Just because you’ve jumped on the Social Media bandwagon doesn’t mean that you’re a player. Tweets don’t equal relevancy. Joining social networks won’t automatically grow your fan base. Uploads don’t automatically equate to popularity. While these tactics are important tools in the new 21st century healthcare marketing arsenal, they don’t guarantee your place at the customers table.
At the end of the day, there’s only one way to ensure your relevancy and to secure your future. Find your different. It can be a big different or a little different. But either way, it should yield big impact for your customers. Your different should improve lives – making people happier, helping them achieve what they can’t on their own, fulfilling dreams, easing fears, surprising and delighting. Along the way, building brand love.
Borrowing on Blue Ocean Strategy® principles, here are four steps that a company can take to carve out new market space and get their different:
• Eliminate: what features can you eliminate that industry players take for granted but that add no real perceived value (or distinctiveness) for customers (e.g. Cirque du Soleil eliminating star performers)
• Reduce: what features can you reduce below those of other competitors to make you more compelling for customers (Hello Health eliminating the complexity of making a doctor’s appointment)
• Raise: what attributes can you raise to add value beyond competitors (NikeiD making it possible to customize your own shoes)
• Create: what new sources of value can you create that others have never offered (HealthVault helping you manage your family’s health)