The pharmaceutical company Glaxo is running a web site with information about dieting and weight loss - but not about its own products - as a way to position itself on the issue, learn about the audiences and gather customer information. Even though Glaxo has a new over-the-counter diet pill called Alli pending FDA approval, the Questioneverything.com site does not even mention Alli on its site (or so I see on a Google search).

For policy-focused organizations, it's a nice example of "grabbing the turf" on an issue. By providing credible and valuable information from a range of sources (and not focusing on the host) the host can establish itself as a leader, learn about the issue and audiences, and eventually steer the issue (or in this case, the customer base!) I'm often surprised more policy groups do not do this, but it does require downplaying the hosts' content and opinions and shining the light on others, a tough pill for many to swallow!

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) "Glaxo is keen to become known as a trusted source of weight-management information". The Questioneverything.com site has information about weight loss questions and issues and leads users into a discussion area. And... (catch here) before you can participate, you have to register - requiring user name, email, birthdate, and option info about user ethnicity. Glaxo gets out of this great information about demographics of who cares about the issue; the WSJ reports that Glaxo also mines the discussions to track what are the issues/keywords about which people are most interested. Smart approach.