BioPharmArena.com

by Hugh Davis

If direct-to-consumer advertising is the medium of the moment for pharmaceutical marketers its lesser-known cousin, direct marketing, is almost certainly that of the future. The rapid advance of technology in recent years has given rise to increasingly sophisticated databases and outreach techniques, while soft pipelines have bolstered an emerging focus on cost and patient compliance and persistence, placing a premium on forging and maintaining a relationship with the consumer. Meanwhile, e-detailing and Web sites offer new hope for reaching ever-more time pressed physicians who would not give the time of day to a pharmaceutical rep.

These trends have set off a scramble among healthcare and direct response agencies, list brokers and interactive firms to offer one-stop shopping for direct marketers in the sector. Direct marketing, a $5.6 billion industry according to the Direct
Marketing Association in the U. S., has long been the next big thing, and many corporate marketing wizards are heavily betting on it, touting its easy measurability and its cost-efficiency in an economic downturn.

But for all that, industry direct marketers say the channel is underutilized in the pharmaceutical sector, where many executives remain unsold on its value, distrustful of Internet technology and fearful of the fallout from privacy issues. Estimates place the size of pharma’s direct marketing business at roughly $825 million. But with direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising spending peaking, sales staffs bursting and conventional marketing programs on a restricted budget, this could really be direct marketing’s time to come of age.

With pipelines drying up, pharmaceutical marketers are turning their focus from new product launches and efforts aimed at attracting new customers towards increasing retention levels among existing patients and cross-selling drugs across related disease states.

This is a gray area of application for the pharmaceutical world and large pharma companies have traditionally been concerned with generating new patient starts. The industry has adopted a very acquisition-minded strategy. But it is well known that in every product category, 60 percent or more of new users are gone. It can be due to pricing or side effects, or maybe a person feels fine after a few weeks of treatment. There are many reasons. Where direct marketing is thought to bring the industry a lot of benefit is in the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to keep patients using their medicine.

At Pfizer, marketers are looking to more consumer-facing industries as they seek to sculpt programming that delivers a better customer experience. Pfizer is setting up a support mechanism for consumers so that they can obtain a drug ‘user guide’ and get a wealth of information, not only about the drug, but the disease state as well. One piece of information contained in one guide, debunking the myth that all drugs had to be taken with meals, has increased compliance and persistence dramatically.

Pfizer’s user guides include links directing patients to Web sites for information, along with an 800-telephone number that connects them to a call center staffed by employees trained to prize positive customer experiences over efficiency. Pfizer plans to increase its use of call centers, and has overhauled hiring procedures to bring in more college-educated operators with medical backgrounds. Pfizer also is looking at loyalty programs, in which patients are rewarded for achieving personal goals, like taking regular walks, with exercise devices such as pilate balls, thera-bands and handgrips. The reasoning behind this is that, as marketers don’t always have blockbuster drugs in their pipelines, they’ve got to get a lot more out of their products.

A convergence of direct marketing and brand awareness work is taking place, as marketers increasingly try to wring profits from pricey drugs in smaller categories, like rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. It allows marketers to focus their message on a specific target audience to enhance their brand, resulting not only in stronger customer loyalty, but also a stronger response as well. It is thought that Pharmaceutical Direct sales will mature over the next five years. However, the current question being asked by pharmaceutical marketers is: “how do you capture what has traditionally been brand awareness advertising in a direct environment?” No doubt this question will be answered in the near future.

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Hugh G. Davis is a Senior Instructor , Kriger Biopharmaceutical Career Training Program www.kriger.com/training , info@kriger.com