Here’s a bumper sticker: Honk if you know what your customer really wants. For a manufacturer, successful payer marketing hinges on value propositions that align with payers’ organizational goals. Being able to identify those goals, however, is easier said than done.
Payers’ goals are varied. Moreover, their actions don’t always seem to reflect the goals. For example, goals like stability and control of internal processes are seemingly at odds with an organization’s willingness to take chances through innovation and adaptation in response to competition, yet both may be pursued simultaneously. Watching what a payer does on a day-to-day basis doesn’t always yield clues about their strategic goals.
Medical and pharmacy directors have no trouble identifying an array of goals but have greater difficulty identifying a prime directive. Maier’s classic experiment, in which most people could not explain how a cue helped them solve a problem, elegantly demonstrates the limits of our conscious understanding of how we solve problems. As an extension, it is reasonable to question whether medical directors and pharmacy directors can, in a bias-free manner, identify their organization’s most important organizational goal(s) when asked directly about them. Some managers’ perspectives on organizational goals may be clouded by their departmental or individual objectives. And even if the organizational goals are accurately identified, there may be barriers to sharing them with outsiders. After all, some organizational goals may not sound as “cool” as others and, as a result, the responder may place less emphasis on them. Other internal goals may conflict with publicly stated goals found in mission statements, annual reports, and marketing materials.
What car would you be?
Sometimes, it takes creative ways to read between the lines. Projective methods (e.g., word and image associations, sentence completion, or storytelling) can help reveal motivations of which interviewees are consciously unaware or are reluctant to share. When Currant Insights asked medical and pharmacy directors from the largest payers in the U.S. unaided questions about which car best described their organizations, nearly half picked Toyota, and most picked one of three Japanese manufacturers (Toyota, Subaru, or Honda). When asked to explain their choices, the majority identifying a Japanese brand described the car as being reliable.
And with good reason: Their perception has been validated. Consumer Reports’ 2016 Annual Auto Reliability Survey bestowed its highest predicted reliability ratings to Toyota. Similarly, the J.D. Power 2016 Vehicle Dependability Study identified several Toyota models as leaders in their respective categories. So, indirectly, most of the medical and pharmacy directors described their organizations as reliable.
It makes sense that payers strive to be reliable. Reliability isn’t flashy, but stakeholders expect it. Purchasers want reliable costs, providers want reliable reimbursement, members want reliable coverage, and manufacturers want reliable market access. Much of this reliability is based on the organization’s ability to predict costs accurately, and that’s why payers monitor demographics, review new technologies, and invest heavily in measuring and managing utilization and costs.
“Let’s Go Places”
While it is safe to assume that medical costs will increase, it is difficult for payers to predict these increases with precision. And while payers can modify policies and alter other management techniques during the year in response to unanticipated costs, such changes erode perceptions of reliability, reduce stakeholder satisfaction, and run up administrative costs through systems changes, communications, and training. Often, payers absorb unanticipated costs to avoid midyear policy changes and wait until the next cycle to retool in order to maintain reliable service.
If payers, as Toyota, seek like-minded partners who understand the value of reliability, then manufacturers might want to think like Toyota. The automaker says its advertising slogan, “Let’s Go Places,” invites consumers “on a journey to see new places, discover new possibilities, and dream big dreams together.” Payers want predictable pricing; manufacturers should present rational price increases and take payers down new roads where contracts invoke price protection. Payers want convincing evidence of predictable outcomes; manufacturers can help them discover new possibilities through real-world evidence. Payers want predictable returns on investments in technologies that offer the promise of cost offsets; manufacturers can help them dream big dreams through performance-based contracts when feasible, baking in metrics that are not too costly to implement.
Stakeholders lean on payers to be a stabilizing force amidst change, yet these same stakeholders’ demands place competing pressures on payers. The most effective strategy for reaching payers is to identify their core goals to be able to offer them what they want. While some payers will have additional objectives that should also inform manufacturers’ payer marketing strategies, helping payers stay true to their mission to be reliable will surely resonate.
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