Marketing medicines is one of the most difficult parts of pharmacy digital marketing, whether you aim to focus on business-to-customer or business-to-medical practitioner marketing.
Part of the reason for this is that your approach needs to focus on almost contrasting points depending on which group you are aiming your advertising towards, as well as ensuring your advertising stays within the law.
Customers often have limited knowledge of medicine and so you need to focus your marketing efforts on telling the story of what the new product can do for them, whilst doctors, pharmacists and medical practitioners want the facts, evidence and research for what the new drug can do.
Here are some famous examples of medicine marketing and what we can learn from them.
Viagra – Pele
When Pfizer first launched their branded sildenafil tablets in 1998, they had the difficult task of changing a conversation regarding a condition that had even as late as the 20th century been dominated by quack treatments such as goat gland surgery.
They got around this by having a straightforward conversation, featuring elder statesmen such as Bob Dole, and celebrities such as footballer Pele, and created a conversation that transformed ED from a condition that men were ashamed to discuss into a condition that had a treatment.
Gaviscon – Firemen
Medical advertising is about simply explaining a problem and how it is solved, which is best undertaken through metaphor and big captivating imagery.
The Gaviscon reflux suppressant series of adverts is a highly successful example of this, treating heartburn as a literal fire that is therefore put out by firemen that come out of the bottle and soothe the flames.