instantly health

Think about the headline question a little. If the real aim is medical care delivered at the right time, in the right place, at the right cost, it follows that the centralization of healthcare around a hospital is not the right model for marketing. Think about this like a distributive computer network model sharing the work across many computers instead of a single large computer.  If one examines the pace of change and innovation, it’s easy to envision marketing’s role more on the experience and demand management side of the equation, by building a hospital or health system brand that is distributive with the service and treatment location that best suits the healthcare consumers or patient’s needs.  It’s all about meeting the medical needs of the consumer or patient in the “distributive network” and building the brand among connected network touchpoints. Touchpoints that are not separate but a connected whole. A distributive approach to your branding significantly changes th...

And it’s not about “putting heads in the beds.” The marketing mission is now engagement, experience, and demand management. From what I can see, the great majority of hospital leadership still believes hospital and system marketing is the “all about us” story. The story of being “world-class” with dazzling high-tech equipment, state-of-the-art buildings, awards, and all the features of care as seen as important to the hospital or health system, without any mention of the value and benefit to the end-user, aka, the patient. Old and tired from the 1990s, that kind of marketing and content doesn’t work anymore. This is the new mission of hospital marketing in a value-based world. Consumer and Patient Engagement More than a buzzword, engagement is the way that one binds the healthcare consumer and patient to the hospital or health system network. In an age where the changes over the last decade mean that a person only needs a hospital for three items- emergency care, care for acute complex...

A funny thing happens when you get older.  Brands, especially those in healthcare, suddenly decide that based solely on age, that one is now in need of senior services, specialized care, and other age-based items. I particularly enjoy the direct mail pieces for Medicare supplement insurance from Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, and others with the rhetorical question, “Are you turning 65?” in the headline. Really? Do I have a choice in whether I’m turning 65? I never imagined it was a possible choice.  And here is the big one for me, Consumer Cellular, your ads portray “seniors” as bumbling fools who need help to understand that “new-fangled technology.”  Nonsense. Just nonsense. Age-based segmentation is wrong on many levels. Age-based marketing does not reflect the new market realities of how someone of any age uses technology, their experiences or expectations as individuals, as well as how they relate to the world, their beliefs, self-perceptions, at...

Bright social, where you can see your handiwork, and revel in the brilliance of your content in attempts to influence the choice of the healthcare consumer and patients in selecting the hospital and physicians for treatment could be falling way short. Falling short you say? Not entirely mind you, but with the changes in all of the social media platforms as a result of fake news, phony followers, misuse of user data, etc.,  Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and other social media platforms as restrictive content publishing houses only represents one-third of all the activity in social media on the Internet of Things (IoT). Where in the world is this going? Two-thirds of internet social media activity occurs in what has been termed dark social. I am not speaking of the nefarious activities of drug dealers, gun runners, blackmailers, etc. using TOR or another program that allows one to search the web anonymously. I am referring to all the social media activitie...

As the provider market for the healthcare consumer continues to consolidate through merger, acquisition, liquidation, or disintermediation, there is one clear outcome. Fewer providers mean heightened competition within hospitals or health systems in a bid you stay atop the food chain. But with the consumer's realization that they need a hospital for only three things, emergency care, intensive care, and care for complex acute medical conditions, they are more in control with their physician of the buying process that providers want to admit. To become part of the consumer's choice for healthcare, successful providers will recognize that understanding the healthcare consumer buyers' journey is the new way of thinking about marketing, how it impacts growth, and can drive the organization in a better direction that is more customer-focused and responsive.  Customer Buyer Journey In this environment, providers are already losing meaningful differentiation. Marketing campaigns f...

Given the extraordinary competing needs in hospitals to meet the of the healthcare marketplace from EMRs to employed physician, too new treatment and diagnostic modalities and declining reimbursements, marketing gets the short straw most of the time in those resource allocation decisions.  And that is a dangerous position to be in with a healthcare market that is a semi-retail, consumer-centric model with numerous consumer choices available for diagnosis and treatment that is far more convenient, accessible and affordable then a hospital setting. When you have constrained marketing resources, with the requirement to have a continuous presence in the marketplace to shift healthcare consumer’s attitudes, preferences and choices, the triple combination of earned media, public relations and social media working in an integrated strategic fashion can achieve that end for you. Make no mistake about it, combining social media, public relations, and earned media is hard. It is much more th...

A funny thing happened to what was ‘social’ media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Instagram, etc., where communities of people formed and came together to share funny videos of baby’s and dogs and photos of “here are the dishes I am having for dinner” postings. Social media platforms have evolved for better or for worse into the new mainstream media #NMM. Twitter and other platforms now drive the news cycle. A racist tweet comes out, and a TV show canceled. The last petulant Twitter escapades of POTUS make headlines. Reporters post their stories on Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard for example, before they ever hit the website or print editions.  Reporters who previously loathed the ICYMT in an email, now use the acronym to accompany their story posts and reposts. Action and reaction drive the news cycle. Everyone is a reporter without the benefit of an editor or having to fact check. “If it’s on the Internet and social media than it must be true.” A statement that has gone from being a...