Margie Dana

Thanks for subscribing to Margie's Print Tips, written to build bridges between the printing industry and its customers.

Print Buying in the Pharma Field

Never one to pass up an opportunity to talk about New Jersey, my home state, I knew the day would come when I would relate print buying to the Garden State. It didn't take more than 3 seconds for a particular topic to pop into my head for this column: pharmaceutical companies.

According to the Biotechnology Council of NJ, Inc. (BCNJ), 75% of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies are in NJ. You know them well - firms like Sanofi/Aventis, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Schering-Plough come to mind. BCNJ reports on its web site (www.biotechnj.org) that "pharmaceutical and related industries contribute some $20 billion" to the NJ economy every year. About 62,000 employees work in this field in the state. One interesting factoid I found on this site as well: NJ has more scientists per capita than any other US state.

Since NJ is a mecca for pharmaceutical firms, I wondered what it's like buying print in this field. Are the buyers' needs or their buying preferences any different from other buyers? I spoke with several people to find out.

Ray Kunzmann is principal of The Kunzmann Group, LLC, a New Jersey—based print production management outsourcing company that helps clients plan and execute best practices in the purchase of print and graphic arts services. Ray's an RIT grad, and at one time he was Director of Production for two leading pharmaceutical advertising agencies, as well as Director of Production & Distribution for Pharmacia (a former pharmaceutical company that has since been bought by Pfizer). I knew I'd learn from Ray.

The core print purchasers in pharma companies work on behalf of the marketing departments even though they may report through Procurement, Purchasing, or directly through Marketing. They're in charge of buying all of the marketing print materials for the specific products their firm chooses to market at a particular time.

According to Ray, a generally large number of marketing/selling materials (including direct mail) are produced by the pharma companies for each product being promoted in each POA (Plan of Action, which is the selling period designated by the pharma company). Some companies have two, three, or even four POAs planned in a given year. However, even though copious amounts of materials are printed, the field reps often don’t utilize what is printed, resulting in waste that is realized at the end of the POA or the financial year.

What Makes a Pharma Printer Different?

Pharma print buyers look for super-fast turnaround times in a print service provider. If a printer understands that this industry is fraught with changes - and that printers have to be able to deal with tons of AA's - they will stand out above their competition.

Mark Gerber of Gerber Graphics in Leominster, MA does a lot of work for this industry - about 25% of his business, in fact. He described a common scenario: doctors prescribe a new product (a particular medication, let's say), and the customer (pharma firm) sends a survey to all of the doctor's patients. Data is gathered from survey results and a report is written and published. This report is transformed into a personalized direct mail package and sent out by the pharma firm to promote the product.

Do pharma buyers have different expectations from buyers in other fields? Absolutely, said Gerber. They want instantaneous results and up-to-the-minute information. Speed is more of an issue than cost. Jobs change repeatedly - as much as 12 times in an hour an a half, he added. "You need to provide superb customer service and respond in minutes - never in hours."

Printers for pharma clients are held to higher standards, according to Gerber. One mistake, one missed deadline, and you're out as a vendor.

By the way, many documents from a pharma customer go through an extensive review process with their legal departments, and as a result, noted Gerber, their files are pristine.

Brian Haley is a print sales rep for Riegel Printing in Ewing, NJ. Riegel does a great deal of work for the pharmaceutical industry (40% of its sales). Turnaround times are "crazy," noted Haley, tighter than even the financial services firms. Though quality and price are in the back of a print buyer's mind, it comes down to speed. Being able to deliver when the customer wants it, no matter how quickly, helps differentiate Riegel as a print provider for this market.

Pharma Buyer Weighs In

Jennifer Thomas is the Manager of Print/Premium Production for Centocor, Inc. in PA. She heads a staff of print buyers and is quick to note that their role is more project management than just buying print. Products purchased include visual aids, journal reprint articles, convention panels (for trade shows), journal inserts, direct mail for patient materials, flash cards, letters, and lots of materials for physicians.

Timelines for print projects get shorter and shorter, noted Thomas. "Everybody wants everything faster. They assume that ink doesn't have to dry on paper."

One of her biggest challenges is the ubiquitous package insert for a pharmaceutical product. "Our inserts are long," she said, "so we have to come up with creative ways to attach them - it's like origami!"

Currently, Centocor is not producing a significant amount of digitally printed work, due to quantities and finished sizes. Thomas made another interesting point that separates the pharma buyer from other professional buyers: very little of her print materials have moved to the Web. Sales reps in the pharmaceutical field still go door-to-door. What's the leading characteristic of a print sales rep that Thomas looks for? Honesty. (It is no surprise to me, as I've surveyed many print buyers from a variety of fields, with exactly the same result.)

In other key ways, buyers in the pharma field are like professional buyers elsewhere:

• Thomas likes getting her printers involved early. They need to know about FDA deadlines and regulations. Because of the FDA, she likes working with printers who have pharma experience.

• Print providers who are innovative and creative in their ideas to help her firm save money get high marks.

• Thomas counts on her printers to keep her up to date with printing technology.

It's clear that buyers in a pharmaceutical firm look for print partners that can turn jobs around almost instantaneously. Response times for all communications between customer and printer must be super-fast. If quality and price criteria are met, this one characteristic gets the printer bumped to the head of the line.

©2007 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Comments? Talk to me at

New BPB Poll

Print customers, tell us this:
In what part of your organization do you work?

• Purchasing

• Creative Services

• Communications

• Marketing

• Media

• Editorial

• Other

Go to our home page. The poll is in the right column.

Print Buyers Speak!

Our home page interactive feature has a new topic this week. We ask print customers this question:

How important to you is the look of a printing company's web site?

We want YOUR 2 cents! To give it, go to www.bostonprintbuyers.com and look for "Print Buyers Speak" in the middle of the home page.

Upcoming BPB Dinner Program:

"Environmentally Sustainable Advertising & Print Production"
Sponsored by Pictorial Offset Corporation

Tuesday, September 25th, 6 - 8:30 pm
Millennium Bostonian Hotel, Boston, MA

Our September program will focus on one of the hottest issues in our industry today: sustainability. Thanks to our sponsor, Pictorial Offset, we'll hear from a panel of experts on how you and your organization can take steps to practice sustainability in the areas of advertising and print production.

Only print customers and those who influence the purchase of print may attend this sponsored program. The cost is $20 for BPB members; $50 for all others.

Register today at www.bostonprintbuyers.com/events.

Print Tips Archives!

Our Print Tips archives are public. Access them from the home page of our site
under Print Tips at www.bostonprintbuyers.com.