rachelruha

[rachelruha]

Building a brand that does not prey on insecurities

Aside from the fact that "Fair&Lovely Vs. Dark Is Beautiful" is an upsetting case to read, it poses important questions of the willingness of certain brands to meet customer needs and wants, even if those needs and wants are rooted in unhealthy origins.  It also raises questions of predatory and exploitative sales behaviors that prey on an individual's vulnerability and desperation to be accepted by their culture.  As I read, I could not help but think about the culture around fatphobia and fertility, and the role it plays as I build my startup.

It can be emotionally taxing to dive into the minds of the customers, especially when your brand is appealing to some sort of deeply rooted insecurity.  As I think about my startup, I think about the many women afflicted with the endocrine condition our platform is attempting to solve for.  These women are often afflicted with insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances, gut issues, and metabolisms that are fighting against them.  Often this leads to an inability to lose weight, and extreme ease gaining weight.  Even doctors tell patients with PCOS who are overweight to "just lose weight" and "come back when you want to get pregnant".  Similarly, "lean PCOS" is upsettingly a diagnosis.  When individuals suffer from lean PCOS and still have alopecia and acne, their doctors tell them they do not have to do anything at all since they are not overweight.  Fatphobia even stems from the medical system.  While I want to say that the number one reason why an individual would want to pay out of pocket for a service for care pertaining to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is that they want to be healthier overall, I know that's not the case.  The motivating factor for these women is often something pertaining to a deeply rooted insecurity, such as excess weight, acne, alopecia, or excessive hair growth, all of which society tells us cannot coexist with "beauty".  There is a prominent linkage between self perception, and the way we fit into society's beauty standards, and action.  This is why the top influencer in the space currently is one that has "weight loss" in the title of her account.  Other influencers do not reach anywhere near her 264K followers because she has what people want - tips and tricks to lose weight and shrink one's PCOS body.  However, other devastating side effects such as mental health issues do not draw nearly as much attention, with the PCOS therapist only gaining 7.9K followers.  Additionally, Elizabeth preaches fat positivity and accepting bodies as they are, which is not as appealing in a society that praises "thinner is better".

As my team and I think about the delicate way to approach this issue, we need to keep this in mind.  As a founding principle, we all agree that while weight loss can be an indication of success, it is not our paramount, or what we want to focus on to draw people in.  Rather, we want the draw to be for women to understand their bodies and learn how to work with them instead of against them.  This is going to be a delicate balance.  We do not want to alienate a large portion of potential customers who are desperately seeking weight loss solutions, but at the same time, we feel it is our ethical responsibility to advocate for body positivity and acceptance.  We want to sell health, not an ideal image from the outside and turmoil within.

The other piece of this that is a delicate balance is that of fertility.  PCOS is the leading cause of infertility in biological females, and once again, as societal constructs would have it, this is a huge motivating force behind patients desiring to control their PCOS.  In many of our market research interviews with individuals who deal with infertility, they experience severe depression, and feel like they are supposed to be able to have children.  "This is the one thing I'm supposed to be able to do, I feel like a failure as a woman" was not an uncommon quote we heard.  Society has regularized the woman's role as maintaining the human race so much so that when infertility comes knocking, which it does for 1 in 6 people trying to conceive, it leaves individuals feeling completely hopeless, defeated, and useless.  They will often do anything to be able to conceive, from taking out second mortgages to pay for fertility treatments, to going on restrictive diets, to taking medications designed to force ovulation.  One participant even told us, "PCOS is the bane of my existence.  Every time I have a new partner, I'm terrified to tell them I have it because of infertility implications.  I worry they won't want to be with me".  For some, infertility is devastating because they want nothing more than to bring a child into the world.  But I do wonder for how many this is in fact the case, and how many are subconsciously led to believe it is their duty, and if they cannot fulfill on it, they are failures as women.

https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/polycystic-ovary-syndrome#:~:text=PCOS%20can%20cause%20missed%20or,causes%20of%20infertility%20in%20women.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4433074/

All in all, this case has called into question various questions my team and I have been exploring.  We do not want to exploit individuals' insecurities.  Our founding principles and mission are to provide evidence-based solutions to help these biological females be the healthiest they can be, and remove any essence of "Either be thin and sexy, or give us a baby, otherwise you're useless" narrative from the dialogue in the way we converse with our prospective patients.  Empathy is paramount.

[rachelruha]

Rogers’ Five Factors and Digital Health

Perhaps I just have my startup on the brain, but as I was reading Rogers' Five Factors, I couldn't help but think about watch-outs for my own brand and product.  We are creating a digital healthcare solution for a common endocrine disorder in biological females, but our platform suggests lifestyle changes as a means to managing this condition.

When it comes to relative advantage, there is no cure for the endocrine disorder we are trying to help manage.  Physicians tend to elect one size fits all, quick fixes in the form of birth control pills, leaving these patients with dozens of symptoms they do not know how to care for.  That said, even though lifestyle changes are more efficacious when compared with the pill, I could not help but think about complexity.  Most individuals would prefer to pop a pill a day, and even be under the guise that the contraceptive manages their condition, because it's simply easier.  It is much more difficult to change the way we eat, sleep, exercise, and manage stress, than it is to introduce a pill into our routine.  Something that I hope to leverage to combat this existing issue is complexity mitigation.  Meaning, stepwise specific tasks that occur on a week by week basis to slowly adopt a new lifestyle, rather than attempting to solve everything at once.

Further, compatibility is top of mind for me as I read this article.  One of the biggest obstacles I believe we will face when creating personalized lifestyle recommendations and solutions for this population is the fact that many with this condition have a history of disordered eating, whether that be anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, or even a mix of these.  From the article, "as the compatibility of an innovation with existing concepts, habits, and experiences increases, the rate of product adoption also increases".  What I fear is the fact that we will be recommending nutrition that is designed to balance an individual's hormones, which often entails eating from all food groups, and eating a healthy amount of calories in one day.  However, it's extremely difficult to teach someone who has been starving themselves for years that it is okay, and actually better, to eat.  They have been traumatized by the fact that their body tends to work against them, and they cannot fathom that there is a way to maintain their weight without eating a 1,000 calorie per day diet.  This will require us to not only be a solution for the endocrine disorder itself, but also ensure that we are creating a support network around various other issues that result from the condition.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/advice-for-life-situations-and-events/how-to-help-someone-with-eating-disorder/

https://centerforchange.com/anorexia-and-bulimia-how-friends-and-family-can-help/

https://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com/blog/recovery/compulsive-overeating-helping-someone-you-love

While trialability will be difficult for our product, we hope to lean heavily on observability through patient testimonials, word of mouth marketing from successful patient, social media influencers, and even nonprofit organizations.  Nevertheless, this will be a difficult feat to overcome, and we will have to keep a keen eye on all of Rogers' Five Factors to ensure our success.

[rachelruha]

What does it mean to have a strong, yet flexible, brand?

As I read Concha y Toro as well as "Fine as North Dakota Wine", I could not help but think about the role that heuristics take in our decision-making process in the context of choosing a wine.  There are more wineries and wine labels in existence than any one person could ever venture to learn in their lifetime.  We are so overly inundated with choice, that I cannot help but wonder if our brains tend to default to System 1 to help preserve our System 2 thought process for decisions that are potentially more important.  It is much easier to, when faced with a great deal of choice, fall back on either a categorization that we know we enjoy, or a region, than to analyze each aspect of every wine that may be of interest to us.  I am very far from being a wine expert, but I know that when choosing a Pinot Noir, I immediately eliminate Oregon Pinot Noirs from my selection options.  I do this because I have had a few Pinot Noir blends from California that I have enjoyed, whereas I had one from Oregon that I did not like at all.  However, that one negative association with the Oregon Pinot Noir stops me from having any Oregon Pinot Noirs in my consideration set.  In some sense, I feel relief when I can stand in a wine shop and focus in on my options for a California blend, and de-burden my brain from subjecting it to "too much choice".

These two readings also made me reflect on how difficult it is to dismantle people's preconceived notions of brands.  During my time working at American Express, I was constantly confronted by those who never considered an American Express credit card because they believed there was no option to revolve a balance month to month.  Despite the fact that American Express has had credit cards that one can carry a balance on for as long as I can remember, most individuals continue to believe that American Express only offers options to pay off the full balance every month.  Further, American Express reached parity coverage with Visa and MasterCard in the U.S. in 2019, and yet many individuals refuse to consider American Express because they believe they will need a backup card, or they will not be able to use the card at many merchants they shop with.  

American Express Catches up to Visa, Mastercard

What’s the Difference between a charge card and a credit card?

Charge cards and lower merchant acceptance rates have been deep-rooted in American Express's DNA since the origin of the credit card.   Perhaps AmEx was initially a bit too okay with this brand image, where individuals used to perceive AmEx as for the elite - those who had “made it”. Therefore, lower merchant acceptance, or the perception that one had to pay it off each month, simply added to its exclusive image.  However, now the status symbol is not enough to draw in the next generation.  Despite large scale efforts by the brand to educate consumers, it has been an incredibly difficult task to undo what began with AmEx's first charge card in the 1950s.  In this sense, I wonder if customers, who are overwhelmed by the magnitude of choice when it comes to selecting a credit card, use heuristics of brand association to cast out American Express entirely and "preserve their System 2" like many of us do when choosing wine.  Further, I wonder to what degree these individuals seek out confirmation bias, or rely on the one testimony of their friend whose AmEx was rejected at a favorite restaurant, to justify the association of low acceptance with the AmEx brand.

I think this translates directly to companies across every industry, and speaks to the power of the brand.  It is interesting to think about how a strong brand is thought to be a successful brand, but for some companies, it may hurt them.  Namely, as consumers’ preferences change, brands will be at a disadvantage if their strong brand is rooted in the direct opposite of what consumers want.  This is working against AmEx for sure, and it creates an uphill battle that takes resources away from progression and innovation to alter brand perceptions in the marketplace.  It calls into question: how can we design brands that are strong, but flexible?  Could AmEx have seen this coming when they launched the first charge card 70 years ago, and could they be doing a better job of changing people’s brand perceptions?  Or, did their reliance on status symbols and exclusivity survive for longer than it should have, and now they are left trying to dig themselves out of this hole?

How to develop a unique and memorable brand in 2021

[rachelruha]

At What Point Does Choice Become Psychological Torment?

When reading 'Consumer Behavior Online', I immediately thought about my Product Management internship over IAP.  I was helping a startup curate their product line that would ultimately support soon to be mothers during pregnancy.  Part of my work included market research with pregnant and recently pregnant women to understand how the brand I was working with could best support them during this crucial time in their lives.  

The accounts these women shared with me of their pregnancies were eerily similar.  Everywhere they looked, someone was telling them the "right way" to be pregnant, and it became incredibly overwhelming for these women to sort through the noise and figure out what was right for their bodies and babies.  The omnipresence of information and opinions was everywhere - from the pregnancy blogs they followed, influencers online, friends and family encountering their own pregnancy journeys, and even down to their product advertisements arising in their Instagram ads.  It seemed every product, opinion, etc., somehow pitted itself against a competitor in some way.  These women often felt preyed on, never knowing if something was truly best, or if it was just a marketing ploy to exploit them during a time of intense vulnerability.  Just to give us a picture, below is a landscape of the prenatal vitamin supplements market, from 2015, and projections through 2025.  Everywhere these women look, a new prenatal brand is exclaiming why theirs is best.

https://thisisneeded.com/

https://ritual.com/products/essential-prenatal-multivitamin

https://www.personanutrition.com/products/prenatal-vitamins/?refcode=1043&refcode1=100270&coupon=SC50SEP&gclid=CjwKCAjwvMqDBhB8EiwA2iSmPMdbiw3YROOkB4DASbLV9VBxh9Ck4DlF5ElpArnFa9_h3hoGuGfQjRoCy3UQAvD_BwE

It's information overload at a time when these women really do not need it.  Many interviewees shared with me it led to a downward spiral of endless research, comparison of dozens of brands against each other, and a feeling of complete defeat and inability to make a decision.  In many cases, they had to find a decision shortcut, often achieved through peer influence.

Peer influence for these individuals took on a few different forms: 1. Instagram Influencers: Many followed prenatal nutritionists on Instagram, and based who they trusted initially off of the number of followers.  They claimed to vet the content after following, but initial trust was based largely on how many other pregnant ladies were following the influencers. 2. Family/friends: Some were lucky enough to have friends, sisters, or family members who were pregnant recently, and did the difficult work of the research and decision making for them. 3. Customer Reviews: Which prenatal vitamin was most highly rated for having the purest form of ingredients? 4. Mom Shamers: Some women even shared that those in their networks who often took to social media with not so subtle undertones of mom shaming influenced their decisions on what prenatal to take, or what foods to eat while pregnant.

I heard frequently when it came to nutrition during pregnancy that women wanted someone to make these decisions for them.  They wanted someone to know them so well that they knew the exact right diet regimen and prenatal vitamin for their bodies, and that it would magically appear for them, and they would happily accept pregnancy friendly foods as gifts from loved ones.

I got the impression that receiving items such as these as "gifts" was not about material receipt - it was about the psychological relief.  At an incredibly vulnerable time in their lives, these women wanted the burden of choice removed.  They wanted something from someone they trust, someone they know is looking out for both mama and baby, so they themselves do not have to undergo the emotional mental stress of the decision funnel.  In many ways, I find this quite alarming.  E-commerce and the ever-evolving market of prenatal supplements may be doing more harm than good for these mamas to be.  I'm all for choice and competition, but at what point is it too much information?

[rachelruha]

Intel Case Analysis

•What was the original motivation behind Intel’s decision to launch the Intel Inside branding campaign? What was the key consumer insight?

             The key consumer insight was that end users of computers were not aware of product differences when a machine was made with the Intel 286 microchip vs. the 386 microchip.  After the Red X campaign, an influx of sales orders came for the 386 microchip from CIOs and IT managers  from original equipment manufacturers.  Carter knew they had to create more advertising in the industry, get their logo onto the physical computer products, and have the consumer pay more attention to microprocessors.  

               This is very interesting to think about from an economic buyer / influencer / end user perspective.  In this case, Intel was primarily focused on having their products appeal to design engineers of computer manufacturers.  Thus these design engineers were serving as the economic buyers and influencers for the microprocessor, but in a way, they were making the decision for the end user in terms of what microprocessor they would use.  End users did not have the education around the power of the microprocessor, and what it meant for them.  It’s especially interesting to think about this retrospectively, where now I always consider the microprocessor in my laptop before purchasing, knowing I usually do not want anything less than an i7.  Intel’s focus was previously on marketing to the economic buyer and influencer rather than appealing to the end user.  The switch to focus on the end user and encourage them to focus on the microprocessor makes me think of Slack.  Slack really infiltrated the corporate world by appealing to the end user, ensuring they were “hooked” on their platform, so that employees could demand it of their employers, which is exactly what happened at the last company I worked for.

https://digiday.com/media/how-slack-is-fueling-medias-bottom-up-revolution/

https://slack.com/blog/transformation/trust-tools-and-teamwork-what-workers-want

•What factors have accounted for the success of the campaign?

             The fact that Intel actually had the technology to back up their campaigns ensured their success.  I also believe the omnipresence of these campaigns ensured their success – if the ultimate end user who would purchase a computer with an Intel processor from Dell was in the know for the Pentium processor, that creates a need for IT heads to similarly “be in the know”.  There is a psychological component to this as well – if the end user is empowered with this knowledge, the individual building the computer will feel a necessity to be even “more in the know”.

•Imagine that you are launching a new high-tech product: what short and long-term strategic challenges are presented with Intel’s strategy?

             I think the omnipresence of the Intel Inside marketing campaign, while it could serve as an asset and clearly did, is also risky. As an end user, I would become overwhelmed by constant change of the new generations of microprocessors.  Even the IT departments had shared they would never budge from the 486 models, and eventually were ordering Pentium models because of the marketing campaigns.  I could see this becoming a serious issue, especially as Intel moved into investing R&D into two new processors at a time.  The consumer may start to feel it’s impossible to keep up, and marketing campaigns seemingly couldn’t even keep up with this level of development.  This could lead to consumer fatigue, as well as the risk of marketing campaigns that are simply too expensive to maintain.

             Additionally, something to consider, as occurred with the Intel case, is brand dilution or confusion over who the company is advertising towards.  When the Blue Man Group advertisement launched, the technology community was outraged that there were not more technical details associated with the ad.  The balance between appealing to the ultimate end user, and the economic buyer / influencer, in this case IT departments of the computer manufacturers, is tricky.