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Direct talked recently with Sarah Wilcox, group account director of the healthcare practice at Draft Chicago, for her thoughts on trends in healthcare direct marketing.

DIRECT: Is there one area you're seeing activity increasing in the healthcare space?

WILCOX: The question of how to develop a relationship with customers that can drive brand preference is really becoming more and more important. What we're seeing is that there is very little brand loyalty, even in the Rx space, as more and more new products [debut]. You know, you have 150 or so cholesterol drugs on the market. And if you look at lifestyle-type drugs, people and their physicians are willing to try new products. How do you keep these patients and consumers brand loyal?

DIRECT: Have there been a lot of CRM initiatives?

WILCOX: Yes. On the Rx side, [there's] a lot of talk about compliance. It varies by category, but only 50% of people who receive a prescription actually fill it. There's two [things] to look at. One is to get [customers] to comply to the way the prescription is written, and the other is extended use of a product. What we see on the consumer marketing side is people looking at how to extend the use for one more script. You'll see a lot more of the compliance [aspect] working on the professional side.

DIRECT: What's happening online?

WILCOX: Patients use the Internet as their first line of research. That's where they're doing their information gathering. Obviously, other media channels like DRTV or print are [also] driving the messaging. But where the information seeking is really happening is online. It depends on how viral your category is, and who's really influencing the decision. The more considered the purchase, the more digital becomes important, because you can do comparisons. We're all being trained as arbitrageurs online, because now [you can] look at different prices, do product comparisons — you can do it all.

DIRECT: Do you find that consumers are willing to share information online to opt in to programs like e-mail newsletters?

WILCOX: We do. I think you'll always see we have a lower rate of opt out than the general market. If you're a diabetes patient or an allergy sufferer or you've got sleep problems, you want to get information. In a general market, we may opt in [because something is] ‘nice to have’ but then opt out, because you can only get and read so many e-mail newsletters.

DIRECT: Is there a greater use of television?

WILCOX: In the direct-to-consumer market, TV expenditures keep going up. But one trend we're seeing is that we're driving more people online to fulfill. I think some of that is just the way we're training consumers.

DIRECT: Because of increasing online activity, are you seeing less use of direct mail?

WILCOX: I think direct mail will always serve a purpose. There will always be people who like the tangible benefits of direct mail. I think it depends on the category. If there's a great deal of information, whether it's about a disease or product information, I can read it at my leisure. Online, people are [looking] for immediate results. You might go online to look up a new product, but in terms of a retention program — the actual benefits — you might want more of a direct mail approach.