Pretzel Logic?
No, I’m not referring to the album by Steely Dan…….
The other day I had a call with a group of my clients about how branding and marketing are as important to their health departments as the furniture and carpeting. Even more so…
One administrator shared, the days of non-stop traffic coming through her doors are becoming less frequent. Because there is less traffic, her employees are becoming harder to retain (she had just lost two to better opportunities). The cost in time, money and other resources to train their replacements would likely be thee times the cost of keeping them.
Like many health departments, hers was struggling with conveying their value to the community. Pharmacies, grocery stores and even Walmart had taken a large piece of her immunization clients and she was losing more each day.
How could she stop hemorrhaging customers and employees? How could she reverse the trend of loss and scarcity that was prevalent in her agency?
By rethinking her brand and then using targeted marketing strategies, I assured her that she could compete and regain a toe-hold. One thing many in public health fail to recognize is that each person / customer / patient they lose does not represent a single loss. That lost customer does not represent a “one-time transaction”…..they probably have a spouse, children and others which turns a loss of one into a potential loss of many. And, what is the “lifetime value” of each person? In other words, how many times might they be able to utilize the services of her health department throughout their lifespan? A huge opportunity loss!
She was confused on how changing her brand would be helpful. How could she take something as basic as clinical services and make them interesting? I showed her the image of a bag of pretzels….
The packaging and branding for the pretzels makes one think there is something different about these. Clearly illustrated on the outside of the bag are arrows pointing to a closeup of the pretzel where it says…”Bubbles bursting with tantalizing flavor” and “Deep Grooves packing a serious pretzel crunch” and “Hollow pockets creating a crispy, flavorful bite”. Amazingly, when you open the bag, you find a standard pretzel…in other words nothing special or unique. The clever packaging and branding would make one want to buy these pretzels.
Your health department is no different. With a little creativity and the willingness to step outside the world of dry, bland offerings to conveying the value of what you do so when people encounter your marketing, they see it as different and worthy of a second look.
Making these changes are very important. If you are still operating in the same model as the past you will become less relevant to your community and possibly extinct. Does anyone remember Blockbuster Video Stores?
The first step is to look outside your industry for ideas.
When Henry Ford started making the Model T it was touted as a car affordable to every American family. The problem was that the manufacturing process was labor intensive and drove the cost too high for families to afford. One day Ford was visiting a friend’s meet packing plant in Chicago and noticed how the carcass would go from station to station with each worker cutting off their portion for packaging. Henry took that concept back to his plant which became widely known as the “assembly line” which lowered the cost of producing the Model T to a price families could now afford. His willingness to look outside his industry for ideas paid off. You can do the same with each and every offering of your health department.
How can you make your bag of pretzels interesting enough to be perceived as better, different and worthy of the transaction?