Opportunity in adversity: B2B marketing for the healthcare industry

I don’t know about you, but I’ve really missed hugging. Well, thanks to the incredible academic, scientific, and (of course) business minds of the world, hugging will soon be back on the agenda. But there’s still a lot of work to be done – and your business could well be sitting on the missing piece of the healthcare industry’s puzzle.

‘If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes.’ That was Bill Gates talking for TED in 2015.

And he was right! Like sliding doors, COVID-19 has changed our lives (i.e. the lives of the entire population of the planet) overnight. Some for the worse, some for the better.

However, in the chaos of the last two years, there are still positives to be found. Especially for B2B businesses.

Opportunity in adversity

Scientists across the globe have worked together like they never have before, to expedite vaccinations that would usually take years to develop. Huge brands have diversified to take advantage of new opportunities to meet demand – and just as many have stepped up to lend a helping hand.

1. In the UK alone, brewery chains such as Heineken UK and BrewDog offered up their venues as vaccination centres (1), while Tesco’s distribution arm, Best Food Logistics, made its refrigerated lorries and warehouses available to move the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (2).
2. Due to the short supply of ventilators, Mercedes F1 experts worked alongside University College London engineers and UCLH clinicians to build a device that was able to supply oxygen to the lungs as an alternative to a ventilator (3). Meanwhile, Hillary’s Blinds dedicated their entire manufacturing process to making hospital scrubs (4).
3. On a global scale, various B2B companies, such as Cisco, Microsoft, Google and Motorola, have been offering free solutions, software and even technology to hospitals, schools and even the public as a whole – all to help them stay connected and working during lockdown. (5)

This has helped many people, and even saved lives. But it has also given many businesses a new revenue stream at a time when they would otherwise struggle.

And my point is?

To quote Benjamin Franklin, ‘Out of adversity comes opportunity’. As the world opens up post-COVID, the B2B industry is sitting on a great opportunity to sell their strengths into the booming healthcare market. You just need to know where to look, and how to position yourself. Can you be that missing puzzle piece?

Improve the future of healthcare by marketing what you do best. And then hug. Hug like you’ve never hugged before!

Emma Lowman is an Account Director at Purple Agency. She has extensive experience in building strong and lasting client relationships, working with global brands to creatively plan and strategise to achieve optimum success. With over 12 years’ experience in B2B marketing, she is inspired by technologies and services that can dramatically change our future.

We’re sharing what we know

We want to help too. Purple have worked with some of the biggest brands in both the healthcare and B2B spaces, which means we have a level of insight into the combined industry that other agencies don’t.

Read our guide to navigating B2B marketing in the lucrative – yet notoriously complex – healthcare space. It’s packed full of insights into market opportunities, challenges, and ways to overcome them strategically. Wherever you are in your own healthcare journey, you can use it to make a real difference to your business, to people’s lives, and to the future.

References

1. UK Government. Business Secretary calls on businesses to continue supporting vaccine rollout. Press release. 2021.
2. insider.co.uk. Boots and Tesco offer help with Covid-19 vaccine rollout. 2021.
3. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/mar/ucl-uclh-and-formula-one-develop-life-saving-breathing-aids-nhs
4. https://www.hillarys.co.uk/hillarys-helpers/
5. https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-best-free-products-and-services-to-help-your-business-navigate-the-coronavirus-crisis