Transformation: Corporate Brand & .COM in Healthcare
Remuneration in Healthcare has almost exclusively been Output based and linked to the number of product prescriptions. As a corollary, Product Brands, with Block Buster brands leading the pack, have always been the undisputed brand heroes in Healthcare companies.
However, the pharmaceutical companies’ value proposition is slowly, but surely, diversifying as the digital & industry transformation gains speed. New propositions such as digital therapeutics, direct patient support, impact validation for value pricing, corresponding HCP service renderings (e.g. diagnostic tools), frameworks for (data) collaboration with payer, providers, patients and pharma companies are all, at their core, not product specific.
Such value propositions continue to develop and proliferate as healthcare companies evolve from a transactional and product centric value model to a Share of Life value model. These new and diverse value propositions require an umbrella brand to instill trust and build affinity with their target audiences. The corporate brand is a natural choice as such umbrella brand.
We live online & .COM
In a time where we spend as much time online as offline, the corporate website gradually ascends to become a primary entry point across healthcare stakeholders. And it has challenging tasks at hand. The rising complexity of the Healthcare company is often and increasingly mirrored in the existence of an array of websites owned by the enterprise representing the different business areas and related value propositions. .COM is to triage users to the relevant Owned Asset and content element based on the understanding of the User Profile.
An example of the ecosystem of Owned Website within a typical pharmaceutical website
From Inside-Out to Outside-In Informational Architecture
To efficiently triage users, the main navigation will no longer reflect the internal structure of the organization, such as product groups or functional areas, but tend towards a user-centric navigation.
First, Personalization is a given. Users land on the corporate website with a plethora of data points indicating their interests. Accordingly, we can personalize our content offering and navigation on the .COM. In a pre-authenticated mode, overall data categories include browser info, IP, referrer URL, DMP and visit cookies. Using such data is one step towards achieving Zero Degrees of Proximity, which is a requirement for healthcare business model of the future.
Building a data profile step by step across the primary data categories
Second, user centric design requires a complete revamp of Search on the corporate website. Most current .COMs ignore the fact that you and I are Googlified in how we seek for content in all spheres of life. Focus on indexation of all company websites integrated with .COM search enriched by AI and Machine Learning is an inescapable hallmark of the future healthcare corporate website. GE.COM is a great example of a best in class Search implementation.
Third, alignment with the Decision Journey. At the current point in time, significant cannibalization and replication of content takes place across the different websites owned by healthcare company. This is both cost inefficientand slows the rate and speed at which users complete the relevant decision journeys. Going forward ongoing content audit, clear division of labor in terms of the decision journey and consistent tracking across the different website ecosystem is a minimum standard.
A new role for Corporate Communication?
The ownership of the corporate brand and .COM is currently with Corporate Communication. There is a long way from Press releases, Investor news and Annual Reports to becoming a spearhead of Commercial. Corporate Communications, like all other functions in the healthcare company, surely face an exciting and challenging future with the potential to assume an even more potent role in the digital transformation of the industry.
