Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Ad-ology Research recently updated their Industry Marketing Insights report for Optical Stores. The following are the predicted Top 3 Opportunities/Challenges from the report for this industry for the upcoming 12 months:

A new survey from PwC forecasts the top health care trends for 2012. Among the key issues, we’ll see value move from theory to reality, investments ramp up in informatics, and healthcare increasing its social media presence. Consumers are also becoming more comfortable with data sharing if it helps to improve the coordination of their care.

Pharmaceutical companies have been stepping slowly and carefully into the world of online marketing. With their direct-to-consumer advertising efforts being closely monitored by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), many pharma companies have been content to spend a large portion of their ad budgets on TV. But more consumers are looking online for prescription drug information which means that pharma companies need to improve the way they’ve been handling one of the most basic online marketing tools – search engine optimization (SEO).

The healthcare and financial services industries have come under closer consumer scrutiny this year. The healthcare industry is about to undergo a transformation with the upcoming national reforms becoming more apparent in 2012. And, the financial services industry is still struggling to redeem itself after the recent economic collapse. Some analysts believe both of these industries will be rolling out image campaigns in the next year.

The use of retail-based health clinics increased tenfold between 2007 and 2009, and, if the trends continue, health plans can expect to see a dramatic boost in retail clinic utilization, based on the findings of a new Rand Corp. study. The determining factors in choosing a retail medical clinic over a physician’s office were found to be age, health status, income and proximity to the clinic.

According to new research from Kline & Co, 47% of U.S. consumers believe natural over-the counter (OTC) remedies are as effective as traditional OTCs. With the growing popularity of natural remedies and the large number of retailers that embrace the market segment, the market is set to maintain healthy growth rates over the next five years and is forecast to reach nearly $750 million by 2016. By contrast, the traditional OTC market is forecast to grow as little as 3% per year.