Welcome to Analysis of ROI for Pharmaceutical Promotion

Summary
Advertising in medical publications is one of the most frequently used promotional/educational vehicles. One reason for this is its well-established ability to disseminate information about a new product or indication:

•	To a broad or targeted audience
•	With a high rate of frequency
•	In a short period of time
•	In a highly cost-effective manner

What is not as well-known, but is also well-established, is that medical advertising alone — and in conjunction with other major tactics — can generate sales for both new and more-established products. The underlying support for this is that product awareness and message penetration are the keys to increasing new Rx's. What better vehicle to accomplish these than advertising in medical publications?

One reason for the medium's effectiveness is that physicians continue to rely on medical journals as their most important source of medical information. A PERQ/HCI survey conducted in June 1998 showed that 76.3% of the respondents cited medical journals as their most important source of medical information, ranking it ahead of CME Courses, Conferences/Symposia, and even Colleagues.

Important Sources of Medical Information

Source: PERQ/HCI June 1998

The 76.3% response in 1998 was a 24% increase over a similar survey conducted in 1983, where 61.8% of physicians ranked medical journals as their most important source of medical information. What this means is that even in an Internet-based world, physicians rely on medical journals to a greater extent than ever before.

Also of interest from the same June 1998 survey was that physicians were asked about their exposure to advertising/information on products. Again, Medical Journals ranked first, ahead of Pharmaceutical Representatives and Colleagues.

Past Week Exposure to Advertising/Information on Products

Source: PERQ/HCI June 1998

Clearly, not only do physicians read medical journals, but they read the ads as well.

While there are many promotional/educational options available to pharmaceutical marketers today, the use of individual tactics may differ for many reasons (including the stage of a product's life cycle, other priorities in the corporation, etc). How best to choose the marketing mix is key for today's marketer. The case studies that follow provide important information that can be used in this determination. For further insight into the value of medical journal and other print advertising, we have also included Additional Reading and Other Sites to visit on this subject. Of note is the landmark study ROI Analysis of Pharmaceutical Promotion (RAPP): An Independent Study. RAPP was conducted to compare the Return on Investment (ROI) of the four major industry promotional tactics (Detailing, DTC Advertising, Medical Journal Advertising, and Physician Meetings & Events).

A second landmark study, Analysis of ROI for Pharmeceutical Promotion (ARPP), was presented in September of 2002 and included more recent results for the four tactics and an analysis of results for three therapeutic classes.