Part of the problem has been that many pharma marketing programs blast out high-level information from the pharma to the patient, and/or provide broad-based patient studies information to the physician. Our approach is to use physician-patient feedback programs to close the loop between patients and physicians by documenting patients’ experiences with and the effectiveness of prescription drugs, medical devices and disease management programs and providing this real-time data to each patient’s prescribing physician.

This information lets physicians know how medications are working for their patients – not an anonymous, broad study – and also alerts them to potential issues, such as a risk of non-adherence, that can be used as talking points during the next office visit. The process also includes an array of patient education tools, and provides physicians with unique insights about how the drugs they prescribe are affecting their patients.

InfoMedics’ approach is designed to loop in – and to benefit – all of the audiences affected by pharma’s products, with information that matters to them: pharma, yes, but also physicians and their patients. These benefits include building brand credibility and loyalty, encouraging patient-physician dialogue, extending patient ownership and reinforcing the prescribed treatment regimen.

Or, as your research summed up: “the more meaningful people find your marketing….the more of an investment they’ll make in it emotionally, and the more motivated they’ll become to spread the word.”

The challenge you put out there about creating meaningful marketing for a portrait or wedding photographer is actually one that I’ve thought about before. A friend in the business once asked me a similar question in the past. It was before the book or the concept of Marketing with Meaning was born, but what he was looking for at the time was nothing less than Marketing with Meaning. First off, Marketing with Meaning isn’t reserved for giant companies with equally large budgets. True, you’re not going to be able to invest to create a Nike+, but, if anything, many of the marketing channels you can use to connect with your customers have massively skewed the balance of power back to “the little guy.”

There are thousands of potential ideas you can come up with, but off the top of my head here’s what I’m thinking. Your business, if like most photographers, relies very heavily on word of mouth. What’s significant about this is that you don’t necessarily always need to find people who need a wedding photographer, you just need to find people who know people who need a wedding photographer. In other words, if I’ve had a great experience with a wedding photographer, I’m going to tell my friend when I discover they need one. You need to create as many of these people as possible. However, “a great experience” isn’t necessarily what you think. It doesn’t mean that you did an amazing job at their wedding. Instead, let’s try something else.

What if you taught people how to take great portraits themselves at home with their own camera or how to take professional-like photos at their friends’ wedding (or other event). Don’t worry, they aren’t going to replace you. It’s not possible. But if you give a free course on digital photography (or classic film) that anyone can attend and create a great experience, people will spread the word about you. They’ll also realize that despite your teaching, they can’t do as well as you, so don’t worry about losing sales. Basically, people would come to your studio to hear about you (and learn) BY CHOICE. That’s the beauty of Marketing with Meaning. It’s marketing people choose to engage with. You can spread the word about your courses via traditional channels (and it’ll spread via word of mouth) or using targeted digital promotion (local search buys perhaps). You just need to seed it and then rely on word of mouth to spread the word of the course and then about you.

There you go…one good idea without knowing that much about your business. Think the same. What can I offer that people will want to engage with? The book will guide you through this process, but you’ll be amazed how well you can do on your own with the right mindset.

Let me know what you end up doing and how it goes. Best of luck.

This may be covered in your book (I’ll find out when amazon delivers it tomorrow ), but it might be useful to those other than myself.

Thanks!
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