People looking for information on healthcare now have a new medium to explore-the Internet. As physicians find less time to spend with patients, many people are embracing the Internet to seek more information about health and diseases and their treatment. Thus, Online Direct-to-Consumer (eDTC) marketing promotes prescription drugs by pharma companies directly to consumers via the Internet and related technologies.

Online Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (eDTCA) is mainly practiced through the following methods or tools: Search engine marketing, health portals, disease-specific websites, and point-of-care solutions. While eDTCA offers pharma marketers with a channel to reach patients and build relationships, it also provides opportunities to implement the `pull' marketing strategies as well as innovative ways to promote brand equity. Online DTC marketing also allows pharma marketers to reach healthcare consumers at every stage of the patient's buying cycle. Not surprisingly, the cost benefit ratio of web advertising is impressive compared to DTC advertising through television and print media.

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) has become a popular promotional tool in recent years for promoting generic or branded drugs as well as prescription drugs, due to various emerging healthcare trends. The growing consumerism in healthcare and rapid growth of innovative drugs entering the market is accentuating a strong need for the pharma companies to embrace the DTC strategy. On the other hand, the need to build brand loyalty before the consumers switch from prescription drugs to Over-the-Counter (OTC) status and the increased realization of the value that blockbuster drugs sales offer to the balance sheet, are driving pharmaceutical companies to adopt the DTC marketing strategy. However, the traditional channels for DTCA such as television, print, etc., are limited, as they do not allow reaching the targeted market and incur heavy promotional cost, affecting the marketing RoI. TV advertising is realized to be expensive, whether network, cable or syndicated in scope. The problem with the focus on network television is that network TV is a mass medium. Its inability to target specific groups of consumers is affecting the RoI for pharmaceutical DTC strategies. On the other hand, people today are spending more time on the Internet compared to watching television, and as a result many brands are planning their ad campaigns in a much more integrated way than ever before. Hence, many pharma majors are shifting their marketing budgets to eDTC marketing, to reach the potential patients via the Internet in the interest of target marketing, and are diverting their promotional spend to target consumers more directly via the Internet.

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