Past researches tried to explore the impact of disease awareness advertising only on relationship between drug manufacturers and consumers. As physicians are a significant stakeholder, it is important for marketers to know views of physicians before any communication planning. The present research intends to primarily understand the views of Indian health care professionals about effectiveness of awareness advertising. The objective of the research is to understand attitudes of health care professionals towards disease awareness advertising as a pharma marketing communication tool. Result shows that most physicians think positively regarding the nature of awareness advertising. However, there is mixed feeling about impact of disease awareness advertising on patients. Physicians have a feeling that awareness advertising may cause confusion and unnecessary fear among patients as the concept is new to them and they might not be mature enough to understand campaign objectives.

Awareness campaigns are intended to influence a wide audience and build awareness not only of the disease and unmet needs, but also potentially to put your company, brand or service in the list of options of solutions, or positive contributors, to better health outcomes and disease management. There are several focus areas for assessing if your disease awareness campaign is doing what you intended.

There are multiple reasons why pharmaceutical companies have considerably less brand recognition compared to companies in other industries, however it comes down to the way products are positioned. Consumer goods companies often market their products in an effort to make their brand synonymous with the product itself.

For example, Apple has done a particularly good job of branding themselves and their technology. The company’s proprietary iPad is often used to refer to any tablet, much the same way that the iPod became a general name for any MP3 player.

But prescription drugs are branded differently than other products. Due in part to pharmaceutical marketing regulations set forth by the FDA, pharma companies have traditionally applied a product-focused brand model to promote their medicines. In a direct to consumer (DTC) ad for a newly-approved drug, pharmaceutical marketers will place the biggest emphasis on:

The Problem – A disease or condition that affects a subset of the population
The Solution – How the company’s drug can benefit patients
The Risks – What adverse events were associated with use of the drug during clinical trials, and any contraindications