Marketshare for Healthcare

You've built and expanded the hospital. You've invested in the latest medical technology. You've attracted and retained the best doctors, nurses, technicians and supporting staff. You consistently earn high marks from JCAHCO and receive more accolades than your competitors. You even have a nice mix of profitable services lines. However, while you still fund a reasonable marketing budget, you secretly believe that marketing investments are a necessary evil. Don't feel badly if this sounds like you. CEOs in most industries view marketing as a "nice to have" and not a "must have". But you might benefit by adopting the mindset of the market-leading organizations in their categories: your brand is an important asset that must be protected, managed and enhanced through strategic brand marketing. The brand equity of public companies is a measurable asset that can be easily calculated: Brand Equity = Market Value – (Tangible Assets + Working Capital) Investors, in a very real sense, serve as a good proxy for...

All hospital CEOs share a common dilemma: deciding how to deploy limited resources among competing interests.  Clinical directors and service line managers compete vigorously to gain the people, technology and marketing attention they need to be successful.  When performance falls short of goals, a common complaint is the lack of marketing and communications support to gain the necessary visibility and mind share among referring physicians and consumers. Here are three basic things a hospital CEO can do to save money and help make marketing program investments more effective. Require that service line leaders build a marketing plan into their own business plans. This exercise alone creates a more educated and accountable leader. It will force collaboration with internal stakeholders and with strategic planning and marketing. It will also require thoughtfulness regarding how the customer is handled from every point of contact. Finally, it will require putting in place the metrics for success so that outcomes...

Recently I met with the VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications for a Pennsylvania-based health system. During our meeting, she asked me what I like about healthcare marketing. “It’s the balance between being a business and having a mission,” I said. “We have to realize every day that our work is to support the business of the hospitals while understanding that the general public probably cringes at the idea that a hospital is a business. They want to focus on the mission side of the equation; the hospital is there to do good and provide for people.”

A business with a mission – healthcare marketing has to strike a delicate balance communicating these attributes. Come down too heavily on “it’s a business” and you risk losing that well of support that hospitals enjoy because they do have a mission. Focus too much on the mission of the hospital to provide healthcare, and the business can suffer, and doesn’t allow the hospital to fulfill its mission.

You can drive the business and promote...

Your brand is your business. It’s your promise and value proposition to patients, referring doctors and payors – and the market share you achieve in the future will be directly related to your brand strategy. Hopefully, you have one.

Here’s an easy “brand litmus test” one: What one word does Memorial Sloan Kettering stand for? That’s right, “cancer.” Few hospitals have this luxury. However, Volvo is just a small player in a sea of automobile brands, and, a yet they own “safety.” What a powerful marketing asset that is. (By the way, do you know any hospital brand in the country that owns safety? With the need to drive down costs, reduce medical errors and dramatically lower the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, the hospital that owns “safety” in its market can rise above the rest. That’s a freebie!)

The marketing challenge for any hospital is focus. A hospital may do a very good job in multiple service lines and perceive itself to be the best in their market in two or more. But markets...