The case for the Culturally Competent Health Marketing [REPORT]

Newlink America released The Case for Culturally Competent Health Marketing, a white paper that addresses the importance of cultural competency in health care marketing. While companies across industry sectors have focused their attention on this emerging market, the health care industry has lagged behind. The purchasing power of Hispanics coupled with the changes brought by The Affordable Care Act makes this a pivotal time for health care marketers.  The report analyzes why culturally competent marketing is critical and describes the best ways to engage Latinos in the health care conversation.  Even though Hispanics are the largest minority, they only represent 7.5% of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s total annual sales; this is because of the industry has been ignoring this group. In 2009, U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent $4.2 billion in direct to consumer advertising, and only 0.9% was spent on Spanish language media. “The health care industry needs a total market approach – and this includes in-language and in-culture strategies,” said Jorge Ortega, Managing Partner of Newlink America.  “Regardless of how eager Latinos are to learn more about health, there is a shortage in the supply and the quality of the information due to the small size of multicultural marketing budgets.” Newlink America wants to raise awareness about this important issue among the pharmaceutical industry, health care companies, government entities and other organizations that present health messages to this community of more than 50 million people. “Latinos, like other multicultural groups, suffer from many preventable and chronic diseases – many of which are easily addressed with increased health and wellness education. It is imperative to provide culturally competent health care messaging.” Ortega added. Quick Facts: 67.5% of U.S. Latinos are insured. By 2014, at least 5.4 million more Latinos will have access to healthcare. In 2011, less than 1% of pharmaceutical direct to consumer advertising dollars were spent on the Hispanic market Researchers at Google found that Spanish-language online health queries grew an average increased six-fold per sub-category between 2006 and 2011. Statistics show that Latinos are open to receiving health care messaging from various sources.

To download report CLICK HERE.