The eight-character two words "Thank You!" can mean a lot. And you could say it in many ways. Some say it with flowers. Others say it with a small gift that will touch your heart. It''s a very personal way of appreciating a friend. In the corporate world, it''s not always to appreciate a friendly gesture that a gift is exchanged. It''s an incentive, a smart way of saying thank you for having given new business. It is a way of boosting business and profits. Corporate gifts can be effective business tools. Particularly, businesses like the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are bound by strict code on advertising their products. With little help from such traditional marketing tools, it is important for marketing professionals to ensure that their brands retain top of the mind recall to achieve the sales target. Since these drugs are purely prescription-based the entire marketing efforts have to be concentrated at the physician and the retail outlets.

As a result, pharmaceutical companies are amongst the largest consumers for gift manufacturers. From simple pen stands and paper weights, the medical practitioners are flooded with the most expensive of gifts - at times a Maruti car or a three-day cruise on a luxury liner.

Dr Trilochan Singh, a leading surgeon in Navi Mumbai and an occupational health expert, says, " the efforts of the marketing executives is concentrated with medical practitioners. In my 15 years of experience with one of the leading chemical manufacturers as an occupational health expert I have not seen a single marketing executive ever coming to visit us to promote a first-aid kit or the usual antidotes that are to be stored in a factory. They know, we have no go but to buy and stock them under the law. But, as far my own nursing home goes, yes we have almost every company''s marketing executive coming. The gifts are the same. There has not been much of a difference in these last 15 years. May be, a few more expensive gifts have also been added to the list. Otherwise, it is the same small token gifts for the consulting room that reminds us of the new brands being launched by the companies".

However, he does admit that pharmaceutical companies do have a graded system of giving gifts wherein a physician prescribing more does get a more expensive gift than someone who does not support the drug to the same extent.

He says more than the gifts, pharmaceutical companies in the last few years have taken to sponsorship of events and the continuing education programmes organised by professional bodies like the Indian Medical Association or Association of Gynaecologists and so on.

But, Dr Hiren Shah, a leading gynaecologist practicing in South Mumbai, has a different view. He says "from simple pen stands and paper weights, today the gifts that come from pharmaceutical companies are really good. From non-stick kitchenware to expensive dinner sets are dispensed with. Gifts have become more meaningful now."

Dr. Shah, however, does agree that companies do have a graded policy. He says "I would not prescribe a medicine to my patient just because a company wants me to unless I am convinced it is effective and the dosage and costs are within reasonable limits. Unfortunately, while we are concerned about our patients, pharmaceutical companies are concerned about their profits. Our primary goals are different. So, when a new drug is introduced they are quite expensive and companies really push them hard through attractive incentive programmes. Because they know once the rival companies launch a product in the same category there is bound to be a price war and the margins are going evaporate. Take for instance, Infar Laboratories'' Livial. When it was launched it cost the patient nearly Rs 1, 000 per month for the course. After two or three companies launched a similar product, today it costs a mere Rs 300 a month. But, when the going was good, every one made hay."

Dr Singh says "gifts are an ideal way to remind the doctor of the brand name particularly when there are so many competing brands available in the market. It''s like a loyalty programme. The more loyal you are to a brand, the more you get. If a frequent flyer in an airline can expect free tickets and other goodies, I see no reason why pharmaceutical companies cannot use similar marketing strategies to promote their drugs."

However, he expects a change to come by in the manner in which these gifts are dispensed with. "In most cases it is the marketing executive who normally visits us who brings the gifts. But for Ranbaxy Labs, an executive is always accompanied by his senior executives, to make the doctor feel important. I think it is such small gestures that would make a big difference. It is not important that how expensive the gift is that is important but, how well it was delivered. The idea ought to be touch the heart of the physician."

Dr. Shah has a slightly different opinion. He says "medical practitioners as a community do not care much for such niceties. I think the material world has touched our fraternity too. I do not know, but even these sponsorship of International conferences have a tag to them. Some of the senior doctors who are invited from UK and Germany in turn invite our leaders to participate in conferences there and the entire trip is paid for by multinational drug manufacturing companies. At the end of the day, these considerations do matter. And these are no subtle marketing ways to remind the doctor of a brand."

Despite many voices and questions of ethics that spring up, it must be admi-ted that pharmaceutical companies do adhere to the code of marketing practices prescribed for them.