John Muir Medical Center’s Women’s Health Clinic publishes a catalog of current classes, lectures, screenings and other events that it offers to women in communities served by its three clinics. New editions of this extensive, 16-page catalog are mailed twice per year to women throughout the community, and it has proved a successful means of reaching, impressing, and motivating those women who make decisions about healthcare for themselves and their family members. It inspires them to actively seek out the medical center’s programs.
From a pure marketing point of view, these programs represent the place where the Medical Center is introduced to it customers. Women find support groups, counseling, training and screenings related to heart health, cancer care, parenting, nutrition, weight loss, aging, and more. It’s in these “entry way” services that patients begin their relationships with the medical system, and where their loyalty to the system is cemented. Over their lifetimes, when high acuity services are called for, these patients are predisposed to favor John Muir’s services because they have an existing relationship with the system.
DCP has published the Women’s Health Catalog for several years. But in the issue just released this month, we worked with the staff of the Center to reorganize how the content is displayed. We strove to categorize the information in ways that are more consistent with how readers use the catalog. It wasn’t really a “redesign” so much as a “design tweak.” But the results have been excellent, and the Center reports a higher rate of consumer response already. This is a perfect example of how a minor modification can produce noticeable results.
Of course, John Muir Medical Center doesn’t offer these classes because they’re good for marketing. That’s just the lens I see them through because I’m in the marketing communications business. No, these classes are good for the community because they help people live healthy lives. That’s the real purpose.
