The Imp is a businessman. He is in advertising - in fact, owns his own advertising company. And as a responsible business owner, he has to keep his eyes peeled for changes that can affect the business.
Today we got a whopper. The following is a quote from an industry newsletter I subscribe to, Counselor Promogram:
Pharma Market Bans Promo Products From Doctors’ Offices
In a move that carries great consequence for the ad specialty industry, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced a revision to its industry code that prohibits the distribution of non-educational items to health-care professionals. In practice, it would ban the giving of pens, coffee mugs, notepads, magnets and scores of other branded “reminder items” that are routinely found in any doctor’s office. The change becomes effective January 1, 2009.
How does this affect my industry? Well, next time you go to a doctor’s office, look around and see how many items in it are branded with the name/logo of one prescription drug or another. Pens, clipboards, mugs, tongue depressors (!), bags, all of them with the info for one drug or another. Now imagine all of them gone. POOF! As of January 1, thay cannot be distributed by the sales reps for pharmaceutical companies. There are companies in my industry who do nothing but serve the pharmaceutical sales with these products. For them, they just received a 24-week countdown. They need to identify and replace that business by year’s end… or it may be game over.
How does it affect the Imp? Well, funny you should ask. The Imp prefers to make lemonade from his lemons. First, many doctor’s offices don’t have budgets for these sorts of items - after all, they’ve been getting them free for years from the drug sales force. but their patients will still need pens, the care providers will still need clipboards, etc. My own prediction - instead of providing items directly, these companies will now instead offer cooperative advertisiing money to the medical providers, so that they can get their bags. pens, mugs made - as long as they also include the logo of the drug manufacturer. As a smaller company who deals with thee folks directly, this is now a chance at increased buusiness, as the production turns to smaller batches.
The Imp likes smaller batches… and he likes his chances to grow…
