Bloghound

Riding down the elevator at the Westin Hotel in Kansas City on Monday, a nice guy asked me if I was in town for the BlueCross BlueShield conference.

“No, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall. As a business owner I’ve got some issues with Blue Cross,” I replied in my usual reserved way.

Then he laid the Blue Cross elevator pitch on me – in the elevator. “I always say that when it comes to you and your family’s health, you can’t put a price on health care. “

“That’s the problem,” I replied. “Blue Cross doesn’t seem to be able to put a price on health care. The prices skyrocket every year. People do love their families but there are financial limits. Good luck to you at your conference. Watching the health insurance industry and Blue Cross should be good business sport.”

“Business sport? I’ve never heard health insurance put that way,” he said.

“Oh yes. Many of us will be watching BlueCross’ every move closer than Monday night football. And we’re not going to be quiet about what we think. Nice talking to you.”

Observations:

1. You can get some frank feedback on elevator pitches on the elevator.
2. Marketing messaging today needs to go beyond the elevator pitch; if people are engaged in your company or issue you need to be able to have a conversation, not just recite an elevator pitch – even in an elevator.
3. Hot issues create fervid online and face-to-face conversations — conversations that people follow like sports — requiring companies to listen in new ways and actively participate in these conversations, as heated as they may become. Traditional command-and-control communications and marketing is over — especially for health insurance providers.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.