Vaccine Marketing - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 398

macroeconomic impacts. These vaccine specifi cities are currently poorly captured
in many economic evaluations, which may result in cost-effectiveness estimates that
make vaccines unacceptable to buyers (Beutels et al. 2008 ).

13.4.6 Communication

The target audience, behavioral goals, communication goals, positioning objects,
and communication channels for a vaccine depend on two market characteristics:
(1) whether vaccination is mandatory or voluntary and (2) whether physicians can
choose between different brands (provider choice) or not.
When vaccination is mandatory and providers cannot choose, national or
regional authorities mandate vaccination and choose one brand. They generally
manage the entire immunization program including vaccine distribution, selection
of vaccination settings and vaccinators, and immunization communication. Vaccine
manufacturers' communication efforts are minimal in such situations, and targeted
at public authorities. The behavioral goals are (a) to make vaccination mandatory,
(b) win the contract in case there are competing suppliers, and (c) obtain a high
price. The corresponding communication goals are to increase the need for vacci-
nation, and to create brand preference and a high willingness to pay. This requires
positioning the disease (Angelmar et al. 2007 ) in addition to positioning the brand
and supplier. Personal selling via key account management is the key communica-
tion channel.
Situations where vaccination is voluntary and providers do not choose the brand
are very similar to the previous case. Examples are the 2009 H1N1 campaigns in
most countries, and HPV vaccination in the UK and some other countries where
governments chose one of the two competing HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix.
The main difference from the point of view of communication is that vaccine manu-
facturers may need to focus less on the need for vaccination and positioning the
disease in the minds of authorities. For example, for H1N1 this was done mainly by
WHO. Authorities, however, face a big challenge to convince consumers to vacci-
nate, especially if demand for vaccination is far lower than the amount of vaccines
purchased. US health authorities mounted a signifi cant consumer communication
effort using a broad range of media to use up their large stock of H1N1 vaccine
doses (Anonymous 2010 ).
Situations where vaccination is mandatory but physicians can choose between
different brands of vaccine are more challenging for vaccine marketers and involve
higher communication investments. Targeting physicians to achieve brand prefer-
ence and brand recommendation to consumers typically requires face-to-face sell-
ing through medical representatives, plus other channels (medical journal
advertising, congresses, continuing medical education, etc.).
Finally, the most challenging situation for vaccine marketers is where vaccination
is voluntary, and physicians can choose brands. When vaccination is voluntary, this