How do marketing channels inform doctors' prescribing behaviors? A qualitative inquiry of pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Pharmaceutical marketing is quite different from consumer marketing. Unlike consumer marketing, Products are promoted to doctors who make prescriptions based on patient needs, product efficacy, safety and compliance. Over the years, face to face drug detailing served as a primary marketing channel. However, technological advancements and rise of marketing channels opened plenty of new horizons in pharma to engage doctors. Webinars, emails, instant messages, social and digital media are some of the most advanced channels. Extant pharma marketing literature is mostly focused on face-to-face marketing and is deficient for these new channels, indicating a direct need to explore these channels. Thus, this research explores how doctors perceive the efficacy of these channels, how these channels help them to make their prescribing decisions, and why they prefer some channels over others. Qualitative research methods are followed here because this phenomenon is still in its infancy, and prior literature doesn’t provide any established relationships between new pharma channels and doctors’ prescribing behavior. Considering the nature of study, purposive sampling technique was used to collect data via semi-structured interviews from general practitioners practicing in central and northern parts of Pakistan. The findings will help pharmaceutical marketers to optimize marketing resources, device personalized marketing campaigns and ultimately increase ROI. Doctors will be saved by excessive pharma marketing promotion, and they can use this time in patient care more effectively.