As Peter Drucker, renowned educator, management consultant, and author, said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” This mantra holds true with multicultural marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. Successful pharmaceutical marketing should focus on providing personalized care to the right individual at the right time in the right place thereby expanding upon the basic tenet of the Affordable Care Act which reaches all Americans.
Below are a few multicultural marketing considerations that increase industry profits by positively impacting the development of strategies for pharma marketing to Hispanic and Latino consumers who experience customized care.
Family Dynamics vs. Individualism
Group interdependence among family is at the center of the Hispanic world. Affiliation, cooperation, and group activities are weighted heavily as Latinos understand there is strength in numbers. Their health decisions rely on an extended family model and are typically made after consulting various family members. Opinions from adult children of the older generation are valued extensively. Pharma branding with marketing campaigns needs to be family-focused.
Imagery vs. Text
In multicultural marketing, a picture is worth a thousand words. Incorporating culturally embedded cues into pharma marketing that reflect attire, family values, symbols, ethics, rituals, traditions, material objects, and services in their culture, stimulate how these consumers respond to the pharma industry. Through this identification process both their self-image and confidence in pharma’s judgment of prescription medication is enhanced, resulting in a change in their attitude towards the brand and eventual increased brand acceptance.
Technology Media vs. Traditional Media
In the past, it was widely believed that the only effective way to deliver Spanish-language pharma marketing messages was through traditional media, such as the television networks Telemundo and Univision. However, the newer generation of Hispanics on the go are not as interested in traditional media; they are more interested in smart phone technology and social media sites. One in three are the primary pharma decision makers as caregivers of an older generation of family household members and make their choices by engaging with technology media. They are three times more likely to use their smartphones to decide about pharma for themselves and other family members. Pharma marketing via technology media will soon become a leading strategy that is mandatory.
Fatalism vs. Optimism
Many Latinos believe that destiny is predetermined and little can be done to change outcomes. For example, they may believe that death is inevitable after receiving a cancer diagnosis and also believe that any type of prescription drug cannot improve the chance of survival because it is out of their control. A Hispanic participant in a recent NIH study sorrowfully stated, “I worked with a person who had arthritis and was going to get cortisone but the last time she went to get it at the hospital, she didn’t return home. Instead, she went to the cemetery.” Pharma marketing must help Hispanics move beyond this mindset by reinforcing examples of positive outcomes in their multicultural marketing campaigns with targeted at patient support groups on social media, such as Facebook, that encourage pharmaceutical use to recover from an illness.
Read my more blogs from here