If you knew what words you use that are repulsive to others and could stop them from coming, would you change them?
Because there’s a need for a better way to market stigmatized products, like a hearing aid.
We are all social creatures at heart. We desire acceptance within our social classes and groups. When it comes to marketing hearing care, stigma is one of the greatest barriers to getting people to buy.
People who show signs of hearing loss are more comfortable living in a world without hearing aids. They have formed an idea and identity of an individual with hearing loss before their current situation. Most of the identity aligns with someone old, end-of-life, unworthy, or incompetent. Hearing aids act as a symbol, a brand, or a logo for those negatively associated identities.
Hence, it explains why people would want to dissociate themselves. People are afraid of doing things that go against how they see themselves. They worry about what others perceive if they wear hearing aids. They don’t want to lose their social status. Whether real or perceived, these thoughts prevent people from buying hearing aids.
How can marketing things perceived as repulsive teach us about marketing hearing aids?
Bear with me; I know that hearing aids are not repulsive, but they have a point and some relevance to the stigma of hearing loss.
Repulsive or disgust is a common emotion associated with stigma. They present an interesting perspective on how we can better understand the driving forces in our communication that can hinder or help you get more leads and appointment bookings for your business.
When we use the word repulsive, we should clarify what we mean. Repulsive things could be a product, idea or program that is considered to be unsanitary, disgusting or anything we want to disassociate ourselves from. These include a wide range of things, from recycled wastewater for drinking, eating insects, and products for menstruation to programs for drug addiction.
Getting people to use these products or programs is in their best interest and the planet’s, but the thoughts and perceptions are too negative. No one is jumping over each other like during the opening of a Black Friday sale.
The idea here is to get people feeling comfortable around the subjects. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come from an information campaign. I often see the media and audiologists designing campaigns or writing articles on why hearing aids are good for you. Often, you might spend a lot of time discussing the negative effects of hearing loss. You might attempt to scare people with claims that unattended hearing loss will cause dementia as a way to motivate people to act. These messages can cause people to be paralyzed into inaction.
One would think that presenting logic and facts on why this repulsive thing is good for us would work. But most of the time, humans react emotionally to things around them. Although we think we are using the logic part of our brain, our emotional part takes over.
The key to more buy-in on a repulsive product is not teaching people but choosing specific words to help reframe what is considered negative.
Be careful about the words you use
Words are very powerful, and every word has an impression on the receiver’s eyes. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania studied how to Destigmatize Repulsive Products.
The study discusses changing perceptions through reframing, which involves describing a product or service in words with a positive association.
Think for a moment: Most meat eaters don’t go around saying that they ate a cow today. If you are a meat-eater, you have learned to dissociate yourself from the truth of eating a cow by saying you had a hamburger or a steak instead. If you were to talk about how you ate a cow, the thoughts of the live animal who got killed for you to eat might become a prominent picture in your head. It might just make you want to become more of a vegetarian.
The way we label our services and products should be considered the same. By choosing words, you can relocate the word away from being perceived as stigmatizing. When marketers use the word recycled water, there is little uptake or interest from the public to try the water. But when words such as pure or new water are used, more people are interested in trying the water. Grounded crickets became cricket flour. Same thing, different labelling and wordplay.
The marketing and branding industry frequently uses the reframing tactic. It has helped increase sales and brought more business revenue for things people think negatively about.
This isn’t about lying or enhancing the truth. We are not talking about greenwashing or any kind of washing here. This is a careful, deliberate practice to help people influence better choices that will help them live better lives.
Focusing on value is equally important. The emphasis should be on talking about the lives and experiences you hope people with hearing loss will achieve using hearing aids.
So, why are you calling people patients?
How do the words you use affect your leads?
Audiologists, like many industry professionals, have terminologies or their own language for describing people or things within their practice. These terms make sense when you talk among each other, but to others outside of the field of study, they have a whole other meaning. Medical terminologies don’t hold the same weight and value in the world of consumerism and commercialization.
Using words like ‘patient’ is enough to make someone feel ashamed. ‘Patient’ is a term used along with ‘cancer patient’ or ‘hospital patient’. Those who feel well enough to wake up and live every day but only have one major issue: not hearing well do not think of themselves as sick or something is terribly wrong with them.
Mirror the success of other industries
Most people with hearing loss wish for hearing aids to be the same experience as eyeglasses for many reasons, but I won’t go into depth here. However, if you were to look at the websites and messaging for selling eyeglasses, nowhere is the word patient mentioned. There are some circumstances where you might see the word patient unless you are heading for cataract surgery or any type of invasive surgery that requires you to wear a hospital gown.
Remove the word patient from your marketing and communication materials
So why do audiologists refer to people as patients? Would it be better to choose other words that can capture the meaning of care, attentiveness, and individualized services to help improve hearing in others?
Addressing hearing loss should be about wellness and self-care. It’s not about something that is wrong with them. Hearing loss is an expected part of life. It’s a scar of the past that needs some form of healing. The scare may come from an ear infection gone wrong, a career choice playing in a band, a marker in genetics, or progression over time for hearing loud sounds really well.