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| March 2007 | ||||||
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  Client/Agency
Relationships: An Era of Far More Formality, Yet Less Partnering In this month’s published document for The Orange Pages (please reference the close of this article if you are not familiar with this resource), we examine the evolution of the relationship between pharmaceutical company marketing researchers and the pharmaceutical marketing research agencies that service them. As we take a brief look at how pharmaceutical companies have tried to “gain better control” of their vendors, based on the advice of consulting companies seeking to help restructure their processes, we make observations on the resulting impact of these initiatives upon the relationship between clients and their marketing research agencies. More specifically, with the advent of the Three-Bid System several years ago, followed more recently by Master Service and Preferred Provider Agreements, we have entered into an era in which such relationships are far more formal, yet far less partnered, than in previous times. There are several reasons for this state of affairs, several considerations in dealing with it and several perspectives that, if brought into consideration, could go a long way toward improving what arguably is a less than optimal set of circumstances. This article examines the good and the bad in the evolution of the relationship between clients and the agencies that service them. Furthermore, the content explores several factors that seem to indicate that, for many kinds of research, the next natural phase in this relationship may in fact be a type of “Do-it-Yourself Marketing Research,” whereby we see an increased internalization of the marketing research function, i.e. pharmaceutical company marketing researchers conducting their own primary research, rather than contracting with marketing research agencies to do so. Here, we will discuss the reasons historically offered for not using internal researchers in this role and the increasingly new reasons that call for them to serve in this function. To download the complete March 2007 discussion on the crucial and changing relationship between clients and agencies, please click here.  Are
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The monthly issue-based discussions that we publish in this newsletter can also be distributed to you in hardcopy format via a complimentary subscription-based resource we are publishing for our clients called The Orange Pages. The Orange Pages is intended to serve as a living, breathing resource of “Information, Education and Issues Exploration for Today’s Pharmaceutical Marketing Researcher” that we hope will be read with interest and kept within reach for ongoing reference. The format is a handy sized three-ring binder designed to hold packets of content that we will develop and distribute on a variety of topics. Content packets will come to you in an easy to identify (and appropriately colored) orange envelope and be delivered on a monthly basis. The materials will be three-hole punched for convenient one-click assembly into your binder.  If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of The Orange Pages binder, and get on our distribution list for monthly addendums, please fill out the form below. Want to learn more on this topic? Please contact:  |
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