Are you like me? Do you miss the easier days when an entire “strategic” marketing budget hinged on the AD campaign using stock photography of people shaking hands to depict “teamwork,” or the scantily clad couple, fondling each other in the elevator? Nothing says “buy my product” or “we have a better service” than the depiction of wild sexual encounters or cliché photos and taglines.
This type of mindless marketing was prevalent in all forms of business marketing during the “boom economy.” The fact that it was the equivalent of the “sleight of hand” trick, an attempt to get companies and consumers to never focus on the underlying fundamentals of the business, should not be viewed in a negative manner, it worked. Of course, until it didnt.
Now however, the world has changed and the collective mindset is demanding substance over style and businesses, including hospitals and health care providers, are following suit by demanding from their creative agencies: strategy, accountability and measurable results to their marketing and communications initiatives. Great marketing firms are advising businesses to move the paradigm away from the top down approach of communications and seek new ways to talk to and engage with clients and consumers. Today, messages must be crafted in non-traditional and multi-medium platforms, joining their audiences conversation where the conversations are taking place. The tried and true of yesterday has become the tired and failed of today.
Great health care providers and facilities recognize their brand is now shared and owned equally, if not more so, by the consumer/client than the company. Businesses need to be open to, and embrace, new forms of communication (social media, web 2.0, etc.) to reach intended audiences. Everything communicates and every business and product and employee has its own intrinsic attributes (brand) and should each be marketed differently. In addition, the marketing needs to be authentic, consistent and in-line to the core attributes and values being delivered.
There is actually one silver lining from todays weakened economy – the barrier of entry to gain market share has lowered and the opportunity for achievement has increased. Small and mid-sized medical service and health care providers have an unparalleled opportunity to gain market share, while hospitals have an opportunity to obtain market dominance. Now, while the playing field of budgets has been leveled, companies that work with agencies that understand the intrinsic drivers that really move the market will see huge increases in their bottom line.
In this environment, competition is intensifying, resources are becoming scarce and the stakes are higher than ever before. Commercial effectiveness has become more than a goal its an overarching strategy that companies must emphasize as they strive to link critically related functions like advertising, sales and marketing. To win in the marketplace and create a high ROI, companies need to take a client/consumer-centric viewpoint that begins in brand planning and extends through field force effectiveness.
Every company and professional is not simply a trademarked gnomonic device for the public, but rather they have become brands, like any other. There is client/consumer pull and demand for a brand to be developed through a real meaning being attached to the individuality that a company represents. Its a delicate balance between pushing your core business attributes along with the emotional benefits provided from the company that creates commitment from the public.
Years ago in the movie “Crazy People,” Dudley Moore plays a stressed-out advertising copywriter who is committed to a sanitarium (I can relate). While there, with the help of his fellow mental patients, he does his best “creative” work pushing novel campaigns that tell the truth about the products they are selling. The approach is so different that the ads become hugely successful and other firms are forced to join in this truth telling campaign. Those businesses that simply cannot work in this new forum will be eliminated.
Eliminating your advertising and communications budget or staying in a holding pattern will result in a standstill of growth. Consumers/Clients are not a cog in the wheel, they are the wheel. If you are not out in front of them during all times they will recognize the disingenuous nature of your brand and move on. Historically, consumers make brand changes during a period of unrest. With silence you are communicating the end is near.
When the dust settles after the recession, health care providers that have stayed status quo will be passed by those that have capitalized on change.
Post Views: 739
