Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5902

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: Journal Article

Engle R.
The impact of a single-advertiser publication on physicians’ perceptions and expected perscribing behavior
Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing & Management 1994; 8:(1):37-54

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of a specific type of single-advertiser publication on physicians’ perceptions of the sponsoring phamaceutical company and on the frequency with which they expect to prescribe the sponsor’s product. Four hardcover books dealing with a medical issue or personality and containing 18 pages of advertising for the sponsoring company’s braod-spectrum antibiotic were mailed at 2-month intervals to 19200 physicians who were targeted by the sponsoring company. Randomly selected groups of 1200 physicians were mailed questionnaires and $5 checks at the base point and 1 month after each book was mailed. Question areas focused on the physician’s ability to correctly identify the sponsoring pharmaceutical company, whether each book pictured in the questionnaire was received, how each book was read, and how the book(s) was (were) rated on five attributes. The data from readers were analyzed and contrasted with the data from two control groups to determine the impact that the books had on the attribute ratings of the sponsoring company and expected changes in the number of prescriptions of the sponsoring company’s broad-spectrum antibiotic. The results clearly showed that the reading of at least one of the four single-advertiser hardcover books had a substantial impact on physicians’ perceptions of the sponsoring company and on the frequency with which physicians expected to prescribe the sponsoring company’s antibiotic. Moreover, post hoc analyses indicated that the results cannot be attributed to sales force activity or to a response bias on the part of the readers and that the magnitude of the effects increased with increasing exposrue to the books and their advertising.

Keywords:
*analytic survey/doctors/promotional literature/ad recognition/analysis of prescribing pattern/attitude toward industry/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: ATTITUDES TOWARDS INDUSTRY/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: PRESCRIBING, DRUG USE/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: SINGLE-ADVERTISER PUBLICATION