eMarketing Mobile: Tapping Into Mobile’s Power and Reach
The mobile phone that nearly every American carries with them every day—and the common text message technology that you use to communicate with your family, friends, and peers—is causing disruptive changes in this post-DTC age of pharma and healthcare. Just as the Internet changed the way business communicates and distributes information and the way the public consumes it, so the widespread adoption of mobile device technology and text messaging has stimulated a similar monumental shift in consumer behavior.
If you have children, you probably already know that text messaging is not something that “only kids do.” If you don’t have children, consider the fact that the fastest-growing age demographic of SMS (a commonly used acronym for text messaging) users in the U.S. is 50 to 64 year olds (Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, December 2007). Additionally, a 2009 Limbo report showed that 50% of SMS users in the U.S. are 35 and older. For 25 and older, that number jumps to 75%. The bottom line: all of your end consumers are text messaging.
Solving Business Challenges
“Until recently, SMS didn’t carry a connotation as a tool that solved business challenges. But once businesses understood the immediacy, reach, and cost-effectiveness of SMS, they began to realize the potential it can have within their everyday operations,” states John Duffy, founder and CEO of mobile platform provider 3Cinteractive. “SMS provides the most ubiquitous and effective way to reach consumers. Every phone in the U.S. today is capable of sending and receiving text messages. We make it easy for pharma and healthcare related businesses to tap into mobile’s power and reach. We make the barrier to entry very low for our clients.”
3Cinteractive, which helps companies develop and deploy mobile initiatives, experiences firsthand the powerful and immediate impact mobile campaigns can have in healthcare. “We developed SMS-based applications with a major pharmaceutical manufacturer that deliver a rebate coupon for brand-name prescriptions to a consumer’s mobile phone while they are at the pharmacy counter. This rebate can be redeemed right at the point of sale, helping pharmaceutical companies extend the revenue streams on brand-name drugs and stem the consumer shift to generics,” says Duffy.
“Additionally, we’ve deployed a mobile messaging solution for a national healthcare staffing company that allows them to reach out to their completely mobile workforce of 70,000 nurses instantly to notify them of staffing openings and important job-related updates. It has completely streamlined their staffing communications and driven down costs dramatically.”
mHealth Initiatives
The focus on mHealth solutions using mobile phones goes beyond mobile and healthcare-related businesses. CTIA, the non-profit wireless advocacy group that represents all sectors of the wireless industry, has engaged the U.S. government directly to help facilitate the adoption of mHealth initiatives by hosting mHealth policy forums. These forums allow government officials and wireless industry experts to work together to promote mHealth solutions that significantly drive down healthcare costs and increase the efficiency of delivering healthcare.
3Cinteractive is CTIA’s exclusive mobile technology partner, helping educate and inform the healthcare industry of the benefits associated with implementing mHealth strategies. “The cost reduction we have seen by deploying SMS applications in hospitals and medical centers is significant,” says 3Cinteractive’s VP of Industry Relations, John Styers, who works closely with CTIA on mHealth. “Reliable data is starting to surface showing that SMS applications have significantly increased patient compliance with drug and medical device treatments. This not only improves patient health, but drives down the costs associated with non-compliance—which are estimated to be $100 billion annually in the U.S.”
Considering the strong national focus on reducing healthcare costs, and the demonstrated ability of mobile messaging to not only reduce costs but also improve the effectiveness of delivering care, a perfect storm is brewing around mHealth. And the device that you carry with you everyday in your pocket might alter the healthcare
landscape forever.
This article originally appeared in the March 2010 issue of PM360.
