| 2002 News & Magazine
Articles
MARKETING
TO HISPANICS:
A
Report On The Pharmaceutical Industry
Hispanic
Market Weekly
February 25, 2002 Volume 5 Issue 9
The
Realization.- Pharmaceutical companies have long marketed
their over-the-counter (OTC) products to Hispanics.
Now, the latest census figures and new data on Hispanic
purchasing power are making pharmaceuticals realize
it's time to develop strong advertising strategies
to sell their prescription drugs to the Hispanic population,
as they have been doing for the past five years in
the general market through direct-to-consumer (DTC)
advertising.
Say
My Name.- In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) allowed pharmaceutical companies to advertise
the specific names of prescription drugs and the conditions
they treated, a practice known as DTC. In 1998, following
the new FDA guidelines, Schering-Plough's Claritin
became the first prescription drug to be advertised
in the Hispanic market. The campaign, closely resembling
the one in the general market, was developed by Newport
Beach-based Mendoza Dillon & Asociados (MD&A).
Since
then, overall DTC advertising expenditure has been
steadily growing. In the year 2000, pharmaceutical
companies spent $2.5 billion advertising prescription
drugs, according to Intercontinental Marketing Services,
a pharmaceutical and health care information research
company headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. This
was up from $1.8 billion in 1999. However, estimates
in People en Español's Hispanic Opinion Tracker
2001 (HOT) show that less than one percent of DTC
advertising went to Hispanic media in 2000.
Easy
Sell.- Unlike prescription drugs, over-the-counter
products have long been marketed to U.S. Hispanics.
The Bravo Group has handled Whitehall Robins' products
since 1993, including Advil and Robitussin. Forest
Hills, New York-based Aragón Advertising has
been Bayer's Hispanic agency of record since 1997,
handling Bayer Aspirin, Alka-Seltzer and Alka-Seltzer
Plus. Coral Gables-based del Rivero Messianu was recently
hired by Johnson & Johnson to handle Hispanic
advertising for Clean & Clear, an account previously
handled by Zubi Advertising.
But
lately, OTC accounts have been affected by budget
cuts in multicultural marketing, due in part to the
current recession. Pharmacia broke its relationship
with Coral Gables-based CreatAbility two years ago,
when it cut its Hispanic marketing budget. JMCP's
advertising work with Smithklein Beecham - now Glaxo
- was halted in November. "It is a tough year,"
says Michelle Aragón, president and chief creative
officer at Aragón. "Everybody is cutting
back on programs, and it's taking them longer to make
decisions".
Follow
Me To The Doctor.- After developing a strong prescription
drugs market through DTC advertising, pharmaceuticals
are now looking for new untapped sectors of the population.
In trying to reach Hispanics, however, they face a
market with little meaningful data -such as health
marketing studies - and slower investment returns.
Isabel Valdés, partner at Santiago &
Valdés Solutions, says pharmaceutical company
executives feel disappointed when they don't see an
investment return within the general market patterns.
In marketing terms, she explains Hispanics are "followers"
instead of being "early adopters", like
non-His-panic consumers. Another hurdle pharmaceuticals
face is low numbers in health insurance coverage,
which makes it harder to sell any prescription drug.
The
latest National Health Interview Survey shows that
32.1 percent of Hispanics lack insurance. This contrasts
with 18.8 percent of African-Americans, and 10 percent
of non-Hispanic whites. However, People en Español's
HOT study, revealed that 81 percent of those Hispanic
with insurance had prescription - drug coverage, versus
79 percent of non-Hispanics. "I think the insurance
issue has been sort of a mask," says Lisa Quiroz,
People en Español's publisher. She explains
that most recent Hispanic immigrants are the ones
who tend to be uninsured, lowering the overall numbers.
Quiroz adds that other preconceptions about Hispanics
have been proven wrong, like the one that Latinos
don't trust doctors and tend to use natural remedies.
Nevertheless,
most pharmaceuticals are focusing their efforts on
getting Hispanics to the doctor more often - through
education and information programs - as the initial
step to develop a strong prescription-drug Hispanic
market. "Pharmaceuticals are working more through
the doctor," says Carlos Santiago, partner
of Santiago & Valdés Solutions. He
adds that, unlike other industries like technology
and financial services, pharmaceuticals are still
"hiding some place" and not recognizing
the potential of segmentation after many studies show
Hispanics over-index in certain diseases, like diabetes,
high-blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.
Step
By Step.- Companies like Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly
admit that little has been done in the past to educate
Hispanics and market products to them. To fill this
void, Eli Lilly says it just created a Hispanic marketing
position, the first one of its kind within the company.
Its diabetes brand team has also put together a Hispanic
advisory board to help the team better reach Hispanics.
(The company, however, declined to provide the name
of the person in charge of the Hispanic marketing
position nor the names of the advisory board members).
On
a similar front, Clifton, New Jersey-based Pfizer
two years ago organized a national Hispanic advisory
board, made up of Hispanic professionals from the
health and media industries, including Dr. Armando
Correa, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor
College of Madison in Houston, Dr. Rosa Maria Gil,
university dean for health sciences at CUNY and Dr.
Elmer Huerta, president and founder of Prevention.
"The board is part of Pfizer's broader approach
to marketing, under-standing that you need to be much
more culturally aware as you target different groups,"
says Silvia Montero, vice president of human resources
at Pfizer. She adds that the company uses the board
input both for marketing and for recruiting.
Last
year, Pfizer launched a pilot program in New York
City called La Rana Cuentos de Salud, based on the
popular children's adage "sana, sanita, colita
de rana". Developed by BravoMed, the program
informs on the different states of certain diseases
and encourages Latinos to visit doctors more often.
"One of the main issues with the Hispanic market
is the lack of awareness about diseases," says
Meg Bernot-Rodríguez, managing partner at The
Bravo Group. "What the Hispanic market needs
right now is education and information, and once you
get an awareness base, you can start marketing the
products," she adds.
Another
company, Schering Laboratories, the prescription pharmaceutical
marketing arm of Kenilworth, New Jersey-based Schering-Plough,
this year launched a free bilingual educational video
and guide-book called "¡Salud! A Guide
to Good Health for Latinas." Co-produced with
Latina magazine, it features the personal experiences
of four Latina television personalities - Lili Estefan,
Sonia Vergara, Myrka Dellanos and Gloria Araya-Quinlan
- to raise awareness of health issues affecting Hispanics,
including diabetes, heart disease, asthma and allergies.
They
Are Coming.- Hispanic agencies see the potential of
pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising for
Latinos and expect a significant growth in the next
five years. Some agencies have launched specialized
divisions to meet the demand. Two years ago, MD&A
joined WPP's health oriented agency CommonHealth,
and launched MD&A Salud, based in Newport. Eight
months later, The Bravo Group launched BravoMed. "This
is definitely an area of growth," says Marta
Ferreira Peró, partner at :30 Segundos, a new
agency based in New York, adding that pharmaceuticals
are now looking very closely at the Hispanic population.
Ferreira worked with Smithkline when she was with
JMCP Publicidad and says she's now making a pitch
at a pharmaceutical account.
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