Healthcare marketing—the new focus

Usha Shama - Mumbai

Despite the global economic downturn, healthcare sector remains one of the fastest growing and steady sector globally. As many drugs are going off-patent and more and more generic drugs are making their way into the market, there are several points that need to be addressed in general public interest. In India, with the rise in health consciousness pharmaceutical companies are increasing their line-up of over-the-counter (OTC) products. Cosmetic surgery and dentist services are increasingly being availed by people today as they no longer want to be perceived as just healthy, but also as being fit. To address these issues, a Health Marketing Conclave, the first of its kind in India, was recently held in Mumbai with an aim to promote awareness about health.

The event saw the participation of many international representatives, namely, Peter Wennstrom, Founder and President, and Neal Cavalier, Managing Director, Healthy Marketing Team. The conference kicked off with the welcome address by Chandra Iyengar, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Home Department Former, Public Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra who shared her views on the topic at a grass root level. She explained how public and private sector should come together to promote healthcare practices. The vote of thanks was announced by Pranesh Misra, CM and MD, Brandscapes Worldwide.

During the conference, speakers covered health marketing opportunities, issues and challenges in India, global best practices on health marketing, understanding consumers--segmenting the health seekers and differentiating the four P's (product, price, promotion and place) of Health Marketing. The Health Marketing workshops following the event focused on Wennstrom's four factors of success masterclass.

The conference had speakers from different sectors related to healthcare, eg, Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries; Shrijeet Mishra, Executive Director, Foods, HUL; Saugata Gupta, CEO, Marico Industries; Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group; Dr Ajay Thakker, CM and CEO, Jupiter Hospital; Sudarshan Jain, Director, Healthcare Business, Piramal Healthcare; A Vaidheesh, MD, J&J Medical India; J S Pai, Executive Director, Protein Foods and Nutrition Development Association of India; Tapan Ray, Director General, OPPI; Rinita Singh, MD, Qantum Group; Kinjal Medh, COO, Cogita Consulting;and Abhijit Desai, Cosmetic Dermatologist and MD, Evolve Med Spa.

Sukanya Kripalu, Strategic Marketing Consultant, (of what) highlighted the importance of environment for good health. She said, "Every time for better health we focus on nutrition food but we ignore our surrounding nature without attending its importance. If the environment is polluted then automatically our health system will not work properly. So while paying attention towards eating habits we need to address such crucial points too."

Mikko Laavainen, Commercial Director, Raisio Group, said, "Indian consumers strongly believe in curative power of food and at the same time cardiovascular disease is becoming the largest cause of disability and death in India.

Thus, food is an excellent platform to offer consumers solutions in their battle against cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, like elevated cholesterol. In many countries food industry has already seized this opportunity and successfully offered food solutions to consumers in this area. Indian food industry has now an excellent opportunity in front of it and many leading Indian food companies are expected to soon become masters in this area of health marketing."

u.sharma@expressindia.com