It is a valuable tool for effective CRM.
Since a captive database has been put into place it can easily lend itself to direct marketing initiatives. As the primary fields captured are the contact address a program through mail is easiest to accomplish. Brand awareness mailers, new launch, contests all can be conducted by mail. Information technology has several advantages
• It is very cost effective: A large audience can be touched at a relatively cheaper cost as compared to personal selling.
• It can be targeted and specific to the right target audience in term of specialisation or geographical area.
• It is measurable with use of reply devices one can immediately gauge the efficacy of a campaign. In fact since the target audience for a brand is usually sharply defined in terms of their specialisation e.g. An allergy product to ENTs, Dermatologists and GPs, the response received is usually much higher then that accepted as a norm in other industries. A response of 15-20% can be easily achieved through such communications.
Most of the pharmaceutical companies have realised the advantages of this mode of communication. The primary rationale is to save the time of the field by promoting the low involvement (for the doctor) products, promote brand recall for a new product, exploit alternative avenues for brand promotion etc.
Apart from mail other DM media like telemarketing and web have also been tried. While telemarketing has been tried for promoting new launches to get instant feedbacks the web has still to achieve its potential. The PC penetration in India is still very low which handicaps the growth of this mode. Using the e-mail to correspond and interact with doctors is being tried. It is especially useful for targeting higher specialties, which is more technology savvy and information hungry.
Since a captive database has been put into place it can easily lend itself to direct marketing initiatives. As the primary fields captured are the contact address a program through mail is easiest to accomplish. Brand awareness mailers, new launch, contests all can be conducted by mail. Information technology has several advantages
• It is very cost effective: A large audience can be touched at a relatively cheaper cost as compared to personal selling.
• It can be targeted and specific to the right target audience in term of specialisation or geographical area.
• It is measurable with use of reply devices one can immediately gauge the efficacy of a campaign. In fact since the target audience for a brand is usually sharply defined in terms of their specialisation e.g. An allergy product to ENTs, Dermatologists and GPs, the response received is usually much higher then that accepted as a norm in other industries. A response of 15-20% can be easily achieved through such communications.
Most of the pharmaceutical companies have realised the advantages of this mode of communication. The primary rationale is to save the time of the field by promoting the low involvement (for the doctor) products, promote brand recall for a new product, exploit alternative avenues for brand promotion etc.
Apart from mail other DM media like telemarketing and web have also been tried. While telemarketing has been tried for promoting new launches to get instant feedbacks the web has still to achieve its potential. The PC penetration in India is still very low which handicaps the growth of this mode. Using the e-mail to correspond and interact with doctors is being tried. It is especially useful for targeting higher specialties, which is more technology savvy and information hungry.