Vividence studies reveal that exposure to effective pharmaceutical websites increases consumers' likelihood to request specific prescription drugs from their physicians. In December 2001 the research team conducted an independent study of five leading pharmaceutical corporations, examining both brand-name drug sites and general medical websites. Five hundred online consumers were sent to interact with these sites and their behavior, comments, and responses to follow-up questions were tracked. The study revealed which messages and features are most likely to improve the customer experience - and in turn make a real impact on prescription drug sales. Areas were also detected in which consumers are often disappointed or frustrated by pharmaceutical websites, which represents an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to improve these sites to ensure that they successfully communicate the benefits of the drugs they represent.
This paper describes how to segment a patient market for pharmaceutical products 'through the eyes of physicians.' Using an innovative card sorting technique, physicians can rate emotional, clinical and lifestyle-related needs of a group of real patients. Physicians are often in a better position to judge patient needs - especially in complex disease states that are little understood by patients - than are patients themselves. Specific answers to challenging segmentation questions, such as global sampling issues, balancing need scores, and data quality will also be addressed.
The authors argue that the need to segment markets in the healthcare business has never been greater. In their constant struggle to find new, more powerful sales and marketing techniques, pharmaceutical marketers have seriously turned their attention to one to the most tried-and-true marketing approaches: segmentation marketing. This paper outlines the challenges and some of the best practices involved with segmentation marketing in the hope that these frameworks and procedures will gain wider acceptance in the pharmaceutical marketing community, and help improve the quality of targeting work conducted industry-wide.
This paper will review the segmentation, classification and targeting of doctors within the context of overall promotional activity in the Middle East. Using Saudi Arabia as a specific example, it will discuss current methods and examine their effectiveness in terms of reach and impact.The paper will discuss the problems faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers and go on to suggest ways in which targeting can be improved.
Although the use of market segmentation analysis is standard research practice in the United States and Europe, many researchers experience difficulty when applying the same methodology to research in other cultures. Market segmentation can be implemented anywhere in the world. The ability to segment a market is not dependent on the geographic region but on the researcher's ability to use the various bases and methods at his/her disposal. In any market segmentation study, two issues need to be addressed: the method of segmentation and the base for segmentation. While there are several bases of segmentation, there are only two methods to form segments: either a priori or post hoc. A typical segmentation study includes an analysis of a priori segments, post hoc segments, and a market forecast of each target segment. Post hoc segmentation analysis offers one of the most effective means of determining target segments in any country, and is applicable beyond cultural boundaries. With a well-designed questionnaire, the process of implementing post hoc segmentation is no more challenging or expensive than any other form of primary research, but will yield far richer and more usable data.
In a market of China's size and growth, segmentation is not only essential to the healthcare industry for understanding and strategy planning, but allows monitoring and measurement of the significant cultural and economic changes that are occurring in China and how they impact on the healthcare of different population segments. This paper provides the results from primary and desk research and identifies the implications for the industry in planning meaningful research.
This paper describes an approach that allows us to take the findings of a large scale health survey of more than 3,000 Canadians and analyse these findings so as to assess Canadians' reactions not just to specific reform measures but also to broad themes of reform, thereby providing a bigger picture of the overall direction in which health care reform might be taken over the next few years in Canada.
This paper addresses the need for an in-depth understanding of medical practitioners and the different profiles that can be detected among them. We will also see how we can get in touch with the deeper motivations that are the real drives behind behavior. The benefits this approach offers in developing a marketing strategy that deals with the complexity of pharmaceutical marketing are reviewed. In conclusion, a case of doctors treating sleeping disorders is provided. It will show that the personal sleeping experience of the doctor profoundly influences the way in which he deals with his patients' insomnia.
This paper shows how the medical marketer can understand the current market and jumpstart creativity through a deconstruction exercise, followed by conjoint measurement that identifies strengths and weaknesses of the deconstructed elements. Respondents evaluated short concepts created by systematically varying subsets of text and visual elements dealing with arthritis. Text elements were created by deconstructing messages appearing in current web sites. Visual elements were taken from appropriate stock photographs. Four concept response segments emerged: Segment 1 (Interested but unresponsive to communications), Segment 2 (Seeking a healthy life), Segment 3 (Seeking a social and support network), and Segment 4 (Seeking to treat an actual condition).
When referring to segmentation most experienced researchers think of factor and cluster analysis. In conducting ad-hoc factor or cluster analysis a great deal of subjectivity (and creativity) flows into the 'equation' in terms of selecting the 'best' factors and cluster solutions for doctors or patient data. Hence the title of this paper 'Is this art or science?' The same question can be asked in a more concrete way: Is this (segmentation) subjective or objective? Like most things in life the answer is not black or white. There is a large grey area and most definitely our answer will be found there. No surprise here. You do not have to wait until you reach the end of this presentation to know the answer to the question: it is indeed a combination of art and science or a combination of subjectivity and objectivity. However the real issue here is how subjectivity can influence segmentation and by extension the marketing plan which in its turn affects the growth or success of the brand.
This paper demonstrates how accounting for respondent heterogeneity can improve marketing effectiveness in the healthcare sector. Three specific techniques, Latent Class Analysis, Hierarchical Bayesian Regression, and Decision Trees, are presented. Each is illustrated with empirical results of their application for customer retention, product development, and customer target acquisition.
Throughout the world health care systems are stressed, and have developed different approaches and answers to solve the problems. This paper describes the upcoming trends and solutions in the healthcare system and which experts expect for the sixth Kondratieff economic cycle. Nine mega-trends were identified, similar in the United States and Germany even though the health care systems are different. The results are based on secondary analysis and in-depth face-to-face interviews with 125 experts and opinion leaders in the United States and Germany.