Many drug companies are not getting a big enough bang for their marketing billions

The power of product promotion to groom blockbuster drugs has turned the world’s leading pharma companies into marketing powerhouses that invest more in selling their products than in developing them. Given the huge sums spent on direct and indirect selling, it’s little wonder that pharma executives are increasingly asking themselves whether they are getting a big enough bang for their marketing billions.

In this article, we draw on our client experience to describe a five-step process for making more out of marketing investments. This approach offers a new way of understanding prescriber behavior, uses it to develop a deeper understanding of customer economics and employs attitudinal research, not to predict customer behavior, but to explain it and suggest how it might be influenced. Gaining new insights into such behaviors enables executives to create more effective marketing plans, make smarter investment decisions and ultimately uncover hidden opportunities for profitable organic growth.