While the pharmaceutical market may be in a constant state of flux and change, it seems that there is a definite trend away from the marketing of big brand, wide reach products to more “niche” medicines and that this change seems to be accelerating. This poses an additional challenge for the pharmaceutical company’s sales staff, especially in the arena of professional education.

Pharmaceutical companies may now be more concerned with discussing product branding at an early stage of the development cycle, as they are keenly aware of the volatile nature of the market and additional constraints that will emerge as the company tries to penetrate and satisfy these more narrow-minded niche markets. It is possible that resistance could be significant and this can mean that more attention should be paid to branding as a critical early component of the marketing cycle.

Increasingly so, pharmaceutical markets are overcrowded. So many choices are presented to a consumer and a wide variety of external forces often come into the purchasing decision, including advice given by the petitioner or front-line professional. Every one of us expects instantaneous information to be available whenever we need it and we’re now getting used to engaging with each other much more often within social networks and online. As a consequence, we are becoming much more educated about every aspect of our existence. While the consumer becomes more educated and the market becomes more crowded, the efficiency of a marketing program must be in sharp focus for a company’s senior executives.

Pharmaceutical companies are finding that they now need more time to shape and condition the market to ensure that the product is more accepted when it rolls out. This underlines the need for early marketing efforts during brand creation and the need to ensure that educational channels are engaged.

While niche product areas are the subject of greater marketing emphasis, more emotions are involved in the end-user decision process as well and the professional is less likely to advise the consumer to go down the more beaten track. This requires a pharmaceutical company to be very clear and distinct in its marketing methods and messages, in order to differentiate itself from its competitors in the eyes of its target markets. Consequently, the company’s sales force members are under even more pressure now than they were before, as they must penetrate an increasingly sceptical barrier at the practitioner level with an even more targeted and stronger message accordingly.

The sales force is of primary importance to the success of the company and senior officials are turning in greater numbers to pharmaceutical consultants and pharmaceutical consulting firms to help them train and focus the force accordingly. In most cases, pharma consulting plays a great role in helping the organisation to identify shifting marketing forces, especially when associated with niche concentration. The distant professional must be the subject of more attention and sharper skills will be needed, with more training required to ensure that the sales executive breaks through all barriers and achieves the results. Effective implementation requires an equal amount of experience, ability and training.

Alan Gillies is the Director of L2L Consulting, an elite pharmaceutical consultancy firm which specialises in Strategy Development and Implementation Excellence for prestigious multi-national organisations.