Today’s Harvard Business Review blog features the S5 cell phone developed by Munoth Communications of Chennai It’s designed to be simple yet the features are a wish list of both safety features and basic telehealth most useful to older adults. Here’s an easy to read phone, large buttons and digital screen, loud audio–plus a built in GPS locator, a torch (flashlight) and an SOS button that activates an audible siren, preset text messages to up to ten designated recipients, then displays a link on screen to your pre-loaded online medical information. But wait..there’s more….full medical records can be put online. Diabetic? Get health, dietary and wellness reminders for a year–free–and 67 cents per month thereafter. The need is significant–the communal family care model is in decline, more older family members are on their own, rural villages have spotty health resources and (probably) police coverage. As a marketer, I can relate to the positioning and these near-poetic hot buttons:
Fight a burglar in a deserted zone;
Survive a stroke when you are alone;
Feel secure with Munoth’s S5;
Press a button and bravely live on your own.