Healthcare Marketing: Most Popular Ads Not Necessarily Most Effective

February 17, 2011

A list of most liked commercials that aired in the Super Bowl was very different that the commercials with most recall.    

This year, like every year, there was much anticipation for the spots that would air during the Super Bowl.   A lot of talk and fanfare.  And certainly a lot of money spent by the advertisers who paid over $3 million per spot.   Not only do we look forward to viewing the latest collection of creativity for some of the world’s largest brands, we are also interested in seeing how the spots fared with the viewers.

Nielsen always conducts research immediately after the game to test the commercials.  This year two of the things they tested were likeability and recall.  And that’s where it got interesting.  Because the two lists were very different.  In fact, the top three most liked spots did not even make the top ten list for most recalled.  And even more confusing, only one spot made both lists.

Surprising indeed!  What does this say?  I think it says we can sometimes create advertising that’s clever, cute, funny, creative and well liked but never make a connection to the brand. And when that happens what have we accomplished?   This can also be true about the many creative award shows.  You’ve seen it.  Judges grant top honors to ads that are highly creative but upon further review communicate little or nothing about the product or the brand. They are creative competitions and beauty pageants and it’s so nice to be honored for great work.  But many times these very ads that are highly decorated never progress the brand.

In healthcare advertising we can make the same mistake. We can create cute, warm, emotional ads that never sell anything.  Sometimes we can win awards for such creativity but we haven’t sold anything.  We haven’t increased market share at all.  This is not to be critical of creativity.  I have written many times about the need for creativity in our healthcare advertising.   Without it, we seldom get seen or heard.  But creativity alone is not the answer either.

Effective advertising occurs when our creativity is used to actually sell a product or service or advance the brand.  When it’s used to effectively position the brand, to build a strong relationship to the brand.   When it increases market share.

And that is the challenge for all of us in healthcare marketing.  To create advertising that breaks through the clutter and has high notation.  But what it communicates is not just creativity but the benefits of a service line or brand.  It should be advertising that communicates rationally and emotionally and actually moves the needle.

Yeah it’s nice to be recognized for creativity.  But the real satisfaction comes when that recognition is more than an award, it’s recognition for advertising that actually works!


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Healthcare Marketing: Don’t Shortchange Your Hospital’s Positioning Statement

February 13, 2011

Brand positioning statements need to be simple and powerful.  But they also must connect emotionally.  The best ones always do.

What are some of the great positioning statements of all times?   I bet the ones you think of are not one-word slogans.  Most of them are longer, aren’t they?  And you remember them because they tell a story and they are long enough to connect with you emotionally. It seems brand positioning lines are getting shorter and shorter.  Like we have to boil it down to the fewest words possible.  But in doing that we often miss the emotional attachment.

Here are some classic brand positioning statements:

Fed Ex: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”

Smuckers: “With a name like Suckers , it’s got to be good”

Avis:  “Avis is number 2 in rental cars. So why go with us? We try harder”

Ace Hardware: “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man”

New York Times: “All the news that’s fit to print”

M&M: “Melts in your mouth, not your hands”

Las Vegas: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”

Geico: “15 Minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance”

Secret deodorant: “Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman”

The list could go on and on.  The thing that makes them great is they each tell a story and they connect emotionally.  Sure, all of them could have been shortened and probably communicated the message but they wouldn’t have been emotionally appealing and therefore would have been less memorable.

Imagine these:

Fed Ex: “The overnight company”

Smuckers: “It’s good”

Avis: “We try harder”

Ace Hardware: “The helpful people”

New York Times:  ”All the news”

M&M: “Not messy”

Well get the point?  The power of a brand positioning line is not it’s brevity, but it’s emotional attachment. It doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be long but it does have to connect.  “Just Do It” is not long but connects and there is therefore memorable.  The same can be said for “Diamond are forever” for DeBeers.

Compare the positioning statements of two coffees.  Maxwell House said “Good to the last drop” and had a strong market share. But Folgers with “ The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup” has grown to dominant Maxwell House.  There are lots of reasons for this but the emotional positioning of Folgers certainly paved the way.

Charmin leads the toilet paper category by using. Mr. Whipple to ask us to “Please, don’t squeeze the Charmin.” The simple word like “please” makes that emotional attachment.  And even President Obama was smart by not just using “Change” as his positioning line but rather the much stronger, “Change we can believe in”

There are thousands of brand positioning lines but the ones we remember speak to both the rational and emotional sides of our brain.  The right and left side.  As healthcare marketers, we too must work really hard to appeal to our audiences both rationally and emotionally. That’s usually not done with a short one or two word positioning line.  It more often than not requires more words.  Words that tell a story and connect emotionally.  Words that speak to the heart as well as the mind.

Al Ries, Chairman of Ries & Ries, a marketing firm in Atlanta, wrote an article in Ad Age that cited many of these examples and made this point very strongly.  He concluded the article by writing, “When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man’s legs should be in proportion to his body, he replied, ‘they ought to be long enough to reach the ground.’  How long should a slogan be?  It should be long enough to reach an emotional connection in the consumer’s mind.”

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Healthcare Branding: An Experience by More than the Patient

January 30, 2011

Your hospital’s brand is  defined by the patient’s experience as well as others. And it’s being determined all day, every day.

Branding has finally hit the radar for hospitals and healthcare organizations.  The industry’s marketing efforts are maturing to the point that marketers and senior management are beginning to realize how important their brand is.  And rightfully so.  The battle for the consumers’ minds and future market share will be determined by our brand perception.

But for many marketers, branding is about logos and typefaces, corporate identity standards and taglines.  Good branding encompasses these things but it’s so much more.  It ‘s really more about the consumer’s experience. What does your brand communicate each day to those who come in contact with it?

And it’s not just the patient’s experience that determines the brand.  It’s also the patient’s family and friends and what their experiences are like.  And employees and how they experience the brand.  And suppliers and vendors.  The community at large.  It’s the totality of all the touch points.  By everyone.

We are seeing many hospitals updating logos and altering the visual look of their communications.  We see them changing positioning lines.  And giving facelifts to their facilities.   All of which is good.  Very good in fact.  But if that is all that’s changing, it’s only cosmetic and only skin deep.

These changes help position a brand but the most important thing is the experience it delivers.  What is the experience like?   It has to do with parking, cleanliness, friendliness courtesy, wait times, competence, customer service, caring, attitudes and everything else that affects a person’s experience.

It’s great that hospital marketers and senior management are turning their attention to their brand.  But hopefully it’s more than just aesthetics.  Hopefully the emphasis is on the total experience delivered by the hospital.  That’s what will really determine your brand in the minds and hearts of consumers.

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Healthcare Branding: Leave Good (Marketing) Alone or Change?

January 30, 2011

The strongest brands are the ones that hold a consistent marketing message year after year after year.

In marketing we like to tinker.  Tinker with ideas, messages and positioning. Update the logo,  change the commercial, freshen the copy, etc. And sometimes we make wholesale changes.  Tinkering is necessary from time to time but unless our brand position is entirely flawed it rarely needs major changes. It’s not uncommon for brands to make radical changes year after year.  We somehow think changes are necessary.  But are they really?

Take Fed Ex as an example.  They positioned themselves as the overnight carrier.  Remember, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”?  They branded that message in our brains.  There was no doubt who they were and what they stood for.  As a result they became very successful.  Can you tell me what their brand position is today?  What do they stand for?  Why did they think they had to change from that brand position?  They were highly successful, why did they need to change?  If you’re like me, you remember their initial brand position and the funny television spots that supported it.  I can’t tell you any of the various other brand statements they’ve had since.  In my mind they are still the overnight carrier.  That is still their market advantage regardless of all the other positions they’ve tried to take over the past decade.

Remember “Pizza. Pizza.”  I bet you can tell me what brand is associated with that positioning statement.  Little Caesars.  They had a simple brand position: two pizzas for the price of one.   With it they rose out of obscurity and became the number two pizza chain in America.   What is their brand statement today?  And what is their market position today?  As Al Ries outlines in an article in Ad Age, Little Caesars evolved from that one simple concept to trying to be other things with multiple brand messages.  They emphasized delivery and then “Big” pizza and abandoned the “Pizza. Pizza.” message.  Now, Little Caesars’ sales have declined 42% and they’re a distant fourth in market share.   They had a simple, solid concept and a strong brand message.  But they felt the need to change it.  Can you tell me what their positioning is today?

There are many other brand examples that could be cited but the point is clear I think.  Those brands that have a strong and effective brand position and stick to it usually become stronger. But brands get tired of their position.  The market says they need to change and evolve.  Marketers feel like they need to change to justify their jobs.  And so we change for all the wrong reasons.  And more often than not, we end up with multiple and diluted messages and no strong brand position.

Sure, sometimes market situations require a change.  But not nearly as often as we think.  Can you say Fed Ex could have a more powerful message today that “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”?  Or that Little Caesars could have a more relevant message in the marketplace than “Pizza. Pizza.” – two pizzas for the price of one?

For brands, change for change sake is not a good thing.  For healthcare marketers, we need a strong message, a story that resonates with the consumer, a brand with a promise.  And we need to stick to it.  Continuity ad consistency with one simple, and powerful message will make our brand grow stronger and stronger over time. We must resist the change for change sake.


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Healthcare Marketing: CAPTCHA as a Marketing Tool

October 23, 2010

Those annoying CAPTCHAs may soon be a viable advertising medium delivering a captive audience

You know those CAPTCHAs.  They are annoying and time consuming.  And most of the time very difficult to decipher.  CAPTCHAs, Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart, are those squiggly, indecipherable text strings websites require you to discern and type to gain access and provide security.  They protect websites against bots by generating and grading text that humans can read but current computer programs cannot. But now they can become a branding tool.

Solve Media is a new start-up company that is offering the opportunity to substitute those hard to read texts with clear concise words that can be a brand or product name.  So instead of typing in words or a series of letters that mean nothing, you can be forced to type the name of a brand or product. What a captive audience! And what a way to get consumers to type your brand or product, which is much better than just seeing it.

Of course it’s not free.  Advertisers will be required to buy the words on various sites.  The company is currently pitching it to major brands and advertisers.  The anticipated cost will be 25 -50 cents for each time a consumer types in your brand or product.  Seems rather expensive.  The revenue will be split with the website publisher.

The idea requires the consumer to be engaged and actually type the name of the brand or product, which the company claims, will increase recall. It does not provide a link to the advertisers website or a video or an ad for the advertiser.  The value is simply creating recall by the consumer seeing and typing the name.

What a novel idea. What a potentially promising advertising venue.  It’s early, so no one knows if the company will get traction or if brand and product managers will adopt it as a viable option.  But it does point out two things.  The first one is that branding happens everywhere. It’s omnipresent and ubiquitous. Nothing is sacred or off-limits if it can possibly give a brand or product an advantage.  The second is that advertising and branding is only limited by the boundaries of our creativity. New and exciting advertising opportunities appear almost daily.  The proliferation of media is seemingly endless.

Which means, as health care marketers, we must always be open to new opportunities.  And we must use our imagination and creativity to discover new but effective ways to market our brand.


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Healthcare Marketing: Strategy, Creative or Media Most Important?

October 20, 2010

Strategy and creative are usually more important than the media buy.

There is so much emphasis on media these days.  With all the traditional and non-traditional media options and a growing array of new alternatives, so much scrutiny is given to media effectiveness.  Do you continue to rely on traditional media?  How much of the media budget do you shift to non-traditional media?  How do you effectively utilize online advertising, social media, mobile and digital?  And how do you evaluate and analyze all the analytics that’s available to you?  So much of the critical analysis for an advertising campaign is about the media buy.  If the campaign is not effective, the media plan most often takes the blame.  Jack Neff made this point in an article in Ad Age.

But more important are strategy and creative. Even with the perfect media buy, if there was one, if the strategy is off target or the creative mediocre, the campaign will not be effective. True, media is very important.  And great emphasis should be given to the myriad of critical media decisions.  Media planning has become more complex and complicated and requires much attention.  But in the diligence to maximize media decisions, the real keys to advertising effectiveness takes a back seat. Strategy and creative are in the front seats.

Strategy is the essential foundation to every effective ad campaign. Nothing is more important than strategy.  Nothing trumps strategy.   It requires hard work, research, analysis, consumer understanding and smarts.  It is the basis of every successful advertising campaign.  Without a sound strategy, no media plan can be truly effective.  Strategy drives everything.  Strategy is the prerequisite to every other element of the campaign. It is the chief factor in determining how effective the advertising can be.

And the next most important component is strong creative.  Creative that communicates, that resonates, that grabs attention.  It’s the big idea. The concept that builds a brand and drives sales.  Creative that is rooted in the right strategy that communicates with the right tone and style.  The combination of thought and visuals that stand out.  That captures heart and mind and speaks to the soul.  Very little is as powerful as a great idea!

Advertising and marketing seem to be dominated today with discussions and debates about the media landscape.  What’s new and what works.  But more time, more energy, more emphasis should be spent on strategy and creative.  With proper attention to these two, the odds of the media plan being effective increases tremendously.

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Hospital Marketing: We Can Learn from Lady Gaga

September 21, 2010

Lady Gaga has proven to know how to build a brand.  And every marketer would do well to observe how she’s done it.

Whether you like Lady Gaga, her music, her style – or not, no one can argue with her success.  She was the first artist to hit 1 billion hits on YouTube.  She has sold over 11.5 million albums in two years and was the 2009 bestseller through digital media with 15 million tracks sold. She has 10 million friends on Facebook and 4.7 million followers on Twitter. She has built one of the strongest brands in the world.

How has she accomplished so much in such a short period of time?  Marketing Profs recently presented an article outlining some of the tactics that make her successful.  Lessons that would be useful for all marketers.

1. She tells a consistent story.

Lady Gaga knows her brand.  She understands and lives her brand. And it is consistent in all she does. Take for instance her appearance. Her costume style clothing isn’t reserved just for high-profile red carpet events. She dresses like this all the time – in the airport, at her sister’s graduation, etc. Every time you see her or photos of her – whether you like her style or not – you know to expect the unexpected.

2. She engages her fans.

Lady Gaga listens to her fans, and provides many touch points for them to be engaged.  She offers quality content that her fans want and keeps them coming back and participating.  She provides multiple venues for connecting with her fans. She understands that to promote her brand she has to do more than concert tours. She does more than just push out mini commercials about upcoming appearances. She provides info that fans want.

3. She reveals herself.

Lady Gaga displays her personality across all media.  She is multifaceted but is open and transparent. She allows her fans to know her and have a sense of relationship.

4. She encourages ownership and participation with her brand.

Her content is spreadable. Her work is contagious and she allows her fans to embed, revamp, comment and share wherever they want.

5. She integrates all the venues used by her brand.

Lady Gaga coordinates her brand message across all avenues.  Her tours, her merchandise sales, and her media presence are all integrated to create multiple points of contact that leverages a synergy across all communication channels.

6. She thinks outside of herself.

She constantly engages her customers in worthwhile efforts that help others and this enhances her brand. One example is when she donated all the profits from her online store over a 24-hour period to Haitian relief and she promoted it through Twitter.

Lady Gaga is a pop-culture phenomenon.  But it didn’t just happen.  She has a plan and is working it. She gives careful consideration to all her options. And most importantly, she creates multiple avenues for fan contact and interaction and presents a consistent brand message across all of them.  Lessons every marketer should learn.  If we don’t learn them, it could lead to a very uh… “bad romance” with our clients.

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Healthcare Marketing: When Under Attack – Navigate the Social Media Water Carefully

September 20, 2010

When a brand is under attack, the reaction is honest and clear communication.

Nestle is one of the latest brands that has come under attack on social media sites.  Recently, Greenpeace released a video of a guy eating a Kit Kat and dripping blood from his mouth onto his computer.  The tagline was “Give Orangutans A Break” which is a takeoff of Kit Kat’s branding line.  The beef was that Nestle purchases palm oil from sources that destroy rainforests.

The video was effective.  It started a deluge of complaints.  And Nestlé’s response angered consumers even more. And as the harassment intensified, Nestle went quiet.  Not the best response.  In reaction to Nestlé’s bungling of the situation, Marketing  Profs offered a few pieces of good advice:

1. When people attack, don’t see it as a siege. Rather view it as a desire to trust your brand again.  People want to eat a Kit Kat without feeling guilty.

2. Be open and honest.  Nestle has stated they will try to be 100% sustainable by 2015.  Other than that, Nestle has been quiet.   Worse, people don’t feel the company is doing its best to remedy the situation.  Especially in the face of Cadbury giving up palm oil in 2009 in a few weeks following similar protests.

3. Show your human side.  When things go wrong, it’s okay to share your mistakes, regrets and your desire to address the issue(s).

Every brand faces problems and difficulties from time to time.  And in today’s environment social media networks will air the problems and perhaps follow it up with a wave of complaints.  The social-media seas can be stormy ones.  An honest, open and sincere response is generally the best way to navigate the storm.

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Hospital Marketing: Influencers of Water Cooler Brand Conversation

September 20, 2010

Television and the internet lead the way in influencing conversations about brands, prompting over 30% of all brand conversations.

For many years, television has been the medium that influences the largest number of brand conversations, outpacing every other medium in prompting face-to-face conversations about brands.  But the internet is gaining ground fast. According to a study conducted by Yahoo and Keller Fay Group the web now influences nearly 15% of consumer discussions about brands – nearly matching the 16% conversations inspired by television.

Jeff Neff reported the findings in an article in Ad Age stating that TV’s impact has remained consistent year after year but the impact of the internet is growing. Even though television remains strong, the internet is growing due to four primary factors:

1. The meteoric rise of social mediums like Facebook.   Social networks facilitate online sharing of information and communication.  Facebook use in the US alone has more than doubled from 69 million to 133 million within the past year.

2. The pervasiveness of mobile devices.  Smart phones provide round the clock access to the web regardless of location.

3. More people are searching the web for information about brands and products due to the tight economy.

4. The dependence of younger people on the internet.   Most of the increase in internet-influenced brand conversations were driven by people 13-29 years of age. “They’re now coming into a phase of their lives where brands matter”, stated Radha Subramnyam, VP-corporate and media research at Yahoo.

The vast majority of consumer conversations (76%) still happen face-to-face compared to 7% that happen online but the internet is growing as a channel that influences those conversations. And interestingly the growth of the internet as an influencer has not displaced other mediums; the pie for media influenced conversations is just growing. Television remained stable, as did newspaper, which influenced 10% of brand conversations while point-of-sale displays rose from 8% to 9%.

This clearly demonstrates the power of the media to impact brand conversations. Although most of the conversations are happening person-to-person, the media is heavily influencing the conversations.   And more and more attention should be given to our web-presence because it is growing in its power to influence the conversation.


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Hospital Marketing: Recruiting is Part of the Brand

September 19, 2010

Your hospital’s recruitment efforts should be an extension of the hospital’s brand.  It reflects the brand and should be consistent with the brand message and personality.

HR handles recruitment efforts.  The marketing department handles external and internal branding.  And far too often the two are totally disconnected.  In many, if not most hospitals, the recruitment efforts and marketing efforts are managed in separate silos with little or no interaction.   Marketing works hard to establish a strong brand and invests lots of money building brand equity.  HR invests lots of money developing collateral materials and advertising trying to attract needed talent.  And in most cases, looking at the two efforts, it appears as if they are coming from two totally different organizations.

Recruitment advertising for healthcare organizations generally looks and feels the same. There’s not a lot different from one hospital to another.  In times when there are an abundance of qualified people looking for healthcare jobs, that was fine.  It was easy to attract numerous applicants for the jobs available.  But that’s not currently the case.  For many healthcare job categories there are shortages.  And there is extreme competition between healthcare organizations for a limited number of qualified personnel.

Thus, recruitment efforts should stand out, be noticeable and communicate a bigger message than just job openings signing bonuses.  The recruitment efforts should reflect the hospital’s brand.  These efforts should be consistent with the marketing efforts to create and strengthen its brand.  Recruitment advertising should mirror the brand message, tone and manner.  A synergy should be created between marketing and HR.

The consistency of the two will certainly enhance the hospital’s brand.  It will reinforce the brand and drill the brand effort deeper.  It will also allow the hospital’s recruitment efforts to stand out, reflect a personality and differentiate itself from the competition.   And it will also set the tone for new employees because communication with them will be establishing the brand essence and personality even prior to employment.

The days of marketing doing their own thing building the brand and HR doing their thing entirely unaffected and separate should come to an end.  The two should work together, consistently building an even stronger brand and thereby enhancing the efforts of both functions.  It’s important to communicate the brand essence to all audiences and constituencies including those being recruited for future employment.

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