Immersion in Asia - Singapore Conference 19th February

The Research Partnership held its 2nd Annual Asia Conference at the Singapore Botanical Gardens on the 19th February 2009. Seventy guests from leading pharmaceutical companies and specialist medical communications agencies participated in the event.

The theme of the conference was on achieving customer centricity through immersion. Three papers were presented discussing the benefits of ethnography and how it can help pharmaceutical companies get closer to their customer. The first paper, presented by Marc Yates, Managing Director Asia, set out the importance of customer centricity in increasing marketing ROI by as much as 30 per cent. Speaking on Immersion in Action, The Research Partnership's Founding Partner Mark Jeffery demonstrated the application of key principles from ethnography in healthcare research; by engaging key stakeholders in the key stages of the research process – Definition, Exploration, and Distillation – greater insights into the customer can be obtained.  This allows pharma to achieve more focused results and ultimately assists in the development of more realistic and actionable strategies.

The evening’s Keynote address, entitled Through the Physicians Lens, was given by Dr. Benjamin Mow, Consultant Oncologist-Haematologist, Mount Alvernia Hospital and National University Hospital Singapore. During his paper Dr Mow shared the misconceptions and challenges that a physician faces, giving an insight into the life of a specialist, and presenting opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to achieve closer ties with their customers.

The evening ended with a reception of canapes and drinks, where guests networked and quizzed the speakers on immersion in research, discussing potential areas that they can delve into to achieve customer centricity.