Last week I was invited to the Jesse Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University as a guest lecturer for a group of MBA students.  Professor Siddharth Singh asked me to share from my experience of almost 20 years, about launching new products in a variety of industries around the world.

So here’s the list I came up with after thinking about the best & worst new product launches I’ve been involved in and what I’ve learned from them.

1) Ask yourself: How is marketing viewed within the organization?  As a function, like HR or Facilities Management or as a business leader and decision maker.
2) No navel gazing. Always look for new information & opinions outside your organization/team/corporation.

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My husband usually groans when he hears me make the following comment, “Guess what, it has high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in it.” I’ve been on this food-aware kick for about 2 years now where I read all food labels before deciding whether to purchase an item. And I kept telling my husband that, like trans-fats, HFCS was on my list of foods to avoid.

So imagine my glee when I saw the following commercial on a major TV network during prime time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbRxTOyGf0

At first he didn’t understand why I was so happy. But then I explained my thinking for the reason behind this commercial, funded by the Corn Refiners Association. If there wasn’t a growing negative backlash against HFCS there would be no need for them to advertise. It’s because so many people are talking about HFCS and actively avoiding consuming it that they have had to resort to these tactics. Now I’m not saying that these ads won’t be effective to convince some people that HFCS is fine. But for others, who are more skeptical, this will convince them exactly the opposite. Think big tobacco.

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My friend works as a sales rep for a division of Johnson & Johnson selling medical devices. He and I talked about the recent US Senate Panel hearings over possible new FDA regulations for medical device companies advertising directly to consumers.

These regulations would most likely be similar to what is currently required in the pharmaceutical industry.

My guess is that it’s only a matter of time before the medical device industry is required to follow FDA regulations when it comes to DTC ads. Read the rest of this entry »

After reading Patients Beyond Borders by Josef Woodman I was even more curious about medical travel/tourism and thought I should find out more about it.

My first experience with this ‘industry’ was in 1991 while I was living in San Diego, CA. Two female colleagues at the office went to Tijuana, Mexico. One woman went for a rhinoplasty and the other for breast augmentation; it being much cheaper for these surgeries over the border than in the US. At the time it wasn’t called medical tourism, in fact, a few of my colleagues called it crazy, if I’m not mistaken.

A lot has changed since then and an entire industry has emerged, from Mexico and Costa Rica to India, Singapore, Thailand and Hungary. Just a quick google search for medical tourism brings up 1.7 million results.

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Maren Elwood, President of OnSite Research has done some interesting research on what she calls Boomers and Zoomers, as part of OnSite’s CyberCensus 2008. Her method of research is called ethnography, where the researchers imbed themselves with those they are interviewing to get an in-depth look at their subjects in their own environment.

The quality of this research often provides richer insights into what people do, rather than simply what they say in a focus group in an unfamiliar setting.

Maren says, “On-Site has developed a new cyber segmentation based on cyber literacy, not demographics. We found that age is not what determines your level of comfort with online tools, it’s your level of cyber literacy. Many Boomers have become ‘Zoomers’, people who are comfortable with online tools, but other Boomers have given up with technology.”

Watch the Youtube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLs8BxNpd1o

Since being exposed to her work on the difference between Boomers and Zoomers, I’ve been thinking about how important it is for health & wellness companies marketing to the Boomer generation (78 million Americans) to understand the difference between these two groups and to choose the appropriate messaging and media for each.

With a huge wave of up-and-coming Boomers hitting the half-century mark, someone turns 50 in America every 8 seconds, there is obviously going to be a slew of new products and services to accommodate them in the next phase of their lives.

A quick check on the advertisements on AARP Healthy Living section serves up a Kellogg’s^TM Live Bright ^TM Brain Health Bars advertisement and an ad link to Oral Longevity, an initiative between the American Dental Assocation and GlaxoSmithKline promoting good oral healthcare habits to older Americans.  The former ad appears to target Boomers leaning towards prevention and willing to try new products that may well serve these interests.  The latter ad appears to speak in a more traditional style educating and advising older Americans about good habits for oral care.  Each one served up on the AARP site but with distinctive styles addressing different audiences.

So it may be wise for us marketers to remember that just because someone was born between 1946 and 1964 doesn’t mean they should all be considered one huge target market. It’s not the python that swallowed the Volkswagen. And this is where it becomes interesting.

The challenge for marketers is going to be as Boomers mature we are able to identify and understand the needs of the various sub-groups within the 78 million. They see themselves as a sub-group of one, with a desire to be targetted individually not as one of 78 million.

Even though there are many high-tech tools available to us now, it won’t be worth the effort using these tools if the Boomer on the receiving end is closed to that style of message or media.