Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Pharma Marketing
The Pharma Marketing blog had an interesting piece the other day on "Rejiggering the Marketing Mix a la Merck."
Pharmaceutical companies currently spend a disproportionate amount of their promotional budgets on face-to-face visits with physicians ($11.2 billion, not including the cost of samples). Supposedly, Merck has begun to recognize that this model needs to change. Adam Schecter, the president of Merck US Human Health, is quoted as saying, "Industry must embrace new ways of engaging physicians on their own terms." What did he mean by that?
A Merck spokeperson explained, "Our new model calls for an increased use of technology . . ., and it is much more customer-focused." Merck seems to have noticed that physicians, who are not unlike other consumers, are changing their media habits and spending more and more time online. The Pharma Marketing blogger suggests -- and I agree with him -- that in order to engage physicians effectively "on their own terms," Merck and others will need to use Web 2.0 social networking tools.