Feb

A little "healthy lifestyles" levity for a Friday

Actually, there’s nothing light about this at all. Sharing this post from Consumerist – “The Worst Food Product Ever” May Have Been Found. Should provide the impetus for us all to strive to have a healthy day.

After seeing this, it compelled me to go to Armour’s site. I was interested in seeing how they spoke about the company and the Armour brand. Armour is actually part of Pinnacle Foods Group LLC. Their mission is to “make our brands an increasingly important part of consumers’ everyday lives so we build sustainable value.” Hmm…wonder how this fits with this mission?

Armour is one of their brands. As they say in their Product Description, “Armour offers a wide range of easy-to-make solutions for all your meal and snacking occasions…given today’s busy lifestyles, you’re sure to find a quick, convenient and great tasting Armour Star product to satisfy your craving, whatever the occasion.” Yes, this is quick and convenient. But don’t even want to think about what the craving could be.

Interestingly, when you click through to the Armour site, there’s no Pork Brains to be found.

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Feb

Boomers, social media and healthcare marketing

More than 60% of boomers consume and contribute to social technologies like blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts and online videos, according to a recent report from Forrester. This is up from roughly 40% a year ago. The implications for healthcare marketers are clear – either integrate social into your marketing efforts or risk becoming irrelevant.

Here are some tips on getting started:

• understand the different segments of boomers in terms of how they use social technologies, e.g. their interests, goals, benefits and rituals (here’s an introduction from the book Groundswell)

• confirm and prioritize your business and social media objectives

• identify your priority stakeholder groups based on your objectives

• develop your social media platform, e.g. is it education, empowerment or both

• determine the social media strategies that make sense to reach your stakeholders, e.g. content and conversations, types of channels and promotion activities

• determine the roles and responsibilities of those who will be driving and influencing your efforts, e.g. researching and developing content, providing videos, ongoing execution, conducting analysis, implementing refinements, etc.

• clarify and develop your corporate social media policies

Importantly, it takes time to ramp up with social media. It takes time to engage people, to draw them into conversations, to build credibility and relationships. But the wonderful thing about social media is that you can take baby steps. Steps that are extremely efficient and that allow you to learn and quickly adjust as you go.

Feb

Growing health brand energy in the downturn

To flourish in this downturn, challenge convention. ”Recessions provide fertile ground for launching new businesses, developing disruptive new products and strengthening customer loyalty.” These are the words of marketing expert Andrew Razeghi from Northwestern University.

Here are a few tips he offers based on the many examples of successful companies that prospered during recessionary times:

• While managing cash is important, don’t put the brakes on. Continue to invest in R&D and marketing. “Listen to the market, invest in products for the long term, and keep in front of the customer.”

• The worst thing you can do is to go dark. In a recession “fear creates focus.” “Customers wonder how you’re doing. Now is the time to increase communication and restore confidence not only in the products you’re selling, but also in the company behind those products.”

• Marketers need to play to their strengths, and rethink how to turn those strengths into new opportunities. As marketers continue to clamor for attention, sensory branding will grow increasingly relevant to help cut through the clutter.

As he points out, many high-profile name brands were born in the midst of the Great Depression.

Feb

Maximizing the insight from your health and healthy lifestyle online community

Some online communities are specifically built and managed as insight tools, states FreshNetworks in a recent post Maximising the insight you get from your online community.

However, all communities can be useful sources of insight, as companies are able to observe and learn from the unfiltered, real conversations taking place among community members.

Here are eight ways that FreshNetworks describes how companies can learn from online communities:

• Profiling data: to help you understand the demographic and lifestyle make-up of the people who comprise your community

• Focused discussions: that can be built around priority areas of interest, which can then provide rich insights for research and development

• Learn their language: by observing how members talk about your market and products, you can gain rich insight into their lives and priorities and your messaging and outreach

• Rating and voting: asking members to rate or to vote on ideas or content provides input for you in turn to be more relevant and meaningful to them

• Photo uploads: can reveal what people are thinking and feeling beyond words alone; and are often an easier vehicle for people to express their ideas

• Photo activities: by asking members to upload photos that they believe reflect a specific topic or a response to a question, you begin to learn how they see the world

• Discussion events: can be focused on specific issues important to the company; at times that reflect the usage patterns of your community

• Quick polls: are easy to put together, and provide a tool to gather quick, directional insight about specific topics of interest

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Feb

Renewable energy sources for health and healthy lifestyle brands

Wanted to share this presentation of 40 renewable energy sources for brands, grouped within these dimensions. Common denominator across all the examples is that these brands clearly understand their place in people’s lives.