Public relations and its role in pharmaceutical brand building

Abstract

In the information age, the power of public relations as a pharmaceutical marketing tool is being appreciated as never before. If you ask different people, you will probably get different answers as to why this is the case: its credibility; its flexibility; its efficiency in using the mass media and the Internet; its utility as both a pre-launch and post-launch marketing tool in a regulated environment; its ability to cut through the clutter to reach and influence diverse populations, including increasingly important consumer audiences; its capacity to leverage the multiplicity of communications outlets that have proliferated in recent years. Any or all of these answers would be appropriate. Public relations has blossomed as a marketing discipline in recent years to gain strong acceptance as a brand-building device.