Tag Archives: health care

by | Wednesday, July 3, 2024 · 7:52 am

Are you Healthy? Ask Your Bathroom Fixtures.

Consider that danger can be around you, even at home. Where is this danger at home? The kitchen, right? Nope.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) thinks that the smallest room in your house – the  bathroom –  is the most dangerous room in your house! The bathroom? Dangerous? Yep. Nearly 22% of dangerous household injuries occur in the bathroom. And a third of bathroom injuries happen while showering or while using the toilet – those slippery surfaces can cause us trouble. Yikes!

But before we scare you too much, it’s also important to note that the bathroom can also be the first – and best – place for a daily health evaluation. The future of the bathroom may have some of these options available to you. Some of these are available now in high-end hospitals, hotels, luxury homes, and senior living facilities:

  • Toilets that can detect conditions such as kidney issues, urinary tract issues, and dehydration.
  • Toilet pods that sit inside toilet bowls and can detect glucose levels, vitamin levels, and more, and sends results to an app on your phone.
  • Toilets that self-clean!
  • The mirror reminds you to use your prescription face cream. Smart mirrors can use augmented-reality to guide meditation or face yoga and can also measure blood pressure.
  • The shower uses an infrared light and sauna steam to help sooth inflamed muscles.
  • The floor bath mat detects posture, balance, weight, and body composition. It may even help predict falls.

Are you healthy? Such a simple, and yet loaded, question.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Who has had an accident in the bathroom? How could bathrooms be safer? More advanced?
  2. Show several sites that offer advancement for the bathroom.
  3. Toi Labs toilets: https://toilabs.com/
  4. Withings toilet pods: https://www.withings.com/us/en/u-scan
  5. Care OS BMind smart mirror: https://www.care-os.com/
  6. Nuralogix app for health insights: https://www.nuralogix.ai/
  7. Kohler smart toilet: https://www.kohler.com/en/products/toilets/shop-toilets/numi-2-0-one-piece-elongated-smart-toilet-dual-flush-30754-pa
  8. BBalance smart bath mat: https://www.bbalance.io/
  9. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a smart bathroom product and develop a marketing plan. Make sure to include a description of the target market as well as promotional tactics.

Source:  Paynter, S. (9 April 2024). The medspa bathroom: Fixtures that monitor your health. Wall Street Journal.

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by | Tuesday, March 21, 2023 · 6:57 am

Who Smells?

Most of your students are probably in their late teens or early twenties. They can surely remember how it felt to go through puberty and all the physical changes it wrought in them. Using ‘adult’ products may have felt too old and stodgy, but the ‘youth’ products may not have fit all the needs too.

Deodorant is one of those tricky products to choose as youths turn into adults. Deodorant is used daily by 90% of Americans aged 18 – 29. That’s a lot of product and it comes at a time when the younger consumer is trying on different products and personalities to fit their needs.

Entering the tween/teen market with a fresh approach is Miles, a deodorant designed specifically for teens. The products were designed to help ease the stress of being a teen and uses inclusive branding for all teens, regardless of gender, expectations, or activities. While legacy deodorant brands represent a more traditional view of manhood, Gen Z views themselves with more focus on individuality. Key words for the product are clean, rugged, and fresh – quickly conveying the scents and brand focus.

Only sold online currently, Miles is sold at $8.99/unit. It will also be available this spring at Target stores.

What does your deodorant smell like?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Show Miles’ website: https://hey-miles.com/
  2. Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
  3. In the case of Miles, is the buyer the same as the product user? What are the differences between the two groups?
  4. Divide students into teams and have each team develop a profile of a target market for Miles. Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
  5. Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for these customers?
  6. Next, have each team select three different tactics to use for Miles. Explain why each tactic was selected and how it will be used.
  7. Debrief by putting together the entire suggested lists on the white board. As a final step, have the entire class vote on the top three tactics to use.

Source:  Norfleet, N. (24 February 2023) Sweet smell of success? Deodorant line hopes so. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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by | Thursday, March 2, 2023 · 7:36 am

Consumer Electronics Show 2023

If you love technology and new gadgets, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the place to be. CES is one of the largest and most influential showcases in the world for introducing innovative technology products from around the globe.

This year the Las Vegas-based show brought in 115,000 industry professionals, making it the largest audited global tech event since 2020.  With more than 3,200 exhibitors, including 1,000 start-up companies, CES 2023 gave us new innovations in mobility, health, transportation, sustainability, and more.

A diverse group of companies from around the globe showcased the latest innovations in the technology industries to attendees from more than 140 countries. In all, 60% of the Fortune 500 companies were represented.

The show also provided looks at products in the marketplace as well as products-yet-to-be-launched highlighting key trends such as:

  • Human security for all
  • Automotive and mobility
  • Electric vehicles
  • Digital health
  • Sustainability
  • Web 3 and Metaverse

New products demonstrated how technology can conserve energy, increase power generation, address food shortages, create sustainable agricultural systems, power smart cities, support access to clean water, and improve life for people with physical challenges.

The last category – physical challenges – may be one of the most innovative as companies worked on technology to improve lives of people who may often be overlooked. Some of the highlights include power wheelchairs, augmented listening, new earbuds, speech amplifiers and more. It’s one of my favorite categories.

What’s your favorite innovation from CES?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:  

  1. Discuss the purpose of CES show and how innovation fits into it.
  2. View the CES Web site: https://www.ces.tech/
  3. Also discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.
  4. Show a video overview of CES 2023: https://youtu.be/fAJ1LCO4cV4
  5. Show a summary video covering new innovations for accessibility: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/dalvin-brown/ces-2023s-most-innovative-assistive-tech-jabra-whispp-and-more/F7DEC067-2116-4C51-A173-E0A071E28EEA
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a product featured at CES.
  1. Scewo Bro: https://www.scewo.com/en/  (Power wheelchair)
  2. L’Oreal Hapta: https://www.loreal.com/en/articles/science-and-technology/hapta-ces-2023-lancome-innovation/  (For beauty lovers with limited hand and arm mobility)
  3. Xander Glasses: https://www.xander.tech/  (Augmented listening for people who are hard of hearing)
  4. Jabra Enhance Plus: https://www.jabra.com/hearing/enhance-plus?gclid=Cj0KCQiAiJSeBhCCARIsAHnAzT_SGnooIY_nEW554M23GwsvGWKrIKnazpnbsvmc1Rh1Gi87YUm8kQsaAhwGEALw_wcB##21879090  (Earbuds for enhancing your hearing)
  5. Whispp: https://whispp.com/?lang=en  (Speech amplifier for people with a voice disorder)
  6. Instruct students to research the products online, and define a target market for the product?
  7. Which ones do they think will be winners in the marketplace? What products miss the mark?
  8. Discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.

Source:  C/NET; TechRadar; The Verge; Wall Street Journal; other news sources

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