...Backlash

I posted on the J&J Motrin "situation" and Jeremiah at Web-Strategist.com has a compiled a categorization of how brands can face a Social Media backlash. It's a good review and something I would recommend you consider if you are putting together a Social Media plan. Tread purposefully, carefully and with respect.

Category 1: Consumer revolt and use social media tools (Twitter, Blogs, YouTube) to tell their story, the brand doesn’t flinch, and there is no mainstream media coverage. Examples: A weekly, if not a daily occurance.

Category 2: The backlash extends beyond just social media tools (Twitter, blogs, YouTube), the brand makes changes based on consumer feedback, and coverage extends to mainstream media and press. Examples: Louis Vuitton brandjacked, Exxon Mobile’s Twitter experience.

Category 3: Consumers use social media tools to spread backlash and there is considerable mentions from mainstream press. the backlash is more severe resulting in significant changes from the brand (hiring, firing, processes, policies or new teams put in place). This becomes a case study for social media books and is often discussed in social media culture. Examples: Dell Hell, Comcast Cares, Kryptonite Locks, Wholefoods CEO.

Category 4: Number three plus short term financial impacts to the brand resulting in reduction of sales, revenue, increased costs, or impact to stock price less than 30 days. Examples: Apple Stock temporarily sinks from blog rumors.

Social Media Strategy

As far as social media strategy goes, there are a few basics to consider. Some and perhaps all can be incorporated into your business to gain customer insights, participate in the conversation and develop a community.

I found this "manifesto" from the blog Advergirl. You can also check out Jeremiah at Web-Strategist.com. He is an analyst for Forrester and has a good perspective not only from experience, but across industries.

For more insights from Forrester, I would recommend checking out Josh Bernoff, author of the book Groundswell (if you like the book buy it from my store)

One thing I strongly agree with is the idea of micro-segmentation. The notion that you can create a page on Facebook and now say you"engaging" is charming, but doesn't rank very high on the strategy meter. However, finding a community of passionate people who are considering or have had a knee replacement for example would be more effective.

either way, the difficulty is the commitment, this is not a campaign or component of a larger marketing effort, it is a commitment to the customer.

Check out other posts regarding aspects of Social Media: Customer Experience, Social Media, The Next 5K, 50Ways..., Wow,

photo from Advergirl.com

Ortho Slowdown?

As the economy slows down ( I still don't know why we aren't calling it a recession yet) and Boomers see their retirement funds shrink it is not surprising that orthopaedics may slow down as a result. Knee, hips and shoulder replacements are often elective procedures, which will be delayed. Although that may increase business for chronic pain specialists, but I digress.

CNN has a story on the topic. It does make me wonder if it will hasten the move to DTC and online for the ortho companies.

Marketing Lessons

Via Seth Godin, Marketing Lessons From the US Election.

It turns out that one way you learn about marketing is by analyzing it. (The other way is to do it). Yet people hate analyzing three really useful but emotional examples of marketing that matters: politics, organized religion and their own organizations. I figure we can start here, with the easiest of the three.

Stories really matter. More than a billion dollars spent, two 'products' that have very different features, and yet, when people look back at the election they will remember mavericky winking. You can say that's trivial. I'll say that it's human nature. Your product doesn't have features that are more important than the 'features' being discussed in this election, yet, like most marketers, you're obsessed with them. Forget it. The story is what people respond to.

Mainstream media isn't powerful because we have no other choices (see below). It's powerful because they're still really good at writing and spreading stories, stories we listen to and stories we tell.

TV is over. If people are interested, they'll watch. On their time (or their boss's time). They'll watch online, and spread the idea. You can't email a TV commercial to a friend, but you can definitely spread a YouTube video. The cycle of ads got shorter and shorter, and the most important ads were made for the web, not for TV. Your challenge isn't to scrape up enough money to buy TV time. Your challenge is to make video interesting enough that we'll choose to watch it and choose to share it.

Read the rest from Seth. Good Stuff.

Read my thoughts about storytelling here in semi-aggregate.

The Next Wave: Digital Doctors

Via MarketingVox

"The number of physicians who use the Internet and other digital technologies to access pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical-device information has jumped 20% since 2004 and accounts for 84% of the total US physician population, according to the ePharma Physician v8.0 study from Manhattan Research, reports MarketingCharts.

The research also finds that 36% of physicians now communicate with patients online (up from 19% in 2003), and that physicians are more active than the average consumer when it comes to new media

I have talked about this in the past, but the opportunity for Rx/Dx companies to enhance/strengthen/build the relationship with HCPs using interactive and new media is huge. Providing the right info at the right time is critical and having an avenue to allow the doctor spend time with your information at his convenience and not yours is an absolute no-brainer. Couple that with multiple channels to distribute or capture the HCP and you have a far more effective and measurable marketing program that isn't on a golf course on a Friday afternoon.

The second point is somewhat buried, but equally important:

The research also finds that 36% of physicians now communicate with patients online (up from 19% in 2003), and that physicians are more active than the average consumer when it comes to new media.

The connected health aspect of this is that HCPs are communicating online. Over time that will evolve to actual remote visits.

"American Well aims to reinvent the house call.

If Roy Schoenberg, the start-up’s co-founder and chief executive, has his way, patients will no longer have to wait a month to see a doctor for an urgent sore throat, wait all day for a doctor to return their call or leave work midday and drive a long distance for a routine appointment. Instead, patients will log on to their computers and find themselves face-to-face with physicians over Webcam.

If I pull out my crystal ball, I see this coming to the fore pretty soon or let me put it this way, sooner than comfortable to drive costs out of the system. The big issue to resolve before it takes off is the reimbursement for the HCP. With President-Elect Obama already being called the Internet President, I bet it comes sooner than later.

All a Twitter

J&J got itself into a small brouhaha over their Motrin web site. Something intended I'm sure to be slightly tongue-in-cheek and "wink-wink" ended up being a small PR nightmare for J&J.

Check out the ad here. Here is a quote from the blogger who started tweeting about it.

The beginning of the end for the Motrin push probably came Friday night, when Los Angeles blogger Jessica Gottlieb said she was tipped off to the ads and started expressing her outrage over the campaign on Twitter, where she has 1,018 followers.

First I give kudos to J&J for pushing the envelope when it comes to their interactive campaigns, I've talked about them before here and here.

But in this case, I'm kind of wondering how it slipped through the cracks? Seriously, there is so much research and testing done before you roll out a new campaign that their focus group recruitment model is completely off or they got caught with the proverbial left hook of the mommy blogosphere.

Great learning, I am glad it wasn't me. The question is and continues to be how can companies participate in the conversation and be authentic? It does speak of engaging in social networking to the extent where you consider developing a community to test your ideas with the target before you get too far down the path.

The New Fireside Chats

FDR, arguably one the great President's in US history, steered the country through the turmoil and economic crisis of the Great Depression. His mode of communication to calm citizens came via weekly radio addresses that became known as Fireside Chats.


We have a new President, Barack Obama, who very impressively utilized the Internet in his campaign. I touched on that here and here and here. Would anybody doubt that the Fireside Chats of the new millennium would come via YouTube as he begins to steer the country through new turmoil and economic crisis? Here's the article and the link below.

Cool Site

Cool site for word clouds. www.wordle.com

Blue Ocean Strategy

I read this a few years back and it has stuck with me. There is so much toing and froing with competitive intelligence and market research when that time, effort and money could be better spent on developing strategies and plans to not compete head-to-head. Or, as my old high school baseball coach used to preach, "hit it where they are not."

Social Media + Change Agent

Despite the Charlie Rose format of the video, I think there are some good nuggets of info.

Connected Health

As discussed, the opportunity for connected health is tremendous. Establishing the ecosystem for interoperable devices sets the stage for better health and health outcomes. Remote patient monitoring, tele-health, health and wellness programs, etc are all pined to this notion. It holds tremendous promise to reduce costs, aid health management for chronic issues, increase health and independence in the aging and general health and wellness.

I have discussed previously here.

Via eFM

Intel has initiated pilot programs to examine a home health laptop, application, and database system able to put patients with chronic medical problems distantly in sync with their doctors.

The Intel Health Guide, which received FDA clearance in July 2008, includes a laptop for patients, as well as online interface for health care providers. Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities, and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon have each started trials in order to determine if the new machines can lead to improved results in treating diseases like heart failure, hypertension and diabetes.

Since I am involved in Continua, which Intel has had a strong hand in I find it as no surprise that they would lead in the development of a device and with developing relationships with associations such as AHA to aid in fixing this problem. I give them kudos for taking the fight on directly.

Widgets & Apps

I see an increase in widget apps and advertising in social media for pharma and diagnostics. At this point what do marketers have to lose? It's targeted. The key is being able to understand who your customer is and where they are. As I have stated here a few times, content is king, but distribution is queen.

Good info from Ad Age here.






Some reinforcement.












Other coverage here

TV is Dead

There I said it. I have wanted to say it for a while now, but for some reason I resisted the urge since, well, since it seems to be so proven. Don't get me wrong TV is not dead in the sense that it will cease to deliver moving pictures , but I really think it is dead as a advertising format unless you need to reach a large, fragmented audience , have a compelling offer or money to burn.


We can play a game of pick the reason but suffice to say it is a convergence of many things that has lead to the demise. The Internet, broadband penetration, video online, DVRs, Gen-X having kids and being busy, Gen Y not caring, you get the point. I thought the political season contributed to the wane of script based shows, but I think it is actually more lasting. The shows are not that good and no network has the patience to give a show like Cheers three years to find its footing and audience anymore. Further proof here and here.

Webisodes. It sounds like The Graduate and "plastics." But that is where we are.

So where does leave the marketer? I bet you know where I am going? Online. It's smarter, cheaper (generally) and measurable.


Other coverage here, here and here.

Get It?

Do you get it? Got it? Good.

What does it mean to "get it?" When I hear that it makes me think of a George Carlin riff for some reason.

Fast Company blogger, Alder Crocker has a series of posts on the topic with some good thoughts.

Campaign is defined as "An operation or series of operations energetically pursued to accomplish a purpose:, and therefore, by their very nature, campaigns are temporal. A brand is not.

If advertisers and their agencies continue to change up their messaging and brand identity to satisfy their short term profit goals - that are mostly not met - then they are doing more of a disservice to their bottom line than any bad publicity.

I also touched on this a bit in the past here.

Connected Health

I think we're in the beginning stages of a tsunami of change when it comes to technology and health care.

I am involved with the Continua Alliance as the new Chair, of the Marketing Work Group. Similar to other technology standards such ad Wi-Fi, Blue tooth and USB--Continua is leading the charge to develop technology standards for health, wellness and fitness products. It's exciting to be involved in helping grow and build a brand for something that will affect health care and wellness on a global basis and become a part of the common lexicon globally.

Creating this ecosystem of interoperable devices is just the first step. It is very exciting and I really do believe we're in the relative calm before the storm when it comes to health care and health care delivery.

Here is a interesting related presentation I saw on slideshare.net.

Health Care Toolbox 2.0

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: promotion mediahealth)