Pharma upbeat on the future of online detailing
pharmafile | October 29, 2003 | Feature | Medical Communications |Â Â e-detailing, surveyÂ
The UK pharma industry remains open-minded about using online detailing, but wants to see more evidence of its effectiveness, a new survey shows.
In a poll carried out for Pharmafocus by online detailing company Medix, 64% of respondents said they were likely to use e-detailing in the future and 59% thought it provided a valuable support to rep activity.
Although only 3% thought it had no place at all in the marketing mix, 38% of people polled felt that, as a relatively new concept, it had yet to be proven.
The research, the first of its kind to assess industry rather than doctor attitudes to e-detailing, suggests that, given time, the medium is likely to become a significant part of the pharma marketing mix.
Rino Coladangelo, chief executive of Medix, commented: "Overall people who have used online detailing seem to have had a positive experience and see a future for it in their company."
The most popular advantages of online detailing identified by the survey were its cost effectiveness, its consistency of message and the convenience of its use for doctors.
With doctors facing increasing pressures on their time and workload, e-detailing has been suggested as a way for interested doctors to learn about new products at a time that suits them outside surgery hours. This trend will be added to as the UK, in common with much of the western world, seeks to treat an ageing population.
Concerns about the medium's lack of effectiveness were perceived to be one the biggest issues holding back greater use of e-detailing, with respondents noting the medium's lack of the human interaction of a sales representative detailing a product to a doctor face-to-face. Whilst there are video-conferencing models that could get around this, perceptions of the medium do not yet encompass the full range of e-detailing methods available.
The survey also rated traditional pharma sales reps the most effective marketing channel available to the industry, ahead of journal advertising, sponsored seminars or conferences, mailings, giveaways and the Internet.
But online detailing was viewed as an important supplementary promotional activity, with 41% of respondents saying it provided value for money as a promotional activity.
More than half of those questioned thought e-detailing was already an important element of the marketing mix. A report last year by IBM Institute for Business Value agreed that a model where e-detailing and traditional sales representatives are both employed should be adopted. "In general, e-detailing can be used to fill in the 'gaps' where traditional detailing falls short," the consultants said in their Effective E-detailing report. "E-detailing tactics should augment, rather than replace, the face-to-face approach."
The Pharmafocus/Medix poll also suggested online detailing could also be particularly useful to products that are not currently being, or won't be, detailed by reps.
One pharma brand manager said: "Its ability to get to doctors without a sales force would allow us to inform and influence GPs about our OTC launches without having to buy in a GP sales force."
A recent international survey by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young found that doctors were increasingly making a conscious decision to give up less of their time to see the industrys sales reps.
"In the current climate, any additional routes of access to doctors are welcome," another respondent commented.
The Pharmafocus/Medix poll indicates that there are two groups of companies currently using e-detailing. Early adopters, who've used e-detailing on more than four products in the last year, have now being joined by a second wave of companies who e-detailed one product in the same period.
The further adoption of e-detailing in the UK and Europe is currently constrained by the lack of hard evidence on the medium's effectiveness. However, two of the UK's largest companies are among those understood to be working on e-detailing pilots at the moment and evidence from at least one of them is due to be released soon. Until then it looks like the industry is in favour of e-detailing, but it's going to take time before the medium is wholeheartedly embraced.
The survey was carried out online by Medix in June and polled a cross section of the industry, half of whom had commissioned or had been involved with online detailing projects.
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