Lotrel

Direct-to-consumer advertisers are becoming more innovative, resorting to tactics more often associated with consumer-packaged-goods marketers such as buy-one-get-one-free promotions and money-back guarantees.

And while that may work wonders in driving trials of an erectile dysfunction remedy or even raising awareness of high blood pressure, DTC advertisers also may be letting the cat out of that bag with tactics that could trivialize, or at the very least commoditize, the pharmaceutical drug business.

"It's a movement toward promotions as a form of marketing, which is different than we've ever seen, at least to the consumer," noted Lynda Maddox, professor of marketing and advertising at George Washington University, who noted that physicians have been subject to promotionally positioned pharmaceutical messaging and samples for some time.

"What you're seeing is an evolution of the strategy for DTC, as well as the expectation," commented D. Chauncey Smith, senior brand manager at Glaxo-SmithKline Consumer Healthcare and spokesman for the Medical Marketing Association. The industry has transitioned from fitting the square peg of stiff, pharmaceutical-oriented marketing into the round hole of a broadcast television format. "It really stuck out," he said. "The manufacturers and the marketing personnel have gotten a little more sophisticated in following the consumer model for copy development and what the creative strategies look like."

The time may be ripe for promotional DTC advertising, Maddox said. "There's such a huge media presence and awareness among consumers right now of the cost of prescription drugs. Since price is a top-of-mind factor, when you offer free samples, a frequent user card or discounts, [the advertisement] is more likely to work."

For instance, ICOS and Eli Lilly seemed to have torn a page out of the marketing book of Procter & Gamble when it issued the Cialis Promise last month. "We're so confident you'll appreciate the benefits of Cialis," the copy reads, "that, if you don't, we'll pay for a sample of the ED tablet of your choice as prescribed by your doctor or other health care professional. That's the Cialis Promise."

Pfizer in April launched its Viagra Value Card. The frequency card enables users to get a seventh prescription for free with the filling of six Viagra prescriptions. And Bayer/GlaxoSmithKline issued its Levitra Challenge, a sampling program, in the weeks following the Super Bowl.

The evolution in DTC advertising is not restricted to disease states like ED, however. Indeed, GlaxoSmithKline was arguably the first to introduce a frequency discount for its prescription-only allergy remedy Flonase. And Novartis recently kicked off a campaign called Take Action for Healthy Blood Pressure to support its blood-pressure-lowering Diovan and Lotrel brands. The promotion includes a free one-month trial of either drug with a doctor's prescription, a host of educational material on the importance of lowering blood pressure in the treatment of hypertension and a free Omron blood pressure monitor (through rebate), so that consumers can measure their blood pressure in the comfort of their home.

Do these types of pharmaceutical promotions trivialize the disease states for which they're designed to treat, or do they introduce a level of commonality to a condition for which most sufferers are too embarrassed to seek treatment?

"People are certainly more willing to accept [DTC advertising]," Maddox said. "It's becoming just like any other product." And like anything else, she said, consumers must go through a process in making a buying decision: recognition, acceptance, desire and finally action. "There's a plus side and a down side to everything, [however]," Maddox noted. "In some ways it trivializes the disease: if you're doing a buy-one-get-one-free, how serious can this really be?" she asked. "On the other hand, it makes more people aware of the product and a disease that they might have that they didn't know about."

"There's no danger in giving people information about treatment options that can help them," countered Michal Fishman, a Pfizer spokeswoman. "We firmly believe that the right treatment option is up to the doctor and the patient to decide together." Pfizer is just trying to get that conversation started, she said.

"I don't think it trivializes the disease states," Smith said. "I would say it makes it a little more approachable." Take ED, for instance: it's a condition where the patient must feel confident enough to seek treatment. "Anytime you can create a dialog between a health care practitioner and a patient, it's a good thing."

"The more that we've been doing [DTC advertising], we've been gaining greater insight into the targeted consumer for whom these treatment options might be appropriate," commented Fishman. "That greater insight allows us 'to understand some of the barriers that patients are facing in actually taking action around their health," she said. "Those barriers, whether it's denial [of the disease state], perceived affordability or stigma, are really big barriers we need to break through."

It's that insight that feeds the creativity, Fishman said, and it's that insight that makes a DTC message pop among the background noise of everyday advertising.

Frequency programs and satisfaction guarantees keep the remedies on the forefront of the consciousness, Fishman added. And it's that brand recognition that can jump-start a conversation on treatment options.

CPG-style promotions also may help drive compliance, as well, as a sort of bonus by-product of DTC advertising. "Compliance is really important; it's one of the biggest problems physicians have in treating patients," noted Maddox. Some of it is certainly financial, from the patient's perspective. If a particular promotion makes the medicine more affordable to the patient, compliance could very well become a goal of the advertiser, she said.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group