Monthly Archives: March 2009

Mar
09

Bringing your healthcare practice to the people

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The typical dentist has a typical office in a typical building. Not Dr. Roemer, who’s one-man dental practice is inside the Iowa 80 Truckstop, at Exit 284 of Interstate 80. A complex which claims to be the world’s largest truck stop.

Dr. Roemer – truck stop dentist – did what we all need to do. Realize that in desperate times, creativity and innovation is the only way that we’ll survive and succeed. His actions provide lessons that any marketer would be proud of:
• observe and learn from your customers – the doctor noticed that many of his patients from his former practice called from the Yellow Pages ad he ran, and were in the phone booth from the Iowa 8 Truckstop.
• make it easy and convenient for people – there’s a steady flow of 35,000 people who pull into the truckstop each week
• be the solution they turn to when they need you the most – for his patients, treatment isn’t an option, they need to see a dentist right away.
• create a new business model – away from the traditional practice built around cleaning the family’s teeth, to providing immediate relief
• get people talking about you – word-of-mouth is the primary way truckers learn about the doctor (more credible, and a lot less expensive, than advertising).

I’m thinking “Truckstop Doc” franchise.

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Mar
08

Shedding portfolio pounds to gain brand health

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Not all products and services are created equal. Not all deserve “brand” status. Particularly in this environment, where resources are scarce and need to be laser-like focused on customer satisfaction.

Some brands might not meet customers’ important unmet needs, be able to meet revenue or profit goals or no longer support your business strategy. Identifying opportunities to trim portfolio fat turns up more resource to support those brands that are both strategically and financially the most important to the company (and your consumers).

Your portfolio goals should be to create:
• the optimal number of brands in line with business strategy
• each with a clearly defined role
• that work together to support one another
• grow value back to the company and shareholders
• and make it easy for customers to navigate and purchase their desired products

In an environment in which you have more to do with less, here are some questions that brand owners need to be asking:
Principle. What is the organizing principle of the portfolio
Perspective. What story is the portfolio telling from a customer perspective
Place. Do each of the brands in the portfolio have a clearly defined role; is there sufficient separation between the company offerings
Positioning. Which of your brands is best positioned for growth
Profit. How do our different brands contribute to profitability
Potential. Which offer future economic potential; and does market attractiveness (size and potential growth) merit investment
Performance. Do you sufficiently cover the market and target customer segments, with the fewest brands possible
Possibilities. Which brands are more firmly positioned for future growth

Answers to these questions (which really come down to relative brand strength and market attractiveness) should lead to the following actions:
• shut down weakest outcast brands
• rationalize overlapping brands
• push sleeper brands to realize full potential
• defend power brands that are strategically and financially important
• launch or acquire brands to fill gaps

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Mar
07

An impactful way to bring attention to California resident's lack of healthcare coverage

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Here’s an impactful way to bring attention to the fact that 6.7 million Californians don’t have healthcare coverage. Taxi NY developed these 40 life-size statues. This marketing effort has a strong viral/social media component, as local audiences will likely be compelled to share with others.

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Mar
06

Healthy client and agency relationships – a lot like the best brand and consumer relationships?

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Seems to me that the healthiest client and agency relationships are a lot like the best brand and consumer relationships.
They’re both built on a platform of:
• mutual respect
• open communication
• collaboration
• transparency
• shared passion
• commitment to ongoing innovation

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Mar
06

Giving health and healthy lifestyle brands the ability to do the best they can

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I know an organizational consultant who gets through the day by saying to himself “they’re doing the best they can.” It is the only way after many years of consulting, he says, that he can survive his customer engagements. He’s learned to accept the fact that we’re all flawed, and don’t always operate (no kidding) in a rational manner.
But through social media, we have the ability to speak through an unfiltered pipeline about, and to, brand and company owners. So there’s no excuse for them not to be doing the best they can. Unless they’re not listening, in which case, we’ll talk more frequently and virally until they do.
Using Twitter as an example, here are seven ways that social media helps us help brands “do the best they can”:

1. Great experience. Nice to meet you on Twitter- I love shopping on zappos.com, great user experience!
2. Lousy experience. I’m really hoping that what I need will be at Target so I can avoid a Walmart shopping experience.
3. Never again unless you fix it experience. ITZShop.com: Worst online shopping experience!
4. Customer service channel. Sorry to hear about that @xxxxxx call 8009612075 and our customer service team will correct this for you.
5. Product feedback. wholefoods: @xxxx We appreciate your feedback though and will look into creating a better system for collecting and reviewing product requests
6. Special events announcement. Special hands-on activities at the Grand Opening of the WOW Science Museum this weekend! Schedule of events: http://tinyurl.com/ce6xjf
7. New product and service ideas:Good morning “twitters”! I need 5 great/NEW innovative suggestions to launch a product to the industry. All ideas are welcome!

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Mar
05

The Health 2.0 reform movement

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I visited Wikipedia to see if there were any updates for the definition of Health 2.0, as it’s still being defined. There’s a traditional view offered by The Wall Street Journal, and this ambitious game-changing definition from Scott Shreeve, MD., who states that Health 2.0 goes way beyond just the pervasive social networking technology to include a complete renaissance in the way that Healthcare is actually delivered. He developed this visual representation of the Health 2.0 reform movement, and provides an accompanying explanation of the model.
To date, adaption of Health 2.0 technologies and tools among health care practitioners lags behind healthcare consumers, who use social to research and manage their health, their medical conditions and to gain emotional support. The collaboration between patients, caregivers and medical professionals (the ultimate goal which will benefit the consumer in their daily lives) is still largely a concept – though inevitably this will change. As Matthew Holt points out the issue is, how are these tools and technologies going to be used, what does that mean for health care organizations, and doctors and patients, and how fast will it matter?

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Mar
04

Does Your Healthcare Brand Have Fans Like This

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When was the last time someone publicly raved about your organization? When they told the world how impressed they were with you. What if you had to gauge your success by the number of fans raving about you, which is a lot more credible relative to us pounding our chests about how great we are. Watch this video from a Ford fan. 

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Mar
01

Seven Ways To Generate "Added-Value" Health Brand Energy

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I created this presentation following a discussion about how to provide added value to consumers worried about their future and evaluating their purchases with great discretion (if they’re purchasing at all). Implicit to being able to provide added value to consumers is understanding their world, how they define “value” and how they’re making decisions. 
Not one of the seven examples that follows reflects a better feature-driven mousetrap. Rather, all of them provide a platform for enriching people’s lives by understanding where they’re headed, and then providing better experiences, new relationships and new ways of interacting.
1. Great Brand Experience – which inspires trust, builds loyalty and promotes word-of-mouth (e.g. J&J’s Baby.com, Amazon, Zappos) 
2. Tried & True Comfort – the “authentic” foods and household products that we grew up with and that remind us of safety, warmth and joy (e.g. A&H Baking Soda, Kraft Mac N’ Cheese, J&J Baby Shampoo)
3. Tying To A Cause – purchasing a product to support a cause people care about (e.g. Yoplait Pink Labels, Green Works and Sierra Club)
4. Reinforcement – through the brand, consumers can track their progress (e.g. myAlliplan, Nike + iPod)
5. Community – where consumers actively participate in co-creating brand value (e.g. digg, patientslikeme, Wikipedia)
6. Ongoing Dividends –  where the initial outlay provides sustainable, meaningful and relevant gains (e.g. Prius, Solar Energy)
7. Personalized Expression – where the brand serves as a blank canvas for personal expression (e.g. My M&M’s, Build My Mini)

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