Medicinal product communication exposure High-profile managers’ favourite strategy is to concentrate on medicinal product’s characteristics. In that case, sales objectives are dependent on a pro- duct’s characteristics. But those characteristics are bound to be outdated by competitors’ break- through. Eventually, all company’s resources will focus on patent protection but this will decrease the sales forces’ involvement and motivation.
In addition, this strategy is useless when generics show up. In such a situation, another strategy is to accept the price war with generics. In that case, sales objectives are driven by the pricing policy. Eventually, all company’s resources will focus on cost reduction but few will be able to compete with generics companies. In addition, this strategy is hopeless when facing market challenges such as ‘patient power’. With such a strategy, the medicinal product is at risk of bouncing back against any given pitfall/ obstacle that demonstrates its market evolution (see Fig. 1).
Medicinal brand as a leverage for influence Paradoxically high-profile managers often neglect brand building, although most prescribers believe that overall medicinal brand interactions are beneficial to patient care and practice health. They either trust the information from pharmaceutical companies or feel that they are equipped to evaluate and filter information presented to them.40 High-profile managers might also affect the demand elasticity with their choice of marketing (or advertising) strategies. In fact, nowadays, marketing expenditures and R&D constitute a similar proportion of a firm’s expenditures. Moreover, and particularly in the USA, direct-to-consumer marketing (even of products that require medical prescription) represents now more than one-fourth of these expenditures.41 All in all, medical brand communication strategy aimed at prescribers and their patients as well as the market. If it enhances the differentiating factor of what is offered to the market, it also provides a valuable ROI and has a positive impact on the patient. It should then be worthy of a better under- standing as well as more research papers, as it sounds like a win–win opportunity that must not be overlooked.