When it comes to failed marketing campaigns the UK Government must lead the way. My wife pointed out that the ‘Health in Pregnancy Grant’ being a classic example of this.
For those that don’t know the Health in Pregnancy Grant is a £190 grant paid by HMRC to all pregnant women who have reached 25 weeks. They receive a Health in Pregnancy Grant form from the midwife at their first appointment after 25 weeks. Once you’ve received the grant form you fill it in and send it off, a few weeks later HMRC write to you to tell you they’d paid it to you. Which is nice. My wife was certainly pleased to receive her letter yesterday letting her know she’s £190 richer.
So why is this a marketing failure? Because we’re not really sure WHY she’s £190 richer. Sure the midwife muttered something about healthy food as she handed over the voucher which gave us a clue. Then of course the word ‘Health’ in the name gives us another clue. Sadly the claim form and the payment letter from HMRC just looked like the tax man’s normal white and green letters. Nowhere was their anything telling us what the grant was for or even why we were being given it.
So I’ve been Googling it. The first advert in for the Governments Health in Pregnancy Grant website as is the first natural search result – they got that bit right. Unfortunately the site it takes you to, which is titled Money4mum2be doesn’t actually tell you what the money is for other than the rather vague:
The payment is called ‘Health in Pregnancy Grant’ and is to help you prepare for the birth of your baby.
So I did a bit more digging and found this press release from 2007 which quotes Financial Secretary to the Treasury Jane Kennedy MP as saying:
We recognise that this is an expensive time for families. To support these extra costs in the run up to birth, the Health in Pregnancy Grant will enable all pregnant women to claim extra help from April 2009 once they’ve had the appropriate health advice from a health professional like their midwife.
It builds on a series of improvements in the provision of maternity services including an increase in statutory maternity pay from 26 to 39 weeks and the support for women on low incomes provided by the Sure Start Maternity Grant and Healthy Start Vouchers. The grant also gives an extra incentive for all women to take up the professional health advice available during pregnancy.
So there was obviously the intention at some point to offer health advice with it, but we’re still not sure what that advice would be.
The lesson here? If you’re going to carry out some marketing, be it for your business or as a public information exercise have a clear goal and build the entire campaign towards delivering that one clear goal. Otherwise your marketing will fail. My wife’s advice – put a leaflet in with the form and another in with the payment notice explaining what the grant is for. I think she’s right.
Got any more examples of marketing failure? Add them to the comments below.
Oh and please don’t take this a criticism of the midwives, they do a fantastic job. How they cope with the insane amount of rubbish the government/health service has them handle on top of actually looking after the health of pregnant mum’s is beyond me. It would drive me mad.
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