It's elementary, pharma. Periodic table twist on marketing lays out multichannel basics

Its “Periodic Table of Pharma Multi-Channel Marketing” spans 11 topic areas, from early ideas such as research and strategy through to execution stages that include marketing technology and performance indicators. The 75 elements are then grouped and color-coded into those 11 categories.

The brand and marketing agency created the table to help define multichannel marketing in the sector and navigate its many components.

Pharma marketers are paying attention, Owen Health director Dean Mattingly said in an email interview. GlaxoSmithKline, among others, is sharing the Owen Health work internally, including the elementary table and another graphical take on digital maturity for pharma brand managers. The latter had about 2,000 views and 75 shares in its first 24 hours.

“Many other sectors have already gone through this and are more digitally mature," Mattingly said. "Multichannel marketing is one of the ways in which the marketing function is adapting to the transformation, and we feel that there is a need to help pharma marketers appreciate that multichannel is just a step on the route to true omnichannel marketing.”

While many of the elements charted are commonly used in other industries' multichannel marketing, some are specific to pharma, he said. That would include e-detailing doctors, the online approach to communicating with healthcare professionals.