A poll we recently posted on LinkedIn portal showed that sixty percent of pharma marketing professionals believe that pharma companies go centralized in their marketing activities. Fourty percent of them think that it is a trend for traditional marketing as well as eMarketing activities. This can be the result of the current difficult economic situation together with changes in the legal and regulatory systems across the world making it difficult for pharmaceutical companies to communicate with health care professionals. But is it the right answer to all the economic, social and political issues currently putting pressure on all original pharmaceutical companies?
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Sure there are many situations that speak for the centralization. The costs of marketing campaign can be spread across several localizing countries and the company as a whole can safe a fair amount of money. On the other hand the organizational structure can at times become quite unclear and non-transparent. Less marketing services providing companies get the chance to compete for a project pitch which may keep the costs of marketing activities quite high. Local operating units may feel neglected and then don’t cooperate during the localization process.
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It is clear that the current process of centralizing marketing activities is based on some sound reasoning. At the same time though, the cons of such a trend need to be foreseen and avoided if the pharmaceutical companies want to enjoy the pros to the full extent.