Apr/29/2008 03:12 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
It
never fails..DTC marketers get up in front of other
DTC marketer and present Power Point slides on how
their programs provided for a positive ROI. They get
applause from the audience and then the next person
gets up and presents more data that, in all
likelihood, does not tell the story and continues to
ignore the fact that mass media is dead and consumers
now have all the power. Read
More...
Apr/29/2008 05:39 Filed in:
HCP
Marketing
Anytime you conduct
qualitative research with physicians you are sure to
hear a lot but I wasn't ready for the candid remarks
I heard from physicians during a full day of
research. While they all agreed that the Web is
empowering patients the misinformation and the self
diagnosing that is going on is becoming troublesome
to many and they wonder how many physicians would
just write a script rather than go through the
diagnostic criteria needed to establish a diagnosis.
Read
More...
Apr/26/2008 09:11 Filed in:
Current DTC
In
my early morning surfing of bookmarked Websites I was
surprised to see an online ad for Lialda from Shire.
Lialda is Shire's product to treat ulcerative colitis
a condition that effects 700,000 people in the US.
With such a small target market one would have to
wonder what in the hell this ad would be doing on the
NY Post Page Six page ? I guess that maybe they used
demographic targeting since UC starts in people aged
15-30 and is five times more likely to effect people
of Eastern European Jewish decent but this ad could
surely do better somewhere else. Read
More...
Apr/25/2008 05:34 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
I
don't care what the surveys say, spending by pharma
for anything online will be down and down
substantially. Yesterday Web MD announced that their
projected earnings will be down and I am hearing that
agencies have already started to lay off people.
While pharma would like to believe they are spending
more online their anemic planned spending is an
indication of just how far behind the times pharma
marketers really are. Read
More...
Apr/23/2008 10:53 Filed in:
Marketing
Environment
From today's Ad Age
comes a timely article on consumer behavior. In
summary customers'
behavior is changing right under our noses and when
the economy bounces back, you might find that what
motivates consumers to choose or not choose your
brand has changed. The life of a consumer can change
in an instant, often with just a few words, such as
"I do" or "You're fired," or the cry of a newborn
baby. These change points -- when almost everything
in our lives shifts -- drive us to change our
behavior and embrace new brand relationships. For
marketers, these change points are opportunities to
forge new relationships that could last a
lifetime. Read
More...
Apr/22/2008 06:21 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
Well the FDA is
watching the Web folks. It seems, according to
Pfizer, that a technical glitch (translation someone
forgot something like a line of code) prevented a
recent online Viagra ad from displaying fair balance
information. The FDA caught it and issued a warning
letter to Pfizer but one has to wonder how this could
have happened with the checks and controls of a good
ad web server environment ? Read
More...
Pharmaceutical
companies need to adjust to the current realties of
their customers and adapt quickly. Challenges
currently facing traditional sales and marketing
media include tightening pricing and reimbursement
controls, increasing pressures on physician time, and
public skepticism of the Pharma industry all
compounded by a tightening regulatory framework. So
reads the executive summary in a report from
Datamonitor. So if this has been a long time coming
why is pharma still in a funk? Read
More...
Apr/19/2008 06:05 Filed in:
Current DTC
"There is a
substantial gap between what marketers believe is
relevant to the consumer, and what consumers rate as
valuable," said Lori Connolly, director of research
at Merkle. A substantial gap? Imagine that ! This is
an example of why pharma marketers can't get CRM
right. To them it's all about one message fits all
and "what good is the message if it doesn't drive
business? Unfortunately the rules of CRM are changing
because of the volume of eMail and it is not longer
satisfactory to send one message to your
segments.
Read More...
Apr/18/2008 05:27 Filed in:
Current DTC
DTC
Environment
A
proposal in Congress that drug ads contain a phone
number that consumers can call to make complaints to
the Food and Drug Administration is being floated
around. Can you imagine the costs this would add to
the FDA not to mention the headaches of formalizing a
complaint protocol. There is a much easier way to
collect this information by simply following a good
customer CRM program on the Internet.
Read
More...
Apr/16/2008 05:41 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
How can people make
such dumb decisions? The latest award for stupidity
goes to Merck who wrote drug studies and then put
prestigious physician names on the research reports.
Forget the stupidity of the issue shouldn't someone's
ethics alarm have gone off? Another reason why the
pharmaceutical industry should not be subject to
exclusion of litigation via FDA approval.
Read
More...
Apr/15/2008 06:06 Filed in:
Agency Side
Yesterday I received
a call from a friend with whom I have worked with for
over 9 years saying that he had decided to resign
from his business and take a year or two off. He was
the owner of a digital interactive agency that
specialized in working with pharma and as I listened
to his rationale I heard the frustration of someone
who knew that pharma could do a hell of a lot more
online but was tired of the pharma matrix
merry-go-round. Read
More...
Apr/10/2008 05:46 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Part of the skills
senior executives need today is the ability to ensure
that their company can change to leverage new
opportunities and defend against threats to business.
With the revolving door in the CEO's office at big
pharma it seems that this has been one area where
pharma has really missed the boat and let down
shareholders and employees alike. Read
More...
Apr/08/2008 05:44 Filed in:
Current DTC
My
friend over at the Pharma Marketing Blog, John Mack,
recently ran a survey to ask if pharma was in a
recession. I'm not sure of the results of his survey
but my informal survey of 15 DTC marketing people
clearly shows a "retraction" of spending in all areas
especially the Internet. In this informal survey with
DTC marketers I asked questions like "are you
planning to spend more. less or about the same on DTC
ads" and "is it harder to get dollars for DTC
programs this year than previous years". I was not
ready for the venting that most DTC marketers
unloaded on me and my ear is still ringing.
Read
More...
Apr/06/2008 08:33 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Want to really get
sick? Take a look at the
compensation of some selected
health care and pharma companies here. Millions
and Millions of dollars for CEO's who have
performed well and millions for CEO's who have not
performed so well. Read
More...
Apr/06/2008 07:28 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
Your audience is out
there searching the Web for health information,
including information on prescription drugs. Most
marketers know this but in order to truly understand
Web marketing you need to understand the process your
audience goes through when collecting information.
Those DTC marketers who think people are going to
come to your product website and then go ask their
physician for an Rx don't understand consumer
behavior. Good eMarketing people however understand
that people are going to go to multiple sites to
learn about symptoms and treatments including social
media sites where they can listen to the experiences
of others while seeking treatment and taking
medications. To continue to ignore this valuable
information, as most DTC marketers have done, is an
indication of just how far back their marketing
programs really are. Read
More...
Apr/04/2008 08:38 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
In
talking with several people this week, who decided to
leave the pharma industry, it came as quite a
surprise to me to learn that the reasons most are
leaving is because "the party is over". They talk of
the days within the pharma industry when bonuses were
as high as 250% and there were half days on summer
Fridays. Well welcome to the new economy and
unfortunately those days are gone forever.
Read
More...
Apr/03/2008 05:16 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Schering-Plough said
yesterday that about 5,500 employees, or 10% of the
company's 55,000 headcount, have got to go. This
comes after Wyeth is going to cut 1,200 jobs and an
early indication from people who I have talked to at
agencies indicate that DTC budgets are being cut to
the extreme forcing some agencies to also start
downsizing. So when management screws up and CEO's
continue to rake in millions of dollars in perks and
salary the people lower on the totem pole are shown
the door.
Read More...
Apr/01/2008 05:53 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
While the makers of
Vytorin were trying to bail water from a massive leak
the makers of Crestor were putting a halt on clinical
trials because the news was too good not to share.
AstraZeneca PLC said Monday it is stopping a clinical
study of blockbuster drug Crestor early because the
cholesterol-lowering pill showed clear benefits over
a placebo. So it looks like the first line of
treatment could be generic statins, followed by
Lipitor and Crestor. Vytorin? Well the damage of
holding data is clearly done and it may never recover
enough to make a difference in the blockbuster
cholesterol market. Read
More...
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