David Ogilvy, in his seminal book, Ogilvy on Advertising, suggested that the more awards you saw in a prospective advertising agency’s lobby or reception area, the further away you should stay from them.
I know what he means.
If a brand marketing campaign, no matter how creative or flashy, doesn’t lead to improved business results versus your competitors, then what’s the point?
Being “well-known,” or “popular” as a business doesn’t mean anything if that doesn’t lead to more customers coming through your doors.
She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)
With that in mind, we return to ThriVe Express Women’s Healthcare’s branding strategy that we discussed the last two days.
First, is that strategy appealing to young women in the sense that they want to engage with ThriVe even if the engagement is not directly related to women’s healthcare?
From Bridget VanMeans:
“You’ll see in our social media, we have health days where we look like a health desk. We have fitness days where models are talking about fitness and health. We have some days where the outreach is all fashion-oriented. You would think it came out of Vogue magazine. And you know what that’s done? Tripled our social media following!” – Bridget VanMeans
Clearly, ThriVe’s branding strategy is popular.
But if I put my hard-nosed investor hat on, I would then ask ThriVe, “Has that popularity led to better results, as measured by market share, versus your competition?”
It’s All About the Numbers
The first time I asked Bridget a question like this in our interview, I was so happy to hear her begin her response this way, “First of all, we’re very evidence-based, because all good businesses are.”
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I would like to create a poster with that quote on it, and ask every Executive Director of every PHC in the U.S. to hang it on the wall in their offices, directly facing their desks so that they had to look at it constantly.
Bridget continues:
“At ThriVe, we’re very outcomes oriented. We are proud to say that we know we have reduced Planned Parenthood’s numbers. When we started the ThriVe model, our Planned Parenthood competitor clinic was doing about 8,000 abortions a year. Last year, they did 2,400. So we’ve helped drop their business by close to 70%.” – Bridget VanMeans
And then Bridget brings it home with exactly what pro-life investors want to hear:
“We have a bar graph that shows Planned Parenthood’s number of abortions against our number of women who chose life. And you can see a beautiful, exact marriage between the descent of Planned Parenthood’s numbers and then the ascent of our numbers.” – Bridget VanMeans
That is what winning looks like. That is what pro-life investors want all PHCs across the country to achieve.
Have an enjoyable weekend, and see you next week.
Regards,
Brett