To the editor:

I wish to add another perspective on the issues raised in Tony Pugh’s article, “Doctors recommend cutting back on drug salesmen” (J-W, Sept. 1). In a study published in the July 2001 issue of the Journal of Marketing, the FG and her co-authors find that detailing (the technical term for personal selling in the pharmaceutical industry) actually increases physicians’ price sensitivity. In other words, the persuasive aspect of sales presentations is mitigated by increased awareness of drug features, availability, and competitors’ prices. This increased awareness, in turn, makes physicians much more conscious of price.

Indeed, the positive aspects of marketing communications have been well documented. In a classic study of advertising restrictions on optometrists, Lee Benham found that prices of eyeglasses were $20 higher (in 1963 dollars) in states banning advertising than in those that did not. In addition, other researchers have found that high levels of advertising were associated with unstable market shares, consistent with the idea that advertising promoted competition rather than monopoly.

These studies inform us that marketing activities have the potential to be socially useful. Thus, banning (or limiting) marketing activities may not necessarily make us all better off.

Kissan Joseph,

Lawrence