Effectiveness of e-detailing as an innovative pharmaceutical marketing tool in emerging economies: Views of health care professionals of India

Abstract

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.

Strategic account management as a value co-creation selling model in the pharmaceutical industry

“…Detailing in the pharmaceutical industry involves the process of communicating the pharmaceutical product and its benefits to health-care professionals (Banerjee and Dash, 2011). Selling strategies used by pharmaceutical companies rely on a mix of personal and communication skills (Ahearne et al, 2007;Alkhateeb et al, 2009), along with reliance on scientific information obtained from the literature (Alkhateeb et al, 2009).…”

“…Detailing in pharmaceutical industry involves the process of communicating the pharmaceutical product and its benefits to health care professionals (Banerjee and Dash, 2011).…”

Study on the factors ruling pharmaceutical product management in Bangladesh

“…Malayasia, India and other neighbouring countries of Bangladesh are considering Internet-based strategic plan for pharmaceutical marketing. 15,16 No such Internet-based marketing notion was found in Bangladesh pharmaceutical market. Internet-based pharmaceutical promotion in Bangladesh is limited to prescribing information availability on Internet.…”

E-Detailing: Keyways for Successful Implementation of Digital Technologies in the Pharmaceutical Marketing

“…A study conducted among medical professionals in the United States shows that additional financial incentives can significantly increase participation rates for electronic visits. About 85% of the surveyed medical doctors state that "adequate compensation" would motivate them to spend more time on virtual meetings with sales reps (electronic visits) [24]. Another study shows that 40% of the respondents mainly participated in electronic visits because of the financial compensation they receive [16].…”