With a strategy to launch an earned media campaign that would promote healthy eating, smart shopping, and nutrition awareness, a California health system's in-store events are a hit.
More and more hospitals and health systems are forging partnerships with supermarket chains, usually to create retail clinics. But patients can find Orange County, CA's St. Joseph Hoag Health physicians at the grocery store for an entirely different reason—to help them shop.
In response to the growing rates of obesity and diabetes in Orange County, the eight-hospital health system teamed up with local grocery chains Ralphs and Food 4 Less in 2014 to create the "Shop With Your Doc" event series, where St. Joseph physicians are on-site to educate and assist shoppers with selecting nutritious foods.
"We decided to create a health education awareness campaign to reach families in a way that was easy, convenient, and impactful. What better place to spread the message about healthy eating than the place where most people are making their most important everyday health choices—at the grocery store?" says Susan Solomon, vice president of marketing and communications for St. Joseph Hoag Health.
"With studies showing that unhealthy eating is the biggest contributor to obesity and with food labels and marketing becoming more and more confusing, we saw the supermarket as a critical place where people can be making healthier choices."
Spreading the Word (Beyond the Supermarket Circular)
St. Joseph held six events in Southern California throughout mid-October and November. The events were promoted using existing resources, such as the health system website and HealthCalling blog, which has more than 25,000 subscribers. Marketers worked with doctors to create a series of posts about healthy eating, smart shopping, and nutrition awareness in the weeks leading up to the campaign.
They also executed an integrated awareness campaign in the local media.
"Our strategy was to create an innovative earned media campaign that would really raise this issue to the forefront in the county," Solomon says. "We created a series of op-ed articles discussing the importance of healthy shopping and eating, and worked with local print and TV reporters to cover the events. We focused on media targeting all communities—including the Latino community—and created a partnership with the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the county to promote these events through their social media channels."
The success of the campaign also depended a lot on the organic foot traffic in Ralphs and Food 4 Less. To promote the event on the days of the events, marketers made sure that anyone who walked in the stores during one of our event days received a complimentary St. Joseph Hoag Health shopping bag full of healthy recipe ideas, measuring cups, and other nutrition-related information. Shoppers were also directed to the health system's experts inside the store.
Health Check on Aisle Four
Each of the six events lasted from 10AMto 4PM and featured three to five doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, weight management coordinators, and other wellness experts to the Ralphs and Food 4 Less stores. The St. Joseph experts were given a special area inside the stores with healthy snack options, weight management advice, and healthy recipes—but they didn't always stay there.
"Many shoppers were interested in actually shopping with their doc—going around the store with a doctor and reviewing their shopping list, asking questions about confusing food labels, or getting advice on alternative ingredients based on their specific health needs," Solomon says. "Shoppers could also ask health-related questions. Some people had simple questions the medical expert could answer on the spot; in other cases our doctors helped sift through a customer's cart to help them identify unhealthy items based on their health needs."
Once the last event of the season wrapped on November 12, marketers tabulated the results and realized the effort was more successful than they had expected. They estimate that they directly interacted with about 4,000 individuals over the course of the six events, a figure they arrived at by measuring interactions at the events themselves and signups on the HealthCalling blog.
"We found that most customers were excited about having a low-stress, comfortable way to talk to experts," Solomon says. "For the most part, shoppers had good questions about how to select certain foods and ingredients, and many also asked for tips on how to get their kids to eat healthier and exercise more. We also saw an especially high number of questions related to diabetes and pre-diabetes."
Shopping for Population Health
In addition to educating the community, the events were a hit with shoppers, who likely took away a positive perception of the health system in addition to a healthier outlook.
"We got many positive comments from folks in the store. It really seemed that shoppers understood the value of the events and appreciated what we were doing," Solomon says. "Most would come to the table with one question and would end up chatting with the doctor for ten minutes or more. That was one of the most exciting things for us and for our experts to see, especially if a customer thought they were just coming to the grocery store for a quick trip."
And beyond the direct impact at the events themselves, St. Joseph successfully leveraged media coverage to spread the word about the importance of healthy eating to the community at large. The health system received coverage in all three of the largest Spanish-language papers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, television coverage in English and Spanish (including on ABC and Telemundo), and in many other outlets. All in all, Solomon estimates the circulation and viewership of the coverage likely reached more than 1 million people.
"While we did provide interested community members with information about our health system, the goal was not to sign people up for a new healthcare plan," she says. "Rather, this effort was part of our broader preventive care and population health strategy to build healthier communities, which has included a range of community initiatives, new wellness facilities, and strategic partnerships."
St. Joseph is currently in talks to bring similar events to Ralphs in 2016.
Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.