E-Detailing Trends
25 Aug 2011 • by Natalie Aster
A post-marketing age is upon us. As I write this, the pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads, scrambling to compete for physicians’ online time as face-to-face detailing is increasingly deemed ineffective—at best—and an intrusion at worst.
In contrast, all forms of e-detailing are experiencing growth. Yet the same relentless rise in the use of digital technology that favours the e-detail is also changing how it offers content that builds a brand, retains customers and engages new ones.
In short, traditional one-way messaging models are becoming defunct; consumers want interactive dialogue and intelligence with tangible value. As e-detailing increasingly gains traction, one hard and fast rule has emerged: Content is king.
In E-Detailing Trends, FirstWord examines the critical role of e-detailing in the pharma marketing lexicon. Based on interviews with five industry leaders and key experts, the dossier reviews the latest e-detailing developments. These include delivering tangible intelligence to physicians’ mobile technologies, using new e-detailing environments such as physician-only online communities and the analytics needed to determine digital channel effectiveness. Concise, reliable and authoritatively researched, the report is a critical guide to a marketing industry in flux.
Report Details:
Published: March 2011
Pages: 34
Price: US$ 495.00
Are we witnessing the death of the salesman? Figures from a 2009 survey of physicians suggests that might be the case. Just 17 percent of doctors say they want traditional, linear contact from sales reps. Not surprisingly, the industry is responding, cutting sales rep numbers to an expected 75,000 by 2012, from 102,000 in 2007.
Instead of reps, 43 percent of physicians favour e-detailing. Another 23 percent would like to replace some sales calls with e-detailing. As more and more doctors migrate to physician-only websites, online sources of information and interactive formats, the use of e-detailing in marketing plans is expected to rise over the next two years.
“We have moved into a post-marketing age,” observes Alex Butler, strategic marketing manager at Janssen stressing that the web is changing how physicians want to communicate, interact and conduct business with pharma sales.
“Doctor’s don’t want messages as such,” he adds. “they want the opportunity to comment, to have dialogue, to share their thoughts.”
More information can be found in the report “E-Detailing Trends” by FirstWord.
To order the report or ask for sample pages contact [email protected]
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