Sampling strategies get same old song
November 3, 2009 – 9:57 am by ChrisEditor’s note: It’s conference season, and although we can’t clone ourselves, we will occasionally take a helping hand from smart, knowledgeable industry insiders. Janet Carlson of One Eleven Interactive (she’s @janetdcarlson on Twitter) attended last week’s ExLPharma 5th Sampling Strategies conference in Philadelphia; here’s her viewpoint (not entirely favorable) of what was presented.
Sampling is one of the key drivers of the pharmaceutical industry and has the highest ROI of any promotional activity we deploy. But you’d never guess that given the lack of energy and fresh ideas at last week’s Sampling Strategies Conference.
Doctors want companies to provide samples and update brand information on a regular basis, so it was a little disappointing that conference often stayed focused on basics such as, “What is the best way to deliver samples to the doctors? What sampling method – rep, internet, mobile – makes the most business sense? And, what mix of samples, coupons and vouchers should be delivered and how?”
Attendees seemed to agree that the ideal for sampling any drug is to sample via rep when a new product launches, then to move to a combination of alternate methods – Internet and mobile – as a product matures.
When it came to discussions around compliance – one of the drivers of change in sampling – I found speakers apologizing for having “boring” presentations – clearly a self fulfilling prophecy – and the audience picked up their iPhones and Blackberries to find entertainment. Personally, I think we need to embrace compliance as it forces more creative thinking on the part of marketers. And if you are speaking on compliance, for all our sake’s liven it up a bit and stop apologizing – it’s our lifeline to physicians!
The liveliest presentations were around finding the sampling “sweet spot” – the number of samples to deliver to get maximum ROI and around sampling group practices. It was nice to see that the group practice is finally coming into play since, historically, groups of doctors have been sampled as if each had their own individual sample closet.
Sampling via mobile (or mSampling) was discussed briefly; my sense was that most attendees felt there were other pressing issues to solve, but that mobile would come into play very soon.
Interestingly, McKinsey reports that 65% percent of sales calls are sample drops in which a doctor is not even seen. If reps aren’t seeing doctors more than half the times they visit, wouldn’t it make more economic sense to deploy more cost-effective methods to reach doctors, inform them about products, and then use less expensive delivery methods?
Given that the industry has been hammered by economic challenges, it might make sense to reflect on the importance of sampling in today’s marketing mix. It is time to grab the sample bull by the horns, leave old ideas and biases behind, embrace compliance, understand group practices, anticipate major plays in mSampling, and keep an open mind and explore methods to best reach and truly serve our customers.
