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When promoting an established product, how large should my ad budget be?
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Ad budgets should be based upon the target audience and the therapeutic class in which a product competes.
The criteria used in determining an ad budget for an established product should in part be based upon the
target audience. A significantly higher level of ad spending is required to reach primary care physicians
while a lower budget can be used for specialists who confine their practice to selected conditions. Other
considerations include target audience size, opportunity to prescribe, product life cycle, message complexity,
response model norms and noise level. PCPs tend to receive a great deal of promotion and therefore are less
likely to recall advertising for any one product than specialists who see limited promotion for selected
products in which they have a high degree of interest.
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A second major consideration when establishing an ad budget relates to the product type being promoted.
ACNielsen HCI has found that campaign recognition and product recall norms can vary significantly from
one therapeutic class to another. For example, in the Primary Care Markets a print budget of $4,000,000
for an oral anti-ulcer/spasmodic would be expected to produce an ad recognition score that is 43% higher
than that expected from an anti-hypertensive. In the Specialty Markets, a print budget of $1,000,000
for a dermatology product should generate an ad recognition score that is 45% higher than the result
expected from a psychiatric drug.
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Do's and Don'ts
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Do's
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Make sure that you have correctly identified your target audience.
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Recognize that for a given spend level, there are differences in ad recognition and product recall from one drug class to another.
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Plan for the proper balance between detailing and support promotion so that the effectiveness of detailing is matched by the efficiency of advertising in leveraging the detailing effort.
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Design a media schedule that places ads where they get the greatest exposure. Greater frequency in lead journals is more important than schedule depth, once reach and frequency goals reach diminishing returns.
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Dont's
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Don't underfund an ad campaign by stringing it out so that spend levels are below monthly thresholds.
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