Seeding trial

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A seeding trial or marketing trial is a form of marketing, conducted in the name of research, designed to target product sampling towards selected consumers. In the marketing research field, seeding is the process of allocating marketing to specific customers, or groups of customers, in order to stimulate the internal dynamics of the market, and enhance the diffusion process. In medicine, seeding trials are clinical trials or research studies in which the primary objective is to introduce the concept of a particular medical intervention—such as a pharmaceutical drug or medical device—to physicians, rather than to test a scientific hypothesis. [1]

Contents

To create loyalty and advocacy towards a brand, seeding trials take advantage of opinion leadership to enhance sales, capitalizing on the Hawthorne Effect. [2] In a seeding trial, the brand provides potential opinion leaders with the product for free, aiming to gain valuable pre-market feedback and also to build support among the testers, creating influential word-of-mouth advocates for the product. By involving the opinion leaders as testers, effectively inviting them to be an extension of the marketing department, companies can create "a powerful sense of ownership among the clients, customers or consumers that count" by offering engaging the testers in a research dialogue. [2] Seeding trials in medicine are not illegal but are considered unethical because they "deceive investigators, clinicians, and patients, subverting the scientific process". [3]

In medicine

Seeding trials to promote a medical intervention were described as "trials of approved drugs [that] appear to serve little or no scientific purpose" and "thinly veiled attempts to entice doctors to prescribe a new drug being marketed by the company" in a special article in the New England Journal of Medicine . The article, whose authors included U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Aaron Kessler, also described a number of characteristics common to seeding trials: [4]

In a seeding trial, doctors and their patients are given free access to a drug and exclusive information and services to use the drug effectively. Additionally, participating physicians are often given financial remuneration and a chance to be a co-author on a resulting scientific publication. By triggering the Hawthorne effect, physicians become "opinion-leading word-of-mouth advocates". [2] This practice has been shown to be effective. [5]

Seeding trials are not illegal, but such practices are considered unethical. [1] [6] [7] The obfuscation of true trial objectives (primarily marketing) prevents the proper establishment of informed consent for patient decisions. [1] Additionally, trial physicians are not informed of the hidden trial objectives, which may include the physicians themselves being intended study subjects (such as in undisclosed evaluations of prescription practices). [1] Seeding trials may also utilize inappropriate promotional rewards, which may exert undue influence or coerce desirable outcomes. [1]

Examples

Documents released during a court case indicate that the Assessment of Differences between Vioxx and Naproxen To Ascertain Gastrointestinal Tolerability and Effectiveness (ADVANTAGE) trial of Vioxx conducted by Merck may have been a seeding trial, with the intention being to introduce the drug to physicians rather than test its efficacy. [6] [8] [9] It appears Merck knew about the potential criticism they would face; an internal email suggested: "It may be a seeding study, but let's not call it that in our internal documents". [6] [10] The 2003 study was originally published in the Annals of Internal Medicine [11] but was strongly criticized for its deception by the journal's editors in a 2008 editorial, calling for greater responsibility in academia to end the practice of "marketing in the guise of science". [12]

In the STEPS trial Pfizer presented their drug Neurontin in a way that merged pharmaceutical marketing with research. [13] This trial and other practices led to the company's loss in Franklin v. Parke-Davis .

In marketing

Product Placement is an advertising technique used by companies to subtly promote their products through a non-traditional advertising technique, usually through appearances in film, television, or other media. [14]

In the marketing field, seeding is considered the process of allocating marketing to specific customers, or groups of customers, in order to stimulate the internal dynamics of the market, enhance the diffusion process and encourage faster adoption of the product throughout the entire population. In a marketing seeding program, a company offers some sort of promotion (free product, discounts, service trials, etc.) to a niche group of people with the intention that this would stimulate WOM. An early example of a seeding trial was during the development of Post-it notes, produced by 3M. In 1977, secretaries to senior management staff throughout the United States were sent packs of Post-its and invited to suggest possible uses for them. They soon found them to be extremely useful and became "brand champions" for the product, an early example of viral marketing. [15] Companies that have used seeding trials include Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Hasbro, Google, Unilever, Pepsi, Coke, Ford, DreamWorks SKG, EMI, Sony, and Siemens. [2]

Two of the main managerial decisions revolving around seeding focus on seeding of advertising in a multinational market and the process of seeding the product itself. Determining how many and which consumers within a particular social network should be seeded to maximize adoption is a challenging task for a firm.

Seeding Strategies (how to seed?)

In 2005, a team of marketing researchers, Barak Libai, Eitan Muller and Renana Peres, found that, contrary to managerial intuition and common assumptions in marketing research, strategies that disperse marketing efforts are generally better strategies. These include 'support the weak', in which the firm focuses its marketing efforts on the remaining market potential, and 'uniform', in which the firm distributes the marketing efforts evenly among its regions. [16] This conclusion is congruent with the work of Japanese business strategist Kenichi Ohmae, which suggests that the sprinkler business model is superior and recommended to companies wishing to start a seeding program. [17]

Researchers Jeonghye Choi of Yonsei University, Sam Hui of Stern School of Business at New York University and David Bell of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, explored two imitation effects of the demand at an Internet retailer, geographic proximity and demographic similarity and concluded that firms can influence the space–time demand path through seeding. The researchers conceived a new seeding strategy called “Proximity-and-similarity-based strategy”, in which the firm seeds the new product by choosing new zip codes that are the most responsive while adjusting the impact of proximity and similarity effects over time, and compare it to the three strategies presented in Libai, Muller and Peres's research,“support the strong”, “support the weak” and “uniform”. They argue that with time, the “proximity-and similarity-based strategy” performs best because the similarity effect begins to affect new and distant areas. Namely, serving many small pools of similar buyers demographically, who are geographically distant from one another, is crucial for an Internet retailer because then sales increase over time. [18]

Yogesh Joshi of University of Maryland, David Reibsteinand and John Zhang of Wharton Business School found that when the question of optimal entry timing arises, firms shouldn't necessarily enter a new market based on a strong leverage effect, a situation where a firm's presence in an existing market has a positive influence on product adoption in a new market. Also, a backlash effect shouldn't prevent the firm from entering a new market, a situation where social influence on the existing market is negative. Researchers show that the optimal strategy is a trade-off between the three factors of leverage, backlash, and patience. [19]

Seeding Objectives

One of the key questions surrounding seeding programs over the last decade has been whether or not it's more effective for companies to seed via influencers or random people through customers networks.

Many authors and scholars addressed this issue. Malcolm Gladwell discuses the “Law of the Few” in his book, The Tipping Point . He suggests that highly connected and rare people have the ability to shape the world. This handful of unique people can spread the word around and create a social epidemic through their connections, charm, personality, expertise and persuasiveness. The notion that a small group of people can influence others and cause them to adopt products, services or behaviors was the subject of another book, The Influentials by Edward Keller and Jonathan Berry. This minority comprises a wide range of people who act as experts in their field and their opinions are highly regarded by their peers. [20]

From a more academic point of view, Barak Libai, Eitan Muller and Renana Peres constructed a research in the subject which is among the first to shed light on the actual value created by word of mouth programs and explore issues such as how targeting opinion leaders creates more value than targeting random customers. [21] [22] In seeding programs, word-of-mouth can gain customers who would not otherwise have bought the product, this is called expansion. However, word-of-mouth can also accelerate the purchase process of customers who would have purchased anyway, the faster the adoption, the greater the profits. These processes of expansion and acceleration integrate to create social value in a word-of-mouth seeding program for a new product. Furthermore, when deciding upon an optimal seeding program, the researchers conclude that “Influencer Seeding Programs” yield higher customer equity than “random Seeding Programs”. Of course, the decision about which program type to adopt depends on how much the company is willing to invest in discovering their influencers. [23]

German researchers Oliver Hinz of Universität Darmstadt, Bernd Skiera of University of Frankfurt, and Christian Barrot and Jan U. Becker of Kühne Logistics University, argue that seeding strategies have strong influence on the success of viral marketing campaigns. The results propose that seeding to well-connected people is the most successful approach because these attractive seeding points are more likely to participate in viral marketing campaigns. Well-connected people also actively use their greater reach but do not have more influence on their peers than do less connected people. [24]

On the other side of the debate, some argue that influencers have no such effect and therefore companies shouldn't target their seeding efforts on a specific group of people. Duncan Watts and Peter Dodds examined the phenomenon through a computer network simulation under the assumption that influential people are more difficult to influence, therefore social hubs have a lower tendency to adopt new products. Their work suggests that highly connected individuals do not play a crucial role in influencing others and that a random individual is just as likely to start a trend as connected people. [25]

Related Research Articles

Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another. It can be delivered by word of mouth, or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rofecoxib</span> Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

Rofecoxib is a COX-2-selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). It was marketed by Merck & Co. to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, acute pain conditions, migraine, and dysmenorrhea. Rofecoxib was approved in the US by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 1999, and was marketed under the brand names Vioxx, Ceoxx, and Ceeoxx. Rofecoxib was available by prescription in both tablets and as an oral suspension.

Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors, also known as coxibs, are a type of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that directly target cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), an enzyme responsible for inflammation and pain. Targeting selectivity for COX-2 reduces the risk of peptic ulceration and is the main feature of celecoxib, rofecoxib, and other members of this drug class.

Pharmaceutical marketing is a branch of marketing science and practice focused on the communication, differential positioning and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, like specialist drugs, biotech drugs and over-the-counter drugs. By extension, this definition is sometimes also used for marketing practices applied to nutraceuticals and medical devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triamterene</span> Chemical compound

Triamterene is a potassium-sparing diuretic often used in combination with thiazide diuretics for the treatment of high blood pressure or swelling. The combination with hydrochlorothiazide, is known as hydrochlorothiazide/triamterene.

Continuing medical education (CME) is continuing education (CE) that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. These activities may take place as live events, written publications, online programs, audio, video, or other electronic media. Content for these programs is developed, reviewed, and delivered by faculty who are experts in their individual clinical areas. Similar to the process used in academic journals, any potentially conflicting financial relationships for faculty members must be both disclosed and resolved in a meaningful way. However, critics complain that drug and device manufacturers often use their financial sponsorship to bias CMEs towards marketing their own products.

Referral marketing is a word-of-mouth initiative designed by a company to incentivize existing customers to introduce their family, friends, and contacts to become new customers. It differs from pure word-of-mouth strategies, which are primarily customer directed with the company unable to track, influence and measure message content, referral marketing encourages and rewards the referrer for allowing a company to do so.

Viral marketing research is a subset of marketing research that measures and compares the relative return on investment (ROI) of advertising and communication strategies designed to exploit social networks.

The Drug Industry Documents Archive (DIDA) is a digital archive of pharmaceutical industry documents created and maintained by the University of California, San Francisco, Library and Center for Knowledge Management. DIDA is a part of the larger UCSF Industry Documents Library which includes the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents. The archive contains documents about pharmaceutical industry clinical trials, publication of study results, pricing, marketing, relations with physicians and drug company involvement in continuing medical education.

Buzz monitoring is the monitoring of consumer responses to commercial services and products in order to establish the marketing buzz surrounding a new or existing offer. Similar to media monitoring, it is becoming increasingly popular as a base for strategic insight development alongside other forms of market research.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the communication between consumers about a product, service, or company in which the sources are considered independent of direct commercial influence that has been actively influenced or encouraged as a marketing effort. While it is difficult to truly control word of mouth communication, there are three generic avenues to 'manage' word of mouth communication for the purpose of word-of-mouth marketing, including:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merck & Co.</span> American multinational pharmaceutical company

Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and is named for Merck Group, founded in Germany in 1668, of which it was once the American arm. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada. It is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, generally ranking in the global top five by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Stremersch</span>

Stefan Stremersch holds the Desiderius Erasmus Distinguished Chair of Economics and a Chair of Marketing, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Previously he held positions at IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, USA, USC Marshall School of Business, USA, and Ghent University, Belgium. His main research interests focus on innovation diffusion, marketing of technology and science, marketing strategy, new product growth, business economics of the life sciences and commercialization of new technologies. He is the scientific director of the Erasmus Healthcare Business Center and ECMI. Stremersch is also founder and director at The Marketing Technology and Innovation Institute (MTI²), a consulting company focused on helping companies innovate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renana Peres</span> Israeli researcher

Renana Peres is an Israeli researcher and a faculty member at the Jerusalem School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. Peres is the founding CEO of PerSay Ltd. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Marketing Research and International Journal of Research in Marketing and has published her research in top academic and practitioner journals in the fields of marketing and management.

The STEPS trial was a clinical trial sponsored by Parke-Davis to evaluate the anticonvulsant Neurontin. It is notable for being a seeding trial to promote that drug and for contributing to the drug companies loss in the court case Franklin v. Parke-Davis.

Elie Ofek is an Israeli-American economist currently at Harvard Business School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Shachar</span> Israeli professor

Prof. Ron Shachar is an Israeli professor and researcher in the fields of economics, marketing, and storytelling. His research deals with branding, advertising and with a focus on the entertainment industry and political elections. Today, he serves as Head of the Business Honors Program at the Arison School of Business, Reichman University. Prof. Shachar previously served as a faculty member at Tel Aviv University, Yale University, and as the Dean of Arison School of Business at Reichman University.

Barak Libai is a Professor of Marketing at the Arison School of Business at Reichman University. Libai’s research focusses on the strategic importance of Customer profitability, Word of mouth and other social effects on profitability, Customer retention, and the Diffusion of innovations.

Eitan Muller is an Israeli professor of marketing at Stern School of Business at New York University and Arison School of Business at Reichman University. Muller's research focuses on diffusion of innovation, new products and tech, and monetization and pricing.

Eyal Biyalogorsky is a Professor of Marketing and Deputy Dean at the Arison School of Business at the Reichman University. Biyalogorsky's research focusses on pricing, product management, product Marketing strategy and consumer referral management.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Krumholz SD, Egilman DS, Ross JS (June 2011). "Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect, Profile of Safety (STEPS) Trial: A Narrative Account of a Gabapentin Seeding Trial". Arch. Intern. Med. 171 (12): 1100–1107. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.241. PMC   3319750 . PMID   21709111.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Paul Marsden; Justin Kirby (2006). Connected marketing: the viral, buzz and word of mouth revolution . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN   978-0-7506-6634-3.
  3. ↑ Alexander GC (June 2011). "Seeding Trials and the Subordination of Science: Comment on "Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect, Profile of Safety (STEPS) Trial"". Arch. Intern. Med. 171 (12): 1107–8. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.232. PMID   21709112.
  4. ↑ Kessler DA, Rose JL, Temple RJ, Schapiro R, Griffin JP (November 1994). "Therapeutic-class wars--drug promotion in a competitive marketplace". N. Engl. J. Med. 331 (20): 1350–53. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199411173312007 . PMID   7935706.
  5. ↑ Andersen M, Kragstrup J, Søndergaard J (June 2006). "How conducting a clinical trial affects physicians' guideline adherence and drug preferences". JAMA. 295 (23): 2759–64. doi: 10.1001/jama.295.23.2759 . PMID   16788131.
  6. 1 2 3 New Scientist : "Merck catches more flak over dangerous drug" . Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  7. ↑ Katz KA (March 2008). "Time to nip "seeding trials" in the bud". Arch Dermatol. 144 (3): 403–4. doi:10.1001/archderm.144.3.403. PMID   18347299 . Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  8. ↑ New York Times : Berenson, Alex (2005-04-24). "Evidence in Vioxx Suits Shows Intervention by Merck Officials". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  9. ↑ Hill KP, Ross JS, Egilman DS, Krumholz HM (August 2008). "The ADVANTAGE seeding trial: a review of internal documents". Ann. Intern. Med. 149 (4): 251–8. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-149-4-200808190-00006 . PMID   18711155.
  10. ↑ Malakoff D (October 2008). "Clinical trials and tribulations. Allegations of waste: the 'seeding' study". Science. 322 (5899): 213. doi:10.1126/science.322.5899.213. PMID   18845743. S2CID   34630530.
  11. ↑ Lisse JR, Perlman M, Johansson G, et al. (October 2003). "Gastrointestinal tolerability and effectiveness of rofecoxib versus naproxen in the treatment of osteoarthritis: a randomized, controlled trial". Ann. Intern. Med. 139 (7): 539–46. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-139-7-200310070-00005. PMID   14530224. S2CID   19535123.
  12. ↑ Sox HC, Rennie D (August 2008). "Seeding trials: just say "no"". Ann. Intern. Med. 149 (4): 279–80. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-149-4-200808190-00012 . PMID   18711161.
  13. ↑ Steinman, Michael A. (2006). "Narrative Review: The Promotion of Gabapentin: An Analysis of Internal Industry Documents". Annals of Internal Medicine. 145 (4): 284–93. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-145-4-200608150-00008 . ISSN   0003-4819. PMID   16908919.
  14. ↑ "Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing: An Empirical Comparison" (PDF). marketingpower.com. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  15. ↑ Snopes.com: "Post-It Note Origin" . Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  16. ↑ Libai, Barak; Muller, Eitan; Peres, Renana (2005). "The Role of Seeding in Multi-Market Entry" (PDF). International Journal of Research in Marketing. 22 (4): 375–393. doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2005.09.004.
  17. ↑ Ohmae, K. (2000). "The Virtual Continent". New Perspectives Quarterly. 17 (1): 4–14. doi:10.1111/0893-7850.00230.
  18. ↑ Choi, J.; Hui, S. K.; Bell, D. R. (2010). "Spatiotemporal analysis of imitation behavior across new buyers at an online grocery retailer". Journal of Marketing Research. 47 (1): 75–89. doi:10.1509/jmkr.47.1.75. S2CID   167897441.
  19. ↑ Joshi, Y. V.; Reibstein, D. J.; Zhang, Z. J. (2009). "Optimal entry timing in markets with social influence". Management Science. 55 (6): 926–939. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1080.0993.
  20. ↑ Berry, J. & Keller, E. (2003). The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, where to eat, and what to buy. They are The Influentials. The Free Press : New York
  21. ↑ Can You Measure the ROI of Word-of-mouth Programs? Archived 2013-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ↑ New research shows how word of mouth programs really create value
  23. ↑ Libai, Barak; Muller, Eitan; Peres, Renana (2013). "Decomposing the Value of Word-of-Mouth Seeding Programs: Acceleration vs. Expansion" (PDF). Journal of Marketing Research . 50 (2): 161–176. doi:10.1509/jmr.11.0305. S2CID   5989622.
  24. ↑ Hinz, O.; Skiera, B.; Barrot, C.; Becker, J. U. (2011). "Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing: An Empirical Comparison". Journal of Marketing . 75 (6): 55–71. doi:10.1509/jm.10.0088. S2CID   53972310.
  25. ↑ Watts, D. J.; Dodds, P. S. (2007). "Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation". Journal of Consumer Research . 34 (4): 441–458. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.114.4323 . doi:10.1086/518527.

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