Marketing Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products

Abstract

Older adults use disproportionately larger quantities of pharmaceutical products than younger adults. However, the average older user has limited knowledge about these products, their benefits and risks, and must rely on experts’ opinion (doctors and pharmacists) or information on packages and other sources such as advertising and the Internet. Older users of these products need to be better informed by manufacturers, physicians, and pharmacists about the benefits and risks of prescription drugs and OTC products. For effectual marketing, products for age-related ailments should either not show people in their ads or should be advertised using chronologically-younger persons than the target audience, emphasizing the benefits of the product than the age(s) of potential users. Multiple uses/benefits of a pharmaceutical product should be mentioned in advertising, if some of its benefits have multi-generational appeal. Over-the-counter (OTC) products that consumers may find offensive should use either a cartoon character or not use a spokesperson at all. Pharmacies should emphasize convenience, the provision of helpful information, and personal relationship with the customer. Manufacturers of personal care products should consider the diversity of older consumers’ needs that stem from biophysical and psychosocial aging in developing marketing strategies and tactics.