New Skills to Apply the New Rules

When PHARMA happened and the drug industry association banned promotional products to doctors by their members, many in our industry wrung their hands and moaned. Others blamed our association leaders for not seeing and preventing it. One industry colleague took to heart my proposition that opportunity is the other side of the coin—that every challenge can reveal an opportunity. He told me that he spent one day driving to doctor's offices and health clinics and observing whom besides patients were going there. Who has something to sell to doctors and clinics besides pharmaceutical reps? He now calls up those who want to sell to doctors—financial planners, landscaping companies, office equipment suppliers, IT providers, payroll companies, janitorial services—and explains to them that these are offices that have never bought a pen, a Post-it note, a calendar and a host of other supplies and how much they value promotional products. This is RESILIENCE in action!

Along those same lines, the Pharma ban is on business-to-business promotional products. Couldn't promotional products distributed to consumers with QR codes deliver videos and other "ask your doctor" advice to help achieve drug company objectives?

In today's economy, "Play the Bounce!"

(This is the twelfth part in a series on the New Rules of Marketing. Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10 or part 11.)