Understanding Consumers | Health & Wellness This Week
This article is part of ParkerWhite’s weekly series, “Health and Wellness This Week,” a roundup of the latest healthcare marketing news and what it means for your marketing strategy.
This week, we look at:
- Smaller wearables designed to increase adherence
- Google Baseline study to collect mass amounts of human health data
- Reebok seduces CrossFit community with bacon
The main theme here is the value of understanding consumers. Whether it's for product design, analyzing trends and identifying patterns, or for tickling their passions, the more you know, the better.
Wearables Consumers Won't Even Notice
Fast Co. covers the recent spike in companies creating smaller, more discreet wearables in the form of band-aids, temporary tattoos, and ingestible pills. The thought behind these less intrusive wearables is that consumers will be more likely to wear them if they don’t notice them. The focus is still on providing clinically relevant data that patients and providers have access to.
Marketing Strategy Insight
- Digital health needs to address the problem of adherence
- Convenience could be instrumental in getting further adoption
- This strategy is in contrast to wearables designed to be a part of identity, for example, Fibit’s partnership with Tory Burch
Google’s Baseline Study To Collect Human Health Data
With the help of their continuous monitoring smart contact lenses, Google is embarking on an ambitious project to track human health data. The goal is to move healthcare closer to prevention instead of treatment. The data collected will provide a huge database that will hopefully help researchers detect killers such as cancer and heart disease earlier.
Marketing Strategy Insight
- The future of preventing sickness includes big data
- The healthcare economy is shifting to favor prevention instead of just treatment
- Medical devices capable of recording data and making it clinically useful will help improve care
The CrossFit Community Loves…Bacon?
Reebok recently sent bacon in the mail to athletes participating in the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games. Designed to appeal to Paleo Diet, CrossFit enthusiasts, Reebok Bacon speaks to health conscious consumers of athletic wear. Bacon is a big part of the CrossFit community, where love of bacon drives conversations and even clothes declaring bacon love. The campaign will also tie-in to the event, where people will be able to sample treats from the Reebok Bacon Box food truck. They’re also incorporating social, leveraging exclusive opportunities by posting about a daily “secret menu” item at the Bacon Box.
Marketing Strategy Insight
- It’s important to understand the nuisances of your target market and develop buyer personas
- If you do something out of the box and attention-grabbing, like sending people bacon in the mail, you’ll likely get press and media mentions, giving you more bang for your buck
- Tapping into consumer passions, like a big love for bacon, can help ignite brand passion
- Integrated campaigns involving experiential, digital and social can help expand reach and frequency
