July 22, 2003  Copyright Mediaware Infotech Pvt Ltd

The pharmaceutical industry has traditionally been known for adopting a direct approach for its marketing & promotional efforts. Naturally, their substantial marketing & promotional budgets were consumed in events, medical conferences and sustaining relations with the medical professionals. Advertising costs were usually insignificant. Even today, advertising budgets are but a small proportion of the total marketing, promotion & P.R. budgets.

Feet-on-Street Approach
The early days saw pharma companies' centering their promotional efforts around live presentations. (For that matter, in those days, every company including The Coca Cola Co. followed this practice.) But while products like Coca Cola were soon advertised on a regular basis and rapidly developed into 'FMCG brands', very few pharma products went the same way.

Pharma marketers, perhaps in a bid to differentiate their "serious" products from their FMCG counterparts, preferred the dignity of one-to-one presentations & relationship building with medical professionals. This focus led to a "feet on street" approach involving large numbers of medical representatives who personally kept contact with doctors to promote product awareness and generally ensure 'top-of-mind' recall of individual products.

Over the years, this has evolved into an extensive relationship building exercise with the medical community. Today, pharmaceutical companies employ armies of representatives to maintain & monitor close relations with medical professionals - physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, specialists & super specialists. With companies vying fiercely with each other for the doctor's mindshare.

Evolution of Medicine
That, few pharma products invest in mass advertising, is in itself surprising. After all, everybody knows that advertising motivates people into behaving in a manner which benefits the marketer/advertiser ! And a pharma company (like every other company) is in the business of mass marketing their produce. So why the reticence?

* To begin with, some smart pharma marketers may have discovered efficacy in demonstrating their products directly to doctors, leaving behind free samples. This evolved naturally into a relationship-building exercise. Today's intense competition has forced pharma companies to compete for the doctors' attention. So, while free doctors' samples has steadily advanced to regular gifts & presents, pharma companies' expenditure on medical conferences is legendary ! And while doctors receive printed charts & literature along with 'forget-me-nots', pharma marketers invest in the design & production of product cartons, point-of-sale danglers et al.
* Next to be included in the promotion efforts was the pharmacist. Pharma companies' representatives kept in regular touch with pharmacists and even ensured prominent shelf display - long before FMCG marketers did likewise !
* And finally, legislation in certain countries discouraged pharma marketers from advertising what they referred to as 'ethical' products.

As a consequence, pharma companies (unlike their FMCG counterparts) developed strategies based on direct communication with healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, specialists) instead of the end-user (patient) - starting from product development and extending right upto marketing communication.
This is the main difference between the marketing effort undertaken by pharma and FMCG marketers - while FMCG brands target the consumer, in the case of pharma products, communication is focussed on medical professionals (influencer), with practically no focus on the patient (end-user).
As a result, pharma marketers, in their focus of building relations with medial professionals, did not give due stress on basics like end-user segmentation & targeting, lifestyle preferences, large scale awareness exercises.

End-user Communication - the Opportunity for Ad agencies
Today's consumer is well-informed & expects information to be freely available on all subjects under the sun, including medicine. And today's patient is not unaware of relationships between pharma marketers & medical professionals. Meanwhile, medicines are increasingly advancing to control hitherto uncontrollable conditions with very little side effects. So today's patient may often ask his doctor questions like "I've been told that brand X is very effective. Can you tell me the reason for recommending brand Y?"

Till recently, the pharmaceutical industry's focus was on communicating product features (more than benefits) to medical professionals (rather than patients). But changing trends have made pharma companies more market focused. Moreover, globally marketed products need different levels of brand awareness. Pharma marketers have realised that they do not have the necessary skills to take advantage of all market opportunities.

Pharma marketers are increasingly adopting concepts like end-user segmentation & target audience, creative strategy, brand building/ brand sustenance as well as media planning & buying activities along with P.R. This gives ad agencies an opportunity to play a pivotal role to help pharma marketers sell their products to the new age end-user as well as influencer (doctor).

And this opportunity for advertising agencies & media specialists takes special significance because of the continuing top-notch performance of most pharmaceutical companies!