“I’ve found that healthcare is a fantastic challenge for marketers,” Ms. Bilney told Forbes. Part of the challenge stems from how healthcare companies have traditionally communicated with their customers.
“As we examined the messaging [in Humana’s direct mailings] we realized we were using words that consumers couldn’t understand,” Ms. Bilney said. “For example, we would use the term ‘drug formulary’ instead of something like ‘list of drugs.’ … As an industry, we had grown numb to the language we use.”
The focus on business-to-consumer communication reflects a growing industry trend to make healthcare and health insurance more accessible and consumer-friendly.
“For a marketer, it’s critical that we not impose only our definition of health,” Ms. Bilney said. “Instead, it’s important we understand what it means to the consumer to not address their A1C levels and then talk about how important it is to be able to go to a grandchild’s play, or to do their errands.
To read the interview in full, click here.
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