Lessons from Online Health Marketing

Overview

Introduction

Scope

Report Highlights

Reasons to Purchase

FUTURE DECODED

Food, drinks and personal care companies can improve the marketing of their healthy products by learning from the experts – pharmaceutical companies. This chapter shows who the key health-conscious consumers are, what they need from food, drinks and personal care companies and how to provide it.

Why learn from online health?

Health-consciousness is growing in the US and Western Europe, particularly among women and seniors. Pharmaceutical companies have taken the lead in marketing to these consumers and have developed a range of techniques for building brand awareness and brand equity, as well as informing the consumer. While most of these techniques are employed online, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies can profitably employ them both online and offline in order to better target their products to these consumers.

Key health conscious consumer groups

Seniors are largely concerned with their own health and are particularly interested in combating the effects of ageing, such as heart disease, cancer and loss of energy. At least half of all seniors in 2002 considered themselves to be more health-conscious than most, and almost 50 per cent regularly seek out health information. In particular, seniors are concerned with information that will help them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Women are the group most likely to be searching for information for others – children, partners and elderly relatives. This makes them doubly important as gatekeepers as well as direct consumers. Women are active seekers after health information, using magazines, books and television, doctors, public health information and Web sites to help them cope with the threat of illness to themselves and their families. When looking for information for themselves, women are most concerned with living a healthy lifestyle, women' s health and losing weight.

Consumer packaged goods meeting health needs

It is the emphasis on living a healthy lifestyle that makes health-conscious consumers such a good target for CPG companies. Changing diet and health and beauty regimes are the easiest ways for consumers to change their lifestyle, especially when compared to changing career or moving to a new location. Nutraceuticals, staple foods, low' n' lite, personal care and kid' s food all have health attributes and through better packaging design, tailoring the product to consumers'  lifestyle and providing general health information, CPG consumers can target the health-conscious accurately and successfully.

ACTION POINTS

Target lifestyles

It is important to approach health-conscious consumers in the right way. This does not mean focusing solely on the product and the benefits it can bring. Instead, the goal should be to appeal to the consumers'  need for general information, and for a lifestyle solution.

Provide general information

Consumers wish to find solutions for themselves, and their primary goal is to educate themselves about the condition in question. Providing unbiased, accurate information gives the consumers what they want. It also increases trust in the brand and allows the company to ensure that its product claims meet expectations and needs of consumers. Web sites and PR are good ways of getting general information to the public.

Use non-branded marketing for added authority

As a result of consumers search for accurate information, non-branded informative marketing is often more effective at getting the facts across than branded marketing, as consumers are less willing to trust information which has obvious commercial advantages to the news source.

Convert brand recognition to sales via the point of sale marketing

Branding activity, particularly online, is very good at raising consumers recognition and approval. . However, it does not always convert into sales. By producing good point-of-sale marketing which recalls the brand or product' s key benefits, CPG manufacturers and retailers can covert high brand approval into sales.

Target customers precisely

Online targeting is a useful marketing tool because it allows companies to target specific consumer groups by their precise areas of interest - and to provide a great deal of specific information on the topic.

APPENDIX

• This chapter contains further data, research methodology and sources used in the report.

DATASETS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Health-consciousness and information-seeking activity, US and Europe 2002

Figure 2: Popularity of health information channels, US and Europe, 2002

Figure 3: Growth in Senior population of western Europe by gender (per cent of total population), 2000-2010

Figure 4: Health consciousness among Seniors in Germany, the UK and the US

Figure 5: Online, health-information seekers in Germany, UK and the US

Figure 6: Seniors are interested in accessing information on living a healthy lifestyle

Figure 7: Female population growth over 60 will drive Internet uptake in Europe

Figure 8: Younger women are more likely to use online resources to look for health information

Figure 9: Women act as information portals for other family members

Figure 10: Women are more active than men in looking for non-personal health information

Figure 11: Percentage of women who are looking for health information on personal issues

Figure 12: Key consumer groups for functional food and drinks

Figure 13: Viactiv Calcium Chews, packaging analysis

Figure 14: Slimfast UK' s Web site, www.slimfast.co..uk

Figure 15: Prevalence of hypertension, 2000, core countries

Figure 16: EggsPlus packaging analysis

Figure 17: Re-vitalised Sainsbury' s "Be Good To Yourself"  packaging

Figure 18: Nesquik' s www.verybestkids.com Web site

Figure 19: Dove' s product Web site (www.dove.com)

Figure 20: Teva' s non-branded Web site – www.mswatch.com

Figure 21: Novartis'  non-branded Web site, www.stepwise.co.uk

Figure 22: Bristol-Myers Squibb' s Web site to raise brand awareness of Vaniqa