The pharma industry is still in healthcare professionals' (HCPs’) good books, with 61% of physicians polled by CMI saying they have a favorable view of drugmakers. But the question of how companies can use corporate brand marketing to promote and enhance their image is more vexed given HCPs’ mixed views on the subject.
Pharma companies have been running corporate campaigns for years, but the pandemic provided fresh impetus for drugmakers to provide a look at what goes on inside their walls. Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer were among the companies to run corporate campaigns in 2020. Since then, AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Moderna and others have run corporate ads, in some cases for the first time.
Physicians are one of the potential audiences for corporate campaigns, and the CMI survey of 108 HCPs in the U.S. suggests brand marketing can sway their actions. Fifty-five percent of physicians said corporate messaging has some influence on prescribing decisions. In most cases, the influence is minimal, but 17% of HCPs said it has a moderate effect and 3% said it is very influential.
The survey suggests HCP opinions on brand marketing are mixed. About one-third of respondents said they had favorable feelings toward brand marketing, but more than one-quarter voiced negative views. Around 1 in 14 HCPs said they had very unfavorable views toward brand marketing.
More than half of HCPs said corporate branded pharma ads are confusing to patients and too broad to help the public learn. Yet, more than 40% of respondents agreed that the ads are a good tool to use to share information. HCP comments suggest physicians want companies to focus on practical matters rather than emotional connections, a point Danielle Koffer, group client director at CMI, picked up on.
“Pharma by its sheer nature is emotionally charged from the get-go,” Koffer said in the report. “Since emotions are already primed as the baseline of this category, perhaps when you get down to advertising, HCPs just want the facts for their patients. Tell me that it’s going to work, educate me on how it’s going to work and tell me how I can get it.”