Small Talk

April 18, 2011 »

What’s The Guarantee?

Today is the day to settle up with Uncle Sam and pay whatever taxes you may owe.  For some reason, this annual event sneaks up on many people, causing them to spend the last 48 hours gathering all of their tax documents, pouring over TurboTax to tally their figures, then standing in line at the post office to mail in before the deadline.  I was in New York City one year ago at this time, and was amazed by the massive line of people, racing the clock as they stood in line for that magical stamp. 

But my post today isn’t about our taxes, or about why people wait to pay them.  It’s more about what certainties exist in our world, and what marketers can learn from this lesson. 

There is a famous quote attributed to Ben Franklin that states that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.”  That doesn’t stop most potential clients - and even some current ones - asking if we can guarantee that the people who are in our word of mouth programs will only say good things about them.  I suppose it’s not an unreasonable request - but of course one that we can’t confirm.  Word of mouth, by its very nature, is uncontrolled; otherwise, it’s called paid advertising.

So what can we guarantee? Well, at this point, now in our fifth year of business, we know that people like to participate in programs because it gives them a platform to share their experiences.  It is our belief that the people who have had a positive experience on a product will be the ones most likely to participate, and tend to be the ones who speak most positively, and most prolifically. Most importantly, participants like the freedom to speak authentically and without a script, and we believe that this type of engagement sparks life into our movements, and leads to persuasive and informative discussions that makes for more educated patient-physician dialogue.

Yes, this model makes some MLR reviewers (and even some marketers) a bit nervous, but we feel good about the approach we have taken.  And for all the concern that has been raised about adverse events (AE’s) and participants potentially saying something that shouldn’t be said, we are very proud to have remained AE-report-free since our inception in 2007. 

So I guess HealthTalker may not be able to help you with the inevitability of death and taxes - but I know we can apply innovative marketing strategies and ensure that we won’t be uncovering AEs.  And that’s a guarantee you can take to the bank.

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