March 2009

Communicating the benefits of hearing care
Integrated campaign employs mass media, Web and DM to link consumers to hearing care professionals. By Kalan Vuksanovich

These days, media representations tend to mythologize lived experience. One example is the conventional coupling of hearing loss and hearing aids with an all too familiar “granny” stereotype. That’s why, Karen Tuinstra, director of Marketing at Siemens Hearing Instruments (SHI) is working hard to change public perception.

“The mainstay is to increase awareness of hearing loss in Canada and let people know that hearing loss is not just something that affects us as we get older; it affects Canadians of all ages,” she explains. “We also want to communicate that hearing aids have changed dramatically over the last few years… even in the last six to eight months.”

Business focus
Located in Cambridge ON, SHI serves the health care sector and is part of Siemens Canada (see DM September’08 issue, page 25 for more information). With a staff of approximately 100 people, SHI builds extremely advanced custom hearing aids for a variety of lifestyles.

Last November, the company launched its newest custom hearing aid product lines: Siemens Life, a sleek, flashy hearing aid available in changeable colours and designs to complement any style, and Siemens Motion, a discreet, automated device that smoothes transitions between brashly different acoustic environments without the need for manual channel selection. What’s more, both product lines have the potential to connect via Bluetooth technology to television sets, cell phones and MP 3 players. Other Siemens models are made exclusively for children, and some appear practically invisible. These products are sold to a national client base of hearing care health professionals and audiologists.

Business challenge
Since hearing aid technology has grown by leaps and bounds in just the past year, it made sense to advertise not only to Siemens’ clinical clientele but also to consumers, so as to familiarize them with the broader product selection available to them. What Tuinstra needed was a way to showcase these vibrant, new offerings to both current hearing aid wearers and non-wearers alike so as to break away from the former “granny” stereotype.

The marketing director emphasizes that the goal was to close the gap between perception and reality and help people who feel they may have a hearing loss find a hearing care professional. “Hearing aids have changed so dramatically that consumers can find one that suits their lifestyle and needs, the way that they want it to look and, from a technology standpoint, the nature of their hearing loss.” Nevertheless, before any B2C communication could effectively take place, Siemens’ clinical clientele needed to be turned on to the new products.

Targeting
In November 2008, SHI launched the Life and Motion product lines. A direct mail initiative was used to familiarize existing clinical clients (hearing professionals) with the new models. Although the SHI sales team is responsible for providing services to every hearing care clinic in Canada, the launch materials were mailed to an internally derived B2B list of approximately 1,000 hearing care clinics— those representing the company’s top tier clients.

Each clinic received an SHI “launch kit” in the mail, consisting of a set of sleek consumer brochures for each of two products, a set of professional brochures, updated order forms, a new software package for programming the hearing aids, and all necessary educational tools for the product programming. Both brochures featured images of fashionable hearing aid wearers lounging, walking and even drumming, as well as descriptions of the various models. These kits were not intended to sell the products, but rather to prime the pros with the crucial information before any B2C touch points went out. Tuinstra explains the rationale for this. “We follow up with our customers (audiologists) and ask them ‘Did this mailing meet your needs? Are we providing you with the right things?’ It’s more or less an educational service.”

A general awareness ad was then published in various mass media. The target was anyone who thought they may have been experiencing a hearing loss. The ads presented a clinically approved four question “hearing care quiz,” designed to direct people to clinics for hearing assessments. “This quiz had questions on it like ‘Do you have to have the volume on the television turned up to an excessive level?’ and ‘Do people tend to mumble or not speak clearly?’” Tuinstra explains. If the reader answered yes to any of the questions, they were encouraged to call SHI’s toll-free number (866-505-8891) or visit its Web site (www.siemens.ca/hearing) for more information. Whether this call to action was met over the phone or online, the consumer could provide SHI his or her postal code for a hearing care clinic search. Once the consumer was provided with the three closest clinics to his or her home, consumer brochures on any of the products could be either downloaded or mailed upon request, along with a traceable incentive piece offering a $400 rebate upon purchase of a set of hearing aids. The mailed voucher was complemented by a personalized letter delivered in a #10 envelope.

Creating awareness
On January 23, a large kickoff event was held at The Spoke Club in Toronto to promote the B2C launch. Educational seminars were scheduled for SHI clients. As well, representatives from various Canadian media who cover topics like health care, technology, seniors, parenting, and even fashion were invited and provided access to information seminars and images of the new lines. A segment dedicated to the Life and Motion lines was even broadcast nationally on Canada AM that day and the program’s Web site linked viewers to the SHI Web site and referenced the company’s telephone number.

Since the campaign is only in its second month, returns haven’t yet been fully realized. Nevertheless, signs certainly appear positive. ”Of the people that have gone online to the [hearing clinic] locator, 30 percent have downloaded the coupon,” the marketing director reveals. With the media buzz generated from the event and the Canada AM broadcast, there can be little doubt that the message of modernized hearing care in Canada will definitely be heard.

Kalan Vuksanovich is an Oakville-based freelance journalist. He can be reached at (905) 580-5159 or by e-mail at kvuksano@ryerson.ca.