Unveiling Pharma Marketing Strategies with Reethika Nair | The Growth Genius

Reethika Nair:- Today I met somebody incidentally from the influencer you know marketing setup he told me there are 8.5 million influencers in India so the definition of an influencer itself is like now changing for me so today for a lot of companies I don’t even think brand websites are important and necessary um because the content that the brand needs to say could very well be uh said on an Ecom platform especially when you know when a lot of this is transactional conversations what has changed is the influence mechanism has changed a lot right thanks to Google, of course, everybody is a self-medicating uh doctor uh so you know there is a lot of behavior that we’re able to Garner from Google today and that is really how the environment is really changing.

Mehul Ashar:- Hello everyone and welcome to yet another episode of the growth genius powered by Infidigit the SEO specialist this is the podcast series where we bring to you growth stories in marketing and business in today’s episode we have a growth genius whose career has grown across Industries be it bfsi luxury goods Auto or Healthcare she leads e-commerce for one of the prestigious Pharma brands in the country so without further Ado please join me in welcoming Miss Reethika Nair welcome to the growth genius retia glad to have you on the podcast and thanks a lot for your valuable time.

Reethika:- Thanks Mehul thanks for having me.

Mehul:- So let’s start with the first question we wanted to know you know how you define Your Role at DRL.

Reethika:- So I joined Dr ad three and a half years back and um I joined in the capacity of a digital marketing leader um within their Center of Excellence team today you know they have allowed me to continue my passion point which is e-commerce from digital marketing moved into e-commerce marketing and then today now I look into sales and marketing for e-commerce so that’s my role there are you know 182 Brands and in Dr Edd’s and it is yes it is quite enriching to be basically you know helping them find their path in the each and the business.

Mehul:- Great wonderful and you know as we know that you know Pharma today is in a very interesting space and with the Advent of wellness and other categories in the d2c space you know how do you get consumer insights since Pharma predominantly is more of a has been an offline Marketplace?

Reethika:- So it still is predominantly an offline Marketplace yeah I think I can dare to say that possibly the industry itself you know maybe operating at an average of about 10% uh online but 90% still is offline okay that said what has changed is the influence mechanism has changed a lot right thanks to Google of course everybody is a self-medicating uh doctor so you know there is a a lot of behavior that we able to Garner from Google today and that is really how the environment is really changing because the fact that you know you’re able to get a lot of patient insights even sometimes when we talk to the doctor right which is our primary bread and butter of sauce right and we we have a lot of insights that we actually Garner from the online space about patient Behavior right and then we able to confer with the doctor a lot better uh because we have these insights and so the doctor is also interested and the engagement with the doctor also improves a lot when we able to kind of like pass on these insights you know regarding patient Behavior and the other thing is like marketing I mean well the last decade or maybe I would say even two decades right there has been a steady surge of digital within our decision making within our research so the Pharma industry is also evolving quite a bit so as you as I spoke about earlier you know there’s a self-medication trend which has kind of happened now whether that be in uh product space like let’s say in an E Pharmacy environment we want to ensure that there’s enough and right information out there um right um Visa let’s say somebody reading up about very specific therapy areas you want to kind of like you know maybe be part of the journey because the decision really starts on Google today then probably reaches a doctor doctor clinic then kind of you know reaches a environment whereby the doctor writing a prescription even after that sometimes people require validation right and then there is a final purchase which happens so there is a huge uh you know uh involvement of the digital space so to say um in the New Age Pharma Marketing Systems of sorts even even like you know small things I can probably add to the way we do research right earlier the research mechanism was very simple there was a Mr who would kind of you know either talk to the doctor directly or probably go you know gather some information from the chemist stores across right and that’s how we were actually building on research data today that’s also changed right like you kind of have digital mechanisms to reach the doctor you WhatsApp him you kind of email him you kind of understand what his interest levels are did he really see the you know visual aid that the Mr presented to him um you know what was the engagement level for the doctor for that particular communication those are insights right uh so that those are insights that you’re garnering now digitally so research mechanisms have also changed quite a bit right um so yeah I mean I think that’s the Way digital is really penetrated into changing the ecosystem of sorts.

Mehul:- Right right and interestingly So when you say that you know there’s a lot of influence of digital when you look at the buying behavior of consumers how much importance do influencers have uh in marketing a brand especially in an industry like yours?

Reethika:- So of course a lot right uh if you look at all kind of Pharma products right some of them have OTC variants of it right which are milder in nature let’s say for example um like a cuff syrup right you have like a cuff syrup which is possibly you know a mild dosage and hence could be directly given to a consumer um and then there are cup syrups which are a lot more heavier where you require a doctor prescription to say that hey whether you really need it or not so the OTC Brethren basically uh were anyways preaching to the consumer okay saying that this is the right way to do it though the doctor of course plays a large role today there are enough uh people within uh your social feed who kind of add value to you to make a decision now it depends on the category of decision making which I mean uh it varies even Finance for that matter right like you have so many advisers today uh whereby there are people who tell you how to invest or what to invest in where should your portfolio be um these are some things possibly which was never ever discussed in such an open manner there was always like a either if you were so worried about your portfolio you would need to take an appointment with your financial adviser and you kind of got some advice the influencer today um uh you know within a finance uh uh uh space or a health space now again within the health space the kind of influencers that we deal with are very very different of course there are doctors who within the clinics are influencers but even um let’s say like neutraceutical as a a segment there is a nutritionist who is probably telling you like hey the nutrition that you’re getting from your food is not enough and hence you need to kind of supplement it with other neutral it’s almost like I want to be careful about you know the intake of my nutrition levels and I definitely want want to be adequate if not more um you know so I definitely think that these influencers are playing a big role doctors are acting as influencers uh both offline and online there are a whole lot of influencers um like as I said right whether it is the segment or the category that you’re talking about skin care for example huge penetration of influences you know an average um product which is bought on Amazon uh has changed uh the ASP of a product from a 100 rupees has moved up to a 200 and something odd rupees 220 or something only because of fact that there’s a surge of influencer saying that you know what don’t use the uh you know products which are harmful for you or don’t use duplicate products it’s going to spoil your skin for life you know you should it’s okay if you spend that 100 rupees more uh but buy the better product right um so skincare is like a huge space where I have seen the role of influencers uh can really change the trajectory of a brand in fact more than branded content I would think that influencer based content is changing uh decision- making processes I was thinking like you know when we speak about the infidigit the first thing of course comes to mind is SEO and I was thinking that you know how does influencers really like add value there right um any point that I self initiate My Discovery process right like and then there is an influencer which is playing a role because the fact that it is credibility or discredit that the influencer is adding uh you know let’s say there is a a brand of uh shoes that I want to buy uh if I you know uh search for the item and also look at reviews parall an influencer has a capability to discredit the brand as much as possibly you know promote the brand I mean we recently saw some episodes for uh you know some of the noodle companies who kind of went uh down the route because influencer discredited their mothers discredit their mother influencers so I mean there is enough power now that influencers have.

Mehul:- It’s becoming more and more democratic in a way.

Reethika:- Absolutely absolutely you know I was just thinking of adding today I met somebody incidently from the influencer you know marketing setup he told me there are 8 uh 8.5 million influencers in India so the definition of an influencer itself is like now changing for me because if if anybody who’s got a follower set of more than 10,000 starts calling themselves an influencer uh you know uh then the definition of influencer itself is like really changing um what is an influencer is it is it just the number of followers or is it the number of uh you know uh impact of delivery that the person is going to have that’s something I think now a new SEO metric will come in terms of how good that influencer is or not.

Mehul:- So since you spoke about SEO just wanted to understand where do you see organic search in the Journey of you know building a brand in the digital space?

Reethika:- Every step right like I I can think of uh see for me organic search is basically content being discoverable today there is smartness to understand what’s a paid piece of content and uh you know what has got organic credibility uh the consumer or you know people are smart enough to understand it uh there are the Google is of course trying to uh you know camouflage that with newer uh UI uxs but I think in every stage like as I was telling you like look at the Healthcare System where I have a pain point is when I actually start researching my journey right or when a person decides to buy a car is when they actually start researching their journey is SEO only appearing on Google search no and for me basically SEO would be like so fragmented today right like whether it is a product being um discovered at the right keyword uh let’s say I want to search for a a pain balm right so whether I start writing by uh you know mentioning pain Balm or should I write leg pain right and then the the product should be discovered uh is absolutely the role of an SEO uh you know uh as you know task force as such so whether it is um I discovering a product or building some kind of awareness for it when person is searching for you know the first stage of uh Discovery or whether it comes into let’s say when I’m searching for competition and I’m also being discovered as saying hey I’m also available so at the stage of consideration can I actually play on keywords and you know appear next to my um you know uh competition page or whether why will you know um somebody searching for me am I saying the right message uh at that point right uh whether I’m able to personalize it and say that I know your Journeys while you’re looking for a leg pain Palm like abilities in my product will be really great in terms of you know pushing that final mile of conversion so at each step I feel that there is a role of SEO to be played and look I mean trust today when I you know play the wear the hat of e-commerce I understand the role of SEO even more uh you know whether it is the way I tag a image um and can I actually play some relevance from there or putting out the title uh which has got a lot more richness or whether it is the product description itself um I understand it at various levels and thanks to the um you know the marketplac is being so friendly in various search engines itself if I’m able to get my SEO right within the marketplaces I’m able to kind of Leverage a lot more Within the you know search engines as much so yeah so today for a lot of companies I don’t even think brand websites are important and necessary um because the content that the brand needs to say could very well be uh said on an Ecom platform especially when you know when a lot of this is transactional conversations like as I said Pain Bal do you really need a website for a pbom page or do you really need a very rich content page on e-commerce that’s something I think which uh the journey is changing thanks to the SEO environment on search engines changing.

Mehul:- Yeah interestingly you talked about marketplaces and uh you know since we are talking about digital how do you reach out to your consumers across various platforms uh you know for your products?

Reethika:- So you know Mehul as I said today uh the journey really starts with somebody saying that I want this is my problem statement uh and very specific so everybody believes that they have a different or a unique problem today right so personalization is at its score I don’t believe that my mother’s uh face cream or face powder works for me anymore right because I believe that I’m a new age skin and you know I have more pollution happening and you know probably I’m not you know exposed to so much of heat and hence I need different kind of solutions so my journey really starts from you know a place where I am building some kind of a personality for myself from the time the person searches for me so um Google search uh would be my utmost uh you know uh prime location of sorts um YouTube um you know videos um is uh where I you know continue to play very heavily and the other thing which I also think which has changed uh you know in the landscape today and how we you know really thinking about it is if I have very Niche a consumer set right uh let’s say and we do have a brand you know which is specific to let’s say we have a brand which has got a um toothpaste which cost, 1000 rupees right the market today is probably used to seeing a toothpaste of 100 rupees so do I need to talk to everybody who is using a toothpaste no I don’t I need to talk to a very Niche certain set think because my toothpaste solves for a very specific problem it is whitening for sensitive teeth right it’s a very Niche problem so I do I need to talk to everybody no I don’t and for those purposes I need to talk into an a medium where I definitely think I want to drive impact so TV is out of the question because I cannot reach such small numbers on a TV thanks to OT and you know YouTube bringing their audiences together and giving me full funnel view right thanks to dv360 and partners like those I’m able to think of full funnel view on digital right from building impact uh awareness through video medium right otd uh YouTube uh to uh you know uh reaching them out through like a you know a Content platform with rich media creatives and then possibly uh you know taking them back into an Ecom environment giving them a lot more better product information and you know uh covering this up further beautifully wrapping it up with an influencer marketing strategy on social this is the way you know we are actually like um playing largely uh I would say uh but yeah I think largely this is the journey right you kind of uh reach out to your absolutely uh cream audience through thanks to search uh you know uh Triggers on YouTube and on uh Google and then you kind of uh you know reach them out through content platforms and then you kind of uh you know reach out to them on uh an e-commerce so that there is enough familiar while they reach the Ecom platform for them to probably convert better so that’s the journey that we’re following today.

Mehul:- Very interesting and what is your take on AI in marketing?

Reethika:- So I think we have using AI to a very very small level largely to develop content so we use uh some of the AI tools which are available we have like licenses uh especially when we have to do quick and Dirty Work re sizing uh generative images those are the areas that we primarily using AI with there’s one place where we are experimenting with AI but we’re not completely confidently following through is looking at research data right so there’s a ton of data that we get from various places whether it’s the d2c platform whether it’s the marketplaces and whether it’s the marketing data itself right um and we are trying to leverage on how we could have ai make recommendations basis this data that we have so we also get you know shelf monitoring data which tells us correlation between price and you know uh sales uh competition price and sales uh so this is basically the area where we are able to correlate a lot sometimes the interventions of manual analysis uh takes a lot of time say let’s say um when we you know by the time we look at data it’s almost a week later right uh is there a way that AI could intervene to kind of give us data a lot more quicker if my competition is probably faltering on something can I have an opportunity that I can you know leverage the very next day that is something that we are trying to use AI to recommend so it’s like a recommendation engine of sorts um that’s what we are right now using it but you know the recommendation sometimes which comes in is too mechanical and uh not implementable uh but so there are struggles between you know what the engine is recommending and what we able to pull off but yes I think eventually we will get there.

Mehul:- Yeah I mean initial stages but I’m sure you see a lot of potential absolutely you know with AI you know making business impact?

Reethika:- Absolutely you know uh like there is I mean we all use AI it’s not something new right I mean there was search marketing There Was You Know keywords uh uh which were anyways being prompted at uh there’s optimization thanks to programmatic we already used AI right like programmatic is nothing but like saying hey let me find more consumers who are anyways willing to convert more uh and let’s reach out to them a lot more so we were using AI in any case in some form of it I think today it’s probably uh the conversation has become so much that you’re probably also thinking hey what’s more I can do with it so um that’s where it is.

Mehul:- So you spoke about OTC products and you know uh interesting products like you know high value uh toothbrushes Etc so I’m sure that you know you would be also looking at being visible on marketplaces like Amazon and so on according to you you know how much important are these marketplaces for you and are there any challenges that you face because of them?

Reethika:- So absolutely critical right I was just explaining through the SEO part how I’m important that when when the person searches for the category when the person searches for my competition and when my person searches for me so there are all three areas where you know uh I have to play a role in being discoverable within Amazon so the search rank is the utmost important I would say if you’re not really there within the top five listings then like I think there was a statistic which was released some time back 80% of Searchers don’t go beyond you know 10 products right so if you’re really not there in the top five you’re really not there so within Amazon and all the marketplaces search advertising is absolutely critical whether with as I said the three categories of keywords I think it’s critical the other important aspect is and now I think the platforms are also realizing it that there is an opportunity to build influence at that search Point itself right so uh you know like for example when you have these um you you know mad kind of ads which are on top of search places Amazon calls it sponsor Brands you know whether it is Mastered on the homepage whether it is you know Flipkart who calls it a search ad various places right so there is like these strip banners which kind of so at that point if you’re able to kind of give out a very sharp message which solves for that particular search then there’s an opportunity to actually which the consumer they reserve and marketplaces are realizing their value while they’re doing this right um I was very clear that I wanted to buy a you know let’s say for example I wanted to buy a Colgate whitening toothpaste right uh but there I actually saw an ad of closeup which says I get 24 hours freshness and whitening then there is a possibility that and if in case they’re operating in the same price point maybe I will you know switch to a different brand and make a different choice at that point so it’s exactly like the POS which happens in modern trade right like when you kind of see something but there was so attractive a packaging right next to it or like a promoter who was saying because you better it’s exactly that and marketplaces are becoming stronger there areas of pain points which are kind of there in Market places today is that they’re all becoming like some kind of a ball Garden right they’re not really exchanging data they’re not talking to data uh outside of their wall Gardens and I think uh one specific Marketplace which is almost uh you know uh at any given category operates at around 50-60% of you know business is extremely difficult in terms of the world Gard so if you look at like you know the other countries like APAC countries um you have people like you know Alibaba who have ecosystems where the entire full funnel uh you know is available within itself so they have very high reach like the Googles of India right like so if you look at the uh influence level that Google has in today’s consumer set is very high but that does that really convert to a purchase today not really because we do lose the person’s Journey because once they enter marketplaces it’s like a blind spot I mean there are some bit of like UTM tracking possibilities but largely it’s a blind spot because the distraction is so high that you lose the consumer in any case but if you look at like places like China the investment wholeheartedly happens into those ecosystems because of the fact that not only do you understand full funnel you also get your own consumer first party data so you have access to a whole lot more and you’re willing to then put in a lot more you know to partner with them so it’s a very different environment but I think like today Amazon does not even allow us to have first party data even if in case you have a seller on board right so there is mass data which kind of comes in even which you have so I think there is a lot of uh guardedness in that environment once that opens up possibly so they are also trying to build their awareness funnel through like the prime TVs and the many TVs of the world uh but still don’t have the kind of you know reach that the Google environment today has um and once the two probably marry or probably Facebook comes and opens it up I think with um with Flipkart you still have a little bit of a you know openness I think they’ve they’ve got their audiences they can which can be uh taken out into environments like hot star probably like into Facebook um but that is not possible with the same with the other Marketplace so yeah I mean these are some of the challenges I think uh you face especially with the marketing set of it of course there are other challenges like how expensive they are to operate on but we’ll save that for another.

Mehul:- Yeah true true sorry Reethika I’m just getting more Curious here and uh if it’s okay with you can you tell us something about onc the onc platform onc is something which is actually coming up and shows some promise uh in e-commerce today so any views on that if you would like to share?

Reethika:- Ondc will be a very big game changer if in case it uh when it comes to the drug licensed environment okay today there’s so much of Pharmacists uh who are more than willing to kind of participate into the e-commerce Journey it’s a huge untapped economy so to say right uh some of them leverage it like for example there’s a farmy or a you know uh some of them leverage it like by creating these dark stores within the pharmacist environment but if onc really comes on board uh within the drug licensed environment as I said see there are a lot of restrictions when when it comes to Healthcare in India in any case uh so it’s you are responsible for the drug that you kind of deliver right so even today if you probably I don’t know whether you’ve noticed it if you place an order with an E-Pharmacy it is the um you know the pharmacist who will write a you know a prescription and you will get a name of a pharmacist while it is being delivered so just imagine if this is opened up and you don’t have the aggregator of sorts it is uh not only savings to the consumer but also savings to the pharmacist so I think if it comes in it will be a huge game changer and the fragmentation will also allow a lot more faster experience so like right now I think the the fastest that you get is I think with the 4our delivery Gap right uh which does not solve for areas like acute when you have a pain in your you know teeth you can’t wait for 4 hours right so e-commerce penetration because of these challenges is not able to you know cross boundaries but if onc comes in and everybody is really like on board and able to leverage the network of sorts uh these kind of challenges will be great experiences for the consumer also so right now I think e- pharmacies are largely surviving because of the fact that they give out discounts and if you’re a chronic medicine user you know ke every month you require that you know that medicine dosage so if in case the E Pharmacy is giving you like that 20% discount you’re obviously willing to move and and shift into that because you don’t have a hurry like medicine it’s fine I think it’ll be a huge unlock and I’m maybe this is what the use cases I’m thinking of but uh I can I can imagine some yeah this would be a different ball game Al together 

Mehul:- Yeah amazing and thanks thanks for sharing your ideas on this retia if you can share any specific growth stories from your illustres uh career you know something that comes on across you have been around the being modest I would say?

Reethika:- No not at all see I think I’m proud of some things that I did do so I used to be part of kimbery clar um and uh I remember we set up this CRM club right a first party database Club let’s just call it that right so when when there there was a time when there were 5 million babies born rather 25 million babies born in India and um out of which only 5 million were diapering okay this is about say 5 years back okay only 5 million Babies Diaper by the way out of the 25 million babies born in the country so you can imagine the State of Affairs uh and out of that we had a database of 1 million mothers so the journey to you know build that kind of capacity and scale was fabulous you know if any marketeer had that kind of database literally saying I know 20% of my entire universe and that to with first party data that is quite an achievement I think we did it with multiple interventions it was not easy like when we started it was just about you know doing some kind of sampling initiatives and getting uh people to share their data with us and then it was about you know things like how can you improve consumer more experience while sharing that data so I remember um we tied up with Atul kasbeker and did like you know pregnancy photo shoots to Lucky women because you know the bump photo shoot was becoming very popular and uh to even doing uh Gifts of baby showers so you know in India there is the seventh month Rasam so you kind of celebrate it with your close family so we built out these small kits that you could actually use as party favors uh you know uh while you celebrate it so a lot of interventions were done uh to you know develop the database and uh it was very helpful because you were able to upsell a a baby diaper user because you know every time we what the Insight was was that every time the person changes a diaper size and you know while the baby you know grows up he starts from an excess then moves to a small then moves to a medium then moves to a large and then finally an Excel so every time the size changes there is an opportunity that you lose the consumer to some other brand because you know the sizing issue becomes an issue and the mother thinks the brand here so you educate the person to kind of you know say that look this is the way you measure the right size to fit your baby well and you kind of you know evolve so there’s lovely stories where you know you had these consumer insights coming in and you were able to build some kind of solutions to you know resolve for those so CRM database was great because you were actually able to stop the leakage at every size change um apart from you know having like programs like upsells and referals and you know uh that was one thing which I’m very very happy and proud of um and the other thing I think was like even within Dr edes right I’m very proud of the way the e-commerce Journey has kind of set up um for I think I was at the right place at the right time the E Pharmacy Journey was just about kicking in when I joined three and a half years back and uh now to be as I said right like the industry average being about 10% of uh you know the overall farma sales is um and especially the bigger companies I wouldn’t say all companies it depends on you know like the company mix itself right like as I said if you’re a very heavy chronic uh company e-commerce is very big if you’re a very heavy acute company then e-commerce is that much smaller but I think I’m very proud of the fact that what we’ve set up in Dr Edd’s like the team and capabilities and sometimes when I hear uh you know some of the feedback where e- pharmacies come back and say that you know we are leading the way of setting up some of these metrics which were not checked earlier uh you know because uh you’re able to replicate the learnings of what marketplaces had into an e- Pharmacy they value you a lot more right um and then you also becoming part of their ecosystem for you know uh evolving and helping them grow which is then nice so I feel um that’s something that I’m very proud of.

Mehul:- Amazing thanks thanks for sharing that Reethika last question uh if you can you know Inspire our audience and you know give us four takeaways uh you know for buding professionals uh before signing off that would be great?

Reethika:- I feel one is they’re very high um on anxiety right so keep your calm please you know it things will happen uh things take time to move um so be patient is one big advice I would give for uh you know the buding uh professionals be curious don’t stop asking wise ask five wise you know I have realized this so uh somebody you know told this to me in a self-help Workshop five times if you’re able to introspect a why like so if you have like a question I think I’m bored today why I think think I did not uh you know have fun in my presentation why five y if you’re able to do you will basically you know be able to uh you know satisfy your curiosity and that is important third thing is I think please stop working hard work smart don’t break your heads by doing the same thing again and again try and figure out can I do this in a more efficient way so so if you’re making a PPT on a monthly basis please try and find ways to automize or automate or you know uh to kind of templae so that you don’t have to kind of do the same thing you sh put your time in terms of reviewing and building analysis but don’t waste your time in terms of doing you know mundane work your time is important and maybe the fourth one is just as I said right uh have some bit of vision in life I understand people go with the flow today but Visions help you make faster decisions uh fail fast but take decisions and move forward towards your vision so that’s possibly the thing I think I can say.

Mehul:- Wonderful thanks a lot for these valuable insights and yeah I think we are uh we have completed the session now so thank you once again for I hope I did not speak too much no no no no not at all not at all in fact so here we come to the end of yet another exciting episode of the growth genius the podcast Series where we bring to you content which educates and inspires through the insights of Industry professionals I hope you like this content and if so do like share and subscribe to us across various social media platforms or audio platforms the links to all of these are given in the descriptor below so till the next episode of the growth genius keep learning keep inspiring thank you.