Marketing to the “Long Tail Physician” Segment Reaching long-neglected physicians
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A conversation with Paul Boidy, Executive Vice President, Sales and Customer Solutions at ReachMD. A “former insider’s” point of pharma’s rep-centric strategy vs. ReachMD’s ability to cost-effectively reach the long-neglected physician “tail” segment — those physicians outside the top 20% of high prescribers that pharma mostly focuses on.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Listen to internet radio with Pharmaguy on Blog Talk Radio
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BackgroundThe book, The Long Tail by Chris Andersen, explains how the low cost of distributing content in the digital age enables even the smallest niches to be served. For example on Apple’s iTunes every single one of the over 2 million songs has been purchased.
There are numerous examples of how the long tail concept might play out in healthcare. One can see a day where a pharma brand manager doesn’t use prescription volume as the key determinant in segmenting physicians.
The implications are tremendous.
Paul Boidy knows from experience with many different brands that 50% of the total market for prescriptions come from prescribers OUTSIDE of the highly targeted top 20%. With new and yet to be developed communications and education platforms marketers will be able to cost-effectively reach a significant portion of the other 80%. That would be good for everyone.
Boidy sometimes gets asked where are the additional resources for these programs going to come from. His answer: from the savings made by reducing the number of sales reps who are bumping into each other all trying to compete for the same 20%.Click Here for Additional Resources
Guest Bio
Paul Boidy has 18 years experience in healthcare marketing, education and communications. He was most recently Director of Neuroscience Marketing at Takeda where his responsibilities included brand management and lifecycle planning for a portfolio of CNS products.
Paul started his career at Searle Pharmaceuticals and held increasing positions of responsibility there and with other companies in sales, operations, marketing, and strategic planning. Paul was directly involved in the planning and launch of many successful pharmaceutical brands.
Paul has worked closely with physician and patient associations such as the National Sleep Foundation, the American Geriatric Society, and the American Psychiatric Association to develop programs dedicated to improving public health.
Some Questions/Topics Discussed
- Now that many pharma companies are cutting their sales forces, do you think they are more open to strategies that focus on the “physician long tail”?
- How does new media fit into that strategy?
- Specifically, what does ReachMD offer to help brand managers connect not only with top prescribers but also lower-prescribers who as a group make up a significant portion of the market?
Additional Resources
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