplines: radiology and molecular imaging, pathology and laboratory medicine, oncology, cardiology, even genetic counseling.

The challenge now is folding the messages into an integrated whole that is both creatively compelling and scientifically supported. It’s a lot 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.

In Part IV we’ll talk about approaching the “Crane State.”