Advances in pharmaceutical marketing: theoretical and empirical foundations

Citation

Mukherjee, A. (2012), "Advances in pharmaceutical marketing: theoretical and empirical foundations", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijphm.2012.32406daa.001

Advances in pharmaceutical marketing: theoretical and empirical foundations

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Volume 6, Issue 4

We end 2012 with an issue of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing that is largely focused on new and emerging trends in pharmaceutical marketing. From over-the-counter drug marketing to contract research organizations to specialty drug sales – this issue presents a medley of research that is both rigorous and relevant.

The marketing mix and the resultant marketing strategy for pharmaceutical companies have evolved significantly over recent years. It is no longer just a set of promotional tactics that a company’s salespersons used face-to-face to influence physician prescription behaviour. In today’s pharmaceutical industry, marketing can include a broad set of different kinds of promotional activities, things from very traditional tactics such as sales force promotion or sampling, to more recent advances, such as use of social media, direct-to-consumer advertising, e-health websites, mobile healthcare, co-pay cards or digital media based direct to physician promotions. No doubt, pharma marketing managers today have to stay on their toes and continually adapt and progress simply to remain relevant.

Pharmaceutical brand managers and marketing executives are constantly grappling with challenging questions, such as: What factors drive sales in prescription as well as over-the-counter drug categories? What is the role of cognitive bias in salespersons handling speciality drugs? Are we investing in the brand promotion in the best possible way? Are we mindful of the tradeoffs between various brand objectives and dimensions? Are we using the right kinds of promotions? Are they aligned with the brand strategy and driving the right kinds of physician, patient and pharmacist behaviours? Are we executing these promotions well? Are contract research organizations well aligned with pharmaceutical companies in executing optimal drug development and go-to-market strategies? What is the financial impact the brand is getting from these promotions? What is the quality of life impact from complex pharmaceutical drug applications in life threatening illnesses? And so on…

From the research perspective, pharmaceutical marketing scholars are addressing key agenda items that can significantly influence how managers approach marketing decisions. The first agenda item is market research for better information, comprehensive tracking of promotional activities, and using new data sources to measure promotional impact. The second agenda item is better analytics. Marketing tactics in the pharmaceutical industry rarely operate in a vacuum. Researchers need to adopt very sophisticated, longitudinal, multi-channel approaches to evaluating their interactions and their impact. The third agenda item for pharmaceutical market research is formulating and implementing strategy guidelines for better execution. While a new drug launch is a great start, tracking marketing strategy execution over the drug life cycle is key to sustainable competitiveness. Researchers need to think about systems and processes that allow for pharmaceutical companies to uniquely promote and market their products at the individual customer level.

This last issue of 2012 addresses some of these burning research questions, while others remain to be addressed in future issues in the journal.

The first article of this issue, focused on marketing analytics in pharmaceutical industry, is titled “Which factors drive product sales in OTC markets?” and authored by Monika Huber, Katrin Dippold, and Rudolf Forsthofer. The purpose of this paper is to determine salient sales drivers for different OTC product categories. The study uses data from both consumer and retail panels, which are gathered for various product categories. The authors analyse the long-term data per product category with two specific regression models, namely time-series analysis with VAR models and Shapley value regression. The study results show that purchase intention drives sales a lot in general. Besides, it is very important to distinguish seasonal versus non-seasonal markets. The trend coefficient, which implies the stage of maturity of the market, indicates more or less saturated markets for the examples of the study. The proposed models can be easily applied to different OTC categories without a lot of customisation. Although the research does not take into account different outlets (e.g. online, supermarkets) or estimate interaction effects between the individual drivers, it provides the market researcher with an invaluable guideline on how to proceed to model OTC product categories, e.g. which data are to be used, which models are to be estimated, etc. Furthermore, the study develops an analytical approach, which is readily applicable to different OTC product categories that exhibit very distinct market characteristics. Hence, the strength of this study’s approach is that it applies a standardized tool kit of methods to analyse highly varying markets.

The second article – a research paper by Sachin Wasuja, Mahim Sagar, and Sushil, titled “Cognitive bias in salespersons in specialty drug selling of pharmaceutical industry” – addresses latest trends in salesperson effectiveness using a novel analysis procedure. Specialty drug development is capital-intensive and represents a new era for the entire health ecosystem. This “newness” has resulted in below-par sales performance of these drugs. This article explores the intricate relationship of product (or company), salespersons, doctors and consumers (patients) in the given scenario. The study makes use of the Grounded Theory and Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM). Grounded Theory is used to explore various factors of cognitive bias in selling Specialty Drugs. The authors use TISM to create hierarchy amongst the factors and interpret the relationships amongst the factors. The study proposes a cognitive bias amplification model explaining the phenomenon of cognitive bias in specialty pharmaceutical selling. As a result, the findings of the study suffice the significant research gap and attempt to address the issues in selling specialty drugs. The authors conclude that the cognitive bias amplification model is helpful in providing the starting point for sales-centric organizations to overcome the cognitive bias affecting salespersons.

The third article by Maysoun Dimachkie Masri, Bernardo Ramirez, Cristina Popescu, and Ed Michael Reggie is “Contract research organizations: an industry analysis”. Contract research organizations (CROs) are service organizations that provide research and support services to pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and health companies. Factors such as greater scrutiny by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), complicated logistics, and requirements for more data have contributed to an increase in professional research sites. Pharmaceutical companies began outsourcing research activities to increase their profit margins and better position themselves in the rapidly-changing healthcare environment. In recent years, an increasing number of clinical trials have shifted from academic medical centres and community-based practices, to global sites in different countries. In this article, the authors explore the evolution of the CRO industry in the US and worldwide, and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the globalization of CROs. The authors use the organizational ecology framework to analyse the CROs’ emergence, growth, and evolution, to date.

An important question for researchers in pharmaceutical marketing and management is what and how much do we really know from extant research in this area. The next article does exactly that. This is a literature review from Sushmita A. Narayana, Rupesh Kumar Pati and Prem Vrat with the title “Research on management issues in the pharmaceutical industry: a literature review.” The paper presents the state-of-the-art in published literature to assess the progress of research on managerial issues in the pharmaceutical industry globally. Literature from peer-reviewed journals available in online databases were collected by the authors for the last decade, using keyword search technique, and then classified according to major managerial issues, research methodologies and geographical zones. The authors find that behavioural issues at the consumer/physician level and non-behavioural issues in pricing and medical expenses have been studied the most, followed by supply chain management, research and development and manufacturing and services operations management. The authors contend that there is scope for conjunction of research efforts across themes and players. Most of the studies focus on the developed nations through the application of field research and mathematical modelling techniques. The studies in the American region focus more on development and marketing while studies in Europe are aligned towards manufacturing and distribution in the industry. Studies in the developing nation contexts are mostly exploratory in nature and require more focus on issues of research and development and marketing in addition to a substantial increase in overall research efforts. More trans-continental studies are needed to consolidate research efforts globally. Identification of the present and emerging issues together provides practitioners in healthcare systems with an idea of available techniques and strategies to solve problems in healthcare/pharmaceutical management. This paper is an important addition to the literature since such a detailed study on research of management issues in the pharmaceutical industry across the world has not been published earlier.

The last article in this issue is a research paper by Sinem Somunolu and Mehtap Tatar, titled “A study on the identification of factors affecting the life quality of breast cancer patients”. Breast cancer is a common type of cancer affecting the health of women in many countries. The study by Somunoglu and Tatar determines the effect of breast cancer and its treatment procedures on the quality of life. The study was carried out in Hacettepe University Oncology Hospital (Ankara, Turkey). The authors used the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire and Breast Cancer Module for the purpose of this study. The patient sample had 29.8 per cent of the patients in phase 4 of the disease; 86.8 per cent already had an operation; and 84.1 per cent had chemotherapy. There were statistically significant differences between the levels of quality of life for several variables, such as pain, body image, sexual function, arm symptoms, etc. In the light of these findings, physicians can attempt to improve quality of life by addressing some of the key drivers in their treatment regimen.

As the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing moves into its seventh year of publication, call for papers on special issues have been announced on contemporary topics of research importance such as direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs and medical tourism.

Each year many reviewers contribute their expertise to peer review, a process that contributes critically to the quality of the journal. The editors and authors of IJPHM are grateful for the help of all our reviewers. Here we acknowledge, with special thanks, selected IJPHM reviewers who have reviewed papers for the journal during 2007-2012:

• •

  Jayesh P. Aagja, Nirma University, India.

• •

  Fadi M. Alkhateeb, University of Charleston School of Pharmacy, USA.

• •

  Syed Saad Andaleeb, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, USA.

• •

  Bander A. Al Aqeel, University of Scranton, USA.

• •

  Nicholas Ashill, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

• •

  Muhammad Usman Awan, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

• •

  Subir Bandyopadhyay, Indiana University Northwest, USA.

• •

  Rian Beise-Zee, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

• •

  JP Benya, Columbia University, USA.

• •

  Nilesh Bhutada, California Northstate College of Pharmacy, USA.

• •

  Norman V. Carroll, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

• •

  Janet Carruthers, Victoria University, New Zealand.

• •

  Franklin Carter, Penn State University, USA.

• •

  Ella Cartier, Howard University, USA.

• •

  Erin Cavusgil, University of Michigan, USA.

• •

  Ashish Chandra, University of Houston – Clear Lake, USA.

• •

  Patrali Chatterjee, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Junsong Chen, China Europe International Business School, China.

• •

  Andrew Ching, University of Toronto, Canada.

• •

  Christopher Clark, Macquarie University, Australia.

• •

  Gerry Cleaves, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA.

• •

  Alberto Coustasse, Marshall University, USA.

• •

  Marlon Dalmoro, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

• •

  Denise E. DeLorme, University of Central Florida, USA.

• •

  Asoke Dey, The University of Akron, USA.

• •

  Roger Durand, University of Houston - Clear Lake, USA.

• •

  Ike Ekeledo, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Christine Ennew, Nottingham University, UK.

• •

  Burcu Toker Ersöz, Girne American University, North Cyprus.

• •

  Neil Foshay, St Francis Xavier University, Canada.

• •

  Marianna Fotaki, Manchester Business School, UK.

• •

  Scott Friend, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

• •

  Daniel Friesner, North Dakota State University, USA.

• •

  Liz Gill, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

• •

  Ronald Goldsmith, Florida State University, USA.

• •

  Margaret J. Greene, Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA.

• •

  Stephen J. Gould, Baruch College, CUNY, USA.

• •

  Deborah Gritzmacher, Clayton State University, USA.

• •

  Muhiuddin Haider, University of Maryland, USA.

• •

  John Hamilton, James Cook University, Australia.

• •

  Mahmud Hassan, Rutgers University, USA.

• •

  Angela Hausman, Xavier University, USA.

• •

  Peter Hilsenrath, University of the Pacific, USA.

• •

  Anurag Hingorani, UTS, Sydney, Australia.

• •

  Gillian Hogg, Strathclyde Business School, UK.

• •

  David Holdford, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.

• •

  Sharan Jagpal, Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, USA.

• •

  Abhinandan Jain, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

• •

  Anand Jaiswal, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

• •

  Thani Jambulingam, St. Joseph’s University, USA.

• •

  C. Jayachandran, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Per Jenster, China Europe International Business School, China.

• •

  Jill Jesson, Aston Business School, UK.

• •

  Joby John, Bentley College, USA.

• •

  G. K. Kalyanaram, GK Associates, New York, USA.

• •

  Gregory Katz-Benichou, ESSEC, France.

• •

  Mark J. Kay, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Hyojin Kim, University of Florida, USA.

• •

  Dennis Kopf, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, USA.

• •

  Archana Kumar, Montclair State University.

• •

  Yun Jung Lee, Aldelphi University, USA.

• •

  Yam Limbu, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Joerg Lindenmeier, University of Freiburg, Germany.

• •

  Sooyeon Nikki Lee- Wingate, Fairfield University, USA.

• •

  Alisson Eduardo Maehler, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

• •

  Mary K Madsen, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, USA.

• •

  Neeru Malhotra, Aston Business School, UK.

• •

  Kimball P. Marshall, Alcorn State University, USA.

• •

  John McGinnis, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Yahia Zare Mehrjerdi, Yazd University, Iran.

• •

  Ram Misra, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Santanu Mitra, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Mariko Morimoto, Emerson College, USA.

• •

  Hiroshi Nakamura, Keio Business School, Japan.

• •

  Vivek Natarajan, Lamar University, USA.

• •

  Prithwiraj Nath, University of East Anglia, UK.

• •

  Anthony Ndiege, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Jack Newhouse, Saint Joseph’s University, USA.

• •

  Prathap Oburai, IIM Ahmedabad, India.

• •

  Ahmet “Ozzie” Ozturk, Marshall Univ. School of Medicine, USA.

• •

  David P. Paul III, Monmouth University, USA.

• •

  Mary Beth Pinto, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

• •

  Manuel Pontes, Rowan University, USA.

• •

  Luis San Vicente Portes, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  C.V. Priporas, University Macedonia, Greece.

• •

  Samuel Rabino, Northeastern University, USA.

• •

  P.S. Raju, University of Louisville, USA.

• •

  P.M. Rao, Long Island University, USA.

• •

  Bill Roach, Washburn University, USA.

• •

  Michel Rod, Carleton University, Canada.

• •

  R.Rohini, Institute of Clinical Research, India.

• •

  Warren Salmon, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.

• •

  Nilgun Sarp, Ankara University, Turkey.

• •

  Paul Scipione, State University of New York, Geneseo, USA.

• •

  Dennis J. Scotti, Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA.

• •

  Kabir C. Sen, Lamar University, USA.

• •

  G. Shainesh, IIM Bangalore, India.

• •

  Mansour Sharifzadeh, Cal Poly Pomona, USA.

• •

  George P. Sillup, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, USA.

• •

  Julie Z. Sneath, University of South Alabama, USA.

• •

  Daniel Simonet, American University of Sharjah, UAE.

• •

  Ramendra Singh, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India.

• •

  Hermann Sintim, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Eugene Sivadas, University of Washington, Tacoma, USA.

• •

  Mickey Skiba, Monmouth University, USA.

• •

  Deborah Spake, University of South Alabama, USA.

• •

  Leigh Sparks, University of Stirling, UK.

• •

  Han Srinivasan, University of Connecticut, USA.

• •

  George Stone, North Carolina A&T State University, USA.

• •

  Michael Stros, Aston University, UK.

• •

  Bill Stroube, University of Evansville, USA.

• •

  Elnora Stuart, University of South Carolina Upstate, USA.

• •

  Dilaver Tengilimoglu, Gazi University, Turkey.

• •

  Norman Tessell, Norman Tessell and Associates, LLC, Pennsylvania, USA.

• •

  Omer Topaloglu, Texas Tech University, USA.

• •

  Bill Trombetta, Saint Joseph’s University, USA.

• •

  Demetrios Vakratsa, McGill University, Canada.

• •

  Alex Wang, University of Connecticut-Stamford, USA.

• •

  Yawei Wang, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Hong Wei He, University of East Anglia, UK.

• •

  Daniel West, University of Scranton, USA.

• •

  Sue Weston, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Jennifer A Whitty, Griffith University, Australia.

• •

  Ying Xie, Washington University in St Louis, USA.

• •

  Venkata Yanamandram, University of Wollongong, Australia.

• •

  Yanli Zhang, Montclair State University, USA.

• •

  Judy Zolkiewski, Manchester Business School, UK.

• •

  Nashat Zuraikat, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA.

As always, we are interested in hearing about your research and learning how your ideas can foster innovative thinking. Have you recently delved deeper into a problem or best practice in pharma or healthcare? Tell us about them.Editor

Avinandan Mukherjee