When my children were younger, reminders about vaccinations were inescapable. Notifications come by way of regular pediatrician visits, health forms to be completed to enroll in school, and checklists on every Boy Scout camp or sports-participation medical form.

Kathleen Bonetti,
Rx EDGE Pharmacy Networks

Adults, on the other hand, don’t get the same relentless cues about immunization needs for themselves, especially if they forgo annual physicals or seldom see a doctor. As a result, most possess only minimal knowledge of recommendations and risk factors and therefore aren’t receiving the vaccines that benefit their health and longevity.

According to a February 2015 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccination coverage levels among adults in the U.S. are extremely low for most routine, recommended shots:

• 75% of patients who are eligible for Zostavax (the shingles vaccine) haven’t received it.
• 82% of adults over age 19 are in need of a Tdap booster.
• 94% of eligible males over age 19 haven’t received an HPV vaccination; 63% of eligible females over 19 haven’t.
• 20% of high-risk patients between ages 18 and 64 received the pneumococcal vaccine.
• 25% of adults were vaccinated for hepatitis B.

The only small bright spot in this distressing landscape is influenza, where coverage increased by 1.4 percentage points among adults for the 2014/15 season, compared with the 2013/14 season, according to the National Immunization Survey – Flu.

Communication channels

Vaccination education has three objectives: reaching a large and relevant audience, informing those who are at risk and encouraging dialogue with medical professionals. In the last two or three years, there has been a noticeable increase in consumer-directed vaccination awareness efforts. Some are focused on specific brands; others are designed to drive general knowledge about conditions that may be prevented through immunization.

Most of the earlier initiatives took place via the “usual outlets”: television spots, print advertisements and digital marketing. But in the past year or so, more and more vaccine brands have been including retail pharmacies in their campaigns. As a communication platform, the pharmacy delivers each of the three previously mentioned key objectives of vaccine education and does so more effectively than other channels in the area of facilitating a conversation with a health care professional.

Access to information and action

With immunization services readily available at pharmacies everywhere, another advantage of pharmacy marketing is that consumers can often take immediate action if they so choose.

Patients can direct questions to the pharmacist on duty and, if the specific vaccine is offered at that location, can then be vaccinated right there or at the in-store clinic by a nurse practitioner. Currently, two-thirds (over 200,000) of licensed U.S. pharmacists are trained to administer vaccines.

With ready access to immunizations and other health care services, the gap between awareness and action can be narrowed considerably. Even if consumers ultimately choose to be vaccinated at another location (such as the doctor’s office or health clinic), the pharmacy can still serve as a platform to equip them with the necessary information and knowledge.

Communication objectives

Common in-pharmacy marketing vehicles for vaccine brands include information dispensers at the shelf in O-T-C and personal care sections, pharmacy-counter signage and in-store radio. Such programs amplify the retailer’s own educational efforts to promote immunizations.

Pharmacy programs have proven successful for broadly targeted categories such as flu, as well as products in more specific therapy areas such as shingles, pertussis and pneumonia. While the overall objective is to increase coverage levels, the communication goals may vary depending on the brand or immunization ­category:

• Flu: Educate consumers about their choices for broader coverage.
• Pertussis: Arm people with knowledge about not only the benefits of vaccinations, but also the dangers of certain diseases (to others as well as themselves) if they choose not to be vaccinated.
• Shingles: Elevate understanding about a condition that adults may not think about often, and about the extent of pain associated with it.
• Pneumococcal disease: Communicate risk factors for key age groups and for those with certain chronic conditions such as diabetes, COPD and heart disease.

People are often thinking about health care in some way when they are walking through the doors of a community pharmacy. They are seeking out remedies for themselves or for others, or they are picking up prescriptions and other health-related necessities. When in this particular frame of mind, they are more inclined to pay attention to vaccination-related ­messages.

Media partnership

Pharmacy-delivered communications can be effectively deployed in conjunction with other media forms (television, print, online) to help vaccine brands build a presence and extend the reach and value of their marketing campaigns. They can also help to answer some of the basic “who, what, where, why, when” questions, such as:

• Why should I think about a pneumonia shot?
• What kind of flu vaccines are available?
• Who in my family should be getting a pertussis vaccine and when?
• What vaccinations am I due or overdue for?
• Are there side effects I should be aware of?
• Where can I find a vaccination schedule?

Print and television media are subject to many space and time considerations and, therefore, they can’t answer such questions as comprehensively. And while online resources are not as constrained by those considerations, pharmacy-delivered information is both timely and relevant to the target audience, making it the perfect complement to the more traditional methods of communicating.

Reaching the goal

Clear, accurate and timely communication is essential in vaccination education and the health of the general population. To accomplish this goal, it is important for brands to build an effective overall media presence that is designed to drive awareness of risk factors and vaccination benefits.

The key to doing so is delivering clear, direct health information focused on making consumers aware of conditions that may be prevented through immunization. The pharmacy is proving to be an accessible, effective means of imparting that information in a relevant way that leads to action.

Kathleen Bonetti ([email protected]) is executive vice president of marketing at Rx EDGE Pharmacy Networks, which assists pharmaceutical brands in educating patients through programs delivered in the retail pharmacy marketing channel.