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Historically, those of us in the pharmaceutical marketplace have always considered ourselves, because of the nature of the products we provide, mostly insulated from the vagaries of the larger economy. “People will always get sick and need our products, regardless of economic conditions,” we often observed as pharmaceutical companies, even as the agencies that serviced the industry in fields such as marketing research continued to experience double-digit growth during good times and bad.
Times are changing, however. As consumers are being asked to shoulder ever-rising percentages of health care costs, they are increasingly demanding demonstrable value for their dollar. In addition, as big box stores get into the deeply discounted generic pharmacy business and chain pharmacies open in-house clinics, once firm boundaries in marketplace walls start to break down, including the one that has for so long kept the pharmaceutical industry isolated from the impact of the general economy.
As 2008 comes to an end, there is a perfect storm brewing in which the confluence of bad times in the pharmaceutical industry and horrible times in the world economy come together with potentially disastrous results for those of us on both sides of the table in pharmaceutical marketing research. In response to this situation, this month’s published document for The Orange Pages discusses three strategic directions that marketing research companies will take, which in turn will impact the marketing researchers sitting on the client side of the table.
They include:
- For several decades, the pharmaceutical industry was a fat industry, and this largesse was passed on to the organizations that serviced it. Not anymore. In today’s environment, we need to challenge the way we do day-to-day business to control needless spending. This can be as simple, for example, as increasing the use of videoconferencing for meetings and research. The key thought here is for both sides to start making more efficient choices.
- Both sides of the table should look for increasing amounts of activity in business development as agencies become more proactive in their search for business. Both sides of the table should consider themselves responsible for making this into a customer satisfaction advantage, rather than a time-consuming pain in the neck.
- In light of our current situation, pharmaceutical marketing researchers cannot ignore other, related areas of endeavor such as medical/surgical, vaccines, veterinary medicine and wellness, just to name a few. It should be noted that the marketing research dollars being spent by these ancillary players are in support of much smaller products than we are used to in the pharmaceutical industry, with the research funds being spent commensurately smaller as well. Until big budget biotech products hit in relatively large numbers, those of us on both sides of the table will need to pay more attention to strategy than has historically been the case in our business.
To download the complete November 2008 discussion on the perfect storm in pharmaceutical marketing research and what to do about it, please click here.
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 publish 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 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.
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