Can Your Pharma Brand Become A Religion?

Imagine you arrive in a city and everything is booked out – the flight was full, the hotels are full, restaurants are fully booked… and you’re wondering what is going on. One would automatically think there was a big conference or trade-show of some sort in the city. Maybe something bigger? Possibly a religious gathering?

Finally, when you check into your hotel, you notice that the city seems to be filled with a certain type of person – and they all seem to be on a mission. All around you are thousands of ‘worshippers’. You think to yourself, “This was a bad time to visit this city – right in the middle of a religious pilgrimage”.


Except… you are in Milwaukee, not Mecca.

So… What is Going On?

It feels like you are the only one who is not in the know. The streets are lined with people, flags are flying, the crowd is roaring but it is drowned out by a ‘chucka-chucka’ noise of a helicopter in the background….or is it? At street level you soon see 50,000 (or more) proud Harleys roaring through the street. On these Harleys are CEOs, employees and long time Harley owners. In addition to them, a further 125,000 people are lining the streets for the Harley party. Fourteen years earlier at this same event, only 28 bikers turned up! What changed?
HOG or Harley Owners Group

It was not always this way. Years before, Harley was in a financial hole, with no advertising, and they set up their first HOG chapter. They used newsletters and club magazines to build their subscriber base. From one chapter, HOG has mushroomed to thousands of chapters around the world (and possibly more by the time you read this).

Amazon

Compare Amazon.com to HOG. I use Amazon. I like Amazon. It is convenient and I can find what I want. Sure, they bug me with offers, and constantly push Prime, but that’s okay. I go there to buy things for convenience. What is the difference between Amazon and HOG? One is a store, and one is a religion – worshipping Harleys. If the Amazon server is down for a day, that is fine… I can go back the next day.

However, imagine if an avid HOG member could not get their ticket to Milwaukee? They would be fuming and they would be so determined to get there they would hop on their Harley and drive across the country to get there. And what if they could not get a hotel room? They would pitch a tent and camp.

Can you see the marked difference here? A store is a place you sell stuff. A religion enters your being. It is something you are passionate about – something that you are willing to defend, and something that you are more than happy to evangelize.

Let’s face it, whether you are religious or not, you belong to at least one religion, don’t you?
    •    Is Harley Davidson a religion?
    •    Is Apple a religion?
    •    Is Tony Robbins a religion?
    •    Is Elvis Presley a religion?

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley’s estate took in more than $39 Million in 2019 – and he has been dead since 1977! All these years after his death, he remains the highest-selling individual artist, according to the RIAA. Let’s take a look.
According to RIAA certifications, the following is a list of artists who have the most Gold and Platinum Albums (Albums that have been certified Gold might receive additional certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum levels):
    1.    Elvis Presley (172)
    2.    The Beatles (114)
    3.    Barbra Streisand (94)
    4.    George Strait (84)
    5.    The Rolling Stones (81)
    6.    Elton John (76)
    7.    Neil Diamond (72)
    8.    Kenny Rogers (58)
    9.    Bob Dylan (57)
    10.    Aerosmith (55)
    11.    Reba McEntire (55)
    12.    Rod Stewart (54)
    13.    AC/DC (52)
    14.    Alabama (52)
    15.    Led Zeppelin (51)

So, with this in mind, let’s look at the elements of a ‘religion’ before I take you back to digital planning for Pharma. Let’s start with pilgrimages…What do they have in common?
    •    Queues of people wanting something
    •    Groups of people with a leader
    •    Mini-buses and transport taking people there
    •    ‘Worshipper’ icons
    •    Products for sale
    •    Rituals
    •    Legend and folklore

Apple

All of these were at play at the HOG convention in Milwaukee and also at Elvis Presley concerts. Even at Apple for iPhone. I was in 3rd Street, Promenade, in Santa Monica, California, wondering why there was such a long queue down the street… It was to enter the Apple store! Every time I have gone past there since then, I have seen that queue.

So, what would you rather have? Someone who comes to you to understand your information and go get it when they want and has little or no loyalty to your store? Or would you prefer a worshipper of your product?
Let’s look at how this works with a business and then how it can work in an industry like Pharma.

Club Med

One example is Club Med. Many people go to Club Meds around the world, year after year. Someone I know has been going to Club Meds for 15 years in a row! In a row! Yes, it’s very interesting. It’s like a pilgrimage. Parents go with their kids, and when the kids grow up, they continue the religious fervor and take their kids. I think it is an interesting example of the same type of thinking.

What about sports? The BBC did an article entitled ‘Matches Made in Heaven’ which also considers this concept for sports.

How Do We Incorporate This Into the Plan for Your Pharma Product?

This same general approach can be utilized to market pharmaceuticals .  This needs to differ depending on whether you are targeting the physician or the patient.

Most pharma companies have physician advisory boards and advocate panels of opinion leader doctors. This allows the doctors to feel unique and special as they were invited to be ‘in the club’ and this boosts the doctors’ support of the product and their word-of-mouth marketing. Now there are very impressive and personalized virtual advisory boards using very impressive technology.

The key here is in creating a feeling of belonging to the people that buy or advocate the product and getting them engaged with tghe product and passionate about use of the product as much as possible. By creating groups and communities healthcare marketers can succeed in suggesting to physicians that they are superior because they have research results that validate the pharmaceutical products clinical superiority (usually opinion leader physicians in this category are the target physicians for pharmaceutical club building) and therefore can be ‘in the club’.

This model works for marketing pharmaceuticals to consumers and doctors alike except in the consumer club the members would be superior for knowing to endorse the product – or in the case of DTC ethical marketing, for knowing to ask their doctor for the product.

Now for both groups we get far greater engagement and buy-in and results with personalizing the content and channels and timings of what is communicated by using artificial intelligence.

Of course, in pharmaceutical marketing, there can be sensitive issues that often need to be confronted depending on the drug category. For example, no matter how proud someone is about their choice of drug and its relieving effect upon their symptoms, there are good reasons that they probably will not wear a T-shirt saying ‘Zovirax – the herpes relief that worked for me’ to boast about the relief they have gained from a sensible choice of product. Well, maybe. 🙂 However, due to the nature of the disease it is treating, the product brand is not strongly associated with a particular attitude or approach – which would need to be the case to ensure success in using the brand as an identity marker. If the branding is done in an interesting way – with more of an attitudinal approach – virtual ‘clubs of sufferers’ can be created successfully which creates strong viral digital word-of-mouth promotion within patient groups. If the group can create a strong affinity with the users and is of immense value to them then it can establish a community of interest around the brand. This can be leveraged in many ways and can be especially effective online when using Artificial intelligence to personalize and optimize the experience.

Now let’s go back to thinking about this like a religion.

Right at the front is your product. This is what we want people to worship. This is the core of the religion for Pharma. Obviously, like anything worthwhile that people worship (iPhone, Harley, Elvis, etc.), there has to be a value around the core of the product. It has to work, it has to help people, appeal to their needs, wants and desires, and it has to create value for them. Then we need our evangelists, or patients/carers, who use the product and have had amazing relief from their condition with it, who love it and will tell everyone so.
Actually, I am an evangelist for Antibiotics. I, like everyone, know that Flu is caused by a virus and Antibiotics do not help. However, I also know when a Flu virus has gone bacterial. I was working in Pennsylvania a few years ago and was incredibly ill with the Flu, but I could not stop work as we had some important deadlines that had to be met for Clients and I had a load of meetings.

I could tell that my Flu had turned bacterial (I had not eaten for 2 days as my throat was inflamed) but could not find a doctor who was open after hours (the only time I could see them). I ended up in the Accident and Emergency Unit of a local hospital in Pennsylvania one night, feeling like I was near death’s door (but still not 1 day off work, I might add – the dedication we show our clients is legendary).
The hospital admitted me immediately, I was throat swabbed and given Antibiotics. The next morning I was at a meeting at Merck in North Wales, PA, and felt so good I could not stop telling everyone about how amazing that particular brand of Antibiotics was. I raved about what an amazing Industry we worked in that could move me from feeling literally like I was about to die to feeling so good in such a short time.

To this day I still get astounded at how amazing drugs are and the ability to change us completely from sickness to health so quickly. I am a Pharmaceutical evangelist… as I should be since I am working in the Industry – but what an amazing Industry to be able to do that for people. I have seen the light!

Then following on behind the evangelists like me, we have people who use a product regularly but are not as evangelical about it. My 87 year old mother could be an example of this. She takes her Fosamax regularly to the exact hour (I have never seen a more compliant patient) but she doesn’t rave about it to anyone.

Behind the regular compliant users, we have users who are not so compliant about taking their meds but take them sometimes. Following them we have people who have been prescribed the drug but have not filled the prescription. Next we have people who have never got a prescription for the drug but have heard about it. And in the rear are the people who have never heard about it.