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.

Today’s The McKinsey Quarterly includes an article “Linking Employee Benefits to Talent Management” which presents the idea that companies need a well thought out strategy for their benefits program. McKinsey sees it as a way for employers to manage costs and be more competitive by attracting and retaining the most talented employees. I had originally discussed strategies for sound wellness programs but I think the ‘5 Pearls’ pertain to the employee benefits programs overall, as well.

McKinsey suggests that employers should treat their employees as ‘customers’ and use the same marketing intelligence gathering techniques as they do on external customers.

McKinsey states:

When buzz about a potential change in benefits makes its way through employee networks, they often respond with anxiety and consternation. Companies should approach them with the same caution that consumers get, using market research to understand the workforce, segment it, and gauge its responses to potential changes.

When a company tinkers with benefits, it should “brand” the adjustments with themes that research shows are important to employees. Then it should aim those themes at relevant employee segments and actively address the concerns of people who will dislike the changes, while also emphasizing the positive ones that other segments will applaud.

These efforts should take the form of a marketing campaign, similar to what the company would use to launch a new product, that emphasizes aspects of change employees will value.

This makes sense to me but I’d argue that most HR departments, who usually take a leading role in benefits discussions, might not be well-equipped to handle a full-blown marketing campaign on HR benefits. They either would need assistance from their own marketing department, which may be too close to home, or an external marketing agency to shore them up.

For my primary research on the ‘5 Pearls’ blog I spoke to several senior-level HR executives at small and mid-sized companies and they all echoed back that HR departments are not good at marketing new benefits programs to their employee population. They are bogged down with the day-to-day issues facing human resources, like hiring and firing, employee training programs and the like.

Given the limited resources and staff in most HR departments asking them to market their new benefits program is a tall order and one that usually falls to the back of the pile.

I’d like to hear your comments. What is your experience with internal marketing campaigns of either wellness programs or employee benefits programs?

Now that the mind of the physician is being demystified we have a glimpse into how they view us as their patients. Look at the slew of books & blogs by physicians; what really happens, what they really think.

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman provides an inside look at the physician’s mind, to help, I presume, the patient to get the most out of this relationship.  Also, add to the mix the latest online columnist for The New York Times Dr. Pauline Chen, with her Doctor and Patient column, giving readers a surgeon’s view of this dynamic relationship.

A recent LA Times article advises readers to arm themselves with information in order to get the best care. Long gone are the days of the sacred doctor patient relationship.

So why not shop around for a doctor? We have consumer reports on everything from cruises to pet food, automobiles to fitness centers.If the trend continues, and I see no reason why it won’t, employers are shifting more and more of the responsibility of healthcare spending onto the shoulders of employees, a la HRA’s (Health Reimbursement Accounts) and HSA’s (Health Spending Accounts).

I understand the reason for the shift, ever increasing health insurance premiums (think high single-digit to double-digit increases annually) that hit the company’s bottom line.

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