As discussed in the February 2008 installation of The Orange Pages, the health care industry missed an opportunity during the dot-com boom to successfully incorporate electronic or “e” media into its marketing and marketing research efforts. Fortunately, the industry has another opportunity to get “e” right in the form of mobile marketing, i.e., using the capacity of smart phones, most notably the iPhone, to communicate interactively with customers.
This month’s published document for The Orange Pages provides recommendations on how the industry can give “e” a legitimate chance to succeed, and in the process, revolutionize health care marketing. To make mobile marketing work to its advantage, the health care industry must consider the following:
- In order to take full advantage of mobile marketing, the industry must commit significant resources to it, rather than just dabbling as it did with dot-com.
- Mobile marketing can only help if it is viewed as a way to facilitate conversations of importance to all of its stakeholders, rather than as just another advertising medium.
- Those companies that recognize the potential power of mobile marketing and reach out first to empower conversations among their customers will have a great advantage.
- Against new regulations going into effect in January 2009, which govern interventions with health care providers, the opportunity to provide meaningful communications via mobile marketing becomes all the more important.
- To ensure success, thoughtfully conducted marketing research must be done to determine what customers want in a conversation, rather than simply mounting programs that we think might be interesting.
To download the complete September 2008 discussion on The Cluetrain Manifesto, the iPhone and mobile marketing/marketing research, please click here.
The monthly issue-based discussions that we publish in this newsletter
can also be distributed to you in hardcopy format via a complimentary
subscription-based resource we publish for our clients called The
Orange Pages. The Orange Pages is intended to serve
as a living, breathing resource of “Information, Education and
Issues Exploration for Today’s Pharmaceutical Marketing Researcher”
that we hope will be read with interest and kept within reach for
ongoing reference.
The format is a three-ring binder designed to hold packets of content
that we will develop and distribute on a variety of topics. Content
packets will come to you in an easy-to-identify (and appropriately
colored) orange envelope and be delivered on a monthly basis. The
materials will be three-hole punched for convenient one-click assembly
into your binder.
If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of The Orange
Pages binder, and get on our distribution list for monthly addendums,
please fill out the form below.
