‘Contextual content and effective targeting crucial in healthcare and wellness marketing’

At the e4m Health and Wellness Conference 2024, a panel discussion titled "Crafting Authentic Brand Stories: Strategies for Health and Wellness Brands," chaired by Harbinder Narula, CEO of BW Healthcare World & BW Wellbeing World, panellists Anupa Naik, Head of Wellness at Aditya Birla Wellness; Anushka Gupta, Co-founder of MyMuse; Ritu Mittal, Head of Marketing and Digital at Bayer; Richa Jaggi, Co-founder and CMO of Awshad; and Sarah Rajan, Partner at SPAG | FINN Partners shared their insights on creating compelling and authentic narratives for health and wellness brands.

Narula began the session by inviting Naik to talk about how her company is ensuring to do the right thing in healthcare and wellbeing marketing.

Naik obliged, "We in Aditya Birla have a platform called Multiply. We put in a lot of content, testimonials, and user stories—various ways to communicate with our customers. But we also realise that today, content needs to be really short. What we saw was that the attention span 10 years ago, on average, for social media or content consumption was about 15 seconds. Today, it's only 8 seconds."

She continued with her thoughts on the evolving storytelling approach, "So, that is something we are very mindful of. How do you create that attention span and hold on to it while delivering your messaging in such a short time? The flow of communication has changed. We used to start with the story model and gradually build up to the outcome or benefit. Now, we need to present the key message right at the beginning, making sure the audience gets it immediately."

Naik also highlighted the role of advanced digital tools,"We have a very advanced digital team that works closely with our tech team. We use martech tools like Clevertap to create cohorts of individuals. For example, in our corporate well-being program, we capture key life stages—coming to work, starting a loan, marriage, maternity, career building, and retirement. We aim to create contextual marketing that is relatable and engaging, with visible outcomes and impacts of our products."

Gupta continued the conversation while discussing how uniquely challenging marketing sexual wellness products in India is.

"When we started MyMuse, sexual wellness was not really a recognized industry in India. We are fighting an uphill battle to create legitimacy around this field, which had long been viewed as sleazy or taboo."

She emphasised the brand's commitment to education, "Our core mission is education. Without educating people about sexual wellness, they wouldn't understand the need or benefits of our products. We were very particular about our marketing strategy, considering the diverse cultural viewpoints in India. While some regions might be accepting, others could be opposed. Our branding and storytelling are designed to be respectful of our cultural context."

Keeping that in mind, Gupta elaborated on the approach to discreet and culturally sensitive marketing. She shared, "Everything from our language to our brand design is crafted to be discreet and comfortable. We recognize that in India, people are still getting used to the idea of sexual wellness products. Our aim is to make these conversations mainstream and to position the products in a way that people feel comfortable discussing and purchasing them."

Mittal agreed with Gupta on the importance of content and education in health care. She said, "Content is incredibly important for driving education and engagement, especially in healthcare. Trust and credibility are paramount. We need to narrate real stories about real situations because that's where the trust factor is most significant."

Similar to Gupta, Jaggi’s brand is unconventional and has a lot of taboo attached to it.

"At Awshad, we deal with a lot of stigma and misinformation about medical cannabis. Our first strategy is education. We provide clinical reports, lab reports, and use a certificate of analysis (COA) for transparency. We aim to educate customers about the benefits of our products and counter misinformation."

She noted the role of key opinion leaders (KOLs) in their marketing strategy. "Instead of relying on influencers, we work with key opinion leaders who are experts in their field. For us, education and credible information are more effective than influencer endorsements,” she added.

The session was taken forward by Rajan, highlighting the integral role of storytelling in healthcare.

She discussed, "Storytelling is integral to human experience. It binds us together and helps pass on traditions and cultures. In healthcare, storytelling can bring wellness to life. Patient storytelling is at the core. Consumers and patients today are more likely to trust a doctor over an influencer when it comes to health matters."

She also highlighted the potential for patient storytelling in India, "Globally, patient storytelling has made a significant impact, such as Soul Pancakes' 'My Last Days' series on cancer patients. However, in India, we haven't explored the full range of patient stories, including various types of cancers beyond breast and cervical cancer. We have a responsibility to open conversations about different therapy areas through unique and educational patient stories."

Rajan also discussed the importance of selecting relevant and authentic influencers for a brand. “It’s important to select influencers who can reach the intended audience effectively, rather than choosing based solely on their reach."

The session next saw Gupta talk about the various choices amongst influencers.

“The choice for us for an influencer depends on the type of content and the aim that we're trying to achieve. So if it's purely educating users and the public in general about sexual health, then we have somebody who is an expert, whether they're a gynaecologist, a sex expert, a therapist,” she said.

“From a product side where we're either trying to make a sale or we're trying to spread brand awareness, we actually take the opposite route where we don't want experts. We want real people. We want people like you and me and like anybody who could be in any field from any community because the point of this is to make sexual well-being mainstream.”

Narula asked Naik how she is leveraging AI and technology. To which she replied, "The Multiply platform works in three phases: knowing your health, managing your health, and rewarding. Technology is a key enabler in each phase. Clinical algorithms help assess health status, wearables track health metrics, and rewards are integrated with insurance partners. These elements together help create a compelling value proposition and drive customer engagement."

Mittal, on the other hand, shared insights on breaking through digital clutter. "The right targeting is crucial in the digital space. By identifying the right demographics and behaviours, and using contextual content, we can effectively engage the audience. This is particularly important in healthcare, where involvement with a product is closely tied to current needs and conditions."

“For example, while headache is a common factor that two people may be having, the reason for headache may be very different. If somebody has a financial stress-related headache and that person is looking for some financial solutions, EMIs, loans, etc. You're able to target that person with content which talks about, ‘do you have financial stress that is leading to headache’,” she exemplified.