Five Forces Healthcare Marketers Must Watch

We got together recently to do a little brainstorming about trends shaping the future of healthcare, and came up with five key forces that will impact future demand and delivery models.  We especially believe these are important for marketers to pay attention to, as they’ll demand greater levels of strategic thinking, planning and execution when it comes to growth and marketing management.

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.

Join Us at the 15th Annual Greystone.Net Healthcare Internet Conference

We’re looking forward to the 15th Annual Greystone.Net Healthcare Internet Conference, November 7 – 9, 2011 at the J.W. Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes. With this year’s theme, The Convergence: Marketing and IT Collaboration – The Time is Now, Greystone.Net will introduce a new track to the annual conference focusing solely on the collaborative and innovative strategies and technologies transforming healthcare.  Keynoters and featured presenters will share a ton of information and healthcare case studies on web, social and mobile trends, innovations and practical applications.

While there, drop by our Brains on Demand booth in the Exhibit Hall to say ‘hello’ and learn more about our digital marketing solutions.  Candace Quinn, J.K. Lloyd, Carla Bryant and I will be there to greet you.

Also, I will be presenting on the topic of “Digital Brandscaping: Extending Your Brand Across Web, Social and Mobile Sites” with Sentara Healthcare’s digital marketers, Lee Gwaltney and Jessica Carlson.  They have a terrific case study to share.  We’ll be speaking Monday, November 7 at 4:15 p.m.

On a personal note, congratulations to Greystone.Net on the 15th anniversary of this conference.  It was a leading edge event in its first year and continues to deliver superb content and a great conference experience. 

See you there!

The Future of Healthcare Marketing

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?

The 5 Ds of Brand Development–Part 5

There is a lot of talk today about brands, branding, and brand strategies. Marketers use the term to mean many things.  Throughout this series, we’ll show you what WE mean by branding.

Branding from our perspective means knowing what your organization stands for, knowing where in your target market(s) your brand is positioned, what brand platform or defining characteristic(s) make your brand stand out, what is valued by the target customers, what is believable/doable/embraceable by your internal delivery mechanisms (think employees, physicians, volunteers, management) and ultimately, how your brand messages, architecture (naming practices) and experiences align to deliver that promise.

Whether your organization is a one hospital stand-alone entity, a single service line, or a multi-facility integrated delivery system, the 5 D’s of Brand Strategy Creation remain the same.  The following D’s will highlight for you the process and steps to consider as you begin this work.

Earlier installments covered Discovery, Design, Development, Deployment and in this edition, we tackle the last D, Display.

BRAND STRATEGY: DISPLAY PHASE

Some of you reading this blog will say, “But this is where my Board member wants me to start…get that ad agency working on the brand campaign!” The display phase is the culmination of months of deliberate work to identify and deliver a Brand Strategy that will be compelling to the target market, motivational to employees, and relevant in a world where access to care is wide-spread and consumers face choices for their care. At this stage in the campaign, it is critical that you work with your agency to clearly articulate the Brand Strategy, the lessons learned throughout its development, and hold the agency creative on task to deliver the messages consistently and on point with that thoughtful brand position.

Graphics, tag lines, copy points, and imagery are designed, tested, and deployed during this phase. Design and testing can commence during the deployment phase as rarely changes in direction occur from that point forward. Testing the execution among groups of potential patients is key to assuring yourself and your Brand team that the messages and imagery have captured the brand strategy effectively.

Key to the focus of this phase is really all external, but don’t overlook the need to stay on top of the actual brand experience during this time. The world is watching, and so are your employees. Build in periodic checks to make sure the brand is resonating with the key audiences, and that decisions being made both with marketing and the rest of the organization are done so in a way that takes the brand position into consideration.

In conclusion, be sure to continuously test your external efforts against the brand strategy, and measure the performance of your organization against the brand standards. Annual targets for patient, employee and physician loyalty; annual market share targets; annual AAU targets for awareness, attitudes, and utilization should be set and measured; and as you look across the profitable service lines critical to the success of your organization, be sure you periodically speak with those at the front line delivering on the brand promise. Learn what they know about the brand and its customers. Learn about the obstacles and road blocks they encounter when working to deliver the brand.

In an era of Health reform, where access, choice, and coverage are expanded significantly, a strong brand position will place you in a position of market leadership and open doors to market expansion, vertically and horizontally.

Send us your thoughts on Brand development, brand leadership and any of the topics we’ve raised in this series.  We look forward to the dialogue.

The 5 Ds of Brand Development–Part 4

There is a lot of talk today about brands, branding, and brand strategies. Marketers use the term to mean many things.  Throughout this series, we’ll show you what WE mean by branding.

Branding from our perspective means knowing what your organization stands for, knowing where in your target market(s) your brand is positioned, what brand platform or defining characteristic(s) make your brand stand out, what is valued by the target customers, what is believable/doable/embraceable by your internal delivery mechanisms (think employees, physicians, volunteers, management) and ultimately, how your brand messages, architecture (naming practices) and experiences align to deliver that promise.

Whether your organization is a one hospital stand-alone entity, a single service line, or a multi-facility integrated delivery system, the 5 D’s of Brand Strategy Creation remain the same.  The following D’s will highlight for you the process and steps to consider as you begin this work.

Our first D, Discovery, was covered in installment one.  Design and Development were each discussed in installments two and three respectively.  The fourth installment, Deployment, is all about putting the pieces in motion to activate the plan.

BRAND STRATEGY: DEPLOYMENT PHASE

Armed with the Brand Activation plan, it is time to take action. The emphasis here is on the design and implementation of those action steps required to close the “GAP”. If your brand requires little or no operational or experience changes, the deployment phase is minimal, and largely driven by the Mar/Com team. Work begins inside…while the agency may be working on the promotional elements that will display your brand to the world (or at least to your immediate market place), the Mar/Com team and internal communications experts need to be launching the brand promise, telling the brand story, rolling out the brand architectural changes, if any, and generally allowing the employees and physicians to hear about the brand, see the external elements first and have a chance to get on board.

The Brand story simply tells the history of the discovery, design and development phase of the brand strategy exercise. It shares the meaning behind the words, the expectations as articulated by the future customers and the value the promise represents in establishing a strong, relevant, compelling brand position. The timing of this internal launch should allow for assurance that each employee has had the chance to understand the purpose, understand his or her role in realizing the brand, and garner enthusiasm for the opportunity the Brand Strategy represents. Many organizations hold events, screenings, “Brand Fairs” and generally allow employees and physicians to see it first. If job descriptions have changed, or performance expectations have been altered, it is during this phase that those reviews happen with managers with the Brand strategy as the backdrop.

The wider the Brand experience “GAP”, the longer the deployment takes. If an experience consultant/partner is engaged, deployment includes the time needed to substantially adjust the delivery experience to reflect the brand promise. Some organizations attack this incrementally (by unit, department, or service line) and others dive in across the organization. If approached organizationally, the deployment may take as long as 24 months.

As mentioned above, typically, organizations have pockets or areas that have the brand position operationalized and are in part why this particular brand position resonated with the leadership. While the rest of the organization hard wires these brand behaviors, the deployment of a service line specific launch of the brand can lead the external piece to begin impacting awareness and image. However, it is critical that you do this if the service is profitable, important to advancing the long-term strategy of the organization, and if the internal communications has clearly articulated the “why” behind the launch.

At the end of this phase, the organization should be in a position to begin the final phase, Display.  Do you have thoughts, questions, ideas?  Please share them here.

The 5 Ds of Brand Development– Part 3

There is a lot of talk today about brands, branding, and brand strategies. Marketers use the term to mean many things.  Throughout this series, we’ll show you what WE mean by branding.

Branding from our perspective means knowing what your organization stands for, knowing where in your target market(s) your brand is positioned, what brand platform or defining characteristic(s) make your brand stand out, what is valued by the target customers, what is believable/doable/embraceable by your internal delivery mechanisms (think employees, physicians, volunteers, management) and ultimately, how your brand messages, architecture (naming practices) and experiences align to deliver that promise.

Whether your organization is a one hospital stand-alone entity, a single service line, or a multi-facility integrated delivery system, the 5 D’s of Brand Strategy Creation remain the same.  The following D’s will highlight for you the process and steps to consider as you begin this work.

Our first D, Discovery, was covered in installment one.  Installment two looked at Brand Design, and this installment will cover the Development of the Brand’s Activation Plan, both internally and externally.

BRAND STRATEGY: DEVELOPMENT PHASE…the Brand Activation Plan

Armed with a Brand position that you have found to be valued, desirable, and compelling to the target markets, as well as deemed doable, aspirational, and appropriate for your organization to deliver, you are in a position to develop your Activation plan. Activation plans must include not only the Marketing communications plans (for both internal and external audiences) but also the experience design plan. For the latter, this may mean changing the way things are done, or hard wiring the things you are doing…getting to that brand promise delivery consistency that successful brands do well. Many organizations today are turning to experts to assist them with this work. Organizations like The Studer Group™, Disney Institute, Starizon, Baptist Hospital and others offer organizations prescriptions and processes to deliberately create and deliver consistent experiences that support a strong brand position. In other cases, the experience piece may only mean “tweaking” a service/unit/department to fix or close the “GAP”, with our without the help of an outside expert. Clearly the nature and scope of the organizational experience “GAP” will drive the complexity, expense, and time needed for this phase.

Also, it is in this phase where you address Brand Architecture issues. If a name change, logo change, or service mark change is identified as a part of the Discovery and Design phase, the organization must undertake a process to finalize the best name, logo, service mark that represents the brand position you desire. However, this is another reason why organizations must understand that Brand Positions are not a phase, not a fad, and not a destination…they are a journey, and one that must be taken with a 10-20 year window in mind. Changing the name, logo, and look of a brand is time consuming, expensive, and not an undertaking that successful organizations do frequently.

For the activation elements that are based in communications, here is where the inclusion of both a brand strategy consultant and your ad agency representative on the Brand Team is helpful. Working with HR and the Marketing communications team, this group can create the internal communication plan (a critical first step….no successful brand exists that cannot be articulated by those delivering it!). This plan must incorporate the background work in understandable terms as the backdrop for the employee/physician appreciation and ultimate ownership of the position, as well as visual and narrative around the position itself, including an understanding of the words selected, their behavioral implications, and other key strategies and operational implications. For example, if your brand position includes being the market leader in technology and innovation, how will that be realized? What will the organization do and not do to make that happen?

Depending upon the “GAP”, the internal plan may have multiple phases—those in support of defining and articulating the “GAP”, those in support of closing the “GAP”, and those in support of the external plan launch.

The external plan, similarly, is driven by the size and nature of the “GAP”. If the “GAP” is less about operations and more about image or awareness, then the phases of the external plan may include first building a foundation then articulating the promise. If the “GAP” is significantly operational, the external plan should include a strategic response to positioning short term (during the deployment phase) and long term (the marketing communication brand display phase).

The extent and length of the development phase is driven largely by the “GAP’s” size and nature. During this phase, the selection of an experience design partner and/or agency partner (if one did not exist) will add 8-12 weeks to the 8-12 week work process…in essence doubling the time needed.  If the brand’s architecture is need of refinement as a result of this work, arriving at a new name, mark, logo, etc. can easily add another 3-6 months to the process.

Outcomes of this phase include the activation plans detailed above, development of the Brand Story to share with internal audiences, definition of behavioral elements related to the Brand, and incorporation of the same into job descriptions and performance evaluations, resolution of any brand architecture issues (naming, graphics, etc.) and a broad engagement of the management level of the organization in the activation work.

Our fourth installment in this series addresses the Deployment phase…putting the activation plan into motion. Comments? Questions? Please join the discussion.

The Five D’s of Brand Development — Part 2

There is a lot of talk today about brands, branding, and brand strategies. Marketers use the term to mean many things.  Throughout this series, we’ll show you what WE mean by branding.

Branding from our perspective means knowing what your organization stands for, knowing where in your target market(s) your brand is positioned, what brand platform or defining characteristic(s) make your brand stand out, what is valued by the target customers, what is believable/doable/embraceable by your internal delivery mechanisms (think employees, physicians, volunteers, management) and ultimately, how your brand messages, architecture (naming practices) and experiences align to deliver that promise.

Whether your organization is a one hospital stand-alone entity, a single service line, or a multi-facility integrated delivery system, the 5 D’s of Brand Strategy Creation remain the same.  The following D’s will highlight for you the process and steps to consider as you begin this work.

Our first D, Discovery, was covered in installment one.  Here we’ll explore the second D, Design

Design Phase

Enlightened by the findings in the discovery phase, the design phase work involves designing a meaningful brand position (s) to test within the organization to validate fit with the same. Successful brands are relevant, valued, believable, recognizable, and compelling to not only the target market, but also to the organization, staff and physicians.

Key elements in this phase involve equally considering what to include as well as what to exclude. This may seem simple enough, yet there are many “potholes” to avoid…specifically:

1.  “Let’s add the kitchen sink” – this is the tendency to take every position possible and combine it into a single position. The problem that results—no position. You have really done nothing to create a situation that truly distinguishes you in the market.
2.  Just pick one—any one—no process. Successful brand development needs to be an integrated, facilitated, and inclusive process, requiring participation by patients, target market, employees, and your medical staff. Agree to a process in advance, and stick to it.

Many organizations hold the focus group session detailed in the discovery phase during this phase, incorporating “non-=patient” groups representing the targeted future market to better understand the expectations that come with the brand positions articulated as valued/compelling in the Quantitative study.

a

Also, during this phase, if you did not start the process with one, it is recommended that you form and convene a “Brand Team” to work through the internal brand build. Typically, organizations include the following types (roles) on the team:

1. The marketing team as staff, with the department leadership as full member/chair
2. A brand strategy consultant as guide and facilitator
3. Senior leadership, both administrative and clinical (CEO, COO, CMO, CNO, HR, Key service line leadership, other key medical staff leaders)
4. 1-2 Board representatives if this is appropriate in your organization
5. The Account representative/manager from your ad agency if you have one

The Brand Team can be convened up front or upon the commencement of this phase. In either case, a kick-off meeting with education in mind is highly recommended. The brand strategy consultant in partnership with the Chief Marketing leader co-present an educational session intended to define terms, explain what brand strategy is and is not, and clearly articulate the process and products that are intended through your process. Critical to this is clearly articulating the role of this brand team in your process.

It is important to share with the Brand team all of the findings of the discovery phase to gain consensus on those brand positions that have possibilities for the organization. Taking these 3-4 positions into testing will really be the focus of this design phase.

a

Throughout the design phase, the brand team’s role is to digest the focus group findings and ultimately select he optimal position.

a

Another key aspect of the design phase is to assess the “GAP” between the brand positions tested and the organization’s reality. A sweet spot happens when the brand position is deemed very strong and the “GAP” is small or non-existent. Typically, however, there is an experience “GAP”. Critical to moving on to the development phase is identifying and gaining leadership’s support for not only the marketing elements of the “GAP” (i.e., what can be fixed by Marketing/Communications alone) but also the operational elements of the “GAP” (i.e., service, quality, performance issues, etc.). This is where the Brand Team’s ownership is crucial.

a

Factors affecting the time element in this phase include-focus groups (see discovery phase for details), Brand Team consensus building, and detailing the “GAP” analysis (3-6 weeks).

 

You will have at the conclusion of this phase the desired organizational brand position, the “GAP” analysis for both the marketing elements of the brand strategy as well as the operational “experience” elements that will be required as a part of the brand strategy. You will also have identified if you brand architecture issues (what you call elements of the brand, how you portray them visually, etc.).

Have questions or thoughts? Please share them with use below, or feel free to call us. We’d be happy to help you Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy and Display your unique brand.