Survey: ‘Consultants prefer mailshots’
pharmafile | June 28, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Onyx, digital, mailshots
Pharma should use standard marketing activities such as mailshots if they want to promote their products effectively in UK secondary care.
That is the verdict of a new survey which suggests consultants have not been swept along by the digital revolution in quite the way that pharma marketers might wish.
Marketing communications firm Onyx Health and database provider SpecialistInfo who carried out the research, said in a statement: “Traditional marketing activities still have the greatest impact when it comes to product promotion.”
It seems that in areas such as learning about a new product or finding out more about an existing one, secondary care physicians prefer direct mail, congress symposia, medical press articles and sales reps visits to digital approaches.
However, online activity has not passed them by completely, with more than 50% of respondents saying they used search engines such as Google to access product information with another 18.5% using the BNF online.
Many are also happy to visit disease sites and pharma companies’ own websites – in fact, the survey found, as many doctors are willing to go to a company website as to online medical journals to find product information.
The most popular online resource would be a “disease-specific site that included updates about the latest data, NHS-specific policies and information about products from numerous pharmaceutical companies”, the companies said.
“What is interesting is that a straightforward letter from a pharmaceutical company may have more impact than an e-detail,” explains Hugh Whiteside, chief executive of Specialist Info.
“But once a doctor has heard about a product via a letter or direct mail they receive through the post, they will go online searching for more information about it, with many consultants stating they are using mobile technology for work and educational purposes,” Whiteside adds.
The research, which was carried out between last November and January this year, took in consultants who were deemed more likely to interact with pharma, and who were involved in a cross-section of therapy areas including diabetes, cardiology, respiratory, oncology, neurology, care of the elderly, pain, rheumatology, anaesthesia and psychiatric care.
It found that there was “no real difference in responses to the questions with regards to age”, suggesting that younger doctors are no more likely to be online than their older colleagues.
There were 531 respondents, 80% of whom were male, 40% aged 45-54 years old, 28% 55-64 and 27% 34-44.
Karen Winterhalter from Onyx concluded: “Pharmaceutical companies really need to focus on building their own online presence for their products rather than relying on other medical providers to share their information, which is clearly not resonating with customers.”
Adam Hill
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