I just read this article “With new smartphones, doctors reinvent the house call” minutes after my last post. An infectious-disease physician was able to view an injury through a digital photo on his iPhone. He then diagnosed and prescribed antibiotics. And over the next few days, he monitored the situation via photos sent to his iPhone.
Two different sources, one point of view — that mobile is going to continue to play a larger role in our lives (including our healthcare).
First, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project report. Among expert respondents, 77% mostly agreed that in 2020, the phone (with significantly enhanced computer power) is expected to become the primary connection tool to the internet.
Second, from a health industry conference on the role of mobility and mobile solutions in the health industry. All speakers agreed that as it relates to the cell phone, we are only now beginning to uncover its full potential:
• in the management of chronic diseases
• as a tool for accessing timely information
• as an essential device for capturing information
• as a way to collaborate across time and distance
• as a means to interact in new ways with patients
• and as a platform for education and entertainment.
Yet all acknowledged that we have barely scratched the surface on the ways these devices and mobile solutions will play out in the future.
Baby Boomers represent one of the few growing markets around. While many marketers remain focused on the stagnant under-50 market, the 50+ market (40 million and growing) continues to show tremendous growth.
Baby Boomers (typically defined as those folks born between 1946 and 1964) are the largest buying group in America. They represent the generation with the greatest buying power in the history of the country (controlling approximately 70% of the nations wealth) and account for 40% of total consumer demand – even in a recession.
To attract this huge segment, a brand needs to:
• understand the segments that make up the 50+ market
• treat these customers with respect and dignity
• appeal to their desire to feel, think, act and stay young
• beyond products, offer “life-enhancing” experiences
• support their products with great service
• be positive, as people don’t want to be reminded that “time is winding down”
• develop communications that show you understand the audience
For insight into this demographic, check out babyboomer-magazine.com.
Thought-provoking, status-quo challenging e-book by Phil Baumann, RN BSN about the possibilities micro-sharing (using Twitter as the example) offers as a powerful means of healthcare communication and collaboration.
A Simply Better Way is a great talk from Saul Kaplan at the Business Innovation Factory. “My dream for the future is that we can come together as a connected community with a shared purpose for a simply better way” are the words he uses to introduce his talk. He focuses primarily on healthcare, education and energy, but if you are not in one of those sectors you will still find inspiration.
First, you can connect it back to my last post. You can either wallow in the mud of the current situation, or consider his metaphor of “a simply better way” so that you’re the one consumers turn to when we turn the corner.
But On the idea of “connected community” with a shared purpose to achieve a better way. He states that it “has become easier to connect via the internet with someone on the other side of the world then it is to connect with the rich diversity of citizens and institutions in our own backyard. Despite all of the networking technology, we have become surprisingly disconnected from our own neighbors.”
So much of our focus has turned to social networks. Creating connected and collaborative virtual communities of people with shared interests. But his point is that we’ve missed something important along the way. We need to mobilize. We need to collaborate, not in Second Life, but in real life, to make change happen. As he states, “we need to reconnect the dots into purposeful networks focused on healthcare, education, and energy independence as the path towards prosperity and a simply better way.” Because communities really do matter.
There’s no magic bullet that will help you come out stronger on the other side of the downturn. But there are ways to seize what is admittedly an awful situation and steer it to your advantage. By discovering new insights. Uncovering and providing what your customers are hungry for.
Address these five questions to help you position yourself as the one to turn to when things come around. Questions that revolve around three “R”s – reshaping, refining and rationalizing. And which are ultimately about customers. Because without them, nothing us really matters.
1. Is your message simple and sharp? Are you providing a crystal clear understanding of the value of your offering?
2. Does your portfolio reflect this clarity and simplicity? Is it focused on those offerings that drive reputation, relationships and business? Is it simple for customers to easily shop and choose what they want?
3. Are you adding value in ways that are important to customers while building on your differentiation and strengths, e.g. through new product or service enhancements, channels, partners, content, experiences?
4. Are you investing in what matters most to customers? If not, go dark. Because nothing else really matters. Stop marketing to them, and do for them. Engage then where they are and how they want. Align all your activities and spending to deliver that value. And if you can’t find the value in an activity, let it go.
5. Are you operating with integrity and treating employees, customers, shareholders and partners with respect? Too many have already let us down. And they’ve been called out. Rise above, and you’ll come out stronger on the other side.
Super Protection from Super Bugs
This convenient PatientPak kit is a smart idea and offers excellent protection against hospital Superbugs and viruses as well as at-home protection. It’s a simple, highly desirable disease prevention product that I believe has legs beyond its current market focus. Sold and marketed direct to consumers instead of through health institutions, PatientPak is a collection of antimicrobial and other hygiene items for those planning a hospital visit. Its aim is to kill 99.99% of bugs, including MRSA, salmonella and E. coli.
The timing for the meeting was particularly important. Because there’s a backdrop of doubt, uncertainty and lack of forward movement on the part of their clients. So the idea that they could actually ‘sell” a compelling and differentiating brand promise that transcended their suite of products and services really resonated with them.
In particular, there were a few concepts that stood out for them:
• that their brand is not a logo, a themeline, a product or service or manual. Rather, it’s the difference between an MP3 player and an iPOD, a battery and an “energizer bunny” battery, a banana and a Chiquita banana, the hundreds of defunct department stores and Target. Rather, brand is an expectation – of a product, service or organization – ultimately delivering a feeling- based on ideas and experiences.
• given a market backdrop of too many (and too similar) product choices, too much information, a discerning consumer who can now decide how they connect, create and consume media – the old modes of brand-building based on transactions has now evolved to connections (to dynamic conversations, doing vs. saying, experiences vs. touch-points, building community versus building audience).
• the fact that (to borrow on a native american saying) “it takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.” That absolutely everything the sales force (and the organization) does, either enhances or detracts from brand reputation. The fact that all actions have consequences – which compelled them to say to leadership and other supporting cast members “don’t screw this up for us.”
• that if you consider the advantages of building a strong brand – from both an internal and external, relationship and financial perspective – there are tangible financial and relationship benefits beyond what they had considered. And that they could actually sell against these benefits.
• the fact that brand value is tied to stock market value (in fact, represents a disproportionate share of stock market value in strong brand-driven companies); and that these corporate brands are supported by strong brand-centric cultures, where
all employees understand and are aligned in brand delivery.
The team was excited and energized about what the company was doing. They asked about additional materials and tools. And they extolled the company to please not let this one slip away. Pretty cool that this feedback was coming from the sales force.
Good article Fitness Isn’t an Overnight Sensation about how long it really takes to get into body-changing shape.
As the title suggests, discipline and commitment over a longer period of time than people would like to hear, is the only way to transform your body. Evidence that even with all the rational evidence we would ever need available at our fingertips, we override logic and base our purchase decisions largely on emotion and feelings.
Imagine the impact of each of us switching out just one brand per week (one of the “things” we use, throw away and waste), to help build a more sustainable, livable, prosperous future. Doesn’t take much to make a difference.
“Our things define us.”
What we buy, what we use, what we keep and throw away, what we waste, and what we save: the stuff that surrounds us and flows through our lives is a key indicator of the kinds of lives we’re living. To be an affluent twenty-first-century person is to float on a sea of material objects – each with its own history and future.
They may be hidden from our eyes, but in practical global terms, those histories and futures tend to be the most important aspects of the stuff we own.”
This is from one of the chapters of a new book called Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century – a compilation of innovative solutions, ideas and inventions for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future. It’s written by WorldChanging, a nonprofit media organization founded on the idea that real solutions already exist for building the future we want.
More evidence of the rise of mobile in healthcare