Even students in Marketing Theory 101 know that advertising is not
marketing. Advertising is one tactic under a strategic marketing plan.
Yet when you look at many hospital marketing plans, what you see in many
cases is an advertising plan.
We have been taught that marketing must
be strategic, marketing efforts must build and complement one another,
marketing must be tied to organizational goals and objectives, and
marketing must have a quantifiable return on investment.
Does your marketing plan fit that description? And even if your
marketing plan is just an advertising plan, is it missing pieces that
make it strategic? Is it part of a bigger campaign? Is there a call to
action? Does the phone ring somewhere? Are appointments, admissions and
resulting revenue tracked? In most cases, the answer is no. And partly
that is to be expected. You are looking at an industry where the
decision to use might be years in the making.
So let's break this down into two avenues of thought. First, when is
it appropriate for hospitals to advertise even knowing that ROI and
tracking will be at best sketchy? Second, what else could be done with
those advertising dollars?
Before we begin, here is some food for thought.
Yankelovich
Partners recently reported on a consumer study it conducted
regarding attitudes towards advertising. Findings were presented at The
American Association of Advertising Agencies meeting in Miami in April.
Among the findings:
- 54 percent of the survey respondents said they "avoid buying
products that overwhelm them with advertising and marketing."
- 61 percent said they agreed that the amount of advertising and
marketing to which they are exposed "is out of control."
- 60 percent said they feel "much more" negative about advertising
than they did a few years ago.
The study concluded that advertising must talk to the right people,
make messages resonate, put consumers in control and deliver value in
all interactions. So now you are not only competing against a glut of
advertising but you are operating from a position of weakness where
people are already predisposed to having a bad attitude toward any
advertising.
Yes to Advertising
Individual situations may vary, but there are some certain times when
a healthcare organization should consider advertising, such as:
- Competition Moves In
For years, you may have had the healthcare market cornered in your
neck of the woods. But all of a sudden, demographics shift, areas near
you are built up, and pretty soon a new hospital is being built to
meet the demand. It's time to think about advertising as part of a
strategic branding campaign that goes direct to consumers and spells
out your attributes and how you can solve their health problem. You
could face that as well with physicians splintering off and starting
their own services.
- You and Your Competition Have Similar Services
Two hospitals, in the same county, 10 miles apart offer the same
services, so similar you can line them up point to point and not see a
difference. What's the tipping point that gets people to choose you?
Is it customer satisfaction scores, a physician recruitment coup, free
this or that? Nowhere is it more incumbent to advertise than when you
are in this situation. In this case, your strategy is to find the one
insight that becomes the tipping point for a decision in your favor.
Your advertising strategy is to communicate the tipping point. For
example, talk to some consumers and they will tell you that they
expect and assume that their local community hospital has the latest
technology, the most qualified personnel, etc. How do they
distinguish? It might be a four or five star rating that you have
received from an independent agency rating customer service and
satisfaction. Or it might be some measurement of quality that is
becoming more mainstream and accepted (think U.S. News and World
Report).
In the book, "Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer - What
Works, What Doesn't and Why," author Max Sutherland explains that
"advertising influences the order in which we evoke or notice the
alternatives we consider. This does not feel like persuasion and it is
not. Instead of persuasion and other major effects, we should look for
"feathers" or minor effects. These can tip the balance when the
alternative brands are otherwise equal."
Line up two hospitals with equal services, all with the same
quality and satisfaction ratings, etc. Perhaps through word of mouth
you have heard attributes about one being friendly, caring, small town
atmosphere while the other is just the opposite. You probably migrate
to the one that you most identify with. If you like the perception of
big city care that is less personal but perceived as higher quality,
you go to one place versus the other.
- Moving Into a New Market
When you move into a new market, you have little to no brand
identity. Advertising will help you build brand attributes and start
to build awareness. But you will need much more than that. The grass
roots efforts, the community and government relation's activities you
muster will all contribute to helping those brand attributes come
alive.
- Customers Cannot Sum Up Your Product in a Few Words or They Are
the Wrong Words
What is the 30-second elevator speech that someone would say about
your hospital? When it is condensed into a sentence, what would it
say? Does it match what you say in your 30-second speech to a
potential customer or is it entirely different? If there is a
discrepancy then there is a problem. Taking an absurd example but one
that actually has been heard at hospitals. One person describes the
hospital as the place my grandmother died. Implied is that the
hospital is a place of death, a pretty bad attribute. Here it is time
to tell your story.
When Advertising Alone Will Not Do
There is a term in advertising called cognitive consistency. It
basically means that people want to be consistent in how their beliefs
match their behavior. Take a car example. When many people think of a
car that is safe and consider buying such a car, they think Volvo. Their
behavior matches their belief.
In healthcare, if someone who has never tried your hospital before
has an impression, for whatever reason, that the quality is somewhat
less, no matter how much you tell them otherwise, it will be hard to
convert them.
Advertising researchers maintain that advertising rarely succeeds if
a brand is inferior to the competition, or its qualities are cognitively
inconsistent with the consumer mindset. In fact, they also maintain that
advertising's main role is to reinforce feelings of satisfaction for
brands already being used by consumers. It instills confidence in the
consumer so that he or she will continue to buy.
Advertising by itself is ineffective in getting someone to buy for
the first time. It must be supplemented by other efforts. New residents
to a community are an example. Knowing nothing about you, advertising at
least will start making them recall a name. Now supplement that with a
welcome wagon visit to the house to establish a brand personality for
the hospital. Next, invite them for a dinner and tour. Give them
something free or discounted. In short, do everything to help them start
associating positive brand attributes every time they see your
advertising.
What Else Can I Do?
- Build Your Brand and Infrastructure First
People seem to think of advertising as branding. Branding is
something that touches every part of the business from how you are
greeted at the front desk, to how your complaints are resolved, to
your logo, letterhead and look. Branding integrates all of this to
create consistency for yourself and your customers. Ask yourself? Do
we have a brand? If you do not have the infrastructure in place to
support the brand that you purport to want to be then you have no
business advertising - yet.
Infrastructure is important. If you don't have the staff, for
example, to meet patient demand, then is time better spent with
marketing and human resources collaboratively working on campaigns to
attract talent? OK, it's not as sexy for marketing to do that. But
make the connection. Satisfied employees equals better customer
service equals better patient experiences equals word of mouth
referral and that is the best marketing program you could have.
- Sometime Grassroots Initiatives Are Best
You may be the only game in town, yet your physicians are referring
to big city hospitals when you have the services in your back yard.
Maybe they just don't know and you haven't told them. Advertising is
not going to help here. Taking a page from the pharmaceutical
industry, detailing might be a better option. Do you have a
coordinated physician liaison program in place that can help educate
and market to physicians? Perhaps your dollars are better spent there.
And, if you have a program, maybe it could be expanded to assure
better coverage.
Marketing's job is to increase payor mix in the right categories.
Likewise, it might be argued that decreasing it in unwanted areas is
part of the job too. That's not to say you don't adhere to mission and
treat everyone. Of course you do.
But with proper education, populations that, for example, use the
ED as a primary care office, could be steered to proper clinics and
other healthcare alternatives. Proper health education on teen
pregnancy, car seat safety, diabetes and many other topics can all
contribute to healthier communities and relieve the stress in your
overcrowded hospital.
Marketing in this case could be the hiring of community liaisons
who work with specific ethnic groups, the starting of key events that
address health needs, establishing or revitalizing a speaker's bureau
and working, even partnering, with the media on educational campaigns
that better the health of the community.
Next time there is a doctor or administrator at your door saying that
the competition is advertising and we need to run an ad - step back and
analyze the situation. Is this the best way to react? Why react? Do we
have a sound marketing plan and need to stay the course? You'll
appreciate the answers.
Anthony Cirillo, CHE, ABC is president of Fast Forward
Strategic Planning and Marketing Consulting, LLC in Huntersville, NC. He
is a board member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market
Development, a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare
Executives and an Accredited Business Communicator of the International
Association of Business Communicators. You may reach Anthony at
Anthony@4wardfast.com