Gone are the days of global marketing strategies primarily focusing on Western Europe’s ‘Big 5’ and North America, when a ‘one-size- fits-all’ approach was adopted to best support the collective needs of these priority markets.
With the emergence of a multitude of on and offline communications channels and the rise in the strategic importance of new emerging national economies (BRICS), the outcome has been increased fragmentation of target audiences and a more defined role for global communications.
Today, Vietnam, Russia and Brazil are equally as important as Spain or Germany to our clients. So what does this mean for pharma marketeers and communicators? How do we ensure global communications strategies will work in such a diverse marketplace? Alignment of global perspectives with local market insights and business objectives is key to the success of any global communications strategy.
Insights around local healthcare systems, regulatory and reimbursement processes, as well as the patient experience, have become key considerations for the development of global communications strategies. With the evolution of the global healthcare communications landscape to include new, diverse marketplaces, additional consideration is needed to ensure cultural sensitivities are observed and applied to globally driven programmes.
Global communications remain crucial to the core strategic thinking, funding and implementation of large-scale creative programmes. Regardless of target markets, creativity continues to provide the foundations for impactful global campaigns. However, with the inclusion of more geographies, additional consideration around flexibility and scalability must be applied to ensure all markets can utilise global campaigns to best meet their local needs and resources. The recent explosion of social and digital communications channels has led to brand information being more accessible than ever before. Consistency of global and local messaging, tone and approach remain of critical importance to ensure brand storytelling is consistent across communications channels and localities. Traditional media-targeted strategies will undoubtedly remain a core component but new communications channels, combined with the targeting of new emerging national economies, suggest that local communications will continue to increase in importance and drive the globalisation of the industry.
The benefits of becoming a truly global industry are perhaps most observed through its diversity; culturally and economically. Working with colleagues and building teams from different countries and continents encourages insight-led thinking and creates more impactful programmes. Diversity is good for business and never as important as it is now.
Amber Tovey is deputy head of healthcare at MSL Group
