Kodak Mammography Coffee Market Conditioning Program

The purpose:
Kodak planned to enter the mammography market with new technology designed to revolutionize women’s health with equipment and software planned to be faster, cleaner, lower in radiation dose and easier to use than film X-ray tech currently in use. Meanwhile, Kodak’s Health Group was transitioning to become Carestream Health.

The catch:
Kodak was awaiting FDA consent to market the new technology without any idea when (or if) it would be approved. In the meantime, they wanted to do as much as possible to get ready for the launch.

The goal:
Identify potential early adopters by role as purchasers, users, or clinicians–without revealing anything about the equipment or software under review.

The strategy:
Give Kodak Women’s Health Specialists a reason to engage mammography administrators, radiologists, and technologists in a conversation about digital mammography—impressions, feelings and the science behind it.

The tactics:
A dimensional mailing of a coffee cup in a distinctive triangular box with interesting, philosophical, famous or amusing quotations. The mailing contained three questions about their plans for digital mammography and offered a conversation with a Women’s Health Specialist, as well an article on the subject especially written for this program by an independent expert on women’s health. The information received informed the follow-up mailings of coffee, emails and blog posts throughout the life of the program, which continued through the company’s transition from Kodak to Carestream.