MARKET ANALYSIS

Networked Healthcare – Integration through sustainable value creation

In the final part of a series on Networked Healthcare, Andrea Sobrio and Martina Keller explore the implications of the complex web of influence patterns and decision drivers that characterise today's health sector. For pharmaceutical companies, the challenge is to become a seamless part of the healthcare network and to demonstrate real value. The authors provide concrete examples of how pharmaceutical companies can indeed build sustainable, value-laden relationships as integral partners in healthcare.

Marketing Masterclass — Sales force effectiveness: Is the pharmaceutical industry going in the right direction?

Aleksandar Ruzicic and Stephan Danner explore the transition from a pure focus on the quantity of sales representatives to quality and innovation in sales force effectiveness. Using data from a recent survey, the authors highlight some major trends, including the growing importance of the insurers and other parties, that pay for healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The route from identifying a sales force effectiveness strategy to its implementation for competitive advantage.

Marketing Metrics — Innovation in field force bonuses: Enhancing motivation through a structured process-based approach

Financial motivation of the sales, while generally looked upon as a fairly simple strategy requires, according to Roger Turner, Christophe Lasserre and Pascal Beauchet, careful management if it is to attain its required goal. Innovative new processes can help overcome typical bonus scheme design weaknesses and provide management with a toolset for driving result-enhancing behaviours. It is possible to align sales force financial aspirations and company goals, but this is not simply a matter of the promise of a big bonus.

Marketing Innovation — Pharmaceutical packaging: Technology and design requirements are on the rise

Pharmaceutical packaging is not merely a matter of a brightly coloured box, according to Jürgen Munzel who reviews current requirements and highlights the challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry and packaging manufacturers. Packaging has to take into account the legal, social and financial context of current therapeutics and also put sophisticated technological solutions safely into the hands of consumers. The author provides valuable insight into gaining competitive advantage through packaging, while complying with cost-containment and marketing guidelines.

Marketing Strategy — Are consumers really influenced by brands when purchasing pharmaceutical products?

The relevance of the body of consumer brand research for pharmaceutical marketing is explored by Zahra Ladha. The author looks at consumers' perceptions of branded versus generic drugs and the implications for pharmaceutical branding are discussed. Consumer decisions related to pharmaceuticals are complex as the aspiration-related aspects that are key in consumer products are invariably superseded by the anxiety associated with an illness and the desire to get well.

PAPERS

Patient acceptance of a tablet reminder device

Arne Christensen, Lona Louring Christrup, Paul Erik Fabricius and Ebba Holme Hansen describe patient attitudes towards and acceptance of a tablet reminder device. In a large-scale internet-based survey, the vast majority of users were extremely positive about this technology, and this study highlights the importance of design and functionality to promote the acceptance of biomedical innovation among health consumers.

Clustering medical journal readership among GPs: Implications for media planning

The days of shotgun media selection in medical marketing are over according to Stephen Tagg, Sameer Deshpande and B. Zafer Erdogan. Media selection is increasingly being driven by a tight segmentation of the media consumption habits of the target audience. The authors describe the medical journal readership of over 400 general practitioners (GPs) and identify four distinct groups of medical journal readers.

PERSPECTIVES

Medical malpractice reform: A societal crisis or fear marketing?

Phil Rutsohn and Andrew Sikula analyse the current malpractice environment and highlight the strong role of advocacy and marketing in the strategy of the main protagonists. The authors argue that the evidence suggests that malpractice reform will produce desired results if the goal is to reduce the physician's cost of doing business and/or enhance the profit margin of insurance companies. Unfortunately, the diametrically opposed positions in the malpractice reform debate make it difficult for a dispassionate, economically just compromise to be found.

ResearchWatch

Brian Smith discusses recent research on the convergence between different industries and its impact on innovation, the diffusion of biomedical innovation, strategies for preserving market exclusivity, professional training for products managers in pharmaceuticals and strategic alliances in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Recruitment Perspectives — Tomorrow's supply chain leader

Historically, the supply chain has been regarded as the insignificant part in the middle of the pharmaceutical value chain. Cost-containment, new alliances and players in health products and services, counterfeiting and a range of other factors have recently brought the supply chain to the fore. Pauline Lafferty and Claire Lawson highlight the need for talent in pharmaceutical supply chain management. Supply chain managers, skilled in collaboration, communication and operating in a rapidly changing environment, are in short supply in the pharmaceutical industry.