Six Key
Insights
and
Strategies
for
Health & Wellness
Marketers
A Blade Creative Branding e-Book
BEST PRACTICES FOR
A HEALTHY BRAND
In the Health and Wellness category, the best
way to keep your brand healthy is to maintain
a vibrant brand community. This guide will
illustrate six key insights and strategies for
keeping your brand active and engaged.
KEY
6
Insights
We’ll finish with a quick refresher on Blade’s
brand community perspective—as it applies to
any brand in any industry.
For more on this perspective, visit these links:
“Who Owns Your Brand?”
– Originally published in Strategy Magazine
ProfitGuide.com - Sales & Marketing
– Advice from Blade Principal, Wayne S. Roberts
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©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
BE AUTHENTIC
1
Building your brand community is an ongoing effort, so don’t treat the
health and wellness of its members like a passing fashion trend. Speak
honestly and authentically, clearly connecting the brand to a core set of
values. When you stay true to your values, you’ll find many ways to
express them. But make sure your
voice remains consistent.
In Practice…
This is the time of your life.
When Blade launched Natural HRT
for Swiss Herbal Remedies, we
invited our audience to recognize
and celebrate their true selves.
The Result…
Natural HRT was the most
successful launch in the
company’s history.
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
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2 FIND COMMON GROUND
One of the most important reasons
to study your brand community is
to understand the simple bonds
that hold its members together.
When you find an emotional
common denominator, it releases
your creativity to express your
message in different ways, and
different media.
pharmacists, which provided a
strategic insight into the unique
bond Canadians have with
Bradosol—the throat lozenge
they grew up with.
The Result…
Before a cold February had fully
settled in, our client was already
seeing re-stocking orders, and
new listings at key pharmacies.
In Practice…
To launch a new
package design, Blade
conducted a brand
community audit with
both consumers and
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©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
FULFILL UNIQUE NEEDS
Sometimes a brand community
has important needs that are
not immediately obvious. If you
want a unique advantage that
gives more people a reason to
align themselves with your
brand, dig deeper. Ask about
gaps or unfulfilled needs.
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In Practice…
Blade’s client, generic drug maker
ratiopharm, had a well-regarded
training program for its pharmacist
community. Yet an important need had
been overlooked. Pharmacists were
getting plenty of information on
new drugs, but very little on how to
keep their businesses healthy. This
insight led to the creation of the
ratiopharm Academy of
Business.
The Result…
Pharmacists were so eager to sign up for
the first trial course, three more courses
were quickly added to the program!
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
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4 COVER ALL THE BASES
One of the most powerful routes to success, is to
enlist the sales channel as part of your brand
community. This means retailers, head office
buyers—and in the case of OTC pharmaceuticals,
very importantly, the pharmacist. Pharmacists can
have a deciding influence on what OTC brands sit
on their shelves; and in a direct way offer
recommendations to customers who ask them
about those brands.
In Practice…
The Result…
In addition to consumer-focused
campaigns, Blade has consistently
focused attention on Canadian
pharmacists in promoting the
Benzagel line of acne care
products.
In a national survey of OTC
recommendations by Canadian
pharmacists, Benzagel was
declared the #1 recommended
brand, well ahead of several
big-name competitors!
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©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
START A CONVERSATION
5
It’s important to recognize that your brand community
is a living, organic thing. And conversation is the
oxygen that keeps it active and alive. There are many
ways to encourage healthy dialogue You can use
existing Social Media tools; and—what’s often even
better—you can also create your own!
In Practice…
The Result…
To keep Canadians talking about
Benzagel® acne treatment, Blade
uses the standard social media
tools like Facebook, but also
People want to express themselves in different ways, and
having an additional forum
keeps the conversation active!
created zitter.ca— a
unique forum that helps
acne sufferers relieve
their stress by venting
their feelings about it.
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
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6 MAKE IT FUN & REWARDING
Encourage membership in your brand community—by
making it fun to engage with the brand! An effective
way to do it is with contests.
In Practice…
The Result…
Blade uses advanced tools
like WildFire to produce
online contests that are
attractive and engaging.
Blade has created successful
online contests on a range of
different platforms. In the process
we’ve added thousands of opt-ins
to our clients’
email lists!
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©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
YOUR BRAND IS A COMMUNITY
At Blade, we see your brand as a destination your
customers populate, creating a community. These
people are attracted to your brand, and stay with
it, because of your brand’s ability to consistently
deliver on shared values.
Seeing your brand as
a community provides
clear insight as to
where your marketing
resources should be
invested. If you know
where and how people
live in the community,
you know what their
priorities are and how
to reach them.
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
It’s all About the Relationship
A successful brand today owes its creation and
growth to a set of core principles:
Ÿ Your brand is a destination,
around which a community
will form.
Ÿ Your brand must create a
connection with the members
of its community.
Ÿ You don’t own the brand or
the community.
Ÿ You’re part of a relationship
based on values and
experience.
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WHAT’S YOUR ROLE?
Because a brand community creates a working
partnership, your role is to be the diligent
guardian of the brand. That doesn’t entitle you
to a lot of arbitrary control—mostly because
you have a lot of obligations first.
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3
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Shared
Ke y
Values
Internal
Internal
Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Ensuring you do everything you can to
deliver on the brand’s promises. Sounds simple,
but it can be tough as nails.
Anticipating the expectations of your brand
community—and sometimes gently guiding them.
Shared
Ke y
Values
External
External
Stakeholders
Stakeholders
THE
BRAND
Shared
Ke y
Values
Influencers
Regularly exploring new ways to keep the community
buzzing by communicating the core values of your brand.
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
THE GUARDIAN OF THE BRAND
4
Align your brand and your promises with only those media or partners that
share the same values.
5
Remember that the sales channel
is part of your community, too.
Customers pick up the vibe from
where they buy. If the extended
members of your sales channel
feel positively towards the brand,
it shows.
6
Never forget that your internal brand
community (your employees) is the
most important group of people you
need to enlist.
©2013 Blade Creative Branding Inc.
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