Healthcare Thought Leadership
PR Implications of Consumer-Driven Healthcare
Healthcare and insurance organizations share an important goal: consumer wellness. As healthcare premiums increase and individuals assume more responsibility for their own health, wellness is emerging as a key Public Relations platform for companies as diverse as GE Healthcare, the Hartford, Johnson & Johnson and MetLife. At a time when consumers are tuning out direct product solicitations, they are tuning in helpful tools and tips — and paying attention to the companies that provide them.
Wellness Rewards and Penalties
Wellness platforms are generating a “PR dividend.” When companies sponsor and publicize wellness and disease prevention programs, they create media visibility and generate goodwill by tackling issues of social importance. GE Healthcare is a case-in-point. The unit’s former leader, Joe Hogan (who recently left GE to become chief executive of the $29 billion Swiss-based ABB Ltd.) was the primary spokesperson for a thought leadership program on preventative medicine (GE named it Early Health), which includedvideos, a book, a blog, bylined articles and speaking platforms. For many years, GE Healthcare earned a wellness dividend in the market, closing huge hospital equipment deals in the US and Europe and earning the reputation as a future-oriented company that put a human face on healthcare.
But organizations that ignore wellness concerns can also be subject to “PR penalties.” As we will see, one corporate business unit may earn a dividend while another unit generates a penalty, casting a shadow of confusion on the brand. The market for Computed Tomography (CT scans) is a good example. For years, consumers have worried about the radiation dose emitted by CT scans. The big medical equipment providers — Toshiba, Siemens, Philips, even GE — ignored the issue, failing to provide dosage guidelines or information to consumer groups, referring physicians and radiologists. Today, use of CT scans is beginning to decline, and many government and insurance companies are refusing coverage, citing dose as well as excessive use as key reasons. Operating profit at the equipment makers has begun to fall.
Take-aways:
- Consumer wellness is emerging as a key corporate PR platform for companies in the healthcare and financial services markets.
- To break through consumer resistance and marketing fatigue, B2B and B2C companies are becoming “infomediaries,” offering up healthy living tips and guidance.
- Companies that do a good job of providing consumers with health and wellness information are earning PR dividends.
- Those who keep health-related information out of consumers’ hands are being charged a PR tax or penalty.
