Skip to main content

Hospital Marketers Are In Deep Trouble Unless...

...they secure a permanent place at the leadership table.

Health marketing blogger Mike Krivich blogs about a recent interview with an unusually clueless hospital CEO. Said CEO was taken aback by Mike's insistence that marketing is more about strategy and measurable results than ads and newsletters.

Unfortunately there's a lot of that going around, making it tough to disagree with Mike's conclusion that hospital marketers are swimming upstream. Better, though, to find that out BEFORE you take the job!

So how does one obtain a place at the table, given that acting 'entitled' is unlikely to work?

How about not telling people what you can't or won't do for them? Instead, be positive and solutions-oriented - the go-to person for finding the opportunities lurking in every difficulty.

Appreciate effort as important, but understand that it's results that matter. Produce documentable, repeatable results. Share them widely, then remember that if what you did yesterday still looks good, you haven't done much today.

Be future oriented, letting go of the past's debates. Learn what you can, make the necessary improvements and move on.

As an industry, health care's inward focus borders on narcissism. Someone needs to be the customer's voice. You, maybe? Ask "what's in it for our customers?" Keep asking. Back up your thoughts and recommendations with actionable data.

And now you've made a start. You may not yet be at the table, but at least you know where the conference room is.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Michael Porter On Health Care Reform

Michael Porter, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, proposes "A Strategy For Health Care Reform - Toward A Value-Based System." His proposals are fundamental, lucid and right-on, meaning they're sure to be opposed by some parties to the debate, the so-called "Yes, but..." crowd. Most important, in my opinion, is this: "... electronic medical records will enable value improvement, but only if they support integrated care and outcome measurement. Simply automating current delivery practices will be a hugely expensive exercise in futility. Among our highest near-term priorities is to finalize and then continuously update health information technology (HIT) standards that include precise data definitions (for diagnoses and treatments, for example), an architecture for aggregating data for each patient over time and across providers, and protocols for seamless communication among systems. "Finally, consumers must become much mor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simplicity From Complexity

Health care planners typically juggle many different services and businesses, each with unique customers, competitors and prospects.  The complexity can be overwhelming.  So-called portfolio models for assessing industry attractiveness and competitive strength can be a good analytical jumping-off point, including the McKinsey-GE 9-box matrix . (Click on the "Launch Interactive" link.)
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Marketing Megatrends

Coming to a brand near you, from Adam Kleinberg at iMedia Connection, here are " 5 marketing megatrends you can't ignore ." Mass collaboration... Constant connectivity... Globalization... Pervasive distrust in big corporations... A global sense of urgency... #4 is, I think, under-appreciated in health care. Doctors and hospitals like to think of themselves as the last of the white hat-wearing good guys, and maybe they are. But trust is a funny thing - built over decades and lost overnight. Screw it up and watch the laser beam of populist rage move from Wall Street to Medical Avenue.
Post a Comment
Read more