The document discusses marketing strategies in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on product detailing. It notes that personal selling through physician visits by medical representatives is the most important marketing technique due to restrictions on direct-to-consumer drug advertising. Effective product detailing involves building relationships with physicians to provide complete product information. However, traditional detailing faces challenges due to time constraints and increased competition. The document then explores alternatives like using themes in detailing and e-detailing, as well as the use of social media platforms by pharmaceutical companies and physicians.

1. PRODUCT DETAILING
IN THE PHARMA
INDUSTRY
SUREKHA ROY
ISB&M

2. Pharmaceutical marketing
• Pharmaceutical marketing , sometimes
called medico-marketing, is the business
of advertising or otherwise promoting the
sale of pharmaceuticals or drugs.
• Marketing is critical to the success of drug
development .
• Promotion of pharmaceutical products can
traditionally be done with four techniques
viz, personal selling, advertising, sales
promotion and publicity

3. Advertising of prescription drugs is restricted in India according to
Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954
and can be used only to promote OTC (Over The Counter) drugs that
are used for minor ailments and not for prescription drugs.
Promotion efforts in pharmaceutical industry are typical, as it is not
directed to the end user but the influencer – the physician
Advertising, publicity and sales promotion is used secondary to
support the main technique, personal selling
To register a brand in customers’ minds amidst all the clutter recourse
adopted by the pharmaceutical companies is personal selling, the most
essential and vital aspect of pharmaceutical marketing as the target
audience and customers are different, who are not the end users but
merely influencers.
Product detailing has been the most important way for pharmaceutical
companies to communicate drug information to physicians.

4. Product detailing
• Detailing in pharmaceutical companies is a set of process that
build and establish relationship with physicians and other
member of the value chain for delivering drug to the consumer.
• Detailing is the only way in which the medical representatives reach
their consumer base and inform them about their company products
via the influencer i.e the physician.
• Detailing bridges the gap between a pharma company's
communication restrictions and a physician's need for complete
product information.
• Detailing is performed via doctors office visit, seminars and
conferences.
• Detailing delivers by far the biggest return on marketing
investments for pharmaceutical companies,

5. Challenges in traditional
detailing
• Pharmaceutical companies are finding that
although the cost of detailing products to
physicians is rising, tangible results are not.
• Traditional methods of detailing are no longer as
effective as they once were.
• The competition for doctors' time is intense.
• Pharmaceutical companies face mounting
competition where physicians have less time to
spend with sales representatives. The time
allowable for pharmaceutical detailing has thus
been reduced dramatically.
• Detailing physicians today is perhaps more
challenging than at any point in history. The
number of representatives detailing products often
exceeds the number of physician specialists
several times over and is increasing.

6. Loopholes in traditional detailing
process
Common mistakes made by representatives include:
• Direct confrontation on prescription-writing habits.
• Addressing clinical research data as if they are the experts.
• Asking for blanket prescriptions (unrelated to patient care).
• Forgetting about the patient in the sales engagement.
• Failing to understand the physician's schedule when pursuing
time with him or her.
• Poor understanding of the intricacies of managing the broad
spectrum of the disease
• sales representatives fail to understand that the transaction is
not between the representative and the physician, but between
the physician and the patient

7. Alternatives to conventional
detailing:
Promoting brand with theme or story
• The idea of a product or brand has to be based on some “theme”
or “story” associated with brand as it becomes easy for the physician
to relate brand with a particular theme or story
• Detailing theme can be modified according to the specialty of doctor,
time available in doctor’s chamber, rapport with doctor.
• Detailing theme helps to tailor the detailing of product according to
the needs of the customer i.e. doctors
• Detailing theme should be based on broad objectives; the pictorial
depiction in detailing chart should be in synchronization with the
message to be conveyed to the doctor.
• Easy for medical representative to remember the theme of detailing
rather than entire detailing story

8. Advantages of detailing theme:
• Avoids repetitive and monotonous detailing
• Attracts doctors’ attention
• Can leads to discussion with MR and thereby
arousing interest about the product
• Helps to register “brand” of the company easily as it
is linked with a theme
• Medical Representative would enjoy “learning”
during training period in the company
• Helps MRs to develop good rapport with doctors
easily

9. Technology-Based Solutions
E-detailing - selling to physicians anytime anywhere
• To revolutionize this aspect of detailing has come into picture e-
detailing.
• e marketing and e detailing are some of the strong points that
technology offers to pharmaceutical companies.
• e-detailing is the digital equivalent of a medical representative’s
visit, using Internet-enabled technology in the product detailing
process.
• E-detailing solutions vary in interactivity from those that provide
static product information online to those that require doctors to
go through interactive product materials online to those which
involves the doctors in a ’face-to-face’ video detail via the
computer.

10. Why e-detailing????
• E-Detailing can strengthen the pharmaceutical-
physician relationship by offering physicians an
opportunity to improve how they work, cut costs and
increase revenues for pharmaceutical companies
• Lack of time for health care professionals
• For physicians to be better equipped to serve more
patients.
• Patients today are educated and well aware.
• The ubiquitous nature of internet, in theory, provides
access anytime, anyplace and anywhere.
• e-detailing products, use Web-based, self-service
concepts to provide a low-cost option for detailing to
the pharmaceutical companies.
• Allows physicians to pull information as they need it
rather than information being pushed onto them by
the sales reps.

11. Effective e-detailing
e-Detailing results require companies to build trust not
just doling out data when and where needed, but helping
provide doctors with better care with access to valuable,
trusted drug information
• Build in trust- . Doctors want unbiased, up-to-the-
minute information that they can use to make informed
decisions and serve patients, not the typical rhetoric
found in corporate sales materials.
• Understand the needs of physician segments-
Understanding each segment's needs and preferences is
key to determining the right e-detailing approach and
offering the information and services that a particular
segment values most
• Apply e-detailing tactics strategically- Applying e-
detailing along with traditional detailing gives both
physicians and pharmaceutical companies options to
improve their efficiency and effectiveness

12. •No e-detailing plan or initiative will be truly successful unless it is fully
integrated into your company's customer relationship management
(CRM) strategy and execution.
• E-detailing tactics should share physician information that is
integrated across all corporate channels. Integrating sales activities
and the information gathered, both electronically and in the field, into
your company's marketing systems will go a long way toward
strengthening the physician relationship, as well as helping improve
the way doctors work.
• And the better doctors -- the gatekeepers to increased prescriptions
and market share -- perform, the greater the opportunity for your
company to profit.
In a nutshell…..

13. Pharma Marketing Meets
Social Media
Pharma Marketing Meets Social Media
• Twitter Accounts (excluding personal
pharma people)
• Face book Sites
• YouTube Sites
• Brand‐Sponsored Patient Communities
• Blogs

14. Twitter Accounts
AF Stat (sanofi‐aventis)
JNJComm (J&J’s Marc Monseau)
Race with Insulin (Novo Nordisk)
Roche
Xpresskindness (Allergan)
Most pharma Twitter accounts are
focused on company news.
Recently, however, non-branded
campaigns focused on disease
awareness or cause marketing have
been launched.
Best Brand‐Sponsored
Patient Communities
Accu‐Check Diabetes Link (Roche)
Children with Diabetes (J&J
Lifescan)
Diabetes Handprint (J&J Lifescan)
Crohn’s and Me (UCB)
Voices of Diabetes (Novo Nordisk)
Pharma YouTube
Channels
Goinsulin (sanofi‐aventis)
Johnson & Johnson Health
Channel
Pfizer Europe
Pfizer UK (the rat video!)
Pharma Blogs
More Than Medicine (GSK)
JNJBTW (J&J)
Think Science Now (Pfizer)
AZ Health Connections
There are very few pharma blogs. A
couple of disease or product related
blogs have gone defunct after the person
responsible has left
the company (e.g., Centocor 411, alli
blog). Those that are left mainly
focus on corporate news and views

16. Issues using social
media
• Accountability
• Fulfilling Regulatory Requirements
• Posting Corrective Information
• Links
• Adverse Event Reporting

17. Trends in physician using
social media
• Rise Of Physician-only Social Networking - There
are a number of sites such as Sermo, Ozmosis and
Social MD that offer physicians the chance to connect
with others in their profession for knowledge sharing,
networking and support.
• Increasing Utility Of Pharma Customer Service
Portals - Most large Pharma brands have their own
specific physician customer service portals (Merck
Services, Pfizer Pro, and Novo Medlink) where docs
can do everything from downloading samples or
patient education information to conducting live video
conferencing with company representatives.
• Blogging Physicians Humanizing The Industry.
There are an emerging group of top physician blogs
such as KevinMD which are offering the physician’s
perspective on issues related to healthcare, but
generally in a tone and language that is more
approachable by non-medical people.

18. The companies realize their
traditional websites and advertising strategies are no
longer sufficient tools to promote products in a
competitive marketplace in which doctors,
pharmacists and consumers aggressively trade
information about medicine on blogs. The companies
are also aware that 'if they can't fully participate in
the social-media conversation, they get marginalized.
CONCLUSION….