Pharmaceutical Magazine,
Feb. 2003

Coordinating Consumer and Professional Advertising

Scott Berman and Robert Duboff

Summary: The increase in DTC marketing has created confusion among physicians, who often are exposed to conflicting messages from consumer channels (e.g., mass media advertising) and traditional professional channels (e.g., detailing and/or advertising in professional journals). Pharmaceutical companies must better coordinate their consumer and professional campaigns, in order to maximize the effectiveness of all marketing efforts.

The dramatic growth of direct-to-consumer ("DTC") marketing of pharmaceuticals has undoubtedly had a profound effect on the pharmaceutical industry and its customers. Not only have many DTC campaigns led to double-digit sales growth for the most successful products, but also, its proponents argue, they have helped to create a significantly more aware, better-educated public.

Despite their success, many DTC campaigns never help products reach their full potential due to a "spillover effect," whereby key brand messages that are really intended for patients are also reaching physicians. This is especially likely to happen with mass media advertising because physicians are people too; and, as such, are still generally exposed to advertising, regardless of how much they would like us to think their media habits are more "high brow" than the general public.

This spillover effect can limit the effectiveness of DTC campaigns in several important ways. First, some physicians rebel against DTC advertising - typically because they are uncomfortable letting patients get too involved in their healthcare decisions. Fortunately, these physicians are in the minority and most pharmaceutical companies are willing to accept the modest backlash given the overall success of consumer-oriented campaigns.

A second, more troubling problem is that this message spillover can create significant physician confusion, especially when consumer messages differ from the product "story" communicated through traditional physician sources of information (e.g., detailing, medical journals, professional advertising, etc.). When physicians are bombarded with conflicting messages through consumer and physician communication channels - which is often the case- they no longer know what to think about a particular medication, and lose faith in what they were initially told. In marketing terms, this is a loss of "positioning" in the category. This dilution of a product's core messages among physicians can seriously degrade the effectiveness of overall physician marketing efforts. Interestingly, the same confusion can also occur within a pharmaceutical company's own sales force (since sales representatives are also exposed to mass media messages), in this case mitigating the clarity and effectiveness of detailing efforts.

Finally, and perhaps most important, mixed messages across consumer and physician channels damage the credibility of all sources of information - again decreasing the effectiveness of overall marketing to physicians. When physicians perceive that pharmaceutical companies are talking out of both sides of their mouth, they are less inclined to believe the message coming out of either side.

Together, these factors may help explain why a recent DataMonitor report showed that the effectiveness of pharmaceutical marketing is waning. According to the DataMonitor analysis, the top drug companies generated $17 in sales from each dollar spent on marketing in 2001, compared to $22.20 for each $1 spent in 1998. Given that neither DTC nor professional advertising/detailing are going away any time soon, it is a given there will continue to be a spillover effect. Therefore, it is imperative that pharmaceutical companies find ways to avoid the confusion and damage to their credibility that can mitigate the effectiveness of their promotional efforts.

The best place to start is to better coordinate the messages communicated across each channel. Doing so not only can help to avoid confusion, but also can create an additive effect - the spillover from the consumer advertising can actually benefit the physician marketing by reinforcing key messages to physicians. Coordinated messages across the two channels can even have a synergistic effect by better "matching" patient symptoms with physician perceptions of a product's key benefits. One of the most common frustrations with DTC advertising, for physicians and patients alike, occurs when the "wrong" patient requests a particular medication - for example a mild sufferer asking for the strongest medication in a class - because they saw an ad on television. However, when the "right" patients consistently ask a physician for a particular medication, it can reinforce physicians' perceptions of a product's most appropriate uses, staking out a crystal clear, defensible positioning for the brand. It should come as no surprise that this matching of patient symptoms to perceived product strengths also increases physicians' willingness to appease patient requests.

There are three simple steps that companies can take to better coordinate their DTC and professional campaigns:

1) Centralize the message development process. Unfortunately, today many companies independently develop advertising for physician and consumer audiences, including using different agencies to develop creative campaigns for each (not to mention managed care organizations, regulators, etc.). In fact, even within their own organizations many companies have different teams responsible for professional marketing and consumer marketing. When key messages for each constituency are developed by the same agency and same players, they are much more likely to be in harmony.

2) Conduct physician and consumer research. It is important to understand both physicians' and consumers' perceptions of different medications, and particularly the influence of messages delivered through each of the different channels. Understanding the key drivers of physician prescribing behavior not only can improve physician marketing, but also can improve consumer marketing.

3) Test consumer advertising with physicians. Research that is often done to test consumer advertising should always include physician reactions as well. At the very least, this can provide a disaster check - ensuring that the messages are not going to "turn off" physicians to the product. More importantly, however, this modest additional step can help to identify possible points of confusion in advance, while there is still time to address them.

The ultimate goal is not to create messages that are identical across the different marketing channels, since it is unlikely patients and physicians will ever be motivated by exactly the same messages. However, by better coordinating the messages, and ensuring they are not contradictory, product marketers can create a synergistic effect that improves the efficacy of all campaigns.

This article was originally published in Pharmaceutical Magazine, Feb. 2003, p84.

 

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