Lawrence S. Silver

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals: Concepts, Issues, and Research

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs, legal only in the United States and New Zealand, has generated a great deal of research in the marketing literature. To introduce this special issue of Health Marketing Quarterly on direct-to-consumer advertising we will provide an overview of the subject including its history, benefits, criticisms, and the public’s reaction. In this way, we hope to highlight those areas concerning DTC advertising that are addressed by the papers in this issue. The increase in DTC advertising represents a shift from the emphasis on the more traditional ‘‘push’’ strategy to a ‘‘pull’’ strategy. The push strategy focused on pharmaceutical reps calling on medical providers to provide information and samples of medications which were then prescribed to patients. The pull strategy focuses on promoting the medications to the consumer who in turn, will ask the medical provider about the product.

Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Textbooks are an integral component of the higher education process. However, a great deal of concern about the high costs of college textbooks has been expressed by those inside and outside of higher education. The authors focus on the results of a pilot study of a survey of marketing professors’ criteria and use of textbooks and their reactions to some of the changes that have been implemented or may be implemented by universities, state legislatures, and publishers to combat these cost escalations. Findings indicate that respondents appear to have strong resistance to university, legislative, and publisher actions that infringe on their options in selecting textbooks and how long they would have to use a specific textbook before replacing it with a newer edition. This was particularly true of a university policy requiring low-cost textbooks be adopted, requiring instructors to keep textbooks for all classes for at least 3 years, requiring publishers to send an invoice after a 30-day review period, and requiring sending only 1 examination per department. There were also significant differences among respondents based on a t test and analysis of variance. Basically, those who had more teaching experience (11 or more years) were opposed to any legislation or university policy about publishers releasing cost data or requiring the use of the lowest cost text. They also ranked the importance of content higher than their counterparts.

Sticker Shock: Management Professors' Perspectives on the Rising Costs of College Textbooks.

This study uses Internet survey methodology to target management instructors’ views on the cost of textbooks and the strategies that might be exercised by universities, publishers, and legislatures to control cost increases. From a random sample of 2,893 management professors selected, using university websites, from universities throughout the United States, 228 provided useable responses. Findings suggest that management instructors, particularly those with years of experience, acknowledge the concerns their students have over high textbook prices. They are willing to have legislation enacted to force changes in the marketing of the textbooks by publishers, but they do not want university policies that unduly (from their perspective) restrict their choices for texts. Nor are they in favor of possible publisher cost saving strategies that appear to add administrative burdens on faculty involved in the adoption process. Future research should include investigating techniques for reducing the rising costs of textbooks.

Challenges in Marketing Academic Conferences: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT An Internet survey was conducted to examine the factors influencing attendance at academic conferences. A total of 76 respondents answered questions addressing recent conference attendance, registration fees, total costs of attendance, and university reimbursement. Factors influencing attendance were ranked, and respondent characteristics were collected. As expected, most respondents reported that the two most important factors influencing their decision to attend a conference was their role in the conference and location. However, the majority of respondents reported that the conference they most frequently attend had declining attendance over the last five years, which represents challenges to event organizers.

The Essentials of Marketing Research : Text and Cases

Part I: The Marketing Process and Decision Making 1. Introduction to Marketing Research 2. Ethics in Marketing Research Part II: Secondary Data and Research Designs 3. Secondary Data 4. Research Designs: Exploratory and Qualitative Research 5. Research Designs: Descriptive and Causal Research Part III: Measurement, Data Collection and Sampling 6. Measurement 7. Primary Data Collection 8. Designing the Data-Gathering Instrument 9. Sampling Methods and Sample Size 10. Fielding the Data-Gathering Instrument Part IV: Data Analysis and Reporting 11. Analyzing and Interpreting Data for Decisions 12. Advanced Data Analysis 13. The Research Report Part V: Cases