Marketing in medicine

Medicine is a specific form of goods and services on the market and, like any other industry, it wants to achieve results. It therefore relies on marketing to be as effective as possible in this respect.

We will examine the basics of marketing in medicine using the example of the drug Lxxxxxxxxx, which is an antidepressant by nature, by comparing the real pharmacological and clinical aspects of this drug with the information in the advertisement itself (immanent critique) and by analysing the codes in the advertisement that facilitate the construction of transferable symbols (semiotic analysis). It is then important to familiarise oneself with the social formation in which the advertisements have been produced and who is perceiving and accepting them.

In a political economic context, drugs are produced to make a profit in a situation where such goods are in demand.

The 20th century saw a huge expansion of the pharmaceutical industry, starting with antibiotics, but psychotropic drugs have also been important. The production of medicines is rooted in the concept of the disease state in terms of the search for a 'magic pill' for a particular condition.

Pharmaceutical companies compete with each other to win as much of the market as possible. Given the relatively small number of chemical substances used in medical treatments, every company wants and needs to differentiate its product from the competition in order to win as much of the market as possible. Therefore, good quality advertising to promote a particular product is actually the most important factor for your marketing success.

The basic differentiation between these products is done through the signs attached to them in the advertisement. There is, however, a peculiarity in the case of medicines, namely the legal restriction on advertising because they are prescription medicines.  Therefore, the target audience for advertising is the medical population, which reads professional medical literature, while the means of public communication are excluded from the range of media used to advertise medicines.

Doctors, influenced by the advertisements that medical journals are full of, pass on their decisions to patients, and in this way some products and related companies gain commercial results, since it is precisely because of the advertising that this medicine sells better than others.

The basic principles of marketing also apply to the advertising of medicines. Given that every medicine ultimately wants to be presented in a better light than it is (which is the whole point of marketing), visual symbols are added to the name and description in the advertisement.

In the case of the real drug Lxxxxxx, the advertising objective is to associate the name of the drug with the symbolism of the rose flower, so that the rose symbolises the fullness of life that the alleged drug Lxxxxxx provides to users. The rose flower stands in metaphorical contrast to the metaphor of desolation and pallor that is associated with depression and is therefore associated with the cure of depression. Thus, the rose flower becomes a portable symbol for the drug Lxxxxxxxxx. The obvious objective of the marketing activity is to make the end-user associate Lxxxxxxxxx with the rose symbol and to associate this symbol with the cure for depression.

By subtly manipulating the target audience, the advert also seeks to associate with the product characteristics that do not necessarily make it a 'magic pill' for a particular problem. The same is directly linked to the patients' need for a quick and inexpensive solution to their health problems, which is why this type of advertising falls on deaf ears. In this way, lies and half-truths about medicines and their possibilities are conveyed.

Awareness of marketing tricks is important in all segments of life, but especially in medicine, so that we remain critical and not disillusioned with the products that are offered to us.