Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6818

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: report

Consumer and physician attitudes toward direct-to-consumer advertising
: Time Inc. 1998 Aug

Abstract:

This report presents information gathered from a national survey of consumers and doctors. Nearly 2/3 of consumers were aware of ads for allergy medication with television being the prime source of ad awareness. No other sources of ad awareness, other than magazines and television were mentioned by more than 7% of consumers. Over 1/4 of consumers discussed the contents of the ad with a healthcare professional. Of those who spoke to a healthcare professional, 1/4 claimed to have received a prescription for the product advdertised. Over half took no action as a result of seeing advertising. The majority of consumers felt that clearly stating all risks associated with the medication was either extremely important or important when advertising directly to consumers. Two-thirds felt that providing a toll-free number, having enough time to sutudy the ad,and being able to prevent children from seeing the ad were important. Over half claimed that magazines were the most appropriate form of media for DTCA. Sales representatives are a very important source of information for doctors, more so for learning about pharmaceutical products than learning about the latest developments in their field. Direct-to-consumer advertising was considered one of the least important sources of information for doctors. In a 6 month period, doctors claim that approximately 12% of their patients asked for a prescription drug by name and that they fill this request 45% of the time.

Keywords:
*analytic survey/United States/DTCA/direct-to-consumer advertising/attitude toward promotion/source of information/doctors/ consumer behaviour & knowledge/ analysis of prescribing pattern/ broadcast advertisements/ print advertisements/ sales representatives/ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: CONSUMERS/PATIENTS/ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: HEALTH PROFESSIONALS/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: CONSUMERS AND PATIENTS/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: PRESCRIBING, DRUG USE/PROMOTION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION: CONSUMERS AND PATIENTS/PROMOTION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION: DOCTORS/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: DETAILING

Notes:

Methodology note: The consumer survey was done by telephone and therefore excludes people without a phone. Only seven physician specialties were surveyed and therefore the results may not be generalizable to the other specialties. The method of randomly selecting the doctors is not described. Only office based doctors were surveyed. The physician response rate was only 21% and respondents and nonrespondents were not compared. In both surveys there is a possibility of a social acceptability bias in the responses.