I received some excellent insightful comments on yesterday’s article, so today, I want to address one of those comments in particular, instead of presenting you with what I had planned to do: offer an example of an actual operating PHC that I believe is worthy of investment. I will get back to that in the next article.
I think it is fair to summarize yesterday’s comments from one reader as follows: Yes, for the emergence of some large well-known national Pregnancy Help Center brands, but no, on there being just one big monopoly PHC organization, and also, there should still be some local PHCs that operate independently from those big national PHC brands.
I agree with all of this.
Reading through the comments reminded me of one of my main reasons for wanting to see a nationally-recognized PHC brand, or brands, emerge as soon as possible.
That reason is because research reveals that the “category” of Pregnancy Help Centers is still unknown by over half of a PHC’s potential customers – women between the ages of 18-29 years old – the age group that accounts for approximately 70% of all abortions.
In the U.S., there are approximately 26 million women in that age group.
And over 13 million women do not know what a Pregnancy Help Center is.
What Kind of Thing Is It?
In marketing, it is important to remember that your prospective customer must first know the kind of thing you offer, and how that kind of thing can improve his or her life, before they will be interested in the actual name of your company that offers that kind of thing.
For example, a well-known category of product is the automobile.
An automobile offers both you and me the freedom to go where we want, when we want – both short distances, and very long distances.
You and I recognize great personal benefits for being able to do that.
But if we didn’t already know about those benefits, in other words, if we had no idea what an automobile was, and then Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, put out advertisements that assumed we already knew the benefits of automobiles, their ad messages would literally fall on deaf ears.
The first step is to educate your prospective customers about the benefits of the category, and then once understood, the next step is to have your company’s particular brand name become associated with the category – and if you’re very good, your brand name can possibly become synonymous with the category: think Kleenex.
You Can’t Choose What You Don’t Know
From a marketing perspective, it is devastating to your success if over half of your prospective customers don’t even know anything about the product you offer.
This is the reality for PHCs as a category.
One of the things that I do in my work at Heroic Media is help pro-life advocates sponsor 30-second social media targeted video advertisements.
The sole objective of these video ads is to raise awareness among young women aged 18-29, that Pregnancy Help Centers exist in their local communities, and to make them aware of this before they might face an unexpected pregnancy.
Research shows that this advertising program is effective at raising awareness about the existence of PHCs, but I believe there is an even more cost-effective approach.
Two Birds With One Stone
The video ads may help increase awareness about the existence of the category of pro-life Pregnancy Help Centers, but the next thing a young woman would be looking to know would be the actual name of a PHC that she could call upon if needed.
So as a marketer, with the current approach I have to double up on my budget: campaign 1 brands the category; campaign 2 brands a particular PHC name.
If there were a viable national PHC brand, or brands, that emerged on the scene, they could run campaigns that both educate women about the benefits of Pregnancy Help Centers, and at the same time brand their names as companies that actually provide the services that bring those benefits.
Two birds with one stone.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
A recent example in the for-profit world of a company that educated consumers about a new product category, and then, at the same time, tied its own brand name to that new product category, is Uber.
The “ride-sharing” category was relatively unknown to most consumers not that long ago.
Uber changed that.
Then other companies, particularly Lyft but there are some others, rode on Uber’s coattails so to speak, benefiting from increasing awareness among consumers about the ride-sharing category.
But notice that it was Uber that set the standards for the other ride-sharing companies for what a ride-sharing experience should be for customers.
Now, if other ride-sharing companies don’t meet, or exceed, those standards, then consumers won’t use their services, and knowledgeable investors won’t invest in their companies.
I believe that the emergence of a nationally recognized PHC brand, or brands, would have the same effect – increase PHC category awareness above 90%, and also raise the competitiveness of all local PHCs.
Regards,
Brett