Full Title: Online Consumer Forums: Reaching Patients and Caregivers through Online Communities Introduction Online consumer health forums allow pharmaceutical companies to observe consumer reaction to their products in a real-world setting. Information gained from monitoring consumer interactions can be used to improve marketing to target audiences, identify indications for which the product is being under-prescribed and make improvements to the products themselves. Scope - Insight into the unique information needs of patient and caregiver audiences based on Datamonitor’s 2004 Consumer Insight Survey
- Analysis of the growing importance of providing support for consumers through all stages of a disease
- Recommendations on how pharmaceutical companies can best design and launch consumer health forums as part of their online marketing initiatives
- Identification of support features and capabilities of online health communities, including news and information features as well as online forums
Highlights Pharmaceutical companies that would like focused consumer feedback related to consumers’ experiences with a specific drug therapy should consider offering online forums on their websites. This approach allows individual companies to initiate and influence the direction of discussion threads relevant to current and potential products. Online forums that do not make the distinction between the patient and the caregiver audiences will not be as helpful to marketing managers as forums that do because the more subjective aspects of disease, such as caregiver burden or patient stress, may not be discussed in depth. Print, radio and TV ads allow pharmaceutical companies to create an advertising message and push it towards consumers. The Internet and online communities are different because they require that visitors are drawn to a message. The focus, therefore, has to be on what the company can provide visitors to attract them to visit and return to a site. Reasons to Purchase - Design an online community feature that specifically meets the needs of the intended audience to attract consumers to a forum
- Encourage return users to an online health forum by creating an atmosphere that promotes support and security
- Understand the unique needs of the patient and caregiver audiences and how to best meet these needs with independent and targeted online health forums
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