Assessing the New Launch: Using the Physician-Sales Dyad

Improved products and promotional materials are regularly developed and introduced to the pharmaceutical and medical devices markets. Once introduced, two key factors that impact their success equation include: 1) the delivery of the information by the sales representative and 2) its reception by the targets—typically physicians.

The Dyad Advantage
Many pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers measure the success of new product or message launches by conducting a message recall test with prescribing physicians. The largest concern with this methodology is that it ignores the first part of the success equation: delivery by the sales force. Involving the sales force in a dyadic research effort provides a more complete picture of the campaign's level of success.

The Two Wave Approach
This dyadic research utilizes a two-wave process, which provides enough immediacy that management can make changes early enough to improve the program's success. The first wave is conducted with sales representatives immediately after the introduction of the new product or message launch; it evaluates if the message is delivered as intended and allows management to make immediate adjustments to the campaign. The second wave is conducted with physicians and sales representatives after at least two to three call cycles to determine the market impact of the new product or message.

Collection Techniques
Sales representative and physician data are often collected independently of each other and frequently use different collection techniques. The specific technique selected is based on demonstrated success in obtaining the data in a short time frame. Sales force data are collected using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or web-based methodology, permitting sales representatives to participate at any time of day or night. The results can be available in as little as three days following the end of data collection. Physician data are collected using a telephone interview technique. A live interview provides opportunities for probing and follow-up questioning to obtain richer findings. This information is reported in as little as one week from the end of the data collection.

Analysis
The analysis technique used should be based on the business decisions to be made by the company. In the first wave, management is typically interested in descriptive analyses to obtain a "snapshot" of what is occurring with the new message. In the second wave, data can be analyzed in many different ways:

• Descriptive statistical techniques provide a picture of how effective the promotional campaign is, from both a sales representative and physician perspective.
• Comparative analysis on identical questions determines what, if any, differences exist between the two groups.
• Predictive statistical techniques, employing self-reported likelihood of prescribing change variables as dependent variables, determine the impact of various elements of the launch.
• Physician (perceptual/attitudinal) data collected through primary research can be matched to physician-level prescribing (behavioral) data for additional analyses, once these data become available for the time period of the data collection.

This dyadic approach provides a more timely and accurate assessment of the launch than using a monadic method. It provides management with the opportunity to prevent potential problems in the critical launch stage by keeping them abreast of the market as events unfold.