Let’s start with the retrospection
Almost 20 years ago we were buying software in a box. We were paying for it once, and with time we were receiving a possibility of additional updates. The software at that time was quite expensive.
For a couple of last years, there has been taking a change of the model - the new one is based on repeatable subscriptions - like leasing software. On the one hand, a customer is bound to the software supplier (quitting a subscription we can’t use the software anymore), on the other hand, a customer has higher comfort of using it by erasing a single fee for the benefit of the smaller monthly ones.
Today we were living in a world of subscription.
The way we consume content
There is a continuous change of a way in which we consume content. Years ago, we mainly used favorite newspapers, later popular website portals.
In the first stage, it's all about content in search engines.
In the second stage, our friends became a primary source of the content we read. The content started to be created socially. The journalist became a thing of the past.
In the third stage is all about influencers. Influencers - bloggers, vbloggers or celebrities started to be a significant source of information.
Is it or not a natural evolution - resulting from overwhelming and unlimited amounts of content around us - here we are.
In the past the king was content, today the king is a sender. Let’s take a look at the insta-stories where we open a video clip not because we know what is there but only because we know who sends it. The influencer - constitutes the essential magnetic force for a reader nowadays. It's credibility, and the number of followers shapes our content value perception.
The fact that we use the internet mainly on smartphones and we prefer video to text, we shall notice that the evolution towards influencers and video services is a natural outcome. Shorter and convenient formats, identifies an author, expected quality of content.
The fourth stage - the service great comeback
At the latest Apple conference, Tim Cook used multiple times word ‘service’ to literary read its definition:
“Service - the action of helping or doing work for someone.”
according to the Cambridge dictionary:
“Service - a business that offers a particular type of help or work”
The service and its quality become the investment and a key differentiator. It will allow companies to dominate the market by creating bound with customers. Companies can quickly test services against meeting specific expectations of customers, too.
How to build a successful service?
An essential element of building a successful service is a proper opt-in customer and a strong added-value proposition. The services do not operate “on general consents of data processing.” A successful service must be “presented” or “sold” by a representative or recommended by another HCP. It's all about offering the right value proposition to customers in the context of his current needs and challenges.
Therefore, let’s think about how today’s operations of pharmaceutical companies meet the definitions of “actions helping doctors at work.” Does a sending of leaflets and mailings help a doctor at work? How much energy do I have to use to make a doctor remember the domain address, login, and password to it to use the content service which I placed there effectively?
Another challenge is content delivery methods. I believe that a reader shall more and more value the newest news, delivered by various types of notifications in uncrowded and preferred smartphone channels like SMS or notification.
Modern services should respond to the real needs of an HCP, for example:
- coverage from international conferences implemented by an influencer in a particular environment
- therapeutic program news or new treatments for patients held by unquestioned professional and fan promoting know-how and advice
- short reminders related to guidelines, therapy algorithms and medical procedures which can listen on the way to work.
As a result, an excellent service around influencers is a perfect communication channel - adjusted, recommended, building reader satisfaction and increasing involvement or key message recall.