Getting to “Opt In”: A New Relationship with a New Customer

The customer is now in charge. We get it. The Internet has forever changed the marketer-prescriber dynamic, as well as the dynamic between the marketers and patients and even prescribers and patients.

So, now what? How do we market to these newly empowered customers? Brand teams everywhere are scrambling to keep up with the next big digital thing, dipping their toes in the water of social media, and trying to figure out how all the new stuff integrates with the old stuff.

But what’s happening now is a shift that’s much more than tactical. It’s attitudinal. Prescribers not only have a lot more choice about where, when, and how they get their information but also more choices in brands and treatments. And patients have virtually been told by the media to take control of their health care, from demanding generics to being informed about medical errors.

What health care marketers need to realize is that the real challenge is not figuring out how to reach customers, but how to create a dialogue, an experience, and a relationship that makes customers want to buy.

I attended a creative seminar recently at which a particularly insightful speaker claimed that there is no such thing as a Unique Selling Proposition anymore. Customers want to buy, but they do not want to be sold. Yes, they are in charge.

Relationship Building
So if we want to navigate these new waters smartly, we need to make some significant shifts in how we do things.

• Connect, don’t proclaim. Today’s audience isn’t going to believe what you say just because it’s in your advertising. They know they can find opinions and experiences at the click of a mouse. So watch your language and tone, and always talk more about them than your brand. A terrific example of a brand connection I walk by every day (here in frigid Chicago) is an outdoor promotion for Tylenol. They’ve installed heat lamps in bus shelters to promote their new Warming Liquids. The takeaway? Tylenol not only takes care of you when you’re sick, but even when you’re freezing while waiting for a bus.