PurposeThe purpose of this study is to unearth the factors influencing the scope and acceptability of E‐detailing concepts recently started by domestic as well as multinational companies in India.Design/methodology/approachThe objective is to capture views of pharmaceutical company personnel about E‐detailing to understand factors influencing acceptance and execution of E‐detailing as a marketing communication tool. This study is based on primary data collected from the Delhi/NCR area of India. To analyze the data, an attempt is made to identify latent factors that influence various measurable characteristics. Gonzalez and Bello's approach is used in factor analyzing the responses to identify prominent influencing factors behind the adoption of E‐detailing by pharmaceutical companies.FindingsAs viewed by the company personnel, managerial readiness, operational capabilities, audience acceptance and market accessibility are the most important factors responsible for proper acceptability of E‐detailing program. Other motivators are convenience mode of communication, brand acceptance in the market, a deep relationship development with target physicians. This has a positive impact on the profit curve of the companies.Practical implicationsResults from this study will help pharmaceutical companies operating in India to understand factors influencing scope and acceptability of E‐detailing as an important marketing communication tool. Pharmaceutical companies may chart their strategic communication roadmap in line with the same.Originality/valueIn this paper, we have identified factors responsible for acceptance and execution of E‐detailing as a pharmaceutical marketing communication tool. These factors may be tested in different countries and intensity may be analyzed beyond country boundaries.
Detailing in pharmaceutical industry is defined as the process of communicating the pharmaceutical product message to health care professionals (HCPs, primarily clinicians). In reality, for pharma representative, actual detailing lasts for only few minutes, but the preparation and waiting time is very long. As a result, there is an increasing trend of using interactive e-detailing, video e-detailing and other physicians' online forums. Edetailing is one of such selling process recently adopted by pharmaceutical companies in India for communicating product messages to the HCPs. As this is a new way of communication, not much is known about the views of physicians about E-detailing. In this backdrop, the purpose of this study is to analyze the scope and acceptability of e-detailing concepts recently started by domestic as well as multinational pharmaceutical companies in India. The objective of the article is to understand the role of different demographic, social, and behavioral variables behind acceptability of e-detailing by physicians of India. The result from ordered probit estimation reveals that the professional service representative (PSR) visit, invitation, and detailing type have a positive impact on the probability of acceptance of e-detailing. Moreover, it can be seen that marginal increase in the PSR visit, invitation, and detailing type increases the probabilities of e-detailing acceptability among physicians. One can see that, in India, physicians consider e-detailing as more of complimentary in nature to ensure a holistic effect of pharmaceutical marketing communication.
Past researches tried to explore the impact of disease awareness advertising only on relationship between drug manufacturers and consumers. As physicians are a significant stakeholder, it is important for marketers to know views of physicians before any communication planning. The present research intends to primarily understand the views of Indian health care professionals about effectiveness of disease awareness advertising. The objective of the research is to understand attitudes of health care professionals towards disease awareness advertising as a pharma marketing communication tool. Result shows that most physicians think positively regarding the nature of disease awareness advertising. However, there is mixed feeling about impact of disease awareness advertising on patients. Physicians have a feeling that disease awareness advertising may cause confusion and unnecessary fear among patients as the concept is new to them and they might not be mature enough to understand campaign objectives. There is also a view that disease awareness advertising should be co-sponsored with not-for-profit organization (NGO)/non-profit organization (NPO) to neutralize perception of commercial interest of pharma companies behind awareness advertisements. Communication effectiveness may be further increased if the campaign is endorsed by popular celebrities. Result from this study will help pharmaceutical companies operating in India to understand effectiveness of disease awareness advertising as an important marketing communication tool. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first academic research study of its kind in India.
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