Client: New Dimensions Weight Loss

New Dimensions Weight Loss, a medical weight loss clinic in San Antonio

The Business Goals

Maintain/gradually increase current surgical market share.
Increase awareness of the practice’s new medical weight loss program.
Boost word-of-mouth referrals from physicians and former patients.
Broaden the target audience to include men and women with weight issues that they prefer to treat without surgery.

The Situation

New Dimensions Weight Loss has a great reputation as a weight loss surgery practice, but hardly anyone was aware of their new medical weight loss (non-surgical) program. The practice had previously focused almost exclusively on women who needed weight loss surgery to treat their obesity and had no materials or programs to reach a broader audience of women and men who wanted to treat their weight issues with a medical (non-surgical) approach.

New Dimensions was comfortable with the typical before-and-after style marketing that is common in the industry.

Aha Insight

in-depth focus groups with past and current surgical and medical program patients.
Our Intentional Branding process involved in-depth focus groups with past and current surgical and medical program patients. The research revealed a number of insights about the industry overall and about how patients prefer to be addressed. It also revealed important information about what type of support and after-care programs they wanted. Most important though, was the finding that New Dimensions (and the weight loss industry in general) was using the wrong language and wrong approach to attract patients. Negative messaging and false claims that are rampant in the industry do not build trust between patients and the practice—rather they are discounted and can even break down patient self-esteem.

While the industry has adopted a fairly negative messaging platform with “not typical” claims of success, Aha realized that job number one would be to re define how New Dimensions talks to its patients.  We worked to create positive dialogue about what most people experience as a life-long weight loss journey.

We knew we could help attract new patients and better support existing patients by connecting with them in language that is relevant, authentic and which addresses their needs and their issues

In addition, an analysis of business sources revealed that more than 80% of New Dimension’s cases resulted from a referral from a former patient or another doctor. Surprisingly though, patients noted that their primary physician rarely, if ever brought up the issue of their weight.

Aha Solution

Develope a new message platform.
While our work for New Dimensions is “in progress” we have begun a strategic rebranding program for the practice.  In order to effectively reach a broader audience we developed a new messaging platform and created programs and tactics that directly reach the practice’s target audiences.

We began with a marketing roadmap that outlined strategies to reposition the practice as a comprehensive medical weight loss center and to better connect with patients and referring physicians. We also suggested programs designed to increase the level of after-care New Dimensions provides to patients. The overarching strategy has been almost singularly focused on increasing referrals from physicians and patients. 

A patient-focused electronic newsletter that is tied to social media outlets was rolled out during the first quarter of 2010.  The newsletter provides weight loss information, tips, recipes and strategies that patients can really use – no medical jargon or negative language.  And several new printed brochures that more fully explain New Dimensions’ unique approach and caring attitude are broadly distributed directly to patients, prospective patients, physicians and through affiliated outlets.

A print and radio campaign designed to create awareness about New Dimensions medical weight loss program garnered amazing results.  The practice’s free seminars for non-surgical weight loss programs were immediately filled to capacity and are generating a steady stream of appointments for the new bariatric medicine specialist.

Our solution to reach doctors came out of the patient feedback sessions. We found that almost none of the patients had talked about their severe weight issue with their primary care physician. We worked with a medical industry publication to create an article that gives doctors a step-by-step guide for talking with their patients about their weight. The article appeared in the June issue of MDNews – San Antonio and has been reprinted and distributed directly to referring doctors.

An after-care community website designed exclusively for New Dimension's patients will launch later this year. Patients indicated they wanted more interaction and a support system that didn’t rely on friends and family.  The new after-care community website will establish a social network for New Dimensions’ patients to interact with each other, share tips and troubles and create a direct portal for the physicians to continue a dialogue with their patients – the after-care site will include blogs, articles, discussion forums, photos, tips, recipes and products.

Outcome

The number of patients in the surgery program has increased 9% from February 2010 to the end of May 2010 and the practice's medical weight loss program has increased 400% since December 2009. Free weekly seminars have been filled to capacity and referrals are trending upward.

Materials Produced
Print and radio advertising
Electronic newsletter
Community website for patients (in progress)
Public relations strategy
TV/radio scripts
Collateral targeting physicians
Marketing brochures

Aha Services
Market research (patient focus groups)
Full-service creative services – concept, design, copywriting, production
Content development
eNewsletter development
Media planning & buying
Script development for television segment