Tag Archives: marketing performance

Five ways to rock healthcare marketing in 2015

Posted on January 26, 2015 | 1 comment

Marketers rockMore than ever, healthcare marketing executives are being held to a higher standard of accountability for return on marketing investments. The basis for competition in healthcare is changing and health systems are racing to put in place the services, capabilities and structures to be successful in the new value-driven world.

This sweeping change requires a shift in thinking for marketers, a blueprint to transform healthcare marketing operations, strategies to forge critical allies across the health system, and capabilities to demonstrate ROI.  So, let’s make 2015 the year we disrupt our healthcare marketing past and fully embrace the new.

Where to start?

  1. Welcome the science of healthcare marketing. Make this the year to build a robust marketing information technology center. Optimize investments in CRM, call center, digital and search marketing by hiring the smartest marketing analytics minds you can afford and setting them loose to aggregate, integrate, interpret and share customer data.  Use that information to drive real-time decisions about customer, product, promotion, pricing and channel strategies.
  2. Add consumer pricing to the marketing mix. High deductibles, tiered networks, individual health-fund management of health savings accounts (HSAs), and a growing number of retail health options are giving consumers more incentives to shop price. And they want straight answers about the cost of services (when consumers say cost, they mean price).  Marketers must help bring about a shift in thinking from pricing merely as a means to recover costs to pricing as a strategy to establish value. Competitive pricing will require greater-than-ever alignment of customer, product, channel, marketing and service delivery decisions.
  3. Do a radical makeover of the marketing department. If the marketing team is still organized, staffed and resourced to primarily promote things, then run, not walk, to the nearest whiteboard and start mapping out a new future.  Business creativity – not advertising creativity – is the key to delivering profitable growth over the long haul.  Restructure the marketing department to drive the health system’s growth strategy, and build the capabilities and skills to develop markets, launch new products, create valued customers and drive innovations in service delivery.
  4. Build a mutually-accountable partnership with operations. Marketing expenditures that generate consumer demand are wasted when prospects are lost because there is no mechanism to convert them into actual customers – or retain them as loyal customers. When it comes to marketing ROI, it takes a village. Marketing, clinical operations, physicians, nursing, purchasing, IT, finance, human resources and others must work together and be mutually-accountable for results. Stop investing marketing dollars on programs that have service delivery problems, but do come to the table as a willing partner to help solve those problems.
  5. Make customer experience a strategic priority.  Leverage every available research finding, case study and soapbox opportunity to help executives, service line administrators, doctors and others gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be consumer-centered and what it will take to deliver a valued experience.  Customer experience is not about HCAHPS scores.  It’s about building brand loyalty through innovative products, services and personal experiences that make customers feel appreciated and willing to be your best brand advocates.

The healthcare world is changing whether we like it or not. How we embrace or resist the change will determine our fate. A bold vision, big ideas and a plan to transform the way we do marketing offer a far better chance for success.

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Evidence-based Healthcare Marketing Webinar Rescheduled

Posted on July 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

One of our healthcare marketing panelists has been called for jury duty during the week this program was originally scheduled.  See the new date and time, session description and link for registration below.

Evidence-based Marketing:  Rethinking Measurement
New Date and Time:  August 21, 2014 – 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. EDT

Healthcare marketers face increasing pressure to make the most of their marketing investments.  The C-suite wants accountability for outcomes – volume, revenue, greater customer loyalty – and assurance that the health system is strengthening its competitive position.

The bottom line is that marketing is becoming more science than art.  Today, sophisticated tools and marketing analytics provide great insights into customer needs, values, drivers and behaviors.  They inform our decision-making, shape strategy, focus investments.  When actionable information is combined with rigorous planning, innovative ideas and disciplined tracking, marketing executives quickly close the accountability gap.

Welcome to evidence-based marketing.

On August 21, 2014, I’ll join Marian Dezelan, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chris Boyer, AVP Digital Marketing Strategy, for North Shore–LIJ Health System (Great Neck, NY) on a webinar to discuss how an evidence-based approach to healthcare marketing can better focus your strategy and produce measureable results.  Marian and Chris will share how North Shore-LIJ’s marketing department applies evidence-based marketing techniques for personalized targeted marketing, patient engagement and making the most of marketing data.

Sponsored by the Forum for Healthcare Strategists, the webinar is scheduled from 12:30 am to 2:00 pm EDT.  The session is complimentary for Forum members; non-members can participate for $125.

I hope you’ll join us.  In fact, gather your team, order in lunch and make time to learn together.

Click here to learn more about the webinar and register for the program.

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The secret to healthcare marketing ROI? Focus. Focus. Focus.

Posted on January 23, 2014 | 3 comments

focusPART ONE

Someone once asked me about the difference between ‘focusing’ and ‘prioritizing’ – focusing is knowing what to do; prioritizing is knowing what to do first.  These are the decision points faced by marketers every day. And especially when it comes to marketing planning and budgeting.

Most CMOs are trying to conjure up ways to achieve more with less.  Too many times, unfortunately, they end up spreading scarce dollars over too many projects which can significantly diminish the impact and desired outcomes.

When stuck between a rock (the health system’s need for profitable growth) and a hard place (the drive to cut costs), how do marketers prioritize marketing investments and gain organizational commitment to those investment decisions?

First, clean house.  Use this opportunity as a time to take a stand and stop funding activities that have no or minimal impact on strategic growth, customer acquisition, customer retention and financial performance.  Specifically look at non-marketing activities that sap resources and work with your colleagues across the health system to eliminate or move those deeds elsewhere.  Make sure your team is performing at its best; when you are being asked to do more with fewer FTEs, each has to be a stellar performer.

Second, use a marketing resource allocation methodology to prioritize limited marketing resources (dollars and FTEs) to those growth and marketing initiatives that have the best potential for improving business performance and positioning the organization for long-term success.

In prioritizing marketing resource investments, there are three basic decision points:

  1. What businesses, clinical programs or market expansion initiatives offer the best opportunity for growth and profitability?
  2. Within priority programs and service lines, what strategies and tactical initiatives will best achieve marketing goals?
  3. What infrastructure investments will be required to support effective growth and marketing management?

In other words, what will you choose to invest in to drive growth and improve profitability, and what activities and support systems will contribute most to those objectives? Both top-down and bottom-up approaches to resource allocation are necessary; top down for strategic planning across a health system’s portfolio of service lines and market initiatives; bottom up to develop individual marketing budgets within each priority program.

I know that some of the toughest issues marketers face are cutting others’ pet projects, sunsetting outdated communications tactics, navigating the politics of competing priorities, and so on and so on.  Just saying ‘no’ has not been an option for some;  a marketing resource allocation method can better arm the CMO with data-driven rationale for investment decisions.

In upcoming posts, I’ll explore the components and key questions to delve into for each of the three decision points listed above.  In the meantime, let me know some of your toughest budget challenges — together let’s find a way to stop doing more and focus on achieving more. 

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Five big trends, five key roles, five bold moves for healthcare marketers

Posted on May 14, 2013 | 2 comments

neshco logoNext week, long-time colleague Candace Quinn (Brand Equals Experience) and I will present a keynote address at the New England Society for Healthcare Communications Spring Conference in Newport, Rhode Island.

Our session – Preparing for a New Era of Healthcare Marketing – kicks off at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, May 20.  Here’s a sneak preview of the talk:

Five Forces Changing Healthcare Marketing

  1. The new economics of health care reform – the industry is transitioning from ‘pay for volume’ to ‘pay for value’ through accountable care systems and risk reimbursement models.
  2. Market restructuring and emerging delivery models – consolidation and alignment through mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships will change competitive dynamics in local markets.
  3. Evolution of brands in physical and virtual environments – healthcare is getting smart about brands as competitive assets that drive business performance, and the importance of brand experience.
  4. Technologies that disrupt and transform – digital technologies are revolutionizing business processes everywhere, and profoundly changing the way patients and providers interact.
  5. Growing, changing, graying, connected consumers – aging baby boomers will be a driving force for healthcare services in the coming decades – not just for ‘what’ is delivered, but ‘how’ it will be delivered.

Five Critical Roles for Healthcare Marketers

  1. Growth strategist – revenue generation is the priority; adopt a strong P&L mindset, drive clear alignment of brand, marketing and sales investments to the health system’s growth strategy.
  2. Brand advocate – invest in the brand; create a powerful, differentiated, competitive brand position, and lead organizational change to deliver brand value, not just promote it.
  3. Digital change agent – web, social networking, search marketing and mobile capabilities – integrated with clinical IT systems, are no longer optional for providers that want to remain relevant.
  4. Experience champion – advocate for customer-centered decision-making and design systems and services that transform customer experience.
  5. Innovation catalyst – bring creative thinking and fresh solutions to systems, programs, services and products that attract, serve and retain customers.

Five Bold Moves to Transform Healthcare Marketing

  1. Change the marketing culture – this requires an organizational shift in thinking about marketing as tactical communications to a discipline that is strategic, cross-functional and bottom line oriented.
  2. Reconfigure the marketing organization – establish a vision, role and scope for marketing as a revenue-generating capability, then restructure marketing operations to support growth goals.
  3. Acquire new competencies, capabilities and skills – acquire expertise in business analytics, R & D, brand building, customer acquisition/retention, CRM/PRM, digital, search and social marketing.
  4. Create a compelling case for change and bias for action – focus marketing investments on strategies that grow revenue and improve business performance.
  5. Communicate new roles, new rules, new expectations – create co-ownership and co-accountability for marketing outcomes across administrative, clinical and business operations.

We hope to see you there.  If you can’t make it and would like a copy of the slide deck, just let me know.

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5 Roles for Healthcare Marketers to Adopt Now

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 1 comment

things to doAcross the US, healthcare marketers are moving quickly to transform the role, capabilities and functions of their marketing departments. Powerful forces are converging to change the underlying basis for competition in the healthcare industry, and health systems are experiencing more intense competitive activity in anticipation of reform and other industry pressures. For the foreseeable future, providers will be operating with competing and somewhat conflicting objectives as they attempt to optimize volumes for core clinical programs, while simultaneously building accountable care delivery models.

Marketing executives can help health systems successfully navigate the new competitive landscape by adopting five key roles:

  1. Growth strategist – Revenue generation is the priority. In nearly every other industry, marketing is valued as a revenue-generating business competency critical to driving growth, brand loyalty and better financial performance. Health systems that hold on to a narrow view of healthcare marketing as simply promotions sub-optimize marketing performance and waste marketing investments. It is essential for chief marketing executives to adopt a strong P&L mindset, drive clear alignment of brand, marketing and sales investments to the health system’s growth strategy, and create co-accountability for outcomes across the entire executive team. Success demands a marketing culture, not just a marketing department.
  2. Brand advocate – Marketers must lead the change to create organizations that deliver brand value, not just promote it. Powerful brands drive growth, profitability, market leverage, staff commitment and customer loyalty. To date, however, brand investments have been largely focused on brand communications, including brand identity systems, advertising and promotions. Today’s approach to brand building must be focused on delivering brand-differentiated value, and address the complexities of newly developing accountable care models, mergers, acquisitions, employed medical practices, ambulatory, post acute and retail health services.
  3. Digital change agent – Digital technologies are revolutionizing business processes everywhere. More than ever, consumers are seeking healthcare information, sharing experiences, selecting treatments and interacting with providers online. Leading health systems are accelerating efforts to move from static websites to integrated, multi-platforms that reach and engage consumers, support patients and families with care management, facilitate workplace communications and promote clinical decision-making. Web, social networking, search marketing and mobile capabilities – integrated with clinical IT systems such as EMR and patient portals – are no longer optional for providers that want to remain relevant.
  4. Experience champion – Customer experience is more than HCAHPS scores. It’s about meeting customer expectations every day in every interaction by hard-wiring administrative systems, appointment scheduling, meeting and greeting, clinical processes, customer engagement, billing, follow-up and other critical touch points to deliver on your brand’s value proposition. Rich, meaningful, loyalty-building experiences don’t happen by accident, they happen through experience design, training and establishing direct accountability for customer experience. Marketers can champion customer-centered decision-making and innovations that transform customer experience.
  5. Innovation catalyst – Transformation of care delivery systems, business processes, and market-driving strategies are top priorities for health systems. Marketers can help by creating a focused customer-centered approach to innovation. Opportunities to take the hassle out of healthcare are vast. Consumers are frustrated and most of the industry is woefully behind in providing on-line conveniences such as scheduling and customer communications. Success stems from creative thinking, fresh solutions, and relevance to customers – and that puts marketing front and center as the curator of customer intelligence.

Where to start? Establish a transformative agenda for change.

The CMO mandate is transformation of marketing practice. It’s a challenge that will require a purposeful, comprehensive and integrated approach to evolve healthcare marketing. But it will deliver substantial and long-lasting benefits – profitable growth, brand loyalty and better business performance.

This post is number two in a 3-part series. Click here to read the first – Five Forces that will Change Healthcare Marketing. In an upcoming post, I’ll address Five Bold Moves to Transform Healthcare Marketing.

 

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Healthcare Marketers – Are You Future Ready?

Posted on May 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

This past week, I attended both the Healthcare Executive Forum gathering and the 17th National Summit for Healthcare Marketing Strategies in Orlando, Florida.  Both meetings were rich with important, timely content presented by many of the best in the industry.

One theme carried through all the sessions – the times, they are a changin’ – and the clarion call for marketers was to move purposefully and rapidly to help organizations embrace change and drive transformation.

 The underlying basis for competition is shifting in the health industry and will continue to do so as market and government reform-driven movements take hold.  Changing economics are front and center, creating unprecedented opportunities for marketing leaders to step up and be integral catalysts for innovative practices that drive growth, customer loyalty, and better business performance.

I had the honor of speaking with three marketing professional who are doing just that.  In our session – Are You Future Ready? – Ellen Barron (AVP Marketing and Communications for University of Iowa Healthcare), Phyllis Marino (VP Marketing and Communications at MetroHealth), and Suzanne Sawyer (Chief Marketing Officer and AVP for Penn Medicine) each spoke about overhauling their respective marketing operations to create the competencies and systems required in today’s and tomorrow’s competitive environment.  In upcoming posts, I’ll share highlights from their case studies.

So here’s my takeaway.  Now is the time for chief marketing officers to:

  • Assess the role, functions and performance of marketing departments and move aggressively to transform marketing practice from promotions-oriented tactics to growth-oriented strategic leadership. 
  • Build powerful, differentiated brands that drive growth, innovation and better business performance.  
  • Lead organizations in mainstreaming web, social and mobile technologies that engage customers, build commerce and improve business functions. 
  • Be a champion for customer-centered decision-making and innovations that transform customer experience. 

Following is a snapshot of a slide from our presentation – these are urgent and essential actions for all healthcare marketing leaders. 

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Want to Improve Your Marketing Department? Seven Questions to Get Started.

Posted on April 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Across the US, healthcare marketing executives are looking hard at their marketing department structures, capabilities and practices, and asking if they have what it takes to transcend the ‘pay for volume’ to ‘pay for value’ economic model.  It’s my belief that we’ll be living in both worlds for some time to come. 

Nonetheless, it’s important for marketers to re-evaluate their marketing operations in this new environment, do a thorough assessment of capabilities and skills gaps, and move purposefully and quickly to reinvent the role of the marketing department.  Building a high performing and accountable marketing team is job one. 

Here are seven questions to help CMOs get started:

  1. What is the current state of marketing in terms of priorities, effectiveness, capabilities, skills, systems, structure and performance?
  2. Are our marketing strategies, activities and investments tightly aligned to the health system’s strategic vision and growth objectives?
  3. What are the marketing opportunities and challenges in regards to changes in the market (e.g., reform economics, market consolidation, competitor activities, etc.), and in the delivery system (e.g., care transformation, multiple geographies, expanding services portfolios, employed physician SBUs, etc.)? 
  4. How are advances in technology (digital, social media marketing, CRM, etc.) changing marketing practice, and what new infrastructure, skills and competencies will this require?
  5. Do we have the infrastructure, decision-support systems and analytic skills to assess and quantify opportunities, drive strategic decisions, monitor and track return on marketing investments? 
  6. How do I strengthen relationships between planning, business develeopment, marketing, PR and sales, as well as with finance, IT and operations, to better inform and support brand building, business development and growth priorities?
  7. What marketing capabilities and controls should be held by the corporate operation; what is optimally administered by major business units?

Now is the time for chief marketing officers to move boldly and transform healthcare marketing from promotions-oriented tactics to growth-oriented strategic leadership.   Embracing change is the first step.

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What is Your Health System’s Marketing Philosophy?

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Marketing departments differ from health system to health system. Some are expansive, core business functions with strong growth accountabili­ties aligned to strategic planning, business development, clinical operations and financial management initiatives.

In others, marketing is configured more functionally to support the development and deployment of marketing tactics aimed at research, promotions and sales.

And some have not evolved far from those early days when marketing relied on a narrow set of tools (e.g. press releases, health fairs, advertising, newsletters) to promote programs and services,  making it difficult to link marketing expenditures and activities to business outcomes.

Why such a difference? An organization’s approach to marketing is shaped by a variety of factors including strategic focus, growth objectives, culture or even leadership’s understanding of the marketing discipline.

Which of the following describes your health system’s approach to marketing?

  • Product-driven.  A product-driven marketing orientation assumes that as long as a health system has excellent outcomes and a top notch safety record, business will find its way to the front door. Performance improvement, leading edge clinical technologies, physician talent and development of clinical centers of excellence are core areas of focus. Awards and recognitions (such as “Top 100” designations) reinforce the organization’s quality achievements. Physician influ­ence trumps consumer choice. The clichéd expression “build it and they will come” is an entrenched belief, as it the assumption that clinical quality alone will create com­petitive advantage.
  • Sales-driven.  Sales-driven health systems primarily view marketing as a tactical tools to drive volume to clinical programs. Filling beds, getting appointments, and securing contracts are primary goals. Consumer pro­motions, physician referral development and managed care contracting are core capabilities. The focus is on more volume for existing services. These are all good things, but a purely sales-driven organization may miss opportuni­ties to discover new niches, create new products and lines of business, or enhance points of differentiation that grow overall revenue potential.
  • Market-driven.  Market-driven organizations place greater emphasis on market research to better understand customer needs and discover market opportunities that can be addressed in unique ways. Designing and developing services, programs and access points to attract key customer segments are priorities for the marketing operation, making R&D a core competency requirement. Marketing planning is more strategic than in sales-driven organiza­tions, encompassing segmentation and targeting, product positioning and design, pricing, promotion and channel strategies – and is a more integrated process through which value is created. Because growing overall market potential and profitability is as important as growing market share, marketers must have a strong P&L mindset.
  • Relationship-driven. Customer-driven organizations place significant emphasis on mass customization as a competen­cy to create one-to-one relationships, enabled by sophisti­cated, enabling CRM technology that recognizes, supports and delivers customized messages, offerings and solutions for valued customers. Today, some of these capabilities are embedded in call center and CRM systems, but new advancements, such as the widespread implementation of electronic health records and growth in social media communities offer health systems unprecedented opportunity to better understand and predict the needs of patients and customers – and proactively design the marketing strategies, tactics and programs that stimulate and drive demand.
  • Market-DRIVING.  Market-driving companies are those that re-set the rules of competition through value innovation – radical, disruptive moves that create new markets, transform customers into fans, and build such distinct points of competitive advantage that they are dif­ficult to duplicate. Think Apple, which continually breaks its own sales records, most recently having sold over 1 million units in the first 24 hours of the iPhone 4S launch. Innovation is the core competency – and success comes from developing deep insights into core human desires, discovering unmet needs, and bringing creative, profitable ideas to market.  Who are the market-DRIVING health systems?

One approach is not necessarily “right” where another is “wrong” – what is important to understand is that each path requires a specific configuration of core competen­cies, staff capabilities, processes and investments.  Misalignment occurs when management wants to achieve significant improvements in strategic growth, for example, but has a production-orient­ed marketing operation.

With all of the change going on in the industry, this is an ideal time for marketers to assess their marketing department structures, capabilities and investment priorities. 

So where do we start?

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Five Forces Healthcare Marketers Must Watch

Posted on April 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

I got together with our Brains on Demand partners* recently and did a little brainstorming about trends shaping the future of healthcare.  We came up with five key forces that we believe marketers should pay attention to, as these will impact future demand and delivery models, and require ever greater levels of strategic thinking, planning and execution by marketing executives.

One – the new economics of health care reform. 

While it is difficult to predict with certainty the future of legislated mandates for reform, the wheels of change have been set in motion.  Reimbursement models featuring bundled payments and warranties to deny payment for errors, rework and readmissions are being developed and implemented.  If health insurance exchanges survive legislative challenges, they are set to roll out at the state level in 2014.  Insurance mandates could result in many more insured individuals and providers worry whether they have capacity for the newly insured, particularly at primary care access points.   

Marketers can play a critical role in how health systems better understand and relate to consumers under these new structures.  And must know not only the top line revenue implications of customer acquisition, but also the bottom line impact of key segments.

Two – market restructuring and emerging delivery models. 

Consolidation and alignment among health systems, hospitals, physician groups and post acute care providers, among others, will continue as organizations move to create the critical mass, economies of scale and geographic coverage to improve market leverage.  Competition for physician alignment remains fierce in many markets and employment is the primary model for integration.  These strategies are core to creation of ‘accountable’ delivery models where financial performance hinges on care coordination, quality outcomes and cost effectiveness, and will dominate executive suites for some time to come. 

When it comes to market restructuring and emerging delivery models, marketers will be challenged on many levels, including brand building across a diverse portfolio and in multiple markets, and developing marketing systems to support multiple SBUs. 

Three – evolution of brand in physical and virtual environments. 

As in other industries, healthcare is seeing a rise in brand driven competition. Brands that align core elements of competitive positioning, operational design, brand architecture, and service experience, will begin to establish value that ultimately equates to brand loyalty, growth and expansion.  Other critical aspects of brand evolution for healthcare marketers will be brand building and brand management for multi-facility, multi-market and multi-service health systems and standardizing brand experience across health system-branded, employed physician groups. 

Additionally, as organizations invest in clinical information systems such as electronic health records, and embrace web, social and mobile technologies, marketers will find that the complexity of building and managing brands in the digital space also increasing. 

Four – technologies that disrupt and transform. 

We’re witnessing an amazing shift in terms of how people are relying on web, social networking and mobile technologies, and that’s changing everything for how providers engage with customers.  The rise of smart phones and tablets such as the iPhone and iPad have put information, communications and commerce just a click or voice command away.  Digital strategies have to move beyond the hospital website and Facebook page to a fully integrated approach for reaching and engaging consumers, supporting patients with care management, facilitating workplace communications and promoting clinical decision-making. 

A comprehensive web, social and mobile capability, integrated with clinical IT systems such as EMR and patient portals, and embedded in physical environments, is no longer optional for organizations that want to remain relevant. 

Five – growing, changing, graying, connected consumers. 

The United States is experiencing a dramatic increase in the numbers of people who live to old age, challenging Americans of all ages as they cope with retirement funding, health care, lifestyle and other issues that are important to an aging population. People 65 and older numbered 39.6 million in 2009, representing 12.9% of the U.S. population – or about one in every eight Americans. By 2030, there will be about 72.1 million older persons, more than twice their number in 2000 and will count for nearly 20% of the population (Administration on Aging, DHHS). 

For demographers, 2011 was significant in that it marked the first year that baby-boomers began turning 65; and for the next 15 to 20 years, more than 7,000 people will turn 65 years old every single day. They will be a driving force for healthcare services in the coming decades – not just for ‘what’ is delivered, but ‘how’ it will be delivered.

So, what’s a marketer to do?

In the short term, one of the most important roles chief marketing officers can play is helping organizations understand and address the competitive dynamics of restructuring markets and intensifying competitor activities.   Longer term, the over-arching objective is to create a future-ready, high-performing marketing capability that can address the changing basis for competition and drive growth, innovation and better business performance.   

We’ll be publishing and speaking on this topic throughout the year, as well as on how marketers can make these critical changes.  Please let us know if you have ideas and examples that you’d like to share.

* Brains on Demand is a unique partnership of leading healthcare consultants offering seamless access to a full menu of research, brand, marketing, communications and social media expertise – served á la carte.  Its partners are Karen Corrigan and Carla Bryant from Corrigan Partners; Rob Klein with Klein & Partners; JK Lloyd with Eruptr; and Candace Quinn with Brand=Experience.

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The Healthcare Marketer’s Role in Innovation

Posted on April 5, 2012 | 1 comment

Scan any health system strategic plan these days and you’ll see the word “transformation.”  It’s a top of mind issue for healthcare executives trying to restructure, position and prepare their organizations for success in the new world.   Changing economics are front and center, and require new ways of thinking about care delivery, market growth, risk management and customer engagement.

But transformation does not happen without innovation.  Customer orientation, creativity, and culture are key leverage points for chief marketing officers (CMOs) to drive innovations in brand activities, service offerings, packaging, customer experience, customer engagement, channel management, pricing, and strategic partnerships that strengthen competitive performance. 

This new era will create unprecedented opportunities for marketing leaders to step up and be integral catalysts for innovations that bring about growth, increased customer loyalty and better business performance.  Creating new markets, moving market share, developing new sources of revenue, building brand loyalty, improving profitability, and sustaining competitiveness are all goals of innovation. 

Success stems from creative thinking, fresh solutions, and relevance to customers.  And that puts marketing front and center as the curator of customer intelligence. 

We know that consumers are frustrated by the complexities of access, fragmentation of care, lack of communications, and other aspects of care delivery (oh, I can tell you some stories!). Yet, most of the industry is woefully behind in providing on-line conveniences such as scheduling and customer communications.  Opportunities for innovations that take the hassle out of healthcare are sizable. 

So why aren’t more marketers driving changes in the customer experience realm?

Well, I put forth a theory (or more) in an article “The CMO as Chief Innovation Catalyst” published last month in Healthcare Strategy Alert.   Perhaps it’s the historical view of marketing as promotions and sales.  Or the lack of shared accountability between marketing and operations for achieving growth objectives.  Or the fact that innovation runs counter to normal operating procedures (and most healthcare organizations are operations vs. market driven).  Or all of the above. 

Whatever the cause, transformation does not happen without innovation.  Where will the leadership for innovation come from?

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The Healthcare Marketer’s Dilemma? Too Many Projects. Too Few Resources.

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 2 comments

Part 2 of Prioritizing Marketing Resources Key to Return on Investment Goals.

How do healthcare marketing executives allocate marketing resources? In today’s complex environment, determining what gets funded and what doesn’t, how much to invest and what your team should be spending time on can be a daunting task.

Marketing resource allocation decisions must be made across multiple dimensions. What services offer the best opportunity for growth, profitability and improved competitive performance? Within those programs, what specific marketing strategies and tactics should be used to achieve goals? What staffing and infrastructure investments are needed to improve marketing performance?

While it’s not an exact science, the process of marketing resource allocation modeling will help CMOs better invest limited marketing resources in initiatives that improve business performance, build brand equity and position the organization for success.

The first decision point is determining what lines of business, clinical programs, market expansion initiatives and customer segments offer the best opportunity for growth, profitability and competitive advantage.

ESTABLISHING TARGETS AND OBJECTIVES

Effectiveness of the marketing resource allocation model is supported by the discipline to target and select the FEWEST, MOST IMPACTFUL programs in which to concentrate resources. Priority growth program investments are derived from the analysis of key elements such as:

  • Volume, revenue and profitability contributions of by lines of business (e.g., inpatient, ambulatory, physician services, etc.), service lines (e.g. cardiovascular, orthopedics, etc.), new market initiatives (e.g. joint venture partnerships, facility development, etc.) or customer segments (e.g., geographic, demographic, psychographic, etc.)
  • Overall utilization, volume and demand projections
  • Rate of market growth for encounters and procedures
  • Reimbursement and profitability rates and trends
  • Organizational capacity for new growth
  • Physician supply, access, capacity and alignment
  • Health system competencies, technologies, facilities
  • Patient experience and satisfaction
  • Quality indicators and rankings
  • Competitive positioning, brand strength and market distinctiveness

This will require some work but the outcome will be well worth the effort. By comparing this information across major business initiatives and service lines, it becomes obvious that a focused subset should be targeted.

The following is a simple framework for ranking business lines, services or segments in accordance with their potential for contribution. Tier one programs are those with the greatest potential for financial or strategic returns on investment. Tier two and tier three programs are supported at lower investment levels. In this example, the health system allocates 60% of marketing resource investments to tier one projects and the remaining 40% is spread across tiers two and three, with three receiving a minimal amount.

These percentages can be adjusted up and down – keeping in mind that the objective is to adequately resource those projects most important to organizational performance.

I’ve found this process to be particularly helpful in arming the marketing team with an effective, data-driven platform to ward off requests that that seem to fly in from left field on an all too frequent basis. You know the ones I’m talking about. It also helps the CMO build agreement with his or her peer executives on a focused growth agenda.

In the next post, I’ll discuss decision point two: within priority programs and service lines, what strategies and tactical initiatives will best achieve marketing goals?

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The Future of Healthcare Marketing

Posted on October 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

I had a chance to talk with Bill Moschella Co-founder & CEO of eVariant about the future of healthcare marketing at the SHSMD conference this past September.  Here’s that interview.  What advice do you have for marketers seeking to improve marketing performance and build future ready marketing operations?

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