New blog from founding partner of Central
Matt Rowley has started a new blog; the Future of Pharmaceutical Marketing. The blog covers a range of topics including word of mouth marketing and pharmaceutical marketing.
Central speaking at 2007 International Word
of Mouth Conference (IWOMC) in Amsterdam
The third International Word of Mouth Conference is being held in Amsterdam on the 10th and 11th May.
One of the presenters at the conference will be Matt Rowley, Managing Partner at Central. Matt will be speaking about "ripping it up and starting again": how to re-engineer communication strategy around what really counts, word of mouth.
To find out more about IWOMC 2007 click here »
To read a report of IWOMC 2006 click here »
DTI awards grant to Word of Mouth consultancy
Central and Kingston University
London, June 22nd 2006 – With R&D pipelines drying up, products being withdrawn and sales forces being downsized, what’s the future of pharmaceutical marketing? It appears the DTI believes Word of Mouth marketing has a role to play in that future, as it’s awarded a grant of more than £75,000 for the consultancy Central to develop expertise in the area.
“We know that how fast a drug is adopted by physicians is the best indicator as to whether it will become a blockbuster or not.” said Matt Rowley Managing Partner of Central. “We also know that colleague recommendation, or word of mouth, has the greatest influence over a physician adopting a new medicine. To date the pharmaceutical industry has focused on traditional marketing methods like sales forces, rather than understanding the science behind how word of mouth works and applying it. That’s where we come in.”
So how does word of mouth marketing work? “For a start, when people (including doctors) recommend a product or service, they don’t talk in sales messages or position statements, they talk in stories. We help our clients understand what these stories are and how to work with them.
“Another thing we do is to help our clients find and work with certain medical experts who are mega word of mouth spreaders, also known as Opinion Leaders. By understanding these peoples’ skills and how they think, you can work with them to spread word of mouth more effectively” said Mr Rowley.
The DTI grant is in the form of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Kingston University and the strategic communications agency Central. “The aim of KTPs is to transfer expertise out of academic institutions and into companies where it can benefit the UK economy.” said Professor Wendy Lomax, Head of the School of Marketing at Kingston University. “By and large, KTPs are technology based; transferring computer or engineering know-how. This grant, the first of its kind in healthcare communications, indicates the impact that word of mouth marketing science can have when applied to pharmaceuticals.”
The core of the KTP will be the appointment of a Business Analyst at Central to carry out research in collaboration with Kingston University. Topics for the research will include the dynamics of healthcare professional Word of Mouth and the categorisation of opinion leaders from a Word of Mouth perspective.
“We’re over the moon to have been awarded this KTP with Kingston” said Mr Rowley. “their expertise will build on the new and exciting Word of Mouth marketing science that we’re already applying with our clients.