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

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!

The Health 2.0 reform movement

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?

Does Your Healthcare Brand Have Fans Like This

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. 

Seven Ways To Generate Health Brand Energy Through Added Value

I created this client presentation following a discussion about how to provide added value to consumers who are worried about their future and who are evaluating their purchases with great discretion (if they're purchasing at all). Implicit to being able to provide added value to consumers is understanding how they feel, 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. I've included examples from both inside and outside health and healthy lifestyles, as big insights and ideas typically come from outside the client category being studied.

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)

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. 

Why technology is no longer an option in public health

Another call to arms for the healthcare industry and healthcare marketers to be open to change and to embrace the opportunities that technology and social media provide to make things better.  View post by Andre Blackman Why Technology Is No Longer Optional in Public Health.

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. 

  

Growing 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."

• In a recession, 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. 

 

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

 

 

One simple Social path to health and healthy lifestyles brand energy

As Peter Drucker stated, the purpose of business is not to make a sale, but to make and keep a customer. 

But to keep a customer, you need to understand them. Which requires you to actively listen to what they're talking about and what's important to them, so you can make decisions based on how they really think and feel. So you can ensure your place in their lives. 

Yet we find that listening to customers is often overlooked. It's taken for granted that customer translates into customary. But at a time when everyone is re-evaluating their brand choices, you really should listen. And through the social media tools we all have at our disposal, there's no longer any excuse. The cost is insignificant. The time commitment is not, but if practiced routinely, becomes routine. And the payoff is huge – growing happy customers that you keep. 

Think crowdsourcing to produce health and healthy lifestyles brand energy

Crowdsourcing taps into the creativity, insights and wisdom of everyday people to help brands create more value. It's an open source (outsourced) method for customers to help improve and create new products and services through their comments, suggestions and ideas. 

Here are a few examples:

• istockphoto (which created a marketplace for amateur photographers)

• Wikipedia (an encyclopedia created for thousands of users)

• Dell Ideastorm (launched by Dell to gauge which ideas are most important and relevant to the public)

• digg (where users submit links to sites, articles, news stories, photos and videos and others vote whether they're worth checking out).

Every brand should at least be "consumer-sourcing." By engaging consumers in ways that they value and want through social media, you'll receive tremendous feedback that will help you strengthen your offerings and enhance your connections. In fact, any company that doesn't recognize the power of the consumer to their marketing efforts will eventually be pushed aside. 

"Social" brands that support a healthy lifestyle

True to Kashi's mission of helping people make healthy choices to live their best lives, the company is doing a nice job of delivering on this promise through Social Media.  If you go to their site, you can click on a section "Now accepting accomplishments. Major, minor and everything in between - shout out what you achieved today!"

It's a community posting filled with real stories of people and their accomplishments. There's also a Community Round-Up survey. And mosaic view allows for quick and easy scan of comments. 

Visitors can also "Join The Kashi Community", with the option to receive exclusive coupons, connect with friends and join the taste tester panel. "Today's Challenge" (updated daily) encourages people to keep coming back. 

Great to see a company delivering on its promise. 

  

A brands promise to its social media participants

This morning, I'm standing in for the voice of a brand. A brand astute enough to know, and mature enough to accept, that its future is being shaped by anyone engaging in social media and online communities. A brand that openly embraces this future, and will actively participate in it. 

So what would it proclaim:

• if you have an opinion, I want to hear it, and will let others hear it as well

• if you have a complaint, I want to hear it, and will publicly deal with it

• if you have a question, I will answer it

• and if I ask you a question, I will respond to it

• I will not talk at you, but to you

• I will not sell you, but engage you 

• if I let you down, I will apologize

• it's not about me, it's about you, me and all of us

• together, we can make a difference

 

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. 

Marketing To Moms Through Digital Technology and Social Media

Digital Mom is an excellent report from Razorfish and CafeMom. It examines how moms are adopting digital technology and social media to help her "do it all".  Key implications for health + healthy lifestyle brand marketers (synthesized from the report) include:

• beyond email (of which 95% of moms use), more than 50% engage through search, social networking sites, text messaging and instant messaging…which means that you need to consider how to rebalance your efforts to leverage these viable channels 

• younger digital moms tend to be more comfortable with new tools like social networks and SMS, whereas older moms are more comfortable with information channels online…so a one-size-fits-all is not going to work 

• by tapping into moms dual motivations - staying connected for their own needs, as well as the needs of their children - marketers have an opportunity to empower moms with content, experiences and community

• categories of Medication/Medical Condition (20%) and Health/Fitness (18%) fell roughly in the middle of those in which moms researched, sought advice, or purchased (in the last 3 months; all survey participants,not segmented by age).  

• there were five distinct segments of socially connected moms, dimensioned in terms of who she is, her Social Level, Activity Level and Content Creation Level…providing insight into how to reach and engage each segment, and leverage their interactions on social networks. 

Health + Healthy Lifestyle Brands On Twitter

This is a big list compiled by Paul Dunay from BearingPoint of brands using Twitter - Brands That Tweet.  These companies are across a wide range of industries, both b2b and b2c. 

Not much representation in the health + healthy lifestyles space:

• GE Healthcare (twitter.com/GE_reports)

• Growing Bolder (twitter.com/growingbolder)

• North Face (twitter.com/thenorthface)

• Planet Green (twitter.com/planetgreen)

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (twitter.com/rwjf)

• Travel Channel (twitter.com/travelchannel)

• Triathlete Magazine (twitter.com/TriathleteMag)

• Whole Foods (twitter.com/wholefoods)

But I think there's good reason for these brands to take advantage of the opportunity to:

• establish a personality beyond that of a faceless institution

• display their transparency

• at least listen in to what people are saying about their brands, 

• if not add to the conversation through valuable content,

• in ways that their audiences value and want

   

Health + Healthy Lifestyle Brands Need To Join The Social Media Conversation

In 2008 Forrester Research declared that social media is now mainstream. A consumer poll done in Q2 found that 75% of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56% in 2007. By 2012, it's predicted that 80% of the web's content will be user generated. More and more companies are participating, but health and healthy lifestyle brands are much further behind the curve. 

So they need to join in on the conversation. Accept that their comfortable "traditional" world is no longer. And realize that the risk of not participating (of eventually becoming irrelevant) is greater than the risk of dipping their brand toe in the water. 

One of the important benefits of Social Media (vs. traditional) is its fluidity. It allows for micro strategies, experimentation, quick adjustments and rapid implementation - at far lesser cost than that of traditional media. 

Through social, you can help people connect to each other through your brand, in ways that they value and want. In turn, you can create positive interactions, transparency, authenticity, trust and loyalty.  

Here are four tips to consider:

• first, just listen in to the conversation, as you'll be surprised what you hear, what motivates your audiences and what messages appeal to them 

• join in only if you have something relevant to offer (defined as compelling, valued, authentic)

• don't interrupt with selfish one-way brand messages

• and don't squelch the conversation if you don't like what you're hearing

 

 

More Energy Sources For Brands

Adding to the list from yesterday:

11. Help improve our future. One Laptop Per Child. 

12. Create platforms for shared passions. Nike + 

13. Change our view of the world. Dove.

14. Let customers choose the price. ebay. 

15. Enhance the customer experience. Whole Foods.  

16. Engage people in your vision. Obama.  

17. Deliver beautiful design. Apple

18. Be the authority. McKinsey. 

19. Exude passion from the inside out. Google. 

20. Overcome the trade-off. Mini.  

New Energy Sources For Brands

Thought I'd start a list of ways that brands can get re-energized. I'll keep adding to it. Here are the first entries:

1. Social Media. Be about people, not about you; help them come together via your brand. GSK's myalli community. 

2. Crowdsourcing. Tap into the insights and ideas of your users. Dell Ideastorm.

3. Become the customer champion. LinkedIn.

4. Tap into their larger societal agenda. Fairtrade.  

5. Create a new vision for the market. Method.

6. Find new uses for your product, and use #2 above. Arm & Hammer. 

7. Focus in on the one thing you do better than anyone else. Zappos.

8. Introduce a new business model. BookMooch.

9. Make people happy. Wii

10. Re-articulate your brand story. Walmart. 

Thinking about social media and the shelf

Social media is quickly climbing its way up the marketing tools ladder.  But some things never change. Either a customer chooses you at the moment of truth, or they don't.  So while today's concepts - conversation, community, collaboration, engagement, experience - are important to more meaningfully connecting brands and audiences, we still need to close the sale. 

Yet these same concepts should be integrated in-store. We should be:

• respecting consumers who are in the aisle  

• providing a great experience 

• engaging rationally and emotionally  

• telling compelling brand stories 

Our in-store practices should take a cue from Social. But clearly, this is easier said than done, as it's incumbent on brands and retailers to be connected. Actually for consumers, brands and retailers need to be connected. Otherwise, everyone loses.  But this post is not meant to provide answers, as I'm just starting the conversation. 

A Resource for Analyzing Trends Impacting Health and Healthy Lifestyle Brands

From Parsons the New School for Design, an insightful and useful presentation (actually a lecture) that can serve as a resource for analyzing trends impacting health and healthy lifestyle brands.

Key takeaways:

1. Think of trends as stories (big ones, e.g. future of healthcare, and small ones, e.g. botox) about what's moving, where it's moving and by what force
2. Study them to understand consumer insight (how culture shapes behavior), to develop ideas and to develop products
3. Trends take on life much the way germs spread (passed from one person/community to another)
3. Involves understanding currency (defined in terms of value and social)
4. To understand the structure of trends - identify the forces at work (economics, technology, society), which lead to perceptions that result in behavior (work, play, create/consumer) which lead to micro (personal) trends, e.g. recycling, plant-based skin care products
5. Realize (and learn from the fact) that there are always (us vs. them) counter-forces and behaviors at play (e.g. mini-advocates vs. hummer-advocates) and (then vs. now) historical perspectives, (e.g. skin deep beauty vs. real beauty)

View The Structure of Trends presentation

Branding and marketing to all five senses

Think of "sensory branding" for health and healthy lifestyle brands.

Sensory branding leverages all five senses to make deeper connections with consumers by baking sight, sound, smell, taste and touch into the brand experience. These elements add texture to help create authentic, distinctive, compelling and enduring brand stories that create competitive edge.

It's based on studies that link the five senses with human memory and emotion, and can greatly enhance one's engagement with a brand (both offline and online). It also increases the likelihood of advocacy, and very possibly, stronger business results. In a rational world of business, connecting at an emotional level is the key, and often missing ingredient, to capturing hearts and building lasting connections.

All marketers can benefit from "sense-surround" branding and marketing. Almost anything you design, manufacture, provide or do; anything that customers can see, hear, touch, taste or smell are candidates. Consider these examples:

• sight, e.g. the emotional associations of Tiffany's blue box, J&J's Baby Shampoo bottle and the "Apple."
• sound, e.g. the startup tones that distinguish Microsoft and Apple computers, the distinctive sound of a Harley engine and the crunch of a Nestle Crunch Bar.
• smell, e.g. Ben Gay's unique love it or hate it smell, the scented towels fliers receive on Singapore Airlines and the scent of an Abercrombie & Fitch store (replicated in their mail-order product).
• taste, e.g. the distinctiveness of Starbucks, Dr. Pepper and the refreshingly fizzy Orangina.
• touch, e.g. the unique and one and only shape of the Coke bottle, the feel of an iPod and Simplehuman's household "tools for efficient living."

And how about delivering sensory experiences online. While it may not be possible to physically evoke the senses, you can appeal in a virtual way. Consider:

• sight, e.g. Tiffany's home page (flooded with its blue box).
• sound, e.g. BMW's 7-Series HD experience, and the incredible streaming video and audio documentaries on factualtv.com.
• smell, e.g. though virtual, you can almost smell Lush's products on their site.
• taste, e.g. while you can't drink a screensaver, it's as good as it gets with this Sam Adams download.
• touch, not in the physical sense, but through the ability to provide feedback, contribute content, play games.

To succeed with a sensory strategy:

• beyond demographics, build lifestyle profiles of your customer segments
• understand the core equity of your brand
• identify its true "sense-surround" potential
• align this opportunity with customers desired emotions and feelings
• identify the messages you want to send
• determine the channels and the tools you plan to use and the senses you intend to tap into, with each element of your brand integral to the eventual show

Given the bombardment of 2-D advertising into every corner of our lives, it's effectiveness and return on marketing expenditure sliding – the ability to connect in more emotive and memorable ways holds great meaning for consumers and marketers. Particularly in this economic environment, any emotional edge that you can provide is important - and lasting.

 

More evidence of the rise of mobile in healthcare

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.

Prediction: Mobile Solutions Will Impact Healthcare

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 Present Opportunities for Health and Healthy Lifestyle Brands

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.

140 health care uses for Twitter

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.

Inspiration for Healthcare, Healthy and Energy Brands

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.

Finding energy for health and healthy lifestyle brands

Like all other industries, healthcare and healthy lifestyle brands are feeling the effects of the recession.

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.

Healthcare: Direct to consumer disease control and prevention

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.

Building healthcare brands from the inside-out

I gave a presentation to the global sales force of a current client this week. We're formally relaunching the corporate brand next month. We introduced the team to the new brand direction and talked about how we were going to help them strengthen and build connections with current and prospective clients and partners.

For most healthcare brands your staff is your sales force. Branding begins from the inside out.

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.

Your health - if it's too good to be true, it probably is

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.

The brands we buy and how they define us

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.

Social media a great platform for healthcare

Was thinking about Hawaii's online health initiative (see yesterday's post) and wanted to continue the social media theme. As Steve Case, founder of Revolution Health told the World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress "community is the killer app in health care." And why not. The same user-generated content tools that we use to converse, connect and collaborate in our daily lives also provide a great platform for us to use for health information and support.

Jane Sarashon-Kahn, owner of consultancy THINK-Health refers to the Health 2.0 movement as the use of social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders. Again, see post below as an example of this collaboration.

Some complimentary and reinforcing facts:
iCrossing conducted a study in January 2008, and found that the internet (59%) is the leading source (followed by doctors at 55%) used to find or access Health and Wellness Related Information in the past 12 months. And following the docs was the influence of relatives/friends/co-workers (much of which is probably accessed online).
















Again from iCrossing, general search engines (67%), Health portals (46%) and Social media (34%) are the top online tools and resources used to locate health information. Again, followed by the influence of relatives/friends/co-workers.




















So what's next. Where is Health 2.0 going? Maybe look for clues from Microsoft Health Vault M and Google Health. And then to take this a step farther, what does Health 3.0 have in store for us?

Online Healthcare In Hawaii

The traditional doctor/patient visit has just moved to a virtual office via the web.

As of last week, Hawaii residents can pay a flat fee for a 10-minute online visit with a doctor. While the brief interaction won't be able to address more complicated and emergency-based medical situations, it is an efficient way to handle more routine requirements and patient queries.

Forgetting the questions regarding possible abuse that come to mind, it's a strong advancement that benefits both patient and doctor and plays into the inherent advantages that the web has to offer. Read the article Hawaii tries out online health care

The impact of digital growth on healthcare and healthy lifestyle brands

If you think the past couple of years have brought about lots of change to marketing and advertising, you haven't seen anything yet.

An associate of ours, Michael Gass, who runs Fuel Lines, shared this video with me this morning. It's a compelling, eye-opening and thought-provoking piece of work about the global impact of digital.

Watch the video: "Did You Know? 3.0 (www.youtube.com)

Credits

“3.0 for 2008 - Newly Revised Edition Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. Adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman.”

Avoiding high medical costs through health foods and supplements

Not surprisingly, sales of health foods and supplements (as reported by Chinese ingredient group Fencham ) are on the rise as a means to avoid high medical costs. The specific consumer segments integrating these functional foods and supplements into their lives aren't identified. However, we do know there are two segments -- the Well Beings and the Food Actives -- most predisposed to these proactive practices. The Well Beings integrate health into their lives through most wellness products, services and lifestyle activities. The Food Actives, on the other hand, are most focused on improving their health through food.

Can't help but wonder, however, how many of these consumers truly understand the implications of their actions. Hopefully, they're informed and not trying to take matters into their own hands based solely on the economic environment and the fear of incurring health care costs.

Read article brief (Sales Boosted…)

The parallels of fitness goals and healthy brand goals

Beyond the health benefits of this article (14 ways to make your fitness goals stick) to those who read this post, I found myself thinking about the parallels of trying to achieve personal fitness goals with that of trying to achieve brand fitness goals. For instance:

1. Tip #1 is Dig Deep -- which is the only way to reveal your brand's inner passions, strengths and aspirations. Unless you dig from the core, it's impossible to identify the sweet spot of what truly makes your brand different and relevant with what consumers are hungry for; and how you alone satisfy their desires.

2. Tip #2 is Make An Impact -- "for a powerful shot of inspiration, place messages where you'll see them right before a workout." Not much different from wanting to engage with audiences in ways the make deep and lasting connections. It's the difference between engaging them in ways that they want, value and enjoy -- versus interrupting them with traditional one-way tell and sell communications.

3. Tip #3 is Check Your Expectations -- "people get discouraged when they don't see a better body right away." As many organizational/non-marketing leaders get discouraged when brand initiatives don't yield results right away. As we tell our clients -- branding is a journey, not a destination. It takes time, patience, passion and consistency before you can expect to see results. But in the long run, those results pay both relationship and financial rewards.

4. Tip #9 is Know What You Want -- "Make the most of the gym by focusing on building what you want most, such as step classes, a pool or nutrition services." So too should client and agency agree to what clients want most, by identifying in advance their desired the measures of success - whether image or impact, formal or informal, internal or external.

5. Tip #11 is Get Support --"The more support you get early on, the better your chances for long-term success." Couldn't be any more appropriate to describe one of the requisites for brand-building success, which must start from the inside-out. Unless leadership walks the talk, you have no chance of ever realizing your full potential. Because if leadership isn't demonstrating their commitment through their actions, there's no way that rank and file will ever believe that the effort is that important to the organization.

Health + Healthy lifestyle brand consumers and social media

The results of this Pew/Internet survey show that "the share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network has more than quadrupled in the past four years – from 8% in 2005 to 35% now."

The implication for health + healthy lifestyle brand marketers is that social media (as many other objective sources reveal) can no longer be something that you keep on the back burner. Because Social is not a fad (as these statistics reveal). As the "web" wasn't a fad in the 1990's. The truth about Social is that it's really a tool for human beings to be human – participating in conversations, connecting and sharing with each other through communities and collaborating to create a better future for themselves and others.

You must come to grips with the fact that you alone aren't steering your fate. It's like driving class in high school, where your teacher could take over the controls – could steer, go slower or faster - at any time. Social is the next thing in our evolution. And while it might scare you - it will be a fatal mistake to ignore it. Because the old marketing model is dead!

Top 10 trends of the extreme future impacting health and healthy lifestyle brands

Keeping an eye on the trends that will impact health and healthy lifestyle brands.

Dr. Canton's compelling and thought-provoking view of the trends that will reshape the world over the course of the next 20 years. About The Extreme Future

Direct-to-consumer drug ads losing their punch

If you are in the healthcare or healthy lifestyle industry you probably aren't surprised.

So all the messages that would make one think that they're watching the pharma drug channel (mixed in with some college and pro sports) aren't delivering results. This shouldn't be a surprise. How much can you possibly interrupt people with messages that begin to blur together before you start to re-evaluate your practices. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28584952/