Cultural Conceptions of Illness, Health & Wellness: Implications for Global Research
Presentation Abstract
Pharmaceutical manufacturers recognize that Emerging Markets will provide the engine of revenue and profit growth in the coming decades. Emerging Markets already represent enormous underserved populations, with growing potential for pharmaceutical spending as middle classes develop. In addition to the challenges posed by the political, regulatory, economic, and reimbursement landscapes, there is the question of the very nature of health and illness in these markets. Before pharmaceuticals can be effectively marketed a variety of psycho-cultural questions need to be answered:
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What is the cultural meaning of illness?
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To what causes is illness attributed?
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Imbalances within the individual, or with the natural world, social world, or supernatural world vs. Established Market “broken machine” concept (lifestyle, genetics)
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What does it mean to be healthy?
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The role of folk illnesses:
In this session the results of a new qualitative study will be presented that address all of the above issues, comparing and contrasting unique culturally-embedded concepts of health, wellness, and illness for a range of conditions in a set of Emerging Markets vs. Established Markets.
Speaker Biographies
David Forbes is the founder and Director of the Qualitative Insights Consortium. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical and cognitive psychology from Clark University, and was a member of the faculties of Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Harvard Laboratory of Human Development before beginning his career as a business consultant. Since 1982, Dr. Forbes has built the Forbes Consulting Group into a major resource for psychological consumer insight and strategic business planning that serves scores of major corporations domestically and internationally. As president and lead consultant at the Forbes Group, Dr. Forbes directs major market analysis initiatives through all phases from research through business implementation. His extensive experience in clinical qualitative research as well as quantitative methods provides strategic continuity for Forbes clients as they move from learning to opportunity.
Dr. Pincus holds a doctoral degree in social psychology from the University of Connecticut. His experience covers a broad spectrum of research in support of marketing to consumers and physicians, with concentrations in market segmentation, motivational messaging, brand equity, and new product development. Before coming to Forbes, he served for 6 years as Director of Research & Product Development for the Long-Term Care division of John Hancock Financial Services, where he directed the company’s joint research program with the National Council on the Aging. Dr. Pincus is a Fellow of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a founder and co-chair of the Baby Boomer Task Force, and is a member of the Washington-based think tank, the Long-Term Care Financing Strategy Group. He has served as an expert technical advisor on consumer communications to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (ASPE) and the Federal Office of Personnel Management.
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