They’re advertising knees on TV now. Yeah, knees. Elaine Fogel makes a great point about this. Don’t you think a company that makes replacement knees could spend its money more effectively with something other than a TV ad?
It’s not as if we can go to the knee store and buy one of those suckers, is it? So, why market to the entire TV audience when the end user is a niche market of middle-aged to senior women, with bum knees?
You can view the ad online. The ad invites viewers to visit a website, where they can see real stories about real patients. The site features a few standard testimonials and photos. But it could be so much more.
Imagine if the Stryker marketers had saved some of the money they spent to reach tens of thousands of TV viewers with perfectly healthy knees. Instead, they could’ve invited some of those patients to blog their experiences. They could have gone into the homes of the patients and shown the difference in their lives–instead of merely telling about it.
Charisse says, “I can pick things up, bring my laundry up and down, I can stand, I can wash dishes and scrub the floors. I can take down my blinds, I can climb up on a stepladder. I had the surgery March 30th, May 22nd I’m on the dance floor boogying to disco music.” What a wonderful marketing tool to have shown all those things, and to heard Charisse in her own voice, instead of spending thousands on a 60-second commercial.
