Month: September 2020

MDKalfus-Article-on-Benefit-Segmentation

Yeah, okay. I know. I know. It’s the name-drop of all name-drops. It gets better. At that exact moment we were flying in a private plane. Fancy, right? We were on our way from La Guardia to BWI to attend the National Black Caucus meeting. Magic — we were on first name basis, of course — was a Pfizer spokesperson. He and the Magic Johnson Foundation were key partners in helping Pfizer to initiate several Patient Education Programs focused on Black and Latino Populations. Yours truly was the Team Leader for Pfizer’s Multi-Cultural Team in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and, thanks to the magic of Magic, was made aware that we had some significant obstacles to overcome. The biggest concern was whether or not we/me/Pfizer had the capability to develop and execute this much-needed focus. In other words, could we “walk the walk and talk the talk?”  The short answer at that time? No. The long answer? Hell, no. Were we able to eventually “move our feet over to the left just a little bit?” You bet. Here’s how.

In marketing terms, Multi-Cultural Marketing is defined as the ability to develop and deliver educational messages to a target audience. It’s designed to be inclusive of all cultural/language nuances and not only should resonate with your audience, but should seamlessly integrate into your marketing communications mix, as well. Still with me? Hello? Is this thing on? At Pfizer, we were fortunate to be given the resources — monies and people — to develop innovative initiatives outside of the traditional marketing paradigm. The philosophy was simple. “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” This thinking, and the ability to plan and deliver, was one of the key factors to our success.

To be painfully honest, I’m not sure why I was assigned the role of Multicultural Marketing Team Leader. Maybe it was my training in consumer marketing. Or, maybe it’s that I was raised in the bristling multi- cultural melting pot of White Plains, NY. Who knows? What I do know is that I did, in fact, grow up in a wonderfully diverse community. I learned early on about the power of family, the impact of cultural nuances, and the all-too important need to shut the f**k up and just listen. It also helped that I was dumb enough to think I was fluent in Spanish. I’ll save that story for another time. All of this, combined with some basic common sense and a burning desire to understand consumer marketing, must’ve gotten me the gig. “My desire to understand consumer marketing,” I said to Magic over a goat cheese fennel salad and glass of oaky Chardonnay, “goes beyond just basic consumer marketing. I want to understand it based on typical segmentations of a population, whether it be demographic, geographic, psychographic, etc.” Magic smiled that famous Cheshire Cat smile that seemed to say, “I know you think you moved your feet over to the left just a little bit. But you got some work to do.” He was right.

At Pfizer, we were able to get the right people in place to help facilitate our strategy and vision. First step? Recruit the #1 salesperson in Southern California, Marisa, to handle the Hispanic/Latino populations. Step 2? Hire, not only the top African-American multi-cultural marketer, Jucinda, but one of the best in the biz, to handle both the political and internal company pressures. And, God forbid I forget the agents of change, Step 3 was bringing on board a PR Agency, Martis and Chris, who knew and understood the market. Not only did they have access to all of the key players, they could help us navigate these uncharted waters. So with these key players in place, along with the National Medical Association (NMA), Johnson Publishing, JET magazine and well-known celebrities who would resonate with the population, we were ready to roll out our first initiative. It was a campaign called “Healthy Living for African Americans” that we successfully launched in several urban markets. How’d we launch it? I thought you’d never ask.

We recruited all the key players. Internally, it was the Sales Force, Lobbyists, Brand Teams. Externally, it was the African-American players including Medical, Consumer, and Advocacy. Because it was important for us to create a sense of inclusion, it was essential that we include both private and public sectors. We then developed a video that was accompanied by printed materials, and distributed them in key community areas. 

The main focus for me was this: Create an approach that allows us to develop strategies to increase the diagnosis and treatment of conditions in both Hispanic and Black populations. Especially conditions that were over-indexing in prevalence, but under-indexing for diagnosis and treatment. These conditions/therapeutic areas were where Pfizer had a significant presence in Cardiovascular risk. Today, we face the same problems. Over-indexing for conditions such as (COVID 19) and not getting the treatment needed. This was the basis and driving force behind the vision.

We tried to enlist the Brand Teams into the Mix, but it was a difficult sell at the time. Their attitude was basically, “Dude! We’re barely doing enough for the general population. Now you want us to focus on each individual segment?” Okay, maybe they didn’t say dude. Although I’m almost positive one guy said it. I’m getting off-topic. My response to the Brand Teams was, “Dude! These populations over-index for your product. Communicating to them won’t cost you any additional money. And not only that, bro, but we did an analysis where we took 5% of your Advertising Budget, and then we reallocated it to media that over-indexed to African-American households and actually increased overall GRP and Impressions.” I really did say dude. I might’ve made up the bro part.

The Brand Teams’ response? “Sorry, dude. Still not good enough.” So, we continued on our own and developed a number of key initiatives. One of which was enlisting my very close and personal friend, Ervin “Magic” Johnson. Magic — did I mention we were on first name basis? — along with his Foundation and several NBA players, helped us launch the “Know Your Score” campaign. “Know Your Score” was an incredibly effective program that increased awareness, drove diagnosis and treatment, and literally saved lives. 

So what’s the take away here? We, as marketers, need to “move our feet over to the left just a little bit.” We need to look at segments of the population, understand their needs, and develop communications that will resonate. We need programs and campaigns that strike the right tone and right message of relevance and inclusion. Messages that will resonate and help bring health care in line with what matters most… HEALTHY LIVING!!

By the way, the trip back on our private plane — okay, fine, it was really a rent-a-jet — was awesome. I’ll never forget the look on Magic’s face. And I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, “Great job, Matt.” I didn’t tell him my name was actually Mike. Why ruin the moment? Besides, we’d built-up a nice bond by that point. The two of us together. Magic and Mike. Magic-Mike. It had a nice ring to it…