HEALTH-RELATED MARKETING messages may be among the most persistent and ever-present of the modern era. Lose weight, eat right and quit smoking. Get six-pack abs, remember to wash your hands and watch out for restless leg syndrome. Try this new form of diabetes testing, this new multivitamin or this new sleeping aid.
The list could go on forever, and while it’s good to know there are so many causes in need of marketing, as a distributor of promotional products, you’re likely asking yourself more pertinent questions. Namely, who are the people trying to get these messages out there, and how can I get them to buy from me?
A complete answer would be as lengthy and numerous as the list of side effects in a pharmaceutical commercial, but if you’re thinking of selling health and wellness products, here are a few markets worth considering.
SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES
Joe Hoffmann, marketing director for Jetline, Mount Vernon, N.Y., named schools and universities as one of the better markets for health and wellness products. He explained that such institutions frequently engage in health-related giveaways, for example distributing branded hand sanitizers at new-student orientations. A major benefit of these programs is they often become annually repeating orders, filled year after year as students come and go. Hoffmann also noted university bookstores or other school booster efforts as options to consider.
Hoffmann stated in his experience, one of the keys to selling products to a school is matching the item’s color to the institution’s. “It’s very important to have color that’s associated with whatever the school or university has,” he said. “We’ve found a great deal of success on certain products that we’ve expanded color palettes on, and it’s all in the school and university markets.”
ASSISTED LIVING
Like schools, retirement communities and other elder care facilities will run programs to promote the well-being of their residents, often with greater emphasis given the number of health issues that can arise with age. “They are very large buyers in the marketplace right now,” said Hoffmann. He pointed out that not only is this market growing, and likely to continue doing so as the baby boomers head into retirement, it is also one that he’s found to be largely insulated from the recession. “People need to be taken care of at the end of life, and I guess that’s maybe someplace people are less likely to make cuts,” he suggested.
Because of the large caregiving and support staff many assisted living centers require, there may also be opportunities to sell outside the institution’s marketing department. “I think for a distributor, it would be kind of a vertical market for them,” said David Campochiaro, CAS, president of PromoVison Palomino, Memphis, Tenn. For example, he said that instead of calling on someone in marketing, a distributor could reach out to the head of security or nursing in order to sell badges or lanyards. Besides possibly being in control of an entirely different budget, Campochiaro explained that the person outside of marketing may be more in-tune with relevant features of the item, such as data-theft protection on key cards or safety breakaway points on lanyards for nursing staff.
GYMS
“Gyms have always been a purchaser,” said Hoffmann. “They’ll buy stuff like yoga mats and higher-end stuff a lot of times,” he noted, also mentioning that water bottles and pedometers are popular product choices.
Campochiaro seconded the recommendation of water bottles and pedometers, and also suggested mixing your marketing message with ideas outside the realm of health and wellness. He gave an example of an aluminum water bottle promotion PromoVision Palomino did with a gym. Besides the obvious applications for a fitness setting, the bottle was marketed as a reusable and more eco-conscious alternative to plastic, making it that much more appealing to the gym’s members.
