Sooner or later, health becomes a part of everyone’s life. In a highly diverse city like New York, the world’s most linguistically diverse city, effectively communicating healthcare rights and services can be a significant challenge. To delve deep into multicultural healthcare marketing challenges and opportunities, experts Augusto Romano, CEO at Digo, and Mercedes Rodríguez Bermejo, Senior Multicultural Marketing Specialist at EmblemHealth, participated in a recent Portada Live event, our knowledge-sharing and networking platform for brand marketers.
Laura Saldana, Brand Director, Voltaren and Excedrin, Haleon and Cristina Martinez, Senior Partner, Multicultural Director EssenceMediacom will speakers at the session “HEALTHCARE CONSUMER INSIGHTS: Understanding consumer behavior to develop exceptional marketing activations” at Portada’s upcoming Marketing in Multicultural America Summit on March 5 in the Lambs Club in New York City.
Multicultural Healthcare Marketing: New York, a “Microversion of the World”
Three research facts that are critical to understanding both the challenges and opportunities in multicultural healthcare marketing:
- For every US $4 spent on Hispanic healthcare, US $3 goes to illnesses that could be prevented. (Source: SOMOS Community Care reported in September 2021).
- Diabetes and nutrition-based conditions are a prevalent problem in the Hispanic community. In NY, Hispanics overall, compared with other New Yorkers, have a higher prevalence of some chronic conditions such as diabetes (17% vs. 10%) and obesity (29% vs. 20%) (Source: DOHMH’s 2021 New York City Community Health Survey, City health department).
- Hispanic people had among the highest uninsured rates in the nation at 17.7% compared to 5.7% for NH-White. (Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vital Signs/ Hispanic Health, May 2017).
The challenges for efficient and impactful multicultural healthcare marketing are well exemplified in New York, the most diverse metropolitan area in the world, where more than 600 different languages are spoken.
As Rodríguez Bermejo noted: “In New York, the multicultural landscape is always changing. An important recent change is that Dominicans are now the number one community among Hispanics in NYC, with Puerto Ricans now being the second largest. In third place, overall, comes the Chinese community. Different ethnicities coming from the Caribbean are also a large constituency, as well as the Hindi population.”
“You need to develop trust to evolve the conversation. This is true for all marketing, but even more so for multicultural healthcare marketing.”
What solutions do companies like EmblemHealth offer to promote health, especially within Hispanic communities?
In the Portada Live panel, Bermejo told the audience that for effective multicultural healthcare marketing: “You need to develop trust to evolve the conversation. This is common for all marketing, but even more so in healthcare. You need to address the fear factor because even if a patient is documented, a relative may not be. In NY, you have the right to health regardless of immigration status. The crucial message is that healthcare is private and personal and for everybody. To build trust, you need to be talking directly to the patient. That is why EmblemHealth has 13 centers across the city that are open to everybody and offer information, wellness classes, and yoga. It’s a way for people to understand that they need their health taken care of, including preventive and mental health.”
“In New York you have the right to health regardless of immigration status. The crucial message is that healthcare is private and personal and for everybody.”
Rodríguez Bermejo talked about EmblemHealth’s most successful multicultural healthcare marketing activations; The ‘Un futuro saludable’/ ‘Healthy Futures” event series targets people who are arriving and people who have been in New York for a longer time. “We mainly reach out to consulates and large organizations for the most extensive outreach. We also partner with community programs. There are some fantastic NGOs, who are our heroes. Experiential marketing initiatives allow us to be there ‘in the moment,” Rodríguez Bermejo said.
VIDEO: Watch the most recent edition of the Portada Live conference. The multicultural healthcare marketing session starts at 33 minutes and 55 seconds.
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