The document discusses customer relationship management (CRM) strategies for pharmaceutical companies in India. It outlines challenges in the fragmented Indian pharma market and strategies to build relationships with doctors. These include identifying target doctors, differentiating them based on business generated, interacting to collect personal details, and customizing engagement. Loyalty programs must be designed carefully considering ethical issues and focus on recognition over rewards. Direct marketing, call centers, and measurement of prescription patterns are other relationship building approaches discussed. Overall success depends on internal support and field force implementation of the CRM program.

1. BuildingRelationships withDoctors forEffective
MarketinginPharmaIndustrythroughCRM

2. 2
Indian Pharma Industry-
Background
• Very fragmented market
• Market worth Rs. 140,000 million
• Healthy 10% growth rate
• 16,000 players both in organized & Unorganized
• Glaxo Wellcome -No.1 player with 5.8 % market
share
• Market share of top five companies put together
< 20%

3. 3
Branded Generics Market
• Indian Pharma market recognizes process
patents and not product patents
• As a result India is a branded generic
• 50 brands for every molecule.
• Total 30,000 brands in India
• Even smallest player meets highest quality
norms
• This typical scenario brings in a challenge of
Brand differentiation in the crowded brand
names.

4. 4
Doctor Population
• Approx. 5 lakh doctors in India registered under Indian
Medical association
• 60 – 65 % are General Practitioners (GP) with MBBS
degree
• Specialty doctors like Physicians, Gynecologists &
pediatricians constitute 35-40 %
• Pharma companies cannot meet more that 1,25,000
doctors out of the 5 lakhs
• As a result doctors are being met by atleast 60 – 100
companies

5. 5
Promotion
• In an ethical market Product promotion is directed
towards qualified doctors
• No advertising mentioning brand names is allowed in the
lay press
• Medical representatives play a major role in the
promotion process by directly meeting the doctors and
promoting their products
• Other medias like Direct mail, journal, advertising and
conferences also play a role but a limited one.

6. 6
CRM Initiative
• Keeping in mind the challenges of typical pharma
industry IDIC model by Don Peppers & Martha Rogers is
used to understand the steps to a CRM initiative
• Steps in IDIC Model
 Identification
 Differentiation
 Interaction
 Customization

7. 7
• Identification Process:
First step is to identify your target customers
 Each Medical Rep maintains a list of doctors
which is acquired by interviews with stockists,
retailers and from peers
 This list is called Must See List (MSL), Must Visit
List (MVL), Customer list etc..
 The list contains Name, address, telephone no,
specialty, qualification, visit timings etc..

8. 8
Other sources of data collection
• Membership directories of associations like Indian
Medical Association
• Individual specialty doctors association directories
• National level specialty conferences
• Doctor referrals
These lists are finally consolidated and this data can be
mined for details of specialty wise breakup, geographical
coverage etc to serve as a tool for marketing decision
making process.

9. 9
Differentiation Process
• Success of any loyalty program lies in
differentiating its key customers
• Doctors are classified using ABC method as
Core, Important and Others
• The classification is made based on the amount
of business each classified doctor group
generates to the company.
• The whole differentiation process is performed in
subjective terms of the perception of the local
MR

10. 10
Interaction Process
• During interaction process the idea is to know the doctor
intimately, his hobbies, likes, dislikes, family details etc..
• Individuality of doctor is to be maintained and decision
on how the data collected will be used is to be decided
with utmost importance
• Interaction can be at two levels
• One, the MR can personally collect most of the
information from his day to day interaction with doctors.
• Second, at corporate level by sending structured
questionnaires and seeking further details by email
communication

11. 11
Interaction Process
Information collected is then incorporated to basic
database with the following details
• Personal information - Birthdays, Anniversary, Family
• Hobbies and interests
• Professional interests – Speciality, Journals read
• Ownership details – Household durables, vehicles etc.

12. 12
Customization Process
• Customization involves utilizing the colleted data to
provided personalized service to the doctors
• Like greeting on birthday, anniversary by simple card
personally signed to a phone call to wish them
• Even gifts, bouquets can be delivered at doorstep
• Major importance lies in how to customize the interaction
with the doctor based on the data collected
• Gifts based on interest and hobbies can be presented
• The success of the whole CRM programme depends on
how well the companies can pass on the data of the
doctor to its field force and train them on how to use this
data

13. 13
Loyalty Programme
• An ideal loyalty programme would identify its key
accounts, reward them for their custom and encourage
them to increase their spend
• But in Pharma context the doctor is not the actual
consumer. Thus ethical issues are involved in awarding
reward points in return for prescriptions.
• One approach would be to set the whole programme
based on classification of doctor groups. The lowest rung
doctors would be restricted to basic activities.
• The number and level of activities would increase as the
importance of doctor grows
• A branded programme can be started for most important
doctors

14. 14
Loyalty Programme
• The objective of the programme has to be clearly defined
in the onset and the exclusivity of the programme has to
be communicated to doctors to make them understand
that they are the “Chosen One”
• The success of such programme hinges on making the
doctor covet membership to the programme. Thus
continuous monitoring is required to measure the returns
generated from the doctor
• If they fall below a predefined returns limit, then the doctor
can be downgraded and his privileges would be reduced

15. 15
Direct Marketing
• A valuable tool for effective CRM
• Brand awareness campaigns, new launch mailers and
contests all can be conducted though direct marketing
initiatives.
• An cost effective method which can reach a large
audience at cheaper costs
• Easily measurable with reply devices which can gauge the
efficacy of a campaign
• The primary rationale is to save the time of the field by
promoting low involvement products, promote brand recall
for new product etc..
• Media like telemarketing and web have also been tried
interms of direct marketing

16. 16
Call centre
The medium lends ear to 3 types of customers
• Doctors who would like to know more about the drug
profile, discuss a specific case and ask for references on
the use in a specific condition
• Patients seeking counselling, the nearest physician or
chemist shop. The telephone provides anonymity to the
called to discuss on taboo subjects.
• Retailers asking for pricing details, product availability
• Doctors would not prefer their queries being answered by
a lay person and so most medical queries have to be
escalated to a qualified physician.
• Call center is an excellent medium to come closer to
customers.

17. 17
Measurement Systems
• Any programme must have an effective measurement
system to gauge its effectiveness.
• The measurement systems would require study of
Prescription profile of doctors who are in CRM vis a
vis a control sample who are met by field force but
not exposed to CRM
Prescription give by doctors over a particular time
frame.
Amount of prescriptions before and after exposure
to CRM programme.

18. 18
Conclusion
• Any new initiative’s success depends on the success of
Internal marketing.
• The success of the whole programme hinges on the
support of the top management.
• The crucial factor is, the idea has to be sold to the lowest
level of the organization especially to the field force for
greater success of the initiative.
• The MR’s role assumes greater significance since most of
the activities are dependant on them for implementation.