Correspondence: Brian D. Smith, Pragmedic Limited, 6 Whetstone Close, Welwyn, Hertfordshire AL6 0QW, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1438 712441; Fax: 44 (0) 1438 712442; e-mail: brian.smith@pragmedic.com Web: www.pragmedic.com

¹is a visiting research fellow at Cranfield and Birmingham University Business Schools. He also runs PragMedic (www.pragmedic.com), a specialist consultancy that helps companies to create strong marketing strategies in medical markets. A full back-catalogue of ResearchWatch articles, plus many other papers concerning medical marketing, can be found on that site.