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Consumer Trends ---Lessons from Robyn Waters, Tom Peters and Friends

Written by: Candace Quinn

Article Overview: I have attended the conferences, taken notes, read the books...here is my take on the experts and what we in healthcare can learn. This article was first published as a VIEW point in Heatlhcare Strategy Alert, 2007, issue 3

Consumer Trends ---Lessons from Robyn Waters, Tom Peters and Friends

If you believe that consumer driven health plans, pricing transparency, and health savings accounts will change who makes healthcare purchasing decisions and health provider selection, read on. If you don’t, then I strongly recommend that you get closer to what is happening in our industry.


At this spring’s Forum for Healthcare Strategists’ Consumer Based Marketing Conference, I had the privilege of hearing opening keynoter, Robyn Waters, share her work in following, understanding and using Trend information. She has written the book, Trendsetters, and is about to release her second work, The Hummer and the Mini. I have also had the opportunity to read some of the latest work by Tom Peters both in Re-Imagine, and Trends (one of four in his essential series, co-authored by Martha Barletta). It wasn’t until I put the work of these two authors and observers of trends together that I saw some lessons for those of us trying to predict how consumers will handle their new role in healthcare decision making.


It begins with understanding who the decision maker is. Ok, that’s easy. We’ve always known that women make 80% of all healthcare decisions. But, understand that women (actually, to be more precise, mature women---boomers who are caring for children, grandchildren, parents, spouses, etc) make 80% of ALL purchasing decisions. While women earn only 76 cents on the dollar when compared to their male counterparts, women bring in more than half of the household income in 55% of the US households. And, women constitute 43% of Americans with net worth > 500K. Peters calls them the instigator-in-chief for most household buying, accounting for 80% of all spending. Specifically, women make 94% of all home furnishing buys; plan and purchase 89% of all vacations; purchase 88% of all kitchen appliances, and so on. Having said that, take a drive to High Point, North Carolina, to the great furniture wholesaler show rooms…what will you see? Men. Men as reps for these companies. Who sells appliances for Sears? The Great Indoors? Home Depot? Lowes? Men. And, who sits on Hospital and Health System boards? Men. HCA, the largest privately held hospital system in the world just formed its new board of directors….13 men. So, while we say we know women are our target, why don’t we include them in our governance structures at the same proportion they represent our market?


So, after understanding Peters and Barletta’s take on the nature of the purchasing group (women), Waters understanding of Trends can now be applied. She begins by pointing out that everything old is new again, sort of. She begins by pointing out what we’ve observed in design. We call it retro; things like patterns in paisley, colors schemes alive with fuchsia and orange or teal and blue; rooms and furnishings and clothing harkening back to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. There are a hundred examples of this at work. Think now about healthcare. Remember Dr. Marcus Welby? New twist on something old….Doctors, board certified internists, who offer patients the opportunity to enroll as members for a fee-- say 10K annually, cash, up front-- and in return, you get unrestricted access to them. They answer your call, when you call. They guarantee you a same day appointment. They will come to you if you feel too ill to come to the office. They’ll coach you on your wellness plan; monitor your chronic conditions, answer your questions, get you medications if you are on the road, etc. Speaking of house calls, one group even promotes that they’ll accept medicare patients and insurance plans that let you choose your doctor. Successful? You bet. Widespread? Not yet. Why? This is a transformational relationship, and let me ask you; which medical school is teaching transformational practice styles?



Both Waters and Peters elaborate on a huge driver for the loyalty of this audience. MAKE IT PERSONAL. Mass customization of everything from my hamburger (Burger King figured it out in 1974) to my personal computer (Dell got it in 1984…today women buy over 70% of personal computers) to my coffee (Starbucks gives me 19,000 choices, and the really good baristas remember my preference) to my jeans (Land’s End will make MY jeans to fit ME if I give them my measurements). This target audience wants to design their car (Cadillac, Mini Cooper, and others get it, even if their dealerships don’t), design their look (LL Bean let’s me try the item I am interested in on a virtual fit model that looks just like me). Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore in The Four Faces of Mass Customization (Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb, 1997) give us four approaches to customization:

1. Collaborative customizers who conduct a dialogue with individual customers to help them articulate their needs, and then identify the precise offering that fulfills those needs, and then make customized products (think custom shoe or eyewear producers…you are only offered those items that are perfect for you)




2. Adaptive customizers who offer one standard, but customizable, product that is designed so that users can alter it themselves (think programmable technology within a product)




3. Cosmetic customizers who present a standard product differently to different customers (think items PACKAGED especially for the customer, or imprinted just for you)




4. Transparent customizers who provide individual customers with unique goods or services without letting them know explicitly that those products and services have been customized for them (think about custom herbals, or aromatherapy or neutral/pharmaceuticals)

I’ll bet your marketing team has CRM strategies and programs in place (our industry’s attempt at personalization). You probably even have membership programs for seniors, women, etc. But what do you REALLY know about these buyers? What do you know about who they are buying for? Do you give them tools to help them manage the care they are trying to direct for others? Imagine a service you could provide that allowed this chief purchasing officer of her household and her parents household (or even her adult children’s household) that allows her to enter all relevant health info and in turn, you, her trusted health care guide, send her reminders for screenings, allow her to coordinate appointments with multiple providers on line, at her convenience, or send her coupons for items she needs to manage the care of any one of these family members. What if she could chat live with a nurse, on line, to ask those questions she has about Billy’s rash, Mom’s cough, hubby’s snoring, her own fatigue? What could you come up with if you challenged yourself to get Personal? Don’t let the HIPAA crutches keep you from running to a creative place where you get permission, then get Personal.



Waters also talked about the trend towards luxurious commodities. She told us about an herbal scented dishwashing soap….at $8 a bottle…so relaxing that women are not using their dishwasher and are using their new “Me” time to wash dishes with aroma therapy. Take another look at hotels. No one is designing a hotel, conference center, or resort without including significant square footage for a SPA. As a society, we are over worked and are starved for relaxation. (Another topic Waters covered). All of this contributes to elevated stress levels. And stress leads to alcoholism, obesity, insomnia, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels…and we know all of THIS leads to chronic illness.



What if as health care providers we branched out and took a piece of this multi-billion dollar industry based on luxurious commodities? Why not offer kiosks of healing essences around our facilities? What about patient robes and gowns and slippers so luxurious that patients want to give you their credit card so that they can take them home. What about Yoga classes, cooking classes, or relaxation therapy classes that actually match her work schedule? What about a Spa day, where she gets her GYN annual physical, her yearly mammogram, her bone density scan, a healthy lunch, a massage and relaxation therapies (as well as some nutritional counseling and advice to lose that 20 pounds she continues to carry around)? What other luxurious commodities can you create that tap into this disposable income and advances both the Health and Care in Healthcare?



And what about our inpatient environments? Why can’t we fix the noise? The interrupted sleep? Privacy? It’s 2007…the Center for Healthcare Design has a “Pebble Project” underway (5+ years or so old now ) with less than 40 participants….I applaud the work, and the desire of these 40 to study and create Healing Environments. But 40? And why a Pebble? If the theory is that a pebble dropped in the water creates a ripple effect multiple times its modest size, then I would argue we need a meteor the size of a small building to get our industry headed in the right direction. And there has never been a better time to think of radical new approaches. We haven’t seen a building boom like this in our industry since the Hill-Burton days. Why not design and build some luxury into them, along with quiet, calming and healing environments?



So what can we learn by studying trends? A LOT!! We can learn to focus on quality, convenient, luxurious, personalized, coordinated, accessible service delivery. And if we don’t? Well, someone will. Some hospital or healthcare system will find a way to design their services and facilities around these desired characteristics. Why not let that be you? If you believe that health care savings accounts, consumer driven healthcare and pricing transparency are going to affect the way healthcare facilities and providers are selected, you’ll not only find that you control your market…you may find yourself becoming a healthcare destination.

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Article Tags: brand positions, consumer trends, healthcare marketing, robin waters, target marketing, tom peters



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