TSP: Redefining pharmaceutical marketing

Krishna Singh

“Who is viewing what? And when?” The answers to these two questions revolutionised the whole media industry. The TRP system or Target Rating Point as a means of determining how often an advertisement is seen by a specific target audience is unique to the industry. It gives an idea of the amount of exposure an advertiser is getting with its target. Gone are the days when media planning was done on assumptions and perception of advertising slots. Today is the TRP age ruled by data-driven buying. The success of any advertisement is measured by the type of advertisement and its slot. Marketers can measure exactly which media slot will serve their purpose, make accurate decisions and get better returns on their marketing spend.

Coming to the pharmaceutical industry, it is evolving at a pace like never before. Pharma companies are allocating huge marketing budgets to promote their products to beat fierce competition. Companies are more open to technologies to maximise their investment, but they are still waiting for a TRP like system. This problem has been resolved to some extent in case of OTC products, where the marketer can choose TV or mass media to market their products. Here, the TRP system plays a vital role in marketer’s strategic decision making. Extremely competitive and highly regulated, pharma marketing is even more intense, when it comes to prescription drugs. If we compare the mass media eco-system to the prescription drug eco-system, we find a lot of similarities.

Here the ‘Target Group’ is the ‘Doctor’ and ‘Medical Representative’ is the medium, but the irony is, we can’t actually find out the amount of exposure of any brand a doctor is having while the MR does his ‘detailing visits’. The sales force of a typical pharma company, an MR visits the doctor, shows the brand presentation to him and moves to the next doctor. While we can evaluate the first aspect of promotion i.e. the type of presentation, it is difficult to measure the time spent on each brand by a MR in a doctor’s clinic. There is no TRP system that works here to help marketers in their decision making. On an average, pharma companies spend 15-20 per cent of their revenue on sales and marketing, where BTL promotion involves 60 per cent of all promotional spending.

In the US, pharma companies spend a whopping $8,290 per doctor for detailing. Even after spending so much on detailing, the time spent on each brand by a MR in doctor’s clinic can’t be measured. Indian pharma market is highly competitive with an average clinician being called by more that 15-20 MR’s on a daily basis, hence an average MR’s ‘Detailing visit’ to the doctor takes one to two minutes, wherein he is expected to promote more than 10-15 brands. Among these, the pharma company strategically wants to focus on two to three brands(newly launched drugs) where the sales person is expected to get more time from doctor. While doing review of new launches or focused brand promotions, it is very difficult to find out whether the loopholes lie in their marketing strategy or in its implementation.

It is quite common now that due to changing market dynamics and increasingly busy schedules of the doctors, the productivity of traditional product detailing is fast waning. As a result, pharma companies are encountering huge challenges in the process of generating prescription demand for their respective products by taking a commensurate share of the mind of the physician. The need of the hour is to transform the traditional detailing with a new age tool which can help pharma companies create and facilitate a meaningful and relevant customer interface. This would in turn help drive better value for time spent by a physician listening to MR’s detailing.

Migrating to the tablet PC-based digital platform is sufficient to give the pharma strategy and marketing team an insight into the ‘in clinic on call promotion analytics’ in the form of TSP, the time spend on each brand promotion in doctor’s clinic, the equivalent of TRP in mass media. If the sales of a new launched brand A are not increasing, we know that brand A has not been paid attention while detailing, and if the TSP data says something else, it’s time to take corrective actions in promotional strategy. The use of TSP will make pharma marketer’s life easier and their decisions more accurate.

Such digital platforms are enabling pharma frontline sales executives to do their job better by augmenting their capability to perform traditional primary role of scientific promotion of drugs. All the relevant scientific information can be collated on the fingertip of a medical representative alongwith preparation of the information deck for a specific audience such that the MR will be able to respond to a doctor’s query on real time basis, saving customer’s precious time. The medical communication is designed, organised and disseminated in an enhanced manner so that the physician finds it relevant to his practice and gets value out of his interaction.

New concepts like on-demand customised detailing and real time QMS could transform the way pharma companies interacts and interface with their customers. In times to come, the digital platform can help integrate the entire healthcare ecosystem including the trade channels and hospitals giving new dimension to the entire industry and bring in 360 degree marketing capabilities to the forefront. Marketers will come up with sharper marketing strategies with measurable ROI for every activity. It’s going to transform the very way medical and scientific information is created and disseminated in the future.