Social media for disease awareness in Brazil : pharmaceutical employees perspective
Authors
Assuncao Bhering, Marcela
Issue Date
2015
Degree
MSc in Marketing
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Digital progress has affected the way companies interact and think their marketing strategies. In Brazil, social media has been demonstrated to be an effective tool to improve customer’s reach and engagement. However pharmaceutical industry has some restrictions and the customers decision-making process seems to be more complicated and it involves others influencers. When investing in social media for patients’ education, Pharmaceutical industry needs to tell people they may be sick and need to sick for a doctor. However 'seek for a doctor' is just the begging of the patient journey until he buys and/or consume the medicine. Due to the communication restriction, the freshness of social media and the complexity of the patient journey, marketers need to have a guide to help them to develop and implement social media campaigns and also be aware about the impact of social media campaign on sales performance to justify this investment. This research aims to answer the following question: 'How can pharmaceutical industry use social media in Brazil as a tool to provide patient education, and encourage patients to seek for treatment with theirs doctors?'