With "Sex in the City" officially a huge marketing success, savvy healthcare marketers who must reach real women as the chief health officers today have a valuable role model.

Whether you market hospital services, pharmaceuticals, wellness services or over the counter medicines, drawing women to your brand requires three high engagement healthcare marketing strategies gleaned from the movie's success:

1. Create events where women can relate to each other if you have a product or service that impacts a women's quality of life. Women are all about relationships and sharing stories so friends matter. A blog post on Revolution Health said it best: "Women love "Sex and the City" because of the relationship among the women NOT their relationships with men. They are always there for each other. Women think it's wonderful to have friends that accept you for who you are and you are not afraid to talk about anything with them. They feel blessed to have friends like that too."

2. Understand the aspirational qualities of your target market and how it relates to your product or service. Based on lifestage not age, position your product "where health meets life" by gathering insights about what's most important about your product or service to real women's lives through inspirational and interactive forums, face-to-face and on-line. The insights can be garnered through conversations which are then distilled into aspirational themes and stories as part of a public relations and marketing campaign. Also, while beauty and fashion don't sell healthcare products directly, don't underestimate their value in connecting with women. For example, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute together with major pharmaceutical companies sponsored The Heart Truth campaign this year with the Red Dress showcase at the 2008 2008 Fashion Show at New York Fashion Week. This signature event joined together celebrated women and designers such as Mrs. Laura Bush, Heidi Klum, Molly Sims, Sara Ramirez, Carmen Marc Valvo, and Donna Karan to remind women of the need to protect their heart health.

3. Create opportunities with social media that helps you engage real women. Use of widgets and a MySpace page were both features of the marketing of "Sex and the City" and included matching the personalities of the four celebrities with one of your friends. Unexpectedly, in the last four years women have turned to the web more than print newspapers and magazines to search for health and wellness information -- and, are using social media to obtain health information specific to their needs. BlogHer, the largest community of women bloggers, reports that more than 35% of all women aged 18 to 75 participate in the blogosphere at least once a week. A recent survey also showed that women over 40 play on-line games almost daily as a way to relieve stress, increase skill level and inspire social interaction.

Healthcare marketers have a great opportunity to market directly to women, and harness their power as chief health decision makers, consumers, and caregivers. Whether for market share or profitability, marketing healthcare to women is a business imperative...following cultural trends and ideas makes a perfect starting point so you can learn not only "what women think' but how best to reach them as powerful health influencers.

With an extensive background in healthcare public relations, healthcare communications expert, Kelley Connors can help your company create conversational marketing programs with women and their influencers. She has become widely recognized for her development of TalkTankTM, forum that helps companies spark dialogue with healthcare professionals, especially women. If you’re a healthcare company looking to secure market share and influence, go to www.kchealthcarecommunications.com