Autumn 2023
Marketing at Welles
Challenge: How do we increase brand awareness of Welles’ sustainable scrubs amongst medical students?
Thought Process:
We first identified the geographic zones with the highest density of medical schools, dental schools, and hospitals.
We selected a uniform that was punchy and memorable: bright green scrubs on top and bottom! We wanted to grab the attention of passersby, and if we were lucky, strike up a conversation.
We were given pens and business cards to distribute as well as an informative poster to hold up that showcased the details of the innovative biotechnological fabric (yes, it’s patented!).
We “set up camp” outside of a dental school in a geographic zone we identified and tried to catch students coming in and out of the building during their coffee and lunch breaks.
At first, our opening lines were: “would you like to hear about our sustainable scrub brand?” and “are you interested in learning more about these super comfortable scrubs?” which didn’t pique anyone’s interest.
After a few rounds of trial and error, we found “here’s a free pen! it’s made from recycled plastic, just like the scrubs we are wearing!” to be most effective in starting conversations and distributing the business cards.
Still, we found that the majority of passersby were not interested in being addressed in the first place.
We then decided to change our approach. Instead of “camping out” in front of one school, we started walking around the medical campus and passing out business cards while we were “on the move.” Passersby were more likely to take the pens and business cards that we were passing out, but most did not stick around for a conversation.
We had ironed out our opening line, and had adjusted our approach, but still weren’t finding our message to be receptive.
Remember, we are trying to reach busy and exhausted med students. They likely haven’t laughed in ages. My colleague and I decided to conduct an A/B test of sorts and change the messaging of the poster.
We walked into the nearest pharmacy and picked up a cardboard box and a heavy duty permanent marker, and got to work designing a new poster. We now had a poster that read “HOT DOCTORS WANTED.”
When I say that people were stopping us on the street, I do not exaggerate. We even had an ambulance pull up to us, asking through their loudspeaker, “did someone say hot doctors wanted?” and then sounding the siren for comedic effect. We couldn’t give out our business cards fast enough!
Needless to say, this was the most effective method for us in getting the attention of passersby. We distributed >150 cards in the hour we held that sign up, compared to the <50 cards distributed that morning.
MADDIE KYHL 