Linking Omnichannel with Overall Strategy

A Discussion with IQVIA Thought Leaders

Do the underlying omnichannel efforts by individual brands and the organization support the overall brand and overall organizational strategy?

It’s a valid question for many pharmaceutical brands and companies seeking to deliver omnichannel content and engagement today that is also aligned with the overall strategy. Ultimately, we must deliver more than the sum of the parts of individual omnichannel strategies to drive value creation at the brand, organization, and customer level. If we are not employing these omnichannel efforts to create value for the end customer, why are we doing it all? It’s all about value creation and not just creating options for the sake of more options (or content).

DHC Group recently sat down with Andrew Burkus and Matt Smith with IQVIA to discuss how well omnichannel is linked with overall strategy today, what is working, and the steps brands need to take to make sure their efforts are driven by strategy rather than just the latest tech or content that happens to be available. (the video of the conversation is available below)

Wherever the customer or patient is in their journey – we need to rise to meet them with that content aligned with the timing, channel, and device they prefer. It’s our job to fit in their world and not the other way around.

While most organizations say they are delivering an omnichannel engagement and experience model, the reality is that it’s omnichannel in name but more multi-channel in nature. While many groups internally are involved, no one is taking ultimate responsibility – or accountability – so you end up with a fragmented internal model that has external friction points.

In many organizations, an honest review of the omnichannel strategy reveals a primary focus on the brand (from the internal point of view) as opposed to the customer journey from an external point of view. Many organizations and brands often rely too much on individual campaigns rather than holistic and coordinated insights across the organization and across engagement and experiences.

Given how long brands and companies have been working on omnichannel content and engagement, we know there is no one size fits all model for success. However, we do know that the elevation of the customer journey as a focus, and omnichannel as a solution, to the senior leadership level is critical. Some examples of moving that ideology forward can be seen in companies moving beyond just brand, franchise, or portfolio leadership to a truly overarching chief marketing officer with a customer point of view and not just engagement with individual brands.

return on insights: real world evidence

We also know that technology is the foundation of any successful omnichannel effort … but what is the role of technology in long term success? We often learn that brands use technology as a proxy for innovation without linking it back to the central question – Is this really what the customer wants from us? We need unified technology to bring together those insights across the organization and to deliver rapid insights. 

How should we think about the maturity of an omnichannel strategy and are there models of best practices today? The reality is that some brands are just starting the process of strategy driven omnichannel and some are already running full speed with an integrated and unified view of the customer. Furthermore, things that were scary to pharma brands just 5 or 7 years ago are now considered a standard approach to customer content and engagement. Things like social, digital, video,, Cx, and digital first content are just how engagement is delivered today.

Ultimately, we must bring together data and insights from sales, brand, marketing, medical, and clinical to create a rich picture of the customer. It’s about moving from the reactive model to a predictive model to better deliver content and experiences based on needs, as opposed to trying to course correct afterwards. With that unified view of the underlying omnichannel efforts by customer segment, brand, and loyalty, organizations can truly scale up not only their content and engagement capabilities, but constantly iterate and refine to move closer to predictive content and engagement based on the customer and their journey – and not just the brand point of view. 

Watch the Full Video Here