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Given the growing number of firms that use direct mail, it is important to develop methods to improve response rates. Better selection methods are useful for this improvement; determining the important characteristics of the mailing and constructing an optimal design is another way to improve the response. In this paper we focus on the latter. A framework is presented to obtain the optimal direct mail design. We propose and compare two ways of data collection, one in an experimental setting and one in a field‐experimental setting. Both approaches are illustrated with an empirical application for a charity institution, referring to the development of an optimal design of an envelope and a letter.

Radio is becoming increasingly popular as an advertising medium. At the same time, more and more companies are integrating direct marketing in their communication strategies. Considers the influence of the day of the week, the time of the day, the position of an ad in the commercial break, the length of the commercial break and the type of the preceding program on two effectiveness measures: responses per rating point and responses per cost using a field experiment. A total of 111 commercial spots, covering two campaigns, were broadcast on two radio stations in The Netherlands. Tobit analysis is used to test the influence of the different variables. The most effective direct response radio commercials are those broadcast on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and those broadcast between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m.

The quality and reliability of medical communication for branded drug adoption is extremely critical, not only for safeguarding patient interests but also for ensuring successful investments by multinational pharmaceutical firms. This paper predicts doctors’ prescribing intentions based on communication relationship among factors for late entrant branded drugs, compared with pioneering brand choice, for treating chronic diseases such as hypertension.

The constructs were validated with structural equation model for a sample set of 151 doctors from private hospitals in the National Capital Region of India.

This research reveals communication drivers and draws on theory to suggest that the doctor’s behavioural prescription intentions, subject to social influence from their colleagues, leads to lower adoption responses.

Given that limitations on sample size are often unavoidable, this study reveals that, due to the availability of substituting brands, alternate therapeutic routes and lack of availability of a practical guide for prescription, a communication model needs to be developed and validated.

Furthermore, managers of pharmaceutical firms should differentiate between the effects of direct and indirect communication–integration efforts for minimizing uncertainty in drug adoption in the context of the fragmented and unpredictable Indian market.

A late entrant may lose its dominant market share to alternate brands from other suppliers due to communication gaps in an unstructured market, leading to low adoption intentions. The study provides business theorists, drug marketers and health-care professionals with unique insights into specific communication drivers of prescribing decisions, aimed at ensuring reliable and appropriate drug adoption in Indian markets.