The PSFK Conference yesterday was kicked off by a very interesting panel on re-inventing healthcare and innovations in the industry. I have many thoughts on what I learned at the conference and so I’m breaking it up in several posts so that I can focus and collate my thoughts on each of the big ideas and not just regurgitate it.
Richard Fine of Help Remedies has a very interesting idea. Help Remedies products are stripping apart the frills of medicine packaging and bringing it down to its purest levels. Fine made some good points about the packaging, the upselling and the choices that pharmaceutical companies package up to gain a larger market share on simple products like acetaminophen and band-aids. Now, you cannot not love the packaging and presentation of the Help Remedies products – it stands apart and it makes a point.
But what disappointed me was the total lack of dialog or questions around the bottom-line and the business model. Innovation in design is not the answer to curing the health industry of its woes. It is a part of the answer. Help Remedies sells its 12 tablets of simple acetaminophen for $6. And they sell 8 surgical band-aids for $6. As compared to a Rite-Aid tablet pack that sells 100 tablets for $5.95 or 80 band-aids for $3.99.
Now the obvious question is, do I simply want to look cool by buying a better packaged drug or do I want value for my money? And I think the answer to this is also very obvious. Screw the packaging, give me more value for my money.
At the presentation, Fine mentioned that their products are currently being sold at top hotels (Mondrian) museums and elite boutiques. See the full list of venues here.
My contention with this idea is not that their products are sold and currently cater to an obviously design-conscious, upper strata of the society. It is OK that this is their business model. But my problem is with the idea that when presenting to a creative crowd, do not just highlight the creative/ differentiation and the positioning. The panel was about altering the way we think about medicine -and the way we think about heatlhcare or medicine or anything for that matter cannot be divorced from the business of it.
Perhaps the responsibility of illuminating both sides of the coin lies more with the moderator of the panel than the actual speakers.
Now I don’t own a business or have never run one. So I am sure that there is a reason why a simple product like theirs is not competitively priced. Manufacturing, Distribution, Formulations – perhaps Help Remedies CANNOT afford to sell their products for a more competitive price, but the point is – talk about it! Don’t underestimate the intelligence of a creative community by not addressing the business implications and challenges of actually trying to change how we view an industry.
Just my opinion.
I don’t think that packaging is the only reason that people would use Help. I’d hope that the value proposition is stronger than “this package makes me feel cool.”
I spoke with a salesman for Help once, and I believe that they are attempting to push the product to a more mainstream distributor (i.e., Target).
Hi Jinal,
We think you are right- the prices are too high. That is why the new line, when it launches next month, will be priced competitively (everything will be under $4.00) and will be available in much more mass distribution.
We kept our prices high, and our distribution controlled as we only made a very small quantity of product last year as part of our “beta” launch.
We’d have loved to talk about our business model, but the 5 minutes psfk gave us meant we focused on the idea and the problem vs. the details of our pricing structure etc. Still these are good and valid questions.
Always happy to have a dialog with people about these issues.
Richard from Help Remedies
Matt Daniels – You miss the larger point here. The conversation is not about whether Help Remedies have a cool product – this blog post was about a panel illuminating both sides of the coin, and not just the creative one. I KNOW Help Remedies products are awesome because I have used them. But I would have liked to understand their business model, not the packaging/positioning.
Richard – I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on my blog. I love your products and have actually ordered them in the past for my clients (Electric Artists order for about 50 packages arnd Oct 08) But yes, I was eager to learn more both sides of the coin and was a little disappointed that the focus was more on the idea, and not the execution. Thanks again, for acknowledging my post. I look forward to your new packaging.
[...] The day kicked off with an amazing panel on Rethinking healthcare. My most important learning from this panel? Simplify complex problems using design and information. I wrote in more detail about this particular panel here. [...]
[...] Jinal Shah has some interesting thoughts on her Constant Beta blog about Re-inventing Healthcare. [...]