Hive Health

We have been exploring gaming.

One of the most important areas that we help our clients with is training – their reps, their HCPs, their patients. Agencies have been creating training booklets since the beginning of time, but we have a few extra tricks up our sleeves that we think makes the whole learning process a little bit more interesting.

Whilst researching new ways of keeping people engaged with training programmes, I was lucky enough to discover this short video of a presentation by the immensely charismatic Seth Priebatsch about the game layer, and more specifically about 4 of the 7 gaming dynamics.

Anyone got any thoughts on what the other 3 might be?

Service offerings have kept me academic this week. I have been delving into the marketing greats to refine and kick around classic differentiation and it’s been blindingly interestingly scary.

I started my research by ogling Goggle, then tired of this and rang around a bit, doing what we know here as fixing; finding experts, asking dumb questions and squeezing them of opinion. I kicked off lucky with a particularly assertive Prof. telling me that “benefit selling is history and a 1970s hangover”, and that “marketing departments should grow up if we think this is going to continue”. I ended with a very friendly man in Halfords HQ explaining to me the difference Wefit has made to them both culturally and as a business.

If you agree that differentiation is competitive advantage, and you probably should do (unless you are a member of a swarming species). You should know that the world of how we differentiate is one that is on the move. Academia is leading marketing is some instances, and those commoditised product marketeers are providing us with loads of practices we can learn from.

The decline of product-based differentiation can be attributed to a couple of factors that both have some relevance to the brands we work with.  Firstly, new levels of transparency are coming back to haunt us, the massive amounts of competitor intelligence is making us all morph into the same. We no longer can claim, be or propose product advantages without our competitors seeing them. Advantages that are now seen to be successful can be emulated, approved and broadcast in breakneck speed. I see claims and message data across a disease area, that tells me what’s working, what’s not, what’s hitting home and what is being discarded all the time. Those days of studying materials to try to figure out a competitors marketing strategy are long gone. The research guys, are pushing us towards what Mike my old economic teacher would call a perfect market – all of us seeing all. No geographical or physical divides to hide behind. We are all faster to react and as a result its simply much more competitive.

Alongside this it’s taking us a shorter time to develop products. The ability to shorten the product development cycle means that product based differentiation declines further, in essence we develop products that’s are at least as good as our competitors faster. In this environment,  yesterdays prescription winner is today’s prescription qualifiers or whats we now relegate to ‘hygiene factor’ status.  Our environment is pushing us towards a saturated state where product differences are homogenizing. So where does that lead us as  marketeers?

In the commodised consumer world they have been investigating new concepts and techniques of differentiation for ages. And the results are challenging the character, substance and stability what we know as marketing. It’s forcing marketeers to look to new models, to look beyond the clichéd  set of rational and emotional benefits to a brave new world where we look for other ‘stuff’ to bolt close to our offering. In this world many consider product benefits (those hygiene factors)  and seek differentiation in the strange world of utilising service components within their offer. Giving us a new equation of marketing Product benefits + service components = differentiation.

In healthcare we are no strangers to service offerings. Having spent a few hours last week in a room of clients discussing this evolution, ,the over arching feeling was one of frustration. Service offerings have been used ad infinitum to little effect in our world. From nurse training, to patient materials, to service redesign packs. The view was one of  anti-ROI and the massive need was how to wrap service offerings in something beyond corporate social responsibility. Tie them closer to marketing and kick the CSR approach, which tends to hope for some halo effect on relationship improvement into touch.

I dug out a couple of old masters. Levitt and Quinn. Both shouted this stuff all the time. 1972 saw Levitt giving us choruses of “There are no such things as service industries. There are only industries whose service components are greater or less than those of other industries. Everybody is in service”. And Quinn this time in 1990 who came over all Harvard with a “Management must break out of the mindset that considers manufacturing as separate from the service activities that make such products possible and effective” cry. Perhaps it’s time we took a good look at service, and saw what it could offer those of us who rather desperately need differentiation. Me too products queue up this might be the answer.

With this in mind, I thought here we should come to some consensus about service offerings, their development, how they interact, how to tie them into ROI. Actually make it ownable. More than just a composite of the competitors activities or a scavenger hunt of what’s good and glossy but actually a process to derive and develop a service offer that’s worthwhile, ownable, and evolving.

It’s been interesting stuff, and for those of you who haven’t fallen asleep by now. I think we have found a few sensible principles. This world of service differentiation requires us to evolve our approach from adding added value services to integrating service offerings. Rather than consider them as tactical activities, designed to bolt on alongside branded promotion, filling gaps, brought to us by reps, and advisory boards, we need to consider them NPD. Treat them like a product in the making. Give them the largess they deserve, they are after all going to be the big shifter in terms of sales. So we need to shift them upwards and alter our strategic development process to facilitate and develop them. There a whole process behind this – but it’s all seems to still make sense even when I give this the overnight test.

Additionally to this, service offerings need longevity, need to be active and genuinely fulfilled. Lessons from first Direct show us that it’s enough to get the delivery of a call centre experience bang on to make a tangible difference to the product experience.

The term experience dangles and interesting carrot here. I have been wanting to write a biggie on the role of experiences for some time I am not sure that this is the place. But it’s a interesting place where service offerings meet a planned user experience – it’s progressive planning and for me really sexy.  Moving from the transactional world of benefits, requires us to assess and evaluate the experience around our products, and see whether elements of this experience can be influenced, improved and owned. It’s daunting to realise that what we must know is the sum of all experiences our customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy. Mapping consumer journeys is a tough task for us, and it rare that we are provided with a idea topographically of what’s around for us to get involved in. But it’s one that for the time being at least can provide us with the lead on the competition. An unrealised insight found here can lead to the all together important objective connection that the benefit game has failed to deliver.

I like to shop online.

It’s a bit lazy I know, but I don’t have to travel anywhere, I don’t have to wait in queues or try things on in a boiling hot changing room, and most importantly I can do all my shopping whilst watching back-to-back repeats of CSI Las Vegas. I have a few favourite online stores, but a while ago I discovered tightsplease.co.uk (popped a pair of Red or Dead Ursula Two-Tones in my basket in case you’re interested).

So, that’s how tightsplease.co.uk got my email address. I have had a couple of the usual ‘this is on offer’ emails, albeit more tailored than I get from a lot of the online stores, but the one that really caught my attention was one that asked my advice.

Tightsplease are deciding whether or not to stock a new product – fake tan tights. Impregnated with a self-tanner, you put these tights on and they bronze your legs whilst you wear them. A bit of an odd one, and understandably the team at Tightsplease were struggling with whether or not this was a product that people would be interested in buying. ‘We are stumped’ they said, ‘and would really appreciate your opinion’.

With an online customer base, a supplier has direct contact with their most relevant audience after they make their first purchase. If used really carefully, this group of people can be mined for advice, but at the same time made to feel less like customers and more like part of a community. Ok, in this case it’s a tights-buying community, but a community nonetheless. The email Tightsplease sent me was in no way intrusive or annoying – it made me feel that not only did they really value my thoughts on a subject so important to them as what they should stock, but also that the products that they do stock are likely to be more tailored to me. After all, I have been part of that process – a member of their team in a way.

Tightsplease aren’t the only people asking their customers to contribute their thoughts. Walkers held the Flavour Cup to ask crisp-eaters what flavours they wanted to see next – I bet anyone who contributed to the competition felt some strengthened affinity towards the Walkers brand, at least for that moment.  ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’ let the audience choose the finale for Season 8. Again, there are at least a couple of advantages – a better understanding of what your customer or audience want, and customers who feel valued, involved in the decision, and therefore part of your community.

What better way to make your audience feel involved than to ask their advice? If you got the chance, what would you ask your customers?

I am pretty chunky. Not house size but built for a cold winter. Unfortunately I am built for this cold winter even in July.

My stature has very few day to day advantages with the exception of never being pushed around in night clubs, and always being asked for restaurant recommendations. The one annual advantage has just come around where once a year I go away with a bunch to mountain bike somewhere in the world for a week. We have been to Whistler, all sides of The Alps, various Spanish locations and last week saw me in Greece.

It’s a week hurtling down 14km long  goat tracks at 45km/hour, grinning from ear to ear, whilst trying to overtake Chris my roommate and risk naïve pal. The downs are a joy. My new Whyte (bike) bottoming out its massive forks with joy, my Hope hubs clicking like spokey dokeys, the carbon fibre frame flexing like mad.  It’s high adrenaline stuff. My days last week finished swimming in the sea, getting rid of the dust we had collected after the days 50km of fun.

Unfortunately, in order to downhill the fun bit starts with a slow agonizing climb up. This climb is my undoing, every cheese board, awards dinner and bottle of belvedere taking it out of me. I was built for downhill, and thanks to some recent skills coaching I don’t end up smashed up any more. But I do still need to be rebuilt after the climbs. What’s more I ride with a load of whippets, 3 ride a week guys, Triathlon freaks, and gym bunnies. Its hard stuff keeping up.

During the days section of up I have developed a really good way of maintaining my dignity. I am lucky enough to ride with some pretty interesting people, amongst them educators, businessmen, an NHS strategy director and an awesomely capable connected GP. The way it tends to work it that we all start climbing about 10ish, knowing depressingly that 2 hours later we will be near a top. I pick a partner, give it 100m of ascent,  then find I am no longer capable of carrying on a two way conversation. To cope with my ‘lifestyle asthma’ I have mastered the Ascent Open Question Technique. (AOQT). It proves especially interesting with those of the pack that are healthcare experts. As an example, I will be riding with Martin, awesome NHS strategy man, connected to one and all, and a ‘bleeding edge NHS’ kind of guy. A simple; ‘how do you see the NHS evolving given the coalition and current cash strapped environment”? Can see me through at least 250m of climb  and a better man for it. Likewise, chatting through with Jim provides me with the reality of commissioning and the real coalface primary care challenges that GP land faces. It’s insight heaven. With a few well placed questions mid way through I can be 500 meters of up on one questions and a few encouragements.

After 7 days of up, I have a good full day of info. Covering current knowledge and gossip in DoH, Strategic Health Authorities, Commissioning, contingency  planning, hospital pricing policies, joint working, modern training, team inspiration, skills partnerships, interns, suicidal ideation and many more.

It reminds me loads of the time we spent with Sir Paul Smith last year where he was insistent,  “we get out from behind our desks and see the whites of our customers eyes”. For me it reminds me loads of the importance of good mates, of intelligent discussions, but also that in these times of change that remaining ‘current’ rarely fits within the nine to five.

It also it makes me want to go an spend some time interviewing those people we all know and share with you what’s happening out there. Not just in market research terms but the personalities, in terms of their individual views. Watch this space for a development of this idea, I hope to able to bring you some real deal people, and their views.