Abstract:

It is not the purpose of this paper to suggest modifications in the existing structure of decisions. Without discussing at this point the role of marketing statistics in a pharmaceutical company we propose suggesting a method of exploiting such statistics as intensively as possible in order to prepare for the major decisions. The very concrete results that we have already obtained appear to ensure that they will be used exhaustively in various forms by companies having different organizations. The basic concept of the method consists in merging together all of a company's data available on a sample of panel doctors. The data covers, first the drug and quantities prescribed by the panel, next the dates of the marketing actions performed on those doctors as recorded in the company's files. By comparing the actions performed on each individual doctor with the results obtained, one gets a measure of the relative effectiveness of past actions, which in turn gives indications on the most profitable actions to be performed during the next phase.