Upjohn Must Keep a Cool Head in Marketing Its Baldness Drug
It may be the marketing dream of this century--if not this millennium. An honest-to-pate anti-baldness treatment that even Uncle Sam says can sometimes work.
Something to advertise from dome to shining dome? Not quite. Just two days after the federal government approved an anti-baldness treatment, its maker, Upjohn Co., says it initially plans a rather low-key marketing approach for the prescription drug Rogaine.
Don’t look any time soon for those familiar ads that show seductive women running their hands through the hair of thickly maned men. In fact, Upjohn’s initial target will not even be the nation’s estimated 30 million people who suffer hair loss. Instead, the Kalamazoo, Mich., drug maker says, it will first chase after those who can write the prescriptions for the drug--doctors.
“The bottom line is, if physicians aren’t prescribing the product, then no one’s using it,” said Terry Reid, a spokesman for the Upjohn. Although the drug will not be available in drugstores for at least four weeks, the company will quickly begin placing advertisements in trade journals read by doctors and dermatologists, such as the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
And it could be early next year before the company even considers advertising directly to consumers. “No decision has been made on that yet,” said Reid, “but it’s certainly an option.”
Just how the company will eventually approach consumers is unclear. The company won’t say. And its advertising agency is also keeping mum. “All I can say is the advertising will be very circumspect--and careful--in its character,” said Albert P. Molinaro Jr., president and chief executive of Upjohn’s New York ad firm, Klemtner Advertising.
One thing is certain--Upjohn won’t be able to advertise Rogaine by its name to the public in the United States. Federal law prohibits advertising prescription drugs by name.
But in Canada, where the drug has been available for some time, Upjohn found a way around that problem--although it managed to upset some consumer groups in the process. In March, the company began airing TV spots that showed a bald man roasting the top of his head on a Florida beach. The ads did not mention the drug by name, but told viewers who were worried about baldness to consult their doctors.
At the same time, Upjohn began mailing gobs of information on Rogaine to Canadian doctors. And it placed ads in Canadian medical journals that read, “When hair loss turns against your patient--your patient knows he can turn to you.” The company simultaneously ran print ads in Canadian consumer publications that showed a bald man staring blankly into a mirror.
Month’s Supply for $50
This approach--of skirting laws that prohibit prescription drugs from advertising by name--prompted several consumer groups to complain to Canada’s largest advertising trade association. But the trade group took no action. “Maybe they did something a little crafty,” said Alan Rae, president of the Canadian Advertising Foundation. “But we really didn’t feel they had violated any law.”
When Upjohn does decide to start marketing to consumers in the United States, it will likely concentrate on reaching men who are 25 to 45 years old, said company spokesman Reid.
But he said the campaign would probably not be limited to upscale men--even though a month’s supply of the drug will cost about $50. “Some balding people have plenty of money to burn, but they really aren’t concerned about losing their hair,” he said. “At the same time, some people of lesser means are very concerned.”
And while Upjohn executives are publicly downplaying the significance of the drug, they have carefully placed Rogaine in a container that looks entirely different from the company’s many other prescription medications. While most other Upjohn products come in white boxes--with white labels--the Rogaine will be sold in the United States in charcoal gray boxes with gray labels.
Chance of the Century
Marketing experts, meanwhile, are eagerly watching to see how Upjohn handles the U.S. rollout of the drug.
“To a certain extent, it is the marketing opportunity of the century,” said Joel Steckel, a marketing professor at Columbia University. “The product, basically, has no competitors. About all they need to do is make the public aware that it exists. The only big no-no is not to upset the doctors. After all, they need doctors to prescribe the drug.”
Meanwhile, at nearby New York University, several business professors spent much of Wednesday discussing Upjohn’s marketing opportunity with their summer school classes. “I can’t think of a single product in the health-care field that so completely appeals to social needs,” said Eugene Secunda, NYU professor of marketing. “This is a classic opportunity to do next to nothing in advertising and just allow public relations to do the work.”
But can anything compare to this? “Few products come along that simply sell themselves,” said Secunda. “The last one I can think of is the Sony Walkman.”
