Dive Brief:
- Doctors who prefer digital marketing prefer email over everything else. Overall, physicians in the US had a 24% rate of digital interactions, and still had some preference for face-to-face contact.
- In a survey of physicians in 13 countries, conducted by Cegedim Strategic Data, Japan had a 34% rate of digital interactions, including Webinars and email, while countries, such as France, Canada, Spain and Germany had significantly lower rates of digital interactions.
- Digital marketing is still in developmental stages in the pharma industry, however, there is now a greater push to use digital marketing strategies such as video streaming and automated detailing.
Dive Insight:
It's become a common litany among pharmaceutical sales representatives that the proliferation of 'no-see' policies, combined with the advent of digital marketing, would be the death knell of the industry as we know it --- one in which reps provide the primary interface between pharma companies and physicians. In fact, the Cegedim's survey does not reflect that theory. While there is a push towards digital marketing, that movement is most pronounced in Japan. In certain European countries and in Canada, old-school face-to-face communication is still the main mode of interaction. The mix is more dynamic in the US, but many physicians still prefer a human touch.