Jan 9 2013

CEO of Prime Access and Global Advertising Strategies in Medical Marketing & Media

Givi Topchishvili contributed a thoughtful opinion piece to the January 2013 issue of Medical Marketing & Media. The article,  titled “The Multicultural Moment” focuses on the ROI of multicultural outreach in health care. Citing the outcome of the 2012 U.S. presidential election that was largely attributed to President Obama’s multicultural strategy, Mr. Topchishvili listed four key factors is ensuring the success of a multicultural health care effort:

1. Define your opportunity—one that’s worthy of investing in based on your product [or service] characteristics.

Does your therapeutic area have a higher prevalence among Hispanics, African Americans, South Asian Americans, or, perhaps, Russian Americans versus individuals ­generally?  Your investment—and the return on it —will depend on that knowledge.

2. Find the ‘I’—Armed with insight and knowledge (whether gathered, bought, or hired)—define the appropriate ‘I’ (of the ROI) specific to a market AND the disease state to ensure your ‘R’ is at its highest.

3. Know Your Patients’ Journey—How does your target market’s culture affect its consumption habits? While Hispanics and African Americans have lower diagnosis and prescription-drug-use rates (calling for patient education efforts), Asian Americans and Russian Americans skew higher in those categories, so you can jump more quickly into branded initiatives to secure loyalty.  Other factors include the importance of religion, the role of the community and the influential role of mass media influence.

4. The education opportunity—African Americans are a third more likely to get hypertension and 50% more likely to suffer stroke than the general population. These numbers suggest huge needs for disease education programs that can be supported by industry.

 

A complete article can be found here.