The Future of Marketing Capabilities
With the AI boom inundating every industry, including pharma, I keep hearing the question: What will the future of marketing capabilities look like? But maybe the question we should be asking is this: What essential skills from the past should we rethink to ensure future success?
In the past decade (if not longer), pharma marketing has invested heavily in building implementation capabilities – customer experience (CX) frameworks, digital channels, and now AI. While these are valuable efforts, aimed at improving the experience of customers and driving patient impact, there’s a downside: core marketing capabilities have taken a back seat as a result.
Marketing fundamentals aren’t just about understanding why customers behave the way they do; they’re about identifying what truly matters to them, what problems they need solved, and what motivates their decisions. It’s also about using that deeper understanding as a superpower to create meaningful interactions with customers – not just more interactions – to help them solve their challenges.
Here are some areas where our focus on implementation might be causing us to lose sight of the basics
- Data Analysis Without Deep Understanding: Marketers today are required to be skilled at analysing data and integrating multiple sources. But are we really connecting with the deeper human motivations behind customer behaviours ? Understanding data is essential, but understanding people is both foundational and fundamental.
- Segmenting Without Prioritizing: We’re getting more sophisticated in identifying high-value segments and opportunities. Yet, without a clear prioritization strategy, we risk spreading our efforts too thin. Not all opportunities are equal, and focusing on those that offer the best returns should be a strategic choice, not an afterthought.
- Personalization Without Relevance: There’s a strong push for personalizing content and pushing it through countless channels. But personalization is only impactful when the content itself is truly relevant. Are we creating messages and activities that speak to the core motivations of our audience, or just adding their names to generic content?
- Data Collection Without Connection: We’re collecting vast amounts of data and investing in platforms to integrate it. But too often, this data lacks alignment with core objectives and fails to tell a cohesive story.
It’s time for a shift. Let’s bring the focus back to the fundamentals of marketing: understanding our customers at a human level, prioritizing our efforts strategically, and letting human insights inspire the creative development of initiatives and messages that resonate deeply. All the channels, tools, and data in the world mean little if they’re not built on a strong foundation. Taking care of the basics can multiply the impact of the efforts we’re already making!
What do you think? Let’s start this conversation together!