Gearing healthcare messages to men
This June, rethink communication with your male patients
In honor of National Men’s Health Month, I decided to take a look at men’s changing role in society and how that affects healthcare marketers. Until now, women were the main decision makers in the household regarding the health of their family, but with more men staying at home to raise their children, this responsibility is shifting. Are the marketing efforts at your hospital or physician group addressing this shift in gender roles?
The reversal of gender roles where women are the breadwinners and men either work part-time or stay home with their children isn’t a new concept, but because many men lost their jobs in the recession and the cost of childcare is steadily increasing, it is becoming more common. Books on this topic have become popular, such as The Daddy Shift by Jeremy Adam Smith and The Richer Sex by Liza Mundy, and recently there was an article in CNNMoney about more men becoming stay-at-home dads and an article in the The New York Times about men choosing “pink-collar”careers to make more time for their families.
In the article “Behind Every Great Woman” by Carol Hymowitz, this gender shift is illustrated through profiles of successful business women and statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center. Hymowitz stated that 23 percent of women out-earn their husbands, 32 percent of men regularly care for their children under the age of five, and 20 percent of fathers with preschool-age children serve as the main caregiver.
Due to this change, more healthcare marketing messages need to be targeted to men, both for themselves and for their children.
One example of a healthcare organization that has done a great job communicating with men is Movember. Movember aims to raise awareness and funds for men’s health by encouraging them to grow mustaches during the month of November. They secure sponsorship from friends and family and the mustache becomes a conversation starter among peers.
As is stated on their website, “The truth is, men are known to be more indifferent towards their health, especially when compared to the efforts of women, who proactively and publicly address their health issues in a way not traditionally seen with men. As a result, today the levels of awareness, understanding and funding for support of male health issues, like prostate cancer, lag significantly behind other causes.”
Movember aims to “put a fun twist on this serious issue,” and give men a way to talk more openly about their health and cancer. Because of this, Movember has been very successful at reaching younger demographics, who rarely think about their health. The humor behind the movement draws them in, and quickly, growing a mustache is now cool (ironically, of course). Regardless of how men view it, getting them to talk about their health is really all that matters.
Watch this interview with the CEO and co-founder of Movember, Adam Garone, to learn more about the organization and communicating health messages with men.