Illusions of Communication

Welcome to Illusions of Communication. I determined  the title of my blog after reading the quote by George Bernard Shaw "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place" because I think whether in business or interpersonal relationships effective communication is  fundamental to success. The inability to communicate effectively can lead to failure of both business ventures and relationships, thus it is one of the most important components of our lives.  

My name is Brandy Jensen and I am a graduate student pursuing a degree in Strategic Communications. I have worked in some degree of sales, marketing and public relations since 1998. I currently work for a Fortune 16 company and work regularly in the field of strategic communications. Throughout this blog I hope to discuss various communication topics that bring value to anyone interested in the subject of strategic communications and emerging media. I will post weekly updates covering topics from communication theories to social media. You can find my blog at http://illusionsofcommunication.blogspot.com/. 

In today’s blog I want to discuss the illusion of communication and its relation to the Diffusion of Innovation. Throughout my career I have seen many launches of new products and services. I have also seen how the effectiveness of communication can make or break these launches. For our discussion today, let’s look at the latter. Referencing George Bernard Shaw’s quote from earlier in the blog, many times there is a complete disconnect between what marketing departments communicate to sales teams, customers and vice versa. It is easy to miss the mark in communicating a message that resonates with customers by becoming so focused on what you believe is the important part of the product or service and failing to see what is important to the consumer. In my days as a pharmaceutical sales consultant I saw product launches flop because companies failed to see what was truly important to the physician or patient when marketing a product. They became so focused on the message the marketing department deemed was the priority and failed to adjust their messaging when necessary. For example, one product was the first product in its class of drugs to be developed in almost 15 years. It could have been a huge success. However, when the product was launched the communication surrounding it failed to convey to physicians and patients what they needed to hear most- that it was safe. Furthermore, it was completely overpriced. The sales team kept relaying the message back to corporate that physicians were more likely to prescribe it and patients were more likely to get those prescriptions filled if the price point was more competitive. For example, rather than making $100 per prescription but only selling 50,000 prescriptions, a strategy of selling 750,000 prescriptions with a profit of $50 per prescription, as well as owning the market share of that class of drug, would have been a better strategy.  However, once the company decided to adopt that strategy there were three new competitors on the market and they were struggling for even a small percentage of the market share. If the company had used some of the principles of Roger’s “Diffusion of Innovation” and recognized their product launch was failing in the areas of showing relative advantage, trialability and ability to reach the point of having early adopters perhaps it could have successfully launched its novel drug and realized the financial success it wanted.

Let’s start by looking at how they could have shown relative advantage in launching this new drug. In a market that had not seen any new developments in almost 15 years, there was a lot of excitement surrounding the development of this new product and its competitors that followed. The disease state it treated is an epidemic in this country so the need for treatment was definitely there. The two biggest obstacles were to show the medication was safe and cost effective. Its predecessors had a history of causing cardiovascular issues. The Federal Drug Administration required years of safety studies on this class of drug to rule out any high incidence of cardiovascular events so the evidence was there to support the safety of the new class of drug. By effectively communicating the advantage of efficacy as well as safety, the company could have shown this new drug offered patients a real advantage over older treatments for this condition therefore quickly gaining the innovators and early adopters.

By focusing on the trialability of the product, the company could have moved to the next segment of adoption- the early majority. This drug was not covered by insurance companies right out of the gate, which is typical of new drugs on the market. Until pharmaceutical companies have the opportunity to negotiate with insurance carriers’ pharmacy & therapeutics committees, most new drugs on the market are not covered under healthcare plans’ formularies.  In order to make this drug accessible to its target market, the price had to be right. While the pharmaceutical company had to recoup its cost of years of research and development on the new product, not to mention other products in development that fail to ever make it to market, it also needed to set the price at a rate that the vast majority of patients with this disease could afford it. New patients needed the ability to have a trial period on the drug in order to truly see its effectiveness. One other important note about this drug; unlike its predecessors, it took longer to see its efficacy but the efficacy lasted for longer periods of time. Hence, another reason patients needed the ability to try the drug with minor financial risk.  

In conclusion, failure to effectively communicate led to the downfall of this product launch. The company had the illusion they were communicating what patients and physicians wanted to hear, however, they grossly missed the mark. As communicators we must be sure our audience understands what we are trying to communicate and that our message resonates with them. Otherwise, we are just communicating for the sake of communicating.