The package is one of the most underappreciated marketing tools that companies can use to directly communicate with the patient. With the exception of pills going into a pill bottle, which is unique to the USA, this is your moment to touch and talk to the patient.

There are two "moments of truth" – the sample package and the commercial package. Let's start with the sample package. Some of the most creative sample packaging that we have evaluated doesn't even include active ingredient in it. Shire's patch for ADHD is a great example of that. The doctor would give the patient (or the parents of a child patient) an educational sample package with a placebo patch so they could see what a placebo patch would look like and feel like before they made any mistakes when applying the actual, and very expensive, patch. The doctor also could then demonstrate how to wear the placebo patch and further direct them to the materials inside the sample pack to talk about that medicine.