More bad news for DTC marketers

Jan/29/2008 05:58 Filed in: DTC Environment
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More fallout from the changing environment? It seems that eMarketer is reporting that most marketing budgets are going to stay the same or be cut in the coming years. Since most senior managers at pharma view marketing as a necessary evil and an "expense" DTC marketers maybe looking at shrinking budgets at a time when pharma revenues maybe declining as well.



There are many marketers who believe that marketing spending needs to be increased during tough times but there is a hell of a lot more issues with pharma then a downturn in the economy. The Vytorin mess is now being investigated by attorney generals from the states and Congress and every day there are new stories that surface about who knew what and when. Pharma's reputation, which was not that good to begin with, is now in the toilet. In order to reach consumers with relevant credible messages new tactics are in order and that means saying goodbye to a lot of TV ads.

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What do we know about how people search for health information? Well click stream analysis clearly shows that people go to a number of different health sites to gather health information and more and more those health sites include message boards or chat rooms. We also know that people are proactive in gathering health information; they search for information when the are concerned about a health condition that effects them or someone within their family. For years now pharma has ignored this model, to them people see a TV ad then go to their physician and ask for the the product. This is as realistic as Wizard of Oz but DTC marketers have never acknowledged the power of consumers in the information age. The classic MBA model taught by most business schools is to test and retest and then launch TV ads and acknowledge share increases to TV to get more money.

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Declining budgets may force DTC marketers to look for new ways to stretch their budgets. They are going to have to start thinking outside the box (that's a first) and look at ways to overcome an image that is covered with mud and garbage. Spending more money is one way to go but that money is going to have to be spent to provide real results not altered data that is presented to senior managers who are clueless about marketing.


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