Big Pharma Equals Big PR Business
Two Big Pharma conglomerates are Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. And just about anyone who watches television for more than a few minutes a day will be well aware of one or more item each of these companies offers to the public. That’s because it is hard to find a time of day when some drug or other is not being brought to the public’s notice. There’s a lot that’s good in greater public awareness. Patients can approach their physicians with greater knowledge and understanding because of what they learn from commercials and then further research on the internet.
Johnson & Johnson, of course, offers much more than pharmaceuticals, but their marketing and sales expenditures during 2015 were more than $74 billion. Some PR agencies representing them currently and during the past include Burson-Marsteller, Edelman, and Ruder Finn. Johnson & Johnson makes pharmaceutical products in the areas of cardiovascular and metabolism, immunology, infectious diseases and vaccines, neuroscience, and oncology. Some of the drugs you may have seen ads on include Xarelto, Stelara, Fentanyl, Ultiva, and Doxil.
Johnson & Johnson were founded in 1886 and has become known all over the world for their various household products. The Pharmacy arm of the company is Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
One award-winning program from them, Care4Today is the master brand for Janssen mobile and digital healthcare tools including a suite of sub-branded software apps focused on heart health, orthopedics, mental health and mobile medication management. Some patient information can be linked and tracked in real time, so a healthcare provider sees when a patient misses or skips taking prescribed medicines, and send a reminder or message.
Pfizer spent approximately $11.4 billion in 2013 for sales and marketing of their products. Some PR agencies representing them currently and during the past include Gable PR (San Diego), Mobiquity (Boston), Ruder Finn, Cohn & Wolfe, and Coyne PR. Some of the products made by Pfizer that many will recognize include Chantix (to quit smoking), Xeljanz (for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis), Lyrica (for fibromyalgia), and Prevnar 13 (pneumonia).
Pfizer was founded even before Johnson & Johnson – in 1849 by two cousins. In January 2015, they began a new PR campaign – GET OLD. Using videos and social media to look at getting older from new perspectives. They kicked the campaign off with fun videos of children talking about how strong their grandmas were at. This new campaign allows Pfizer to step outside of an advertising mode and simply relate to consumers with new ways of thinking. Challenging all to make better health choices for happier and healthier lives.
Big pharma companies have done a lot of selling in the last few years and are finding the need to do more demonstration of the positives they bring to consumers. A challenge many businesses face, but with all the good pharmaceuticals can accomplish, they should be worthy of the task.
