International Trade

Communicating Locally when Marketing Globally

The Very Real Local Differences in Marketing Pharma Products around the World

Gary Muddyman, CEO and Managing Director of Conversis and member of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), discusses the importance of cultural customisation for foreign language communication and marketing materials in the global pharmaceutical industry.

The global pharmaceutical industry is currently worth in excess of $550 billion . As the population grows, ages and is faced with more disease, there will be a substantial increase in the demand for pharmaceutical products. By 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the global pharmaceutical market will be worth $1.3 trillion . In order to successfully take advantage of future growth opportunities in foreign markets, pharmaceutical companies must ensure that all communication materials are culturally customised. Failure to do so could result in unsuccessful product launches.

Challenges Faced in Global Marketing

When marketing globally, pharmaceutical companies face both language and cultural differences. These are issues which must not be ignored. To comply with international rules and regulations, all product-related collateral must be accurately translated and culturally customised across a range of languages and cultures. Pressure to increase turnover means that the manner in which a pharmaceutical company communicates to its target audience is the key to its success.

A major challenge that pharmaceutical companies face when marketing globally is reaching and capturing the attention of an ever-expanding and sophisticated audience. Marketing collateral is designed to attract a customer, raise their interest, convince them that they would like your product and steer them towards taking an action, such as purchase or prescribe. This in itself is a challenge, but one which is significantly increased when creating documentation in multiple languages.

For pharmaceutical companies it is perhaps even more challenging than for most other industries, since the target audience may change in every country – even countries... continued on page two >

 

 

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