Decisions, Decisions, Decisions – Life’s full of them!
Some find choosing hard! (I’m a Libran haven't we got an excuse.)
Easy decisions can be made complex – the complex easy.
Pharma client decision making is becoming more complex – performance pricing for example.
The World Wide Wonderland of Information can be both help and hindrance.
Information packaged as knowledge – organised to fit into a Decision Making Framework (DMF) - can enhance communication and foster decision making.
How do Pharma’s clients make decisions that favour a Pharma brand?
Is there a Pharma marketing and sales opportunity in Decision Support?
Should Pharma communication be directed towards helping people decide what to do rather than what to think?
If so then……
Knowing Decisions
Decisions are the process of finding feasible alternatives:
Foundation Knowledge + Scenario Information = Alternatives
Then the act of choosing amongst alternatives in some way creates the decision.
Alternatives + DMF = Decision
Choosing an alternative makes a commitment. You have decided.
Or have you?
Information is not the only way to influence a decision – a DMF also presents opportunities.
Some sort of DMF is going to be utilised by a client why not own or influence it?
Pharma clients, as with 90-95% of all decisions, will make choices based upon pattern recognition.
More experience, results in recognising more patterns, consequentially we make better choices more quickly.
We also ‘lock-in’ our decisions given specific patterns - we learn decisions by our experiences.
Therefore, if yours is not the brand of choice when a pattern is recognised, facilitate a DMF change and produce a different result?
What, for example, could DMFs and utilising pattern thinking do to combat the move to generics or falling patient compliance?
Could Pharma assist clients recognise new patterns, package information to seamlessly fit into DMFs and provide the catalyst for a change in decision outcomes?
Health Industry Decisions & Pharma
Decision making is part of the Health Industries DNA.
Understanding the genes is where the breakthrough may lay?
Physicians, Payers, Regulators and Health Consumers all make health changing decisions.
Don’t these Professional, Policy and Personal health decisions all directly affect Pharmas’ business health?
Decisions can be unilateral, majority or consensus; programmed or non-programmed; intuitive or rational. Choices can be made quickly or be considered; made in response to a threat, fear, possibility or opportunity.
Apply some THOUGHTWARE and they all represent discovery opportunities.
Digital Communications DMF
Does the world of digital communications help or hinder a Pharma DMF communication strategy?
Thoughts might include:
Strengths: Specific Targeting.
Scenario, context and issue based information can be presented in a DMF to create knowledge. Adding interactivity makes it relevant and thereby empowering.
Weaknesses: The Pharma Mindset.
Does Pharma see the web as a new channel in which to deploy old or new communications thinking?
Could Pharma information be balanced, trustworthy, transparent, etc?
It’s a prerequisite for DMFs and digital communication.
Opportunities: Information overload.
Pharma has vast reserves of decision relevant information. Trials, Researchers, Experts, KOLs etc are they being leveraged and packaged to assist client decision making?
Is there not considerable scope to help Pharma clients access, organise, analyse, create knowledge and make decisions?
Threats:
Have the third party health information providers already hijacked the knowledge market and exploited the DMF opportunity? Information – Yes; Knowledge and DMF – No.
The DMF Opportunity
Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Management Science etc have a wealth of DMF frameworks and tools.
Pharma could have its pick. (More on specific DMFs in a future Blog)
Where to start? How about Pharma’s own Digital Communication Decision Making?
Healer Heal Thyself!
(Tomorrows Blog: THOUGHTWARE Generation)
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