Here’s a skill-testing question: How do you create a product Web site when you can’t mention the product’s name, describe its attributes or even show what it looks like?
That’s pretty much the dilemma that Canadian pharmaceutical companies face when developing Web initiatives. Regulations in this country forbid the promotion of prescription products directly to consumers, forcing manufacturers to exercise more than a little creativity in their online communications.
Consider the challenges for Montreal-based Pfizer Canada, when it launched Viagra in the Canadian marketplace.
On the one hand, the company knew that a Web presence for Viagra was a necessity. Given all the press coverage the medication had received, Pfizer was certain to be inundated with queries. ‘We were concerned that a lot of people would all be calling at the same time for information,’ says Sophie McCann, the company’s product manager.
Unlike its American sibling, however, Pfizer Canada couldn’t simply develop a Viagra site crammed with information readily accessible to anyone. (In fact, the name of the drug couldn’t even be included in the URL.) So instead, the company created a site called The Canadian Erectile Dysfunction Resource Centre (www.edfactscanada.com).
The publicly accessible ‘consumer’ section of this site discusses erectile dysfunction and the stresses associated with it, but does not mention any specific treatment, urging people instead to visit their physicians. The site also provides a simple diagnostic form that the consumer can print out, fill in and take along to the doctor’s office. The form includes the Pfizer logo, in order to help establish the link between the manufacturer’s name and the brand name of the medication.
A separate area of the site has been established for current Viagra users. By typing in their drug identification number, they can gain entry and access detailed product information. McCann says Pfizer uses this area to clear up many of the misconceptions about Viagra – although the company would, frankly, prefer to be able to do so before patients are prescribed the drug.
(There is, of course, nothing to stop Canadian consumers from checking out the Pfizer U.S. site, which – unencumbered by this country’s regulations – is a treasure trove of Viagra information. ‘We do piggyback on them [in our marketing communications],’ McCann says.)
The ‘Erectile Dysfunction Resource Centre’ also has an area offering information for physicians. Before the site went up, McCann says, Pfizer ran a direct mail campaign to the medical profession, promoting the site and providing doctors with their own entry password.
Notwithstanding the difficulties involved, Pfizer considers an online presence essential to marketing a product like Viagra. The anonymity afforded by the Web makes it the perfect vehicle for consumers to seek out medical information, McCann says.
For every phone call logged by Pfizer’s toll-free erectile dysfunction information service, there are 2.2 hits on the Web site, she notes.
The Web is an important new communications channel for pharmaceutical companies, says Dr. W. John Reeves of Toronto-based Infinet Communications, which has developed sites for a number of manufacturers, including Pfizer.
In the past, he says, drug firms spoke mainly to the medical profession. The Web, however, allows them to communicate directly with a new audience – the actual consumers of their products – in a highly targeted fashion.
Take, for example, the Evista section of the Eli Lilly Canada site (www.lilly.ca), which Infinet created. It appears in the ‘Health Online’ area of the Lilly site, under the heading ‘Postmenopausal Health.’ While there’s no mention to be found of Evista – a treatment for osteoporosis – the section does feature an education centre, a survey, a quiz and a newsletter, all dealing with health concerns specific to women over 45.
The site includes similar sections devoted to other conditions for which Lilly manufactures treatments, such as diabetes and depression.
This, Reeves says, is arguably the most effective Web strategy for Canadian pharmaceutical companies, given the current regulatory framework. By providing useful information and services, they build relationships with potential patients. And if a prior relationship exists between manufacturer and patient, the physician may well be more inclined to prescribe that manufacturer’s product.
Online surveys and quizzes can prove particularly valuable, he adds, because they provide a company with insight into what consumers are looking for when they visit a health-related site. Tracking interests in this fashion can help drug firms fine-tune their online presence.
Not all manufacturers, however, are completely sold on the value of the Web as a marketing communications channel.
‘The Internet is a very generic form of communication,’ says Helen Stone, spokesperson for Mississauga, Ont.-based Hoffmann-La Roche. ‘It’s not responsible promotion.’
While Hoffmann does include patient information about products like the weight-loss drug Xenical on its Web site (www.rochecanada.com), Stone says the company still sees face-to-face contact between sales reps and physicians as the cornerstone of its communications strategy.
It also prefers to see physicians and patients walking through the possible treatment options together. That’s the only way to be certain that drugs are being prescribed and used appropriately, she says.
– Through the digital back door: Consumer demand for online health information spells major changes for drug manufacturers
– Q-Tips cottons on to extended use strategy: Cheap and cheerful campaign boosts sales by 60% p.28
– Pharmaceutical ads could use creative Rx p.29
– Greens+ business an organic success: Sales of nutritional supplement have grown by leaps and bounds since it entered the mass market p.30
