Personal Selling Journal: SEGMENTATION BASED ON PHYSICIAN BEHAVIOR: IMPLICATIONS FOR SALES FORECASTING AND MARKETING-MIX STRATEGY

By: Franklin J. Carter
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXIX, no. 1 (winter 2009), pp. 81–95

We calibrate a segmented diffusion model by incorporating the knowledge of physicians’ prescription behavior using a sample of four product histories from the pharmaceutical industry. The results show that when compared to the standard diffusion with retention model, the segmented diffusion model based on the knowledge of physicians’ prescription behavior has a better fi t than models that are not based on physicians’ prescription behavior. Our comparison also reveals a signifi cantly different infl uence of marketing activity on potential innovator and imitator physicians across models.

On November 28, 2006, Pfi zer Inc., in an effort to cut $2
billion in costs by the end of 2008, and adjust to the loss of
patents on several blockbuster drugs, announced plans to
eliminate 20 percent of its U.S. sales force (Weintraub 2007).
Pfi zer executives believed that this shift would be benefi cial
in that it will lead to a culture of productivity and continuous
improvement (McGuire 2007). They also believed that
it would force them to fi nd more effective sales strategies that
ultimately boost the bottom line. In recent years, pharmaceutical
companies have been attempting to do more with
less by tracking physician prescribing patterns and adjusting
their promotional strategies accordingly. As pharmaceutical
companies place greater emphasis on reducing costs, they
are faced with a need to reduce the size of their sales force.
As a result, pharmaceutical fi rms are motivated to examine
how they manage the relationship between their sales force
and physicians. For example, one of the areas of interest to
pharmaceutical industries is the utilization of the knowledge
of physicians’ prescription behavior in improving sales forecasting
and marketing-mix strategies—the primary focus of
this research.
In this paper, we study the benefi ts of incorporating the
knowledge of physicians’ prescription behavior into the . . .

. . . . . (baca_selengkapnya )

Artikel lengkap dikompilasi oleh/hubungi :
Kanaidi, SE., M.Si (Penulis, Peneliti, PeBisnis, Trainer dan Dosen Marketing Management). e-mail ke : kana_ati@yahoo.com atau kanaidi@poltekpos.ac.id

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