Gretchen Goffe

Author Archive for Gretchen Goffe

ggoffe

New Year, New You, New Fave Brand

January is notorious as the time when people make healthy New Year’s resolutions. Places and times when health is top of mind are opportunities for brands to solve Wellness Dilemmas for consumers. Brands win big by finding a pain point—and providing a way out. The rewards are loyalty and a place as their go-to brand. The dilemma is a straightforward identification of a problem that resonates with consumers and interferes with turning intentions into actions. The brand provides a solution as the counterpoint. And here’s the fun part – it’s not just what your brand says (“We’re healthy!”), but the actions of the brand that matter (“Here’s a plan to make this happen”). Let’s take a look at a few initiatives and the Wellness Dilemmas they solve across categories such as meat, breakfast, weight loss, and workout gear that venture into new venues and programs.

Tyson Grilled and Ready chicken breast strips. Wellness Dilemma – you promised you would eat right but you’re so busy with work, friends and family, it’s hard to stay on track. Tyson introduces a program that solves the dilemma with 30 Days, 30 Ways, and 30 Rewards.

Slimfast. One of the original meal replacement weight loss plans, Slimfast has refreshed the brand with new packaging and formulations to go with their plan of a shake or bar at breakfast and lunch, followed by a 500 calorie dinner. Slimfast continues to solve the same Wellness Dilemma – that weight loss programs require time-consuming preparation of new recipes 3 times a day.

Egg Beaters. Wellness Dilemma – you want to eat more protein to support your healthy lifestyle and build muscles, but worry about too much fat, cholesterol and calories. Egg Beaters muscle supporting protein helps individuals meet fitness goals. It’s interesting to see the print campaign move from magazines to featured posters inside mega-gyms. Why not extend the promotion to trial, including breakfast choices made with Eggbeaters at the gym’s cafes?

Victorias Secret Sport VSX. Wellness Dilemma – Individuals want to look good at the gym even before the results of their new resolutions shows. VSX combines VS figure enhancing designs with performance workout gear, and introduces it via the Get a Runway Body promotion. Promotional posters have a lot less category noise to compete with at mega-gyms and boost visibility as fitness Instructors hand out scratch off  discount cards for VSX stores.

If your brand competes in those categories and you haven’t developed a clear strategy to connect your brand with the health and wellness opportunity, now is a good time to think about the role you can play for consumers looking for help turning healthy intentions into actions. Brands that haven’t developed a clear strategy and plan to execute it risk dropping off consumer’s radar as they discover new brands in the New Year.

*For more information on health and wellness visit thewellatgsw.com.

ggoffe

Wanted: temptation free checkout lanes!

Who doesn’t love a party–time to get together, to chat and to share ideas with like-minded people? But busy Moms don’t always get that chance. So what do they do? Turn to social media and host their own “GNO (Girls Night Out)” Twitter Party, gathering every Tuesday night for some honest, touching and entirely relatable online sharing.

As a healthcare marketer, having all of these women gathered in one place–a natural question comes to our mind, “Tell us about your role as a family health guardian?” or what we like to call WellGuardian. And as we expected, they were off and running.

First of all, and not surprisingly, it isn’t an easy role. When asked what character they best related to, they had several interesting examples. Some women said they would like to be Jeannie (from I Dream of Jeannie)–wishing they had “the power to blink and make her kids like veggies.” Others say they felt like the Little Engine that Could–“always running uphill.” And then there was the always-popular Roadrunner—an example that speaks for itself (beep beep). Bottom line, we’ve got a long way to go!

As the WellGuardian, she’s the family health engine, so how about that family? They can easily derail her best plans. Example: the lightning fast “cart grab” the kids manage to do when you look away for a second. Hey, how’d those cookies get in our cart? Or at the dinner table when the vegetables mysteriously find a way off the plate and into a neighboring napkin (or cup, or pocket or the dog’s mouth).

Surprisingly though, women had better ideas than just “orange coning” the family, instead they wanted to engage them in health-conscious activities. Women found that when they involved their kids in choices, they got with the program. It could be an elaborate plan or one simple change. One family adds fresh spinach to their smoothies—the greener the better!

So how does she feel brands and retailers are doing to help her in her healthy quest? Women said “How can they really be about health if they still sell junk food?” “And place it at checkout?” If she ran the industry, here are a few things she would consider. What if, instead of tempting them with unhealthy treats, the stores offered extra rewards for healthy purchases on her rewards card? Or how about offering a temptation free checkout lane? These women also suggested ways for healthy shopping to become a collaborative and fun event such as a Mom’s shopping night with the ever-important wine samples. Or perhaps a Family Wellness Night–so the whole family can be involved in making healthy shopping choices.

Other Mom’s suggested combo displays in the supermarket like creating a display with soup, cold meds and Clorox wipes promoted together. As one Mom said, “I’m not much on soup, but cold meds next to Clorox will surely hook, line and sinker me!” Hmm, what if retailers organized circulars around health goals as opposed to just grouping similar items?

As our Twitter Party wrapped up, we were reminded how much you can learn when you listen without an agenda, even in 140 characters.

ggoffe

Moving from cause marketing to cause branding

The switch is on from “cause marketing,” an often inauthentic, jump-on-the-bandwagon association with a cause just to sell product, to “cause branding” or as we like to say, acting like an advocate brand.

A good example of an advocate brand comes from Bounty.  As part of Bounty’s Make a Clean Difference initiative, Bounty wanted to reach out to moms and families at schools nationwide. To do that they sponsored and provided cleaning products for 1,000 “We Love Our School” clean-up events. The brand mobilized moms for a great cause – and got great results.  In the end, the grime in 25,000 classrooms was gone, but the tangible, vocal excitement and appreciation around the Bounty brand was shared by all the participating moms, kids and teachers nationwide who wanted to support the brand that cared enough to help their schools. A follow up survey and Facebook posts capture the enthusiastic goodwill and mom-WOM Bounty gained from the campaign.

Another brand that is showing Advocate brand stripes is Kashi’s 7 whole grains on a missionTM. Kashi bought a second page in their print ad to share an Ingredient Decoder since we all know how confusing it can be to tell what ingredients they would use and which they would avoid.

Next, a callout for Brian Wansink, the director of Cornell Food and Brand Lab, whose pilot work is showing that small, inexpensive changes to a school lunchroom layout can make a huge difference in getting schoolkids to make better choices. In one pilot, moving the salad bar near a natural bottleneck in the checkout line increased salad consumption 300%. A recent $1MM grant from the USDA will help them offer their expertise nationwide.

Why is it important for brands to shift to “cause branding” versus cause marketing to be a genuine healthcare brand?  Here’s a few reasons:

  • To provide purpose
  • To evoke action
  • To create dialogue
  • To create an authentic connection
  • To encourage participation
  • To give support
  • To create ambassadors, who have a nifty habit of self-multiplying

We commend Bounty, Kashi and others for their work and hope it inspires ideas for pharma and health brands.