Are you an Advocate for Thinking Pharma?
Do you have a Customer Advocate?
Aviva, the worlds fifth largest insurance company, is maybe showing the rest of us the way?
Aviva is trying to get its hands on a shed-load of cash called a 'landed estate' made up of retained profits from some of its investment policies over the past 20 plus years.
They are nearly at the end of a long process of negotiating how much to give to policy holders; how much to give to shareholders and how much to keep back for future payout needs. The desires of these three groups are in direct conflict.
The company appointed Claire Spottiswode as the independent voice of the policyholders, calling her an 'advocate'.
This post is not about the work she's been doing (excellent in case you are curious) but the amazingly well handled communications that her office has created via her communications director, Jonathan Haslam.
Working with a complex situation where financial negotiations are being carried on and the general public are not very interested in the detail except where it directly affects their personal policies is a tricky communications brief.
Their Triumphs?
- Communicate regularly to the public audience using web, print and email media
- Provide a full set of links to public websites writing about the negotiations - mainly newspapers
- Clearly separate the voice of Aviva from the voice of the Advocate
I suspect that concealed behind the communications published are some angry exchanges between the protagonists, some moments of apparently gross unfairness and some mis-interpretations by journalists.
These have never been glossed over - all treated seriously - and clear articulation of the Advocate’s position has been made.
The Pharma Relevance
If you have a Pharma services brand would you consider appointing a 'Customer Advocate'?
If you want to use customer loyalty and brand advocates as part of your marketing strategy, might having the customers' voice articulated by a named person or team encourage patients to speak out publicly and can help to align the brand to one of its key audiences?
A Possibility for Pharma – What do you Think?
Could Pharma:
* Name a person and publicise their appointment?
* Make it easy for patients to state their points of view publicly?
* Give equal weight to the Advocate's voice as the patients’. This could be a careful graphic design choice showing summaries of forum threads on a home page?
* Enable face to face meetings between patients and the Advocate?
The Pharma Agency Relevance
If you are a Pharma services company, could you see yourself getting the Pharma Advocate to:
- Review marketing communications promises and finding whether past and present patients agree with the statements?
- Be on the pitch team as an internal voice to challenge the agency before presenting to the client team?
Undertake the post-pitch analysis and campaign wrap-up review with the client side team?
- Have authority / seniority within the agency to make personnel and process changes needed to keep the client satisfied, loyal and repeat business coming?
Anyone with experience of creating a patient champion or advocate that can add in some negative points or things to watch out for from both healthcare provider and patient side?
Would the idea extend into broader areas such as Government health departments, licensing bodies or research teams?
Creating a balance and seeing both sides of a situation is the new collaborative learning.
Obama champions it in the US and we can see it happening in Social Media today.
Could it work for Pharma?
We would love it to work for Thinking Pharma – Sign-Up Today!
(Tomorrow’s Blog: Who Carries the Can - The World of Pharma Disclaimer Notices)
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