NEW YORK - By next year, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the U.S. is expected to climb to $1.7 billion. In spite of this heavyweight spending, getting the attention of women - the primary healthcare decision-makers for American households - is still a problem.
Women are only slightly more aware (37%) than men (33%) of products promoted in DTC pharmaceutical advertising, according to a marketing study by Campbell Mithun Esty (CME) an advertising agency in Minneapolis. And among women who are aware of the advertising, the study found that more than 13 percent disliked the ads "a lot."
Marketers can get easily discouraged by such findings. The solutions offered by CME SVP Beth Miller and other industry experts at the Marketing Healthcare to Women conference here last week provide some hope.
CME last year studied 18 pharmaceutical brands, including Allegra, Claritin, Evista, Prozac and Viagra, to gauge DTC awareness levels. The study involved 1,000 people, of whom half were women.
DTC ads aren't well-liked because they tend to be too general, says Miller.
The best advertising, however, can only achieve partial success. For women's health messages to really hit home, the media must do a better and more comprehensive job of covering key women's health issues, such as smoking, cardiovascular conditions and AIDS. Not that the press has been totally remiss. Phyllis Greenberger, executive director of the Society for the Advancement of Women's Health Research, says the press provided high-profile coverage of how women were often excluded from "landmark" medical research in the early 1990s. The press coverage, for instance, was key to convincing Congress to provide greater funding for women's medical research.
But the media is missing the boat on some of the more sophisticated women's health issues, says Greenberger. "The media often touches on the obvious differences between men and women in terms of our reproductive systems but does not report on differences in our hearts, livers and brains that affect our lives."
(CME, Beth Miller, 612/347-1395; Society for the Advancement of Women's Health Research, Phyllis Greenberger, 202/223-8224)
Ads That Reach Women
To create more appealing and "involving" ads that target women, Beth Miller, SVP of Campbell Mithun Esty suggests:
- Following a consumer-focused approach. Show that you understand the psychological and physical results of your target's medical condition.
- Talking to the patient, not the public at large, by using segmentation strategies.
- Appreciate your audience and how they want to be spoken to by inviting them to listen. Appeal to their heads and hearts.
- Always lettting physicians know about your marketing plans to consumers - 75 percent of physicians say that pharmaceutical companies don't inform them about their advertising.