The intuitive state of healthcare marketing
In our most recent podcast, we ask the question, “does the ability to definitively measure the outcome of a marketing strategy or tactic make that initiative more valuable than those where you can’t definitively measure the outcome?” As we discussed this topic, something I read recently in Clayton Christensen’s book, “The Innovator’s Prescription,” might help us understand why measurement in healthcare marketing is such a tough subject. Read More
Truth #4: If you want to know what will work in healthcare marketing, don’t ask your customers
The Truths We Hold Self-Evident: Fourth in a Series
A few years back, we worked with a large dental practice that wanted to stand out in the market. In the initial meeting, we discovered management believed their best bet was to promote the expertise of their dentists, a decision based primarily on the results of an annual survey that showed respondents ranked “skill of my dentist” number one from a list of values they thought important when choosing dental care. Read More
Price positioning possibilities
Last week we profiled a new healthcare pricing web site, the Healthcare Blue Book. This week I had a great conversation with the company’s CEO, Dr. Jeffrey Rice. Read More
More on why those who cut marketing now will pay later
We often make the case for why marketing and branding investments are essential to help hospitals and health systems climb out of difficult financial times. The latest BusinessWeek gives us another example of how cutting marketing and branding efforts should be avoided if at all possible. In the article “Productivity’s up, and that’s a worry,” economist Michael Mandel makes a case that the rise of a key economic statistic – productivity – is not necessarily a good thing right now. Read More
Help your CEO help you
We’re hearing a lot these days about the importance of marketing and brand building in tough economic times. How some of the best brands (such as Microsoft) and best products (such as the iPod) were born during past recessions. How the smartest of companies double down in bad economic times by increasing advertising, grabbing market share or pursuing new channels, all while their competitors hunker down and wait things out.
All of which, of course, is true. Read More
What can we learn from Pepsi’s branding Big Bang
We’re forever advocating to hospital and health system marketing leaders to look beyond our own industry for ideas. Pepsi’s recent rebranding efforts are another example, though not necessarily for positive reasons. The saga is captured well by an article in the most recent issue of BusinessWeek titled “Blowing up Pepsi.” It tells the tale of Massimo F. d’Amore, the CEO of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, who had been charged by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi with reinvigorating the cola and beverage business in the U.S. Read More
Another tale from the front lines of ROI
I met with another frustrated healthcare marketer yesterday, who told me of her latest battle with a leadership group that struggles to understand marketing. The strategy in question was a service-line initiative supported in part by, let’s say, $50,000 in awareness advertising (the names and numbers have been changed to protect the innocent). After outlining the campaign, the service-line manager turned to the marketing director and said, “So can you guarantee me that if we spend this $50,000 in advertising, it will bring me $100,000 in business?” The inference, of course, was that if you can’t demonstrate a financial return, then it must not be a smart strategy.
(Excuse me while I pause to use my meditative techniques to restore peace and calmness to my aura. In…and out. In…and out. There, better.)
Read More
Newspaper strikes back – oh, and it’s a great healthcare story
Perhaps the traditional media powers read Adam’s last blog post “Bye bye traditional media” and decided to launch a counter-strike. In this Sunday’s Star Tribune, the front page features a story by healthcare reporter Chen May Yee on new tactics by hospitals to collect payment for some procedures ahead of time. Here’s the counter-strike: the article, “Hospitals forced to become bill collectors,” is only available in the print edition of the paper. There is a teaser online, and I imagine at some point down the road (a few days? a week?) the story will end up on their web site. But for now, unless you pick up the paper itself, you’ll have to wait.
So there are two blog posts in one here: Read More
The economic crisis: Tipping point for healthcare consumer behavior?
With their own money on the line, consumers are beginning to use the same value criteria for healthcare decisions – service, price, experience, brand equity and more – as they do with other purchasing decisions. To date, however, the new healthcare “consumerism” has not led to a widespread change in consumer behavior. But this nation’s current economic crisis may well be the tipping point; the driver of fundamental change in how and when consumers engage hospitals and health systems. Read More
Disrupting healthcare
I spent today at a Master’s Forum event in Minneapolis entitled The Innovator’s Prescription. There were great speakers and many insights (Michael Howe, former CEO of MinuteClinic, gave one of my favorite quotes of the day when he said, “When you hear those in healthcare speak of integration, that’s not the same type of integration consumers want.”) Read More