Natural Remedies vs. Prescription Drugs research paper

Despite the abundance of advertising of non-prescription drugs and natural remedies in particular in the popular media, only 4% of respondents reported significant effects of advertising on their purchasing decision, while the advice of a doctor is most trusted in the public mind (Faerber & Kreling, 2012). Thus, except for the end user of medicines, advertising efforts should also be oriented on those who influence the process of making a purchase decisions: doctors and pharmacists. In addition, today the recipient does not need “empty promises” and “attractive pictures”. The most interesting for one in the medical advertising are the features, benefits of the drug backed up by scientific data (Robinson & Cooper, 2007).

From the above mentioned, it follows that the social side of advertising and its commercial part can be presented in three ways:

”“                Drug advertising unobtrusively fitted into useful information.

”“                PR-context and advertising given in equal proportions.

”“                PR-context fitted in the advertising making it more interesting and accessible.

For example, a message can be divided by composition into two parts: visual and verbal. The visual column will contain the name of the drug, a slogan, a graphic image, a list of the main indications for use. The verbal one complements and explains the first; it is the advertising text consisting of five paragraphs. The first paragraph serves as an introduction, it tells that the modern way of life leads to a decrease in immunity/frequent colds, or for example, a painful foot fatigue. The second and third parts of the message give advice on how to avoid this and improve one’s condition: do exercises, control nutrition, take a contrast shower, and drink the necessary volume of water. The fourth paragraph also serves as the advice for using drugs, one of which is the advertised natural remedy. The last paragraph lists the characteristics of the remedy and its pharmaceutical composition (Kim & Park, 2010).

PR-context may be represented in the genre of advice and is contained in the verbal part of advertising. Copywriter should not only advertise the drug and inform about its properties, but also help customers to solve their problems. With the same purpose the visual part of the message gives not a list of characteristics of the product, but the list of cases where an advertised natural remedy is to be applied. In addition, PR-context should bear the motif of a healthy lifestyle.

Advertising material should be built on a positional strategy (Kim & Park, 2010). Of course, as in any medical advertising, it may contain terminology; however the advertising text is to be built on a list of tips and description of the effects of the natural remedy without the support of scientific data and experiments. Here, the logo of the manufacturer acts as an expert. The advertising uses the model of soft reasoning with the implication model. The advertising text should be written in scientific and popular style, so it should have a distinct logic of presentation. Terms are combined with colloquial-colored words; the techniques designed to create the rhythm of the text should be used, also the use of anaphora, metaphor, and asyndeton can strengthen the expressiveness. Due to the stylistic techniques the text gets emotional, expressive, and most importantly expands the audience able to use this scientific information.

Despite the fact that the advertising containing a PR-context is less productive in terms of commerce, it gives consumers greater interest and confidence. Such information wherever it is placed will be surely read, and maybe even saved. And with a competent layout of the advertising material and social nature, it is sure to be effective in terms of product promotion, as the use of such a strategy makes the advertising of the drug unobtrusive, useful, and interesting, and therefore, effective.


Conclusion

 

Today, advertising of medicines are being increasingly developed and improved. First of all, it helps to orient on the market for medical goods and facilitates the selection of medicines of highest quality and effectiveness among the abundance of new products and modern developments. At the same time, advertising of medicines and natural remedies in particular has its peculiarities explained by the specificity of objects related to medicine and health, which forces us to consider the impact of advertising on people not only in terms of commerce, but also through the prism of public and personal safety, and social context on a whole.

During the study of possible ways to advertise natural remedies better, we’ve come to the conclusion that the social side of advertising and its commercial part can be presented in three ways: a) drug advertising unobtrusively fitted into useful information; b) PR-context and advertising given in equal proportions; c) PR-context fitted in the advertising making it more interesting and accessible. While television still is considered the most effective media for advertising, current development of Internet marketing may also bring fruitful results. In this perspective, we propose placing marketing content inside the social networks infrastructure and apply their interactivity for spreading information of natural remedies by sharing publication and framing messages in Facebook, Twitter, online medical journals and sites of internet pharmacies. Application of information presentation strategy for natural remedies offered in the paper my turn out to e one of the most effective for keeping the interest and loyalty of natural remedies potential consumers.



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