Pharmaceutical Companies’ Digital Marketing Issues Research Paper

Introduction

Problem

Pharmaceutical companies have experienced impressive growth with the enhancement of technological development and the introduction of new opportunities for carrying out research, enhancing the quality of the end product, and delivering products to end customers (Coccia 2014). However, information technologies have also opened an array of opportunities for exploring new ways of marketing products, the use of digital tools being the key change (Huhmann & Limbu 2016). However, due to the lack of the ability to adapt, most pharmaceutical companies have been experiencing significant difficulties in managing their digital tools and the information that they receive with the help of these tools (Huhmann & Limbu 2016). Herein lies the necessity to identify the areas of the greatest concern and provide viable solutions to these issues to help pharmaceutical companies continue to deliver the services of the required quality.

Objectives

The goal of the paper is to study the range of problems that pharmaceutical organizations have to manage when using digital marketing, as well as determine possible avenues for improving the current situation and offering pharmaceutical companies a chance to succeed in the global economy. By scrutinizing the factors that have led to the development of the problem, one will be able to build the framework that will encompass every possible issue. As a result, gradual improvement can be expected.

Research Question

What problems are pharmaceutical organizations currently facing regarding the use of digital marketing strategies and the management of digital information, and how can these issues be resolved?

Literature Review: Essential Concerns for Pharmaceutical Companies at Present

Skills Acquisition

The range of opportunities for targeting an array of new audiences and attracting their attention with clever marketing that modern digital tools provide is truly ample (Huhmann & Limbu 2016). Digital marketing opens a plethora of opportunities for managing available information resources to obtain crucial data about a target demographic and its needs (Rasheed et al. 2017). Furthermore, the application of the specified devices can become the platform for building a stronger connection with target audiences (Coccia 2014). However, most pharmaceutical companies seem to have troubles teaching their staff members to develop skills that are necessary to manage digital tools and obtain crucial data (Coccia 2018). Although the identified problem is relatively easy to address by providing employees with training sessions, the lack of motivation for learning new skills among staff, coupled with comparatively high prices for supplying staff members with the resources required for training and learning, makes the process rather difficult to implement (Lagat & Frankwick 2017).

Introduction of Changes

The levels of resistance toward change are also quite high among employees in the specified scenario, which also hinders the promotion of appropriate skills (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch 2017). Implying a significant effort, the development of the abilities that will allow employees and managers within pharmaceutical organizations may be regarded as a massive challenge unless supported by incentives and encouragement from the leaders of companies (Grigore, Molesworth & Watkins 2016). Recent research indicates that, due to the tight focus on the necessity to excel in knowledge sharing, R&D, and promotion of the steep increase in product quality, employees of pharmaceutical companies may face difficulties having time and focus to address the development of technological skills (Coccia 2014).

The specified problem is especially complicated and difficult to address because of technological and industrial improvements that are currently taking place in the realm of the pharmaceutical industry. The specified concern can be explored as a dilemma between retaining traditional strategies and, thus, failing to develop a strong and relevant competitive advantage, and introducing disruptive innovations into the realm of a pharmaceutical organization without the ability to identify the effects that they are going to have on a company (Coccia 2018). The fear of using disruptive innovations as the platform for building a strong competitive advantage and establishing a presence in the global market can be seen as the result of failing to develop an efficient risk management framework (Reddy & Rao 2017).

Financial Concerns

The lack of a proper risk management approach, in turn, is connected directly to the problem of financial risks management. Because of the lack of innovative approaches toward sustainable management of financial resources, pharmaceutical companies are often unable to provide staff members with the opportunity to develop appropriate skills since the training is quite expensive. Moreover, pharmaceutical organizations may be incapable of even purchasing the necessary tools and equipment since they are even more expensive (Parekh, Kapupara & Shah 2016).

The need to introduce a coherent R&D framework into the company’s functioning due to the promotion of innovative strategies toward digital marketing can be regarded as another obstacle that organization producing and selling medications face. Finally, the fact that digital marketing for medications requires a complete reorganization of the components of firms’ marketing mix needs to be listed among the key reasons for most pharmaceutical organizations to be reluctant to reinforce change (Larivière et al. 2017).

Methodology

Seeing that the nature of the study is mostly exploration-oriented, it will be reasonable to use a qualitative method. Particularly, the adoption of a phenomenological approach should be regarded as a necessity. By studying the nature of the failure that can be observed in most pharmaceutical companies attempting to adopt an efficient approach toward digital marketing, one will be able to shed more light on the issue. The study will involve an analysis of primary sources, particularly, journal articles. By identifying the themes that are mentioned most frequently, one will be able to distill the essential data and use it to identify main factors and the methods of addressing them.

Analysis

Lack of Digital Skills

The overview of the existing resources has shown that the absence of relevant digital skills among staff members is the primary reason for pharmacological organizations to develop a coherent digital marketing approach (Coccia 2014). In addition, several articles point to the fact that staff members are often reluctant toward acquiring key skills. Therefore, the specified aspect of the issue should be the focus of the analysis.

Adaptation Problems

Another important problem that is linked directly to the previous one is the need to introduce changes. With the adoption of digital marketing, pharmacological companies will have to implement changes on not only marketing-related but also organizational and managerial levels. Employees’ mindsets will have to be changed to teach them crucial ways of attracting the attention of new customers, using new models of categorization for buyers, etc. Consequently, pharmaceutical companies will decline the opportunity due to the risk of losing their current assets.

Discussion

Key Problems

Lack of digital skills. As shown in the analysis above, the lack of motivation, resources, and corporate values required to implement changes in a corporate environment successfully is what defines the development of difficulties in enhancing the efficacy of digital marketing in the context of modern pharmaceutical companies. Indeed, most of the studies indicate that the lack of skills among employees makes the leaders of pharmaceutical companies fear possible drastic outcomes of inappropriate management of digital data, the failure to appeal to target audiences successfully, the development of an incoherent product mix based on an inadequate analysis of the target market, etc. (Coccia 2018).

Adaptation problems. In addition, the overview of the existing literature also points to the trend of organizations to deploy a rather weak strategy for managing change. The alterations to a pharmacological company’s marketing must be established at all levels, including the organizational one. In other words, a firm’s values, mission, and vision have to be altered to create the foundation for the successful implementation of changes. As a result, the premises for using digital marketing satiety successfully can be built.

Severity of the Identified Issues

The issues identified in the course of the analysis might seem as minor reasons for concern, yet they, in fact, are bound to affect the quality of healthcare to a considerable extent. Pharmaceutical organizations are obliged to deliver the products of the finest quality to their customers to ensure the consistent rise in the number of positive patient outcomes. Seeing that errors made in the specified industry may lead to drastic deterioration of people’s health, not to mention the possibility of a lethal outcome, it is imperative to introduce the approaches that would help make the quality of the end product high.

Available Solutions

When considering possible means of addressing the problems listed above, one may consider the use of the strategy that will help reset the priorities of pharmaceutical organizations. By focusing on altering their values toward meeting the needs of both patients and employees, pharmaceutical firms will be able to rearrange the use of their financial resources to sponsor the professional development of their staff and the enhancement of R&D. As a result, innovative solutions will be produced, whereas staff members will receive an opportunity to develop digital marketing skills.

Conclusion

Summary

Modern pharmaceutical companies have been experiencing massive difficulties with utilizing a digital marketing approach that could help them become more efficient in the global market. Because of the additional opportunities that the specified strategy opens for identifying the target population’s needs, processing feedback, and promoting improvements on all levels from production-related one to the ones associated with marketing and communication, the use of digital marketing must be regarded as a necessity for modern pharmaceutical organizations. However, the necessity to alter corporate values and strategies for managing data and resources is associated with significant financial challenges, which is why most pharmaceutical companies fail to develop a coherent digital marketing framework.

Recommendations

The specified outcomes point to the need to promote different corporate values. Innovation-oriented approaches should be regarded as a necessity. In addition, pharmaceutical companies must consider investing in their employees’ professional growth, including training for developing digital marketing skills.

Implications for Further Research

Since the research outcomes show the need to promote change in pharmaceutical companies, approaches toward managing it must be designed. Therefore, further studies can be centered on the development of efficient digital marketing approaches. After testing them, one will be able to improve the current position of pharmaceutical organizations.

Reference List

Coccia, M 2014, ‘Converging scientific fields and new technological paradigms as main drivers of the division of scientific labour in drug discovery process: the effects on strategic management of the R&D corporate change’, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 733-749.

Coccia, M 2018, ‘Disruptive firms and industrial change’, Economic and Social Thought, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 437-450.

Felix, R, Rauschnabel, PA & Hinsch, C 2017, ‘Elements of strategic social media marketing: a holistic framework’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 118-126.

Grigore, G, Molesworth, M & Watkins, R 2017, ‘New corporate responsibilities in the digital economy’, in Corporate social responsibility in the post-financial crisis era, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY, pp. 41-62.

Huhmann, BA & Limbu, YB 2016, ‘Content and compliance of pharmaceutical social media marketing’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 34, no. 7, pp. 977-999.

Lagat, C & Frankwick, GL 2017, ‘Marketing capability, marketing strategy implementation and performance in small firms’, Journal for Global Business Advancement, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 327-345.

Larivière, B, Bowen, D, Andreassen, TW, Kunz, W, Sirianni, NJ, Voss, C, Wünderlich, NV & De Keyser, A 2017, ‘“Service Encounter 2.0”: an investigation into the roles of technology, employees and customers’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 238-246.

Parekh, D, Kapupara, P & Shah, K 2016, ‘Digital pharmaceutical marketing: a review’, Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 108.

Rasheed, MA, Shahzad, K, Conroy, C, Nadeem, S & Siddique, MU 2017, ‘Exploring the role of employee voice between high-performance work system and organizational innovation in small and medium enterprises’, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 670-688.

Reddy, AVJ., & Rao, BM 2017, ‘Opportunities and challenges for Indian pharmaceutical companies in overseas markets and need of digital tools for sustainable success’, Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, vol. 51, no.2, pp. 226-238.