Pharma PR - what ails pharma communication?

Back in April this year, I remember seeing this small piece on the shift in trends in the way pharma companies were approaching PR. It was under a caption "PR tonic" in Business Standard.
It read - 

"Recent developments in the Indian pharma industry, especially over compulsory licensing of life-saving drugs, have left multinationals jittery and encouraged them to change their public relations strategy in India. Till recently, the focus was on wooing government; now the attention has shifted to the media. This week, three major multinationals, caught in patent rows, did their media rounds one after the other explaining their stand. Their attempt is no longer limited to winning the battle over intellectual property-related issues, but to spruce up their consumer-unfriendly image and show that they care."


In the case of pharma companies be it Indian, or multi-nationals in this market, what ails their public relations strategy is this - the public in PR has been forgotten, with focus of the communication efforts only being institutional - doctors, corporate hospitals, the government, and the company's shareholders.

When was the last time you saw a pharma company attempting to tell the public about their commitment for affordable health-care, or how efficacious, SAFE, and fool-proof their processes and plants/operations are?

One large company which is embroiled in all kinds of safety issues, Ranbaxy, had its top leadership go about and state on prime time television that 'adulteration' wasn't a major issue for the Indian consumer!

This is only due to fact that the consumer is not a choice maker, like other products or services.

Does that mean that the PR of Pharma companies cannot have a communication strategy with consumer focus?

They can and must -

• communicate their commitment to better drugs
• communicate the safety of their drug development efforts
• communicate their support of better patient care and interventions
• communicate how their standards remain uniform across the globe - which is never the case by most

Like these, there a host of communication and image building opportunities for pharma brands.

Does Pharma PR do anything of this kind, with the consumers in mind? Can it do better?

What do you think?

Where is the "image" problem with Public Relations?

I have seen a handful of posts, where experts wax eloquent on the image problem with the "public relations" business, and with PR professionals as well....

If at all there is a problem that has come to hit the PR industry, it's just one problem - that of people , professional and organisations in this space over-promising to clients! The client, gets a feeling that once he has the services of a PR company, there's a magic wand that will transform his company's image the minute he signs up an annual retainer.

And post signing the retainer, the post sign-off dissonance is so much that the client ends up thinking that PR agents are nothing more that rogues - sorry about the usage of the word though.

When you make a pitch and promise the moon, if the client and his team spent a bit of their resources on a check about the delivery capability of the agency, and the relevance of it from their organisational ecosystem - then they would be not fretting and fuming about what promises they fell for.

The consolidation of the big global communications companies will only accentuate to the already sagged image problem for PR. Their presence may transcend boundaries, but would they have the local expertise to help build or re-build the image of a company in far of Bali or Cochin? Yes, with some and No, with most of these communications power-houses!

In this comes a great opportunity for home-grown communication professionals - only if do not fall in the over-promise trap!

So, where is the image problem in PR? and who is responsible?? Think!