Research indicates that consumers are ready to take on more responsibility for their own health—that translates to patient engagement. To capitalize on this, healthcare marketers, like Sherpas, should offer guidance, trust—and emotional rewards.
Arnold Worldwide, the Boston-based advertising and creative agency that is responsible for creating memorable campaigns such as Volkswagen's "Drivers Wanted," and Progressive's "Flo," the perky auto insurance spokeswoman with the blue headband, has new data that is directly relevant to healthcare marketers.
In an Arnold study released this month, Sherpa Brands: Guiding Consumers to New Heights, the agency details what consumers are looking for in their brands, and the results are tailor made for hospitals.
According to the Arnold Strategic Insights Group, which surveyed 2,400 adults in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and China, consumers want brands "to provide increased guidance, empowerment, trust, and emotional rewards."
The study argues that economic pressure and the vast amounts of information available to make decisions have left consumers feeling overwhelmed and somewhat out of control. According to its survey, consumers are focusing on satisfying more personal goals.
For example, when respondents were asked to list their priorities over the next 12 months, 39% said they planned on focusing on their health; that answer was second only to increasing financial stability (41%).
That statistic alone should be enough to get hospital and healthcare marketers excited because it indicates consumers are ready to take on more responsibility for their own health. In healthcare marketing lingo, that translates to patient engagement.
But, an even more meaningful finding that gets to the heart of healthcare marketing is that 68% of U.S. consumers say it is important for a brand to help them make better decisions. Like the Sherpa who are experts at navigating the tricky Himalayan terrain, the study says brands can do the same for consumers.
Arnold's study cites well-known brands such as Loews, Monster, and Fidelity as being Sherpa brands. As an example, the study's authors say Monster is different from other job search sites because its Career Mapping tool, which is in beta testing, helps job seekers understand the steps they need to take to attain a position in their desired career.
A health system or hospital should be included, too, but it's not. Why? That's another column (or two, or three); however, it may be easy to pinpoint hospitals' weaknesses when looking at the four things consumers want that Sherpa brands deliver:
- Guidance
- Empowerment
- Trust
- Emotional rewards
The guidance, empowerment, and trust are all elements hospitals strive for and marketers try to communicate. Those roads are being well-traveled. But, that last detail—emotional rewards—is harder because it's not easy to define. What is the emotional reward a patient receives as a result of a hospital stay?
As the C-suite knows, simply fixing a patient's knee, delivering a baby, or stitching up an arm in the emergency room isn't enough. A patient's satisfaction with how a hospital delivers its care is at the top of the priority list of most hospital and health systems today.
It's a struggle to figure out the right balance between clinical and caring, and then communicate it in a way that is meaningful and stands out from other hospitals and health systems. Images of smiling nurses and sleeping babies, and ED wait times are on pasted brilliantly on billboards and websites… but they kind of all look the same.
One way to communicate the emotional reward a patient feels from a hospital stay is simple. Ask the patients. That's what Altru Health System did. The Grand Forks, N.D.-based nonprofit system has a blog called Altru Moments that is dedicated to letting patients tell their own stories of what happened during their hospital stay.
Lindsey Reznicek, who is part of Altru's corporate development and PR team, says every two weeks, a 4-5 minute video is posted of a patient that highlights service, quality, and access, which are also three strategic goals hospital leadership identified in 2011.
"The videos make them [patients] relatable," she says. "They are people first, not their diagnoses."
Reznicek says the system wants to show that it values a patient's experience in the hospital. The stories are compelling, and Reznicek says she works with nurses, physicians, and administrative staff to identify patients who have a good story to tell. Reznicek says she also encourages patients who are picked to tell their story to include the names of the physicians, nurses, and other staff that helped during the hospital stay.
What makes the videos on the Altru Moments blog unique is that they are not quick and simple storylines that show a patient talking about how good the doctor was or how quickly a nurse responded to a call light. The video is also accompanied by a blog post written by Reznicek.
For example, one of the most popular videos features Peggy Vanyo, an outgoing polka dancer who came in for a same day surgery but wasn't fully discharged until four months later.
Reznicek says Altru, which maintains five different blogs, aims to have 3,000 page views per month, with an average site visit lasting 2 minutes. Peggy Vanyo's video had 761 page views with an average duration of 4:49 – the actual video itself is only 3 minutes. Vanyo's video may also be viewed on Altru's YouTube channel.
The video does not feature animation. There is no coupon for free valet parking. It is simply a patient recounting her harrowing health journey and how the staff, in Vanyo's words, "never gave up on me."
Instead of trying to think of the right questions, it may be time to rethink who we're asking. Patients are waiting.
Jacqueline Fellows is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.