Marketers operating in every sector are seeking ways to offer personalized, high-quality experiences to their target audiences.
The pharmaceutical space is no exception. Companies need to be responsive, agile and accurate in their communications with customers and prospects – make the wrong impression, no matter how big or small, and it could be detrimental.
During the discussion, Paul gives his thoughts on the influence AI can and already is exerting – both in terms of patient insight and content generation.
“Wrapping our arms around AI and how we use it, whether through content development or insights, is something we need to think about and how we integrate into our day,” he says.
“But let's not at the same time think that it's going to be this silver bullet. You still need people. You need really smart people that are experienced, that really put the brand first, so that we can actually be able to go from better to best.”
And going from better to best, according to Paul, is not simply about providing personalized content. The focus, he says, must be on delivering genuine quality and value through personalization that is relevant to those on the receiving end.
Michelle Benz:
Hi, I'm Michelle Benz, Content Director here at Fierce Pharma. I'm here with Paul Hagopian from Fingerpaint Group. Thank you for joining us, Paul. Can you tell us a little bit about your role at the company?
Paul Hagopian:
Hi, Michelle, how are you? My name is Paul Hagopian. I'm the Chief Growth Officer at Fingerpaint Group. And for those that aren't familiar with us, the Fingerpaint Group is a purpose-built portal, kind of connecting clients in the healthcare space, to people in services that will help them be able to commercialize their products. Really happy to be here today and looking forward to answering questions and really talking about what's going on in the digital innovation space.
Michelle Benz:
So what are the most exciting opportunities for enhancement in pharma marketing today?
Paul Hagopian:
Well, I mean, firstly, there's so much going on here at Digital Pharma East, so it's hard to kind of say, well, which one is the most impactful? But what I would say is, AI generated content and AI generated insights is definitely something we're going to have to wrap our arms around. I really do think that the impact of AI will really break down a lot of the barriers that we've seen in the past, with respect to being agile, being responsive, being able to generate insights that we want and we need, that often take what could be a couple days to a couple months. But I think we need to also, in the context of AI, venture beyond it. As we think about Omni-channel and what we do as marketers every day, there are kind of like four core stages. There's the development of content, there's the deployment of content, there's testing it, whether it's in market or on outside research, and then of course, there's optimization.
AI plays a role in all those things, but I think you can't just say, "Okay, AI is going to handle it." You got to venture beyond and think about the human capital that goes into it, quality in, quality out. So I definitely think as far as innovation goes, wrapping our arms around AI and how we use AI, whether through content development or insights, is something we need to kind of think about and how we integrate in our day. But let's not at the same time, think that it's going to be this silver bullet. You still need people. You need really smart people that are experienced, that really put the brand first, so that we can actually be able to go from better to best.
Michelle Benz:
Well said. Thank you.
Paul Hagopian:
You're welcome.
Michelle Benz:
In what ways are digital capabilities enabling pharma companies to personalize and impact the customer experience?
Paul Hagopian:
Another interesting question, in the sense that, before all digital marketing was happening, marketers would kind of throw it all up in the wall and kind of see what stuck. In some ways, personalization is kind of like that. And what I mean by that in an innovative way is, we have advanced so far in our digital marketing, that you can basically personalize almost everything. We're way beyond emails and just changing the first name. We could personalize every little experience and every little touch point, but at the same time, how much is too much? It's still about quality over quantity. So venturing beyond personalization, because personalization is probably par for the course, the question comes down to is, what's the right amount?We don't have endless budgets. We need to make really smart decisions to be able to say, "Hey, look, this experience must be personalized. That experience, yeah, it would be nice to have, but maybe is not a priority, as we think about the customer journey and the experiences that we're going through." I think that's one great thing about being part of Fingerpaint, is we're thinking about the innovations and working on high levels of personalization, but the people that are behind the decision making, are really thinking about what's the quality interactions that we see and what are the areas of personalization that are going to really make an impactful difference?
Michelle Benz:
How do you see innovations in AI impacting the way the industry commercializes a product?
Paul Hagopian:
Michelle, before I was kind of talking about it, sooner, right?
Michelle Benz:
Correct.
Paul Hagopian:
In the sense of agility and speed. No doubt, agility and speed will impact the commercial model, but at the same time, venturing beyond what the AI innovation does, is the people that are powering behind it, the decision making that needs to be made in order to impact. One is, if we were to kind of peel it back, where does AI play in the models? So AI could play in as early as naming, right? We can go to an AI generator and say, "Give me brand names, give me logos, give me creative content." But see, those are only part of the discovery because what you need are the people that are going to go in and be able to curate that content, improve on that content, think about where it goes. We're not quite there yet. You're on the precipice of saying, "Okay, we're ready to make a change."We equated it earlier today, and as we were talking was, back in the late '90s and early 2000s, how GPS revolutionized car driving. It said, "Okay, we are here. We want to go here." But also remember, it never factored in traffic or construction. So you were in a five minute timeframe of getting to a destination, but you were still sitting in the car for an hour. People were still really important to make decisions on their own. So I think we're in the really early phases of AI. We have to learn how to use the tool to create content, to drive insights. And the people that are driving those are so critical because AI can answer every question. The question is, whose priority? The question is, who is prioritizing the questions to be asked and who's curating and making sure that the questions that you're asking are quality? Because quality in, quality out.
Michelle Benz:
I really appreciated learning from you and sharing your insights. Thank you so much for your time today.
Paul Hagopian:
No, thank you so much. It was great. I really appreciate it.