According to an article recently published in the Wall Street Journal, a new marketing trend is emerging in the pharmaceutical industry: the development of digital tools, such as Web and multimedia applications, the result of which appears to be unsettling for medical representatives.
In 2009, one-fifth of all American physicians were considered by the pharmaceutical industry as "no-sees", meaning physicians refusing to meet medical representatives. Furthermore, this “no-see" ratio is said to have increased, reaching one-fourth in 2010, and demonstrating the necessity to make use of alternative paths in order to reach physicians. Digital tools, which were initially intended only to limit the phenomenon, are now in the process of taking over from medical representatives.
The trend appears to be confirmed by the tens of thousands of "Sales Rep" positions cut in the pharmaceutical industry over the past few years, in the United States. The new approach is said to enable pharmaceutical companies to cut their spending on sales force, all the while reaching a larger number of physicians through digital tools.
One of the new marketing tools instituted by industrial players can be found in the applications for digital notebooks and SmartPhones (72% of American physicians are said to own a SmartPhone, 95% of them are said to have downloaded medical applications), online dialogue systems with sales representatives, through which the latter can answer questions and receive requests for samples, Web conferences, or portals used to supply physicians with the product information they need.
The “all-multimedia” approach is not one taken onboard by all physicians. Some, including Dr Christopher Luyken, a German general practitioner, liken some pharmaceutical Web-marketing practices to “spam” and, consequently, when looking to learn about a new product, prefers to talk about it face-to-face, with a medical rep…
Katia Castrillo, Analyst, Ph.D
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