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Strategy Guidelines and the Healthwise Case By Tom Brown, CEO, Power Decisions Group What makes a great strategy? Here’s a partial list, examples, and observations about the Healthwise approach to creating a new information therapy product category.

What makes a great strategy? Here’s a partial list, examples, and observations about the Healthwise approach to creating a new information therapy product category.

Innovation is involved.

Healthwise: The core innovation is about “product” delivering health information to consumers that is markedly different in quality ( evidence-based, reviewed by experts, referenced, proven to help, and verified). Consumers want information, yet, it always seemed to be the domain of the physician, not the patient. Healthwise is attempting to change to a new way: giving patients the information and control they want. Multiple change goals; multiple innovation.

Create or reinvent a market space or product category.

The great strategies in business create something quite new or seemingly different in the minds of customers. In creating a “new category”, the new brand is at the top of the heap because it was there first. (Staying there is another topic.) Healthwise: The Healthwise team thinks carefully about the product adoption process. To create a new product category, here are a few actions they’ve taken:

• First, they defined their fundamental task to get doctors to prescribe information just like they prescribe medication, and have insurance companies pay for it.
• They created an independent Center for Information Therapy. Based in Washington DC, it has credentialed commissioners who address the issue of information therapy. The Center hosts an annual conference to promote adoption of Ix by the medical community.
• Kemper and Mettler authored a benchmark book on the subject.
• They submitted the term “information therapy” to the Oxford English Dictionary which accepted it for inclusion.

Invest in the brand and in branding.

• Since they were creating a category, they’re staking a claim on the category by branding the concept and the category: information therapy. While they want to “own” the information therapy category, they understand the difference between creating a category and creating a brand.
• They brand their flavor of information therapy as “Prescription-strength information™” and the symbol “Ix”™ which conveys the essence of new category.
• Their category branding is associated with their established umbrella brand, Healthwise, a known publisher in healthcare information.
• They invite others to co-brand with Healthwise offering their expertise, content in information therapy, and their Ix and “prescription-strength information” brands.

Healthwise Brand Strategy Summary:

1. Create the market space and define the category
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2. Category naming
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3. Promote category credibility and vocabulary to healthcare community
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4. Invent brand symbol(Ix) and tag line (Prescription strength information)
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5. Associate with umbrella brand: Healthwise
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6. Brand awareness building with co-branding.