“COVID Brain.” Do the recent digital privacy updates mean the end of digital marketing as we know it? Should hospitals see Walmart as their next—and perhaps greatest—fiscal threat?
These were just a few topics I asked our panel of health care marketing industry experts on our June 18th, 2021 Campfire. Special thanks to Rob Klein of Klein + Partners, James Gardner, and Colin Hung for joining the “hot seat” for our Ask the Experts Campfire!
Read below for highlights or watch the replay video. And sign up below to get notified of our next webinars: conversational, insightful and sometimes just plain light-hearted—because health care communicators need to laugh sometimes.
COVID BRAIN: WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN MARKETING TO PATIENT CONSUMERS
“When it comes to consumer health care marketing, we have to remember we’re talking to people with ‘COVID Brain.’” That was how Rob Klein, health care branding researcher, began his remarks at our Campfire roundtable with industry experts.
COVID Brain, as Rob explained it, is what happens when our cognitive skills are impaired due to fear and chronic stress. (Umm, this might have something to do with living in a pandemic.)
Marketing and communicating health care to consumer audiences has always been a worthy challenge. After all, marketers are often tasked with communicating services that our audiences might not need for years (like cardiology care) or want to think about (like cancer care).
Fear is a motivator for action. (Like smelling smoke in your house and exiting pronto.) But too much fear? Or worse yet: chronic, ongoing fear, (like what we’ve experienced for over a year since COVID-19), can stunt people from taking healthy actions like:
- Rescheduling the mammogram that was delayed due to COVID-19.
- Talking with a doctor about strange aches and shortness of breath.
- Admitting their health challenges are greater than they can manage on their own.
- Increased focus on consumer loyalty: in any given year, approximately 30% of your patients are thinking about switching providers. The retail health movement will peel off those patients. How can you re-engage your patients to remain loyal and connected with your brand?
- And don’t think it’s just primary care visits and medication refills you risk losing to the retail health giants. Walmart has a long history of guiding its employed workforce to receive specialty care that it identifies as high quality and at the best possible cost. Why wouldn’t Walmart encourage its primary care patients to seek joint replacement services at the hospitals and orthopedic clinics that it deems best for its patients for both quality and price? (After all, those cost savings back to the consumer are likely to be spent at their local Walmart.)
- Increased focus on physician loyalty: According to a survey at the end of 2020, nearly half of doctors are rethinking their careers, in large part due to COVID-19 and its impact on the health care system. How can you re-engage your physicians? (Remember: Walmart needs good doctors to staff its clinics.)
