It works for Starbucks and Anheuser-Busch, and it can work for your employees’ health. “It” is a market segmentation approach that can help you connect with target populations by understanding their unique needs, interests and communication preferences.

Marketing good health and productivity

The Employer Solutions Division recently hosted a series of summit teleconferences that reviewed how we can prospectively identify risks to human capital, target interventions accordingly and engage employees in a meaningful way—ultimately improving health and productivity while reducing costs.

This same analysis is used by marketing organizations to determine the location of ATM machines and Starbucks stores, for example, and how to target advertising for niche markets. So, the concept is not new, but the application in health care is.

How, why it works

“The challenge in health care has been that while utilization data has shown us which services are being used it hasn’t led us to understand what lifestyle factors are impacting that utilization or how to effectively engage a given population,” said Marvin Cobern, vice president of strategic planning and development, ValueOptions. “This approach marries lifestyle profiling used in marketing with our data to help us identify the right mix of solutions for a population’s needs.”

Here’s how the process works:

• Identify: Systematically assess current and potential exposure to an employer’s human capital risk.
  
  
• Engage: Educate employers and employees about human capital risks, using group-specific communication approaches and messaging strategies.
  
  
• Empower: Intervene with risk-focused programs and services.
  
  
• Evaluate: Measure outcomes and demonstrate performance of the interventions.

ValueOptions is currently using this approach with several large employer organizations.

For example

A project funded by SAMHSA, Youth in the Workplace, is using this approach to better target employee assistance outreach and promotion efforts to engage young workers who typically have been underutilizers of such services. This target population includes 26,000 employees of 10 Fortune 100 organizations.

While strong alcohol treatment programs are available, the health care system hasn’t done a good job identifying people with alcohol use problems and getting them into treatment. In fact, while 8 percent of working adults have an alcohol use disorder, less than 1 percent of plan members are diagnosed with alcohol problems. This is particularly evident with the younger worker.

So, where are the workers with alcohol problems, and how do we reach them? How do we make services accessible and acceptable?

By applying market segmentation methods to member households, we can assign each to one of 64 lifestyle clusters. The clusters are related to particular diagnosis and procedure codes and assessed problems, as well as physical addresses. When we know the lifestyle cluster that we’re targeting, we can examine the characteristics, communication preferences and motivators in order to define communication messages and vehicles that will engage them.

For example, the “Urban Grit” cluster is a target population for this project. This group wants to know how a product stretches a dollar and how it benefits the family. Communications, therefore, should recognize these values. One project poster shows how the EAP can help take control of finances. Another depicts how drinking hurts relationships.

During the teleconference, much of the talk focused on identifying those with alcohol problems and engaging them to use services, but this approach can be used for any human capital risk.

For more information on this approach, please contact your account representative. You also may want to read the article, “Think Like a Marketer: Anticipate Workforce Needs.