Thursday, September 17, 2009

Use Education, Not Emotion: Get People to Buy What You Are Selling

Our fall newsletter (something to look forward to!) will focus on marketing and research within global audiences. If you find pharmaceutical marketing tactics of interest, you should consider contacting Michelle Steward, assistant professor of marketing at Wake Forest University.

Her study, entitled, "The Influence of Different Types of Cues-to-Action on Vaccination Behavior: An Exploratory Study," will be featured in the Spring Edition of Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.

The study considered the effects of educational surveys, consumer advertisements and governmental mandates on the HPV vaccination habits of women ages 18 through 30. It concluded they were more likely to consider being vaccinated after participating in the survey versus viewing consumer ads or receiving government mandates.

"The educational cues in the survey are the least coercive and appear to prompt more thinking about the risks of not being vaccinated than laws, which may produce a negative backlash or advertisements, of which consumers might be skeptical," said Steward.

Merck should take her survey to heart considering its sales of Gardasil for the second quarter of 2009 were $268 million, a decline of 28 percent from the same quarter last year. It is estimated 3 out of 4 women remain unvaccinated despite the millions of dollars Merck has spent on advertising and lobbying for mandated vaccinations.

Combine this theory with the current Health 2.0 trend where e-patients are educating themselves about their health online and targeted internet marketing campaigns should reap the reward of increased vaccination rates.

By Sherry Dineen


Source: “HPV Vaccine Study Show Why Few Women Getting Shots” by Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com)

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