What is your Blue Ocean Marketing Strategy?

Stumped?

Simply put, a Blue Ocean strategy is one where you redefine a market and dominate. By doing that you are swimming in a Blue Ocean free of your competition instead of swimming in the bloody Red Ocean of competitors beating each other up day-in and day-out.

For your information, a really good book is out on Blue Ocean strategy. I highly recommend you buy and read it. No specific plug or name provided nor payments here in accordance with FTC, FCC and SEC regulations. Search any of the fine book sellers out there for the text.

So how does this apply to healthcare marketing?

Healthcare is undifferentiated and for all practical purposes a commodity. Hospitals, health system, physicians and other providers have similar programs and services, have the same managed care contracts, share physicians etc., etc., etc, across multiple competitors.

The commoditization of healthcare is accelerating even more so now with the entrant of non-traditional providers who are competing on price and service, which is a deadly combination for traditional healthcare providers who are slow to change.

Hence a Blue Ocean strategy by major for-profit competitors actualized and in development in traditional healthcare services that is redefining markets and will eventually allow them to dominate. All the while you swim in the bloody Red Ocean of the “me too” look alike competition for the healthcare consumer.

Just because you package the same mouse trap differently than others, doesn’t mean it’s any different.

Developing what I call a Blue Ocean marketing strategy in truth stems from becoming a Blue Ocean strategy organization. Marketing leadership and organizational transformation at its best and you have can take the opportunity to grow professionally, personally. Be the innovator and show marketing as proactive rather than reactive.

Learn, apply and find your Blue Oceans to swim too from the bloody Red Oceans of unproductive competition.

You can reach me at 815-293-1471 or themichaeljgroup@aol.com for marketing strategy consulting services.

A Lesson in Public Relations Continues

What a case study for healthcare!

The Chicago Bears just can't get it right. This has been a continuing comedy of PR errors that only leaves you scratching your head.

Damage control.....

Day after the press conference, the President of the team goes on the media tour to clarify statements on what the organization meant. (See my previous post) Damage control pure and simple.

It gets even better......

Then it turns out the press release about the firings was wrong and that really two of the assistants weren't fired, but were more like employee-at-will kind of relationships with no contracts. The offensive coordinator and his position coaches had contracts and will be paid. Probably some legal issues now because of that.

PR lesson continued.....

Look. For your own PR efforts, you control the message and the day when you decide to go public. Winning or losing a PR battle is not controlled by the media, it is your responsibility. You, through your actions or inaction's will determine whether you are successful or not. There was no reason in the world for the Chicago Bears to lose the media and message battle. All they did by this comedy of errors is further reinforce to the fan base, local media and national audiences that management is clueless about what to do. The Bears have lost any benefit of the doubt that remained. If this goes south when the 2010 season starts, the fire storm will be unrelenting. Sports fans have long memories.

What you can do to avoid this......

First, admit (and your ego will get bruised) that you may not have a clue about what to do.

Next, listen to your PR staff if you have any, and I am assuming at this point they know what they are doing.

Develop the right messages and practice, practice, practice with whomever you are sending out there to represent the organization. Limit the CEO or president's exposure.

Make sure the press release is right the first time.

If you have never been in a crisis communication situation before, bring in outside expertise. You can not handle it by yourself. This is no time to learn by doing, too much is at stake.

Physicians, patients and the media in your community will remember what you did or did not do for a very long time.

If you don't do it right on a day that you can control the outcome through right planning, thought and action, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

I can be reached at 815-293-1471 or by email to themichaeljgroup@aol.com

A Lesson in Public Relations

The Chicago Bears held a press conference on January 5, 2010, after a dismal at best season long performance by management, the coaching staff and players. No need to go into the gory details; the lesson here is how not to handle public relations.

For weeks now, the media and public has been in an uproar over team performance. This was exacerbated by a perceived lack of indifference and arrogance by the team leadership. Clearly a crisis communications situation if anyone in the PR department at Halas Hall was paying attention.

The Press Conference

A press conference is held, they trot out the team President, General Manger and Head Coach all in that order. The President speaks, apologizes and was contradictory in his remarks about the situation being unacceptable, change is needed, mistakes were made, but things are going to stay essentially the same. He spoke for 20 minutes which was 15 minutes too long.

The GM gets up apologizes, says mistakes were made, change is needed, but things are going to stay essentially the same and I would make the same decisions the same way again. He also has a different message than the team president. Q and A ensures.

Head Coach gets up, has a different message than the other two, is arrogant and testy that he is being questioned about any of this and never admits to making any mistakes. Change is needed but things are going to be the same. He fires his entire offensive staff, demotes himself from being the defensive coordinator and life goes on.

The PR department for the Chicago Bears should be fired in mass for that performance. As a marketing and PR professional this was an embarrassment.

What Went Right?

Virtually nothing.

What Went Wrong?

Virtually everything.

Let Me Count the Ways

Lack of organizational understanding of the need to handle this as a crisis communication situation
Different, conflicting senior management messages
Testy responses to questions
Lack of preparation by speakers in understanding the seriousness of the communication
Poor speaker body language
No overriding organizational message
Organizational arrogance
Lost messaging opportunity
Appearance of offense to blame for the season
All three senior managers appearing not to be accountable
The organization furthering to anger the media and fan base

What struck me about was the similarity to how I have seen hospitals and healthcare systems handle crisis communication situations and public relations.

Is it not true that any press is good press! And the Bears are getting a lot of bad press locally, regionally and nationally.

PR Lessons for Hospitals and Healthcare Systems

Understand the nature of the situation
Be transparent
Be proactive in how you intend to address the situation
Limit the amount of time senior leaders i.e. the CEO or president speak
Make sure everyone has the same message and is on board
Develop strong organizational messaging of care and concern
Don’t scapegoat
Don’t blame others or give the appearance of blaming others
Don’t tell people things will change when things are not changing
Practice, practice, practice
Anticipate hard questions and do a strong Q&A document
Bring in an outside PR firm for another viewpoint
Understand that your reputation is built up over a long time and can be destroyed in a few short minutes
Remember that it is not just a three day story
Watch your body language
Know your facts about past performance, reporters will be prepared

I can reached at 815-293-1471 for marketing and PR consulting, or via email at the themichaeljgroup@aol.com

The Brave New Healthcare Marketing World 2010 And Beyond- Its All About Demand Management

The world as you know it is changing forever, so better for you to face the brave new world of healthcare marketing in 2010 and beyond, than to be on the tracks of an oncoming train like a deer in headlights and be hit unprepared.

Assuming healthcare legislation will pass in early 2010, its time for healthcare systems to start thinking and learning about demand management.

Not the generating type of demand for services, but managing the demand that will naturally come from 31 million plus people suddenly having access to health insurance and healthcare services. Granted, the reforms will phase in over the next few year until 2014, when the healthcare reform actions will be fully in place. The coming demand for services will be unprecedented. And the current configuration of the healthcare system across the country for care delivery is not ready. Not ready at all.

Hospital beds taken out-of-service over the years. ERs strained from over utilization; lack of nurses and primary care physicians; this is a marketers dream. Maybe not to the CEOs and COOs out there, but you have an underutilized asset. That's assuming of course that you do have marketers in your organization and not just people doing stuff and making pretty brochures. If you don't you're in trouble.

Marketers can play an important part in this generational transformation process. It's time to step up and step forward and lead a transformation in healthcare marketing that is long overdue.

Running an advertisement attempting to generate demand for a services is not the same as understanding local market forces at play and how much potential demand exists for services in your community. The healthcare consumer is becoming more mobile than at any other time in the history of healthcare. Choice, convenience and access. Can you meet those needs?

The Walgreens, CVS and Walmarts of the world already understand this and with retail clinics, home care and ambulatory infusion centers they are already well positioned to take advantage of all that new demand that will be coming on-line. That's your business and they will do it faster, cheaper and with better customer service.

It all about managing demand, customer service, and the right mix of docs and services. Otherwise, long wait times for care and procedures, poor customer services and patients choosing to go where they can obtain needed care.

A mobile healthcare consumer. A hospital and doctors worst nightmare. Unless of course you can manage demand and deliver exceptional customer service.

With change come opportunity. Hopefully you won't lose that opportunity.

Happy New Year everyone, 2010 is going to be something.

I can be reached at 815-293-1471 for strategic healthcare marketing consulting services.

Are You Working in a HiPPO Marketing Environment?

The other day, I was attending an American Marketing Association webinar on “Your Customers Aren’t Hiding the Answers, You Just Need to Know Where to Look”, sponsored by Autonomy Multichannel Customer Interaction Solutions. The presenters were Andrew Joiner, CEO and Jeff Westover, VP Marketing. (Note, I am not receiving any payment in mentioning this, but you will see why in a short bit. It’s all about full attribution.)

In one slide they presented what really summed up for me what most healthcare marketing is like. And I wish I had thought of it; which bring us back to the original question. Are you working in a HiPPO marketing environment?

H Highest
P Paid
P Position
O Opinion

Yes HiPPO! It was a moment in time where it all fell together. No marketing science, no qualitative understanding of markets, just opinion, hearsay and flavor of the day from reading an article someplace or seeing an advertisement. No primary or secondary market research or understanding customer needs except in the most superficial level. One maybe two people say something and then it’s the whole universe acts that way. I am the highest paid person here…. so go do this. A competitor does this, so you do this. I have made up my mind because I believe this to be true and I am the insert title here- CEO - EVP - VP etc.

An interesting concept that’s easy for you to determine if you too work in a HiPPO marketing environment. Take a step back and look at your healthcare company. When you do that the choices become really clear if you want to succeed.

My read on this….

A HiPPO organization will never reach its full potential and is characterized by a lack of sustainable mission, vision and values, short attention span, constantly shifting plans and priorities, inability to execute operationally, constant crisis and chaos and lacks a formal integrated planning process. Communication is poor interdepartmentally and marketing is seen as doing “stuff”. Proposed marketing solutions are seen an “elegant” and not as the right way to build revenue and brand because they aren’t expedient. It’s all about the HiPPO and what they believe regardless of any lack of foundation in reality.

I do think my time for change has come.

Is there hope for hospital marketing leadership?

Is there hope for hospital marketing leadership?

A broad question which is really more than just a simple yes or no. And I for one, really don't know if an answer is possible due to the complexity of the question. Here's why......

A couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with the CEO of a hospital regarding a Vice President of Marketing position, or was it Director? They hadn't quit made up their minds and advertised it as Vice President while their web site indicated Vice President/Director, the HR person said Director while the CEO never committed. Just a few red flags.

Another red flag was that the hospital set-up the interview for a specific time and they would call. The day came and yes they called.... 10 minutes late. No apology, no explanation, no initial courtesy to extend any kind of acknowledgement that my time was as equally as valuable as theirs.

The CEO and the Director of HR on one end of the phone and me on the other. The HR person never said a word the entire time. The CEO did all the talking. Another red flag.

We covered the usual questions. He really had not read my resume or application like he stated he did. When referencing some of the resume, he was a surprised oh really.... another red flag.

Then came the clincher. What do you do best Michael? Is it research? Design ads? Write copy? What do you.. do best?

My answer was marketing strategy and leadership. Well, it sure became quite. A buzz kill if there ever was one. That was not what the CEO was looking for. I explained that tactics are easy, strategy is hard. Marketing strategy is a coming together of critical key organizational leadership - senior management; Board of Directors; and physicians. Marketing strategy is built upon the business plan, financial plan and strategic plan of the hospital. Marketing leadership motivates, inspires excellence, rewards individual accomplishment, builds teams, doesn't care who gets the credit and grows the entire organization, not just a department. Marketing sits at the leadership table.

The concepts were foreign. Marketing to this CEO was ads, copy and stuff. Not leadership, not direction, just him telling you what to do and when to do it. Marketing does not sit at his leadership table.

By this time, I had lost any interest in the position.

Unfortunately, this type of story is replayed day-in and day-out around the country. Marketing does not sit at the senior leadership table. Marketing is seen as stuff. Marketing is not integrated into the culture and values of the organization. Hospitals, even after the advent of DRGs in 1983, still don't get marketing.

And I have been on both sides- for-profit healthcare GPO, international, medical device and pharmaceuticals and not-for-profit hospitals, integrated multi-state, multi-hospital health systems and nursing homes with some very important learning's.

Being in the for-profit world now, marketing strategy, leadership and execution is everything, not just "stuff".

Marketing leadership and strategy in the hospital segment of the healthcare industry is in deep trouble. A lot of that is due to the ego driven persona's of senior management, insular cultures divorced from the real-world and organizational arrogance because they are a "not-for-profit" "doing good things" so that means they can do whatever they want, as well as blame everyone else for the state-of-the-industry. It is also complicated by a lack of marketing knowledge. As the old saying goes, "you don't know what you don't know".

And with healthcare reform on the horizon, marketing leadership, strategy and execution will be needed more than ever.

Look around, for-profit companies are already at the fringes of the hospital world and making headway all of the time. Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and others play for keeps. The recognize a need, build a program and execute. They are not going away like some of my colleagues have expressed. They have plans laid for areas and stand to benefit from them financially while improving care and customer service at you and your physician's expense. Retail clinics, infusion centers, home health care is just the beginning.

Your future is not as bright as you may think it is. Time to get your marketing strategy and leadership act together. Your future depends on it.

Healthcare Marketing Leadership

A short while ago, a very good friend of mine who is the Chief Marketing Officer for an international company was interviewed by The Sterling Report for CMO Spotlight. Ed gave a great interview on marketing leadership. It did give me pause to think about what marketing leadership should be in healthcare. As a service to my readers, here is the link to the article:

The Sterling Report
CMO Spotlight: Interview with Edward Vesely
http://www.sterlinghoffman.com/newsletter/archives/sep09.html
http://www.sterlinghoffman.com/newsletter/articles/article509.html


Though there are many great examples of healthcare meaning hospital, health system and physician marketing across the country, it seems that these are far and few in-between. This is a shame really because of all the talented marketers that are in the industry. More often than not, we let well meaning individuals who in the end have not formal training or clear understanding of marketing to hold sway over the direction.

Now let me be perfectly clear so there is no misunderstanding, I do understand the sway that CEOs, docs and VPs hold over marketing. At the end of the day, he or she that signs the check wins, right or wrong. And there is way too much of that in healthcare marketing. Been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt.

So how do you exercise marketing leadership in that kind of environment? It takes a willingness to be brave. To exercise leadership. Not in the sense of throwing yourself into the fire, but by understanding the needs, politics and marketing understanding of the key decision makers.

Here are some questions for your consideration and thoughtful reflection:

As healthcare marketers we need to look in the mirror and ask have I done everything possible to create an understanding of marketing?

Have I ensured that the marketing plan is in full alignment with the strategic and business plan of the organization?

When I suggest a strategy or tactic have I communicated as best one can what the return on investment is?

Do in engage leadership in a discussion of the why of a strategy?

Have I been thinking strategically and not confusing tactics with strategy?

Have I reached out to key leaders and department heads when building the annual marketing plan for their input?

Do I understand the goals and objectives of key departments?

Have I been visible in the organization as the “go-to” marketing expert?

Have I allowed myself to be an order taker producing lots of “stuff”?

Am I the organizational brand champion?

Am I willing to change and exercise leadership?

Am I willing to try new methods, learn about new marketing developments and tools as well as as apply them?

Am I willing to stop doing things the same old way with the same old result?

Does your organization respect what you do?

The list can go on of course, but you get the idea. In a world of immediate gratification, lack of focus and favor of the day, a marketing executive’s tenure has dropped from 3 years to 12 to 18 months. With such a short time horizon, you might as well lead and know no matter what the outcome is you gave it your best effort. Otherwise it’s a disservice to you, the company and those that depend on you for leadership.