Greetings to all who are interested in getting the word out about your safety stores. I led an interactive, workshop-style session, immediately following the panel discussion of hospital-based safety stores. Children's Hospital of Orange County is one of 10 NACHRI hospitals augmenting their injury prevention education by selling child safety products. Since our program is in its embryonic stages, I wanted input on best practices. We approached the topic with a communication plan structure. Following are our thoughts from the session, and I invite you to add to these. Jan Lansing, CHOC
Communication Objectives
- Generate traffic
- Encourage staff interaction
We also discussed a few risks that might accompany wildly successful promotion of the safety stores:
- Overwhelmed with interest and traffic
- Giving the impression that the hospital safety store = typical retail (it's definitely not)
- The location might not be readily accessible to customers
- Sales and education may put the hospital at risk (financial and reputational) due to inaccurate education and product recalls. And, the store may be a financial drain (poor margins and high volume exacerbates the problem)
Target Audiences
We can reach out and communicate to:
- Daycare centers
- Schools
- CPR centers
- Hospital staff
- Trauma staff
- Residents/fellows
- Nurse practitioners
- Baby Registries
- Birthing centers
- Physician educators
Communicate in multiple languages, of course.
Messages/Tactics
We agreed that since injury prevention education is so crucial, the sale of products needs to always link to that education.
Here are some of the tactics we discussed--ways you can leverage the distribution and promotion of the stores within your hospital:
- Be mobile within hospital – flex your locations to Ortho clinic or the ED, for example
- Use plasma screens around the hospital to promote
- Use your website, of course
Then, consider these external opportunities:
- Partner with Scholastic magazines & books, Babies R Us
- Birthing centers/adult hospital
- Integrate with Prenatal Education at those birthing centers. Provide a "prenatal binder" that includes injury prevention/safety messages with other education, and promote the store there.
Final note: We agreed that safety stores should not carry a separate brand. Use the hospital brand to maintain the masterbrand's consistency and integrity.
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