Conflict of interest? Industry trade magazines

Mar/27/2008 06:39 Filed in: DUH !
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This is why I read John Mack's Pharma Marketing Blog every morning (this is from this mornings article): "As much as I like DTC Perspectives and other pharmaceutical industry trade publications, I must say -- "with all due respect" -- they are a bit remiss in not doing this kind of analysis. Yes, they report the numbers, but it seems that only people like me have the inclination to calculate the relation between 9 months of DTC ad spend shown in a table on page 10 and the yearly sales number hidden in a paragraph on page 6! I just assume everyone would think to check the Sepracor stock price and see if there were any relation to marketing ROI." Right on Mr Mack but I stand by my earlier posts that DTC Perspectives depends on the pharma marketing industry for money and as thus cannot be impartial in its analysis of current pharma marketing.



There are a lot of pharma industry magazines and most of them are really bad excuses for trade publications. I try to read them all and it never fails that with magazines like Pharma Marketing Executive, and especially DTC Perspective, I am left shaking my head. These magazines are about as impartial as the National Review when it comes to reviewing and talking about the challenges and lack of talent in pharma marketing. Awards are handed out in droves and the relationship seems to be more of a "tit for tat" than credible journalism. What else could you say to a magazine that charges a lot of money to attend trade shows where you can hear boring presentations about how this brand did this or panel discussions on subjects that DTC marketers rarely listen to.


A great recent example is the study that was sponsored by Med Ad News that clearly indicated that marketers feel the Internet is more important than TV or print. Well guess what ? In follow discussion with a number of people in both agencies and pharma DTC marketing I heard a different story "yes, it's important...no, I don't or can't get the money I need to truly implement an alternative media strategy". Why do you think this is happening? Because the key decision makers, the people who control budget allocations, want the glory of TV and print. They don't understand the Internet and the analytics and are afraid of what they might find if they truly did a through analysis on Web metrics.


Yes you can hire people like Seth Godin, whom I admire a great deal,to talk about new marketing and the power of the new consumer but I have found that most pharma marketers dismiss this as too forward thinking in a regulated industry. At Lilly one of the ways to get promoted was to be nominated and win an "industry award". Just take a look at the latest winners in DTC Perspectives and you'll see what I mean. Other magazines give awards to agencies so that they can get their names "in front of the industry" and pitch more business. As soon as an agency tells me that they have won awards from either Pharma Marketing Executive or DTC Perspectives I immediately look elsewhere.


So John..you keep doing your analysis and correcting the chumps at DTC Perspectives because you are one of the voices of reason in an industry that refused to listen.
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