What is the Role of Promotional Inputs in the Pharma PCD Business
The contribution of the pharmaceutical industry is of immense value to society. At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry is a business and its profits are heavily dependent on marketing. The greater the volume of medicines sold, the greater the return on investments. Promotion is a key factor driving sales volumes for profit generation and long-term survival in the business.
Promotion is an attempt by marketers to promote products for marketing and brand recognition. The goal of promotion is to create awareness among people to try products and make them buy the promoted item.
Sales promotion helps increase the sales of products. The business of the pharmaceutical industry is quite different from that of other consumer product industries as a majority of the promotional efforts are not directed to end-users but at healthcare professionals. Here the patient is not in a situation to choose or to decide which medicine they should take; in fact, it is the decision of the doctor who decides which medicine is to be taken by the patient. Owing to this, top 10 PCD Pharma Company in India aim to convince doctors, promote their products and dispense promotional inputs with them.
Promotional products are cost-effective means of reaching out to more potential customers as these giveaways are marketers’ favourite and people tend to remember where they received a promotional product gift. Generally promotional products are useful items imprinted with a company’s name, logo or message designed to increase brand awareness among consumers. In countries like India, where prescription-only status of medicines is often poorly followed, gifts to pharmacists linked to achieving specific sales volumes are an important component of promotion.
Promotional activities include advertisements, one-to-one sales visits, free samples, that could affect treatment decisions and to drive customers’ interest in the business. You are actually introducing your business to the potential consumers. The most frequently used promotional inputs are by providing the following-
• Visual Aids- A visual aid is visual information provided with pictures, charts or graphs to summarise information. They are important because they help the consumer or physician to understand and remember the product. They can enhance the impact of the product and make it easier for others to understand. They must be clear, concise and of high quality. Visual aids can be of many types but mostly in the pharma industry they are used in the form of handouts that contain key information or further information about the product.
• Leave behind Literatures- LBL are the pamphlets that can be used at any time for product literature. This leave-behind literature is designed for the product to communicate the message. They serve as good reminders to doctors and health professionals about the product key features and qualities which in turn helps in boost of sales. It is one of the best ways to promote the brand of the companies.
• Pharma Product Glossary & Product Card- Product glossary and product card contains list of all products available at the company. As it becomes difficult for doctors to remember a particular product’s brand name, short description of products including brand name and composition to give detailed information about a particular product. It is an extremely powerful tool for the Pharma marketing company team to boost marketing.
• Promotional Gifts and Sovereigns- Promotional gifts are the items used for promotional purposes in marketing. These gift items have the company logo, images and a slogan depicting your business message. These are the things which can be regularly used on a daily basis. Paper weights, pens, key chains, card holders, diaries, calendars and bags are among the few which can be gifted to promote the business. Your gift of promotional items to the customers helps them in remembering and recognizing your company. Each time the promotional item is used, your company’s name is in front of that customer.
• Prescription Pads- These pads have brand names and other descriptions regarding brands. These pads are given to doctors. Each time the pad is used, a particular brand name is in front of doctors. Promotion has a strong effect on prescribing and medicine use decisions leading to higher prescribing volumes.
• Samples and Sample Catch Covers- Samples of the medicine can be given to test the efficacy and potency of the drug. They are given in catchy sample catch covers. People will associate the premium quality of your drug with the quality reputation of your company. Provision of free samples also affects the prescribing decisions of doctors as it has been noticed that mostly second time prescriptions rose from first prescriptions.
It has been found that there is a strong positive link between exposure of drugs to a physician and their prescribing behavior. You can achieve your marketing goals with these low-cost promotional products.
In order to meet the specific requirements of our pharma PCD franchise partners, we our company, the best pharma PCD company in India, provide customized Visual Aid, Leave behind Literatures, Prescription Pads and Promotional gifts as our Promotional Inputs with our pharma business partners.
Building the brand is vital to a firm’s success, due to a large number of drugs available for prescriptions. Hence, the role of promotional inputs plays a leading role in product differentiation.