The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Ob.docx
Pharmaceutical Representative
1. T
he healthcare industry faces constant, esca-
lating changes—including policy reform, ev-
er-tightening budgets, and shrinking sales
forces—prompting pharmaceutical marketers
to approach their businesses in new ways to maximize
results.
One-size-fits-all marketing is no longer viable.
Marketers must look deeper into data to understand
the factors driving results regionally—from market to
market. From there, they will need to deploy differ-
ent tactics to address different market drivers. This
leads to the question: what exactly is regional mar-
keting? Regional marketing is a strategy for driving
market share based on the needs of the targeted audi-
ence. Regional marketing leads to a targeted alloca-
tion of resources to the right markets for the greatest
return on investment. It is an important part of the
marketing mix and can help brands optimize their
spending to achieve the best returns.
Two Markets... Same Product...
Polar Opposites
While data analysis and segmentation approaches are
prevalent when preparing national marketing plans, the exer-
cise is seldom performed at the regional or district level. Na-
tional averages often mask the true variations that exist on a
region-by-region, district-by-district basis—and the causes of
the variation go undetected. By analyzing data from each
market it becomes apparent that there are many drivers im-
pacting results beyond just the performance of the reps.
To develop an effective plan, brand marketers must first un-
derstand market variations and the key drivers behind these
variations. Even though formulary continues to be a key pre-
dictor of market share in many geographies, other market
drivers can have a significant impact on brand performance
at the market level.
Not all territories are alike,
okay? The faster companies
develop regional approaches to
sales, the quicker they’ll be able
to react to changing conditions
By Jeff Spanbauer
GETTYIMAGES/TODDDAVIDSON
BUILDINGABETTERSALESFORCE
MARCH 2011
Vol. 41 | No. 3 WWW.PHARMREP.COM