Junto ("june-toe") is sponsored by Franklin Street, a branding and full service advertising agency specializing in health and wellness. We call the blog Junto in homage to Benjamin Franklin, who created the first "Junto" brainstorming group, which established the first American public hospital.
During the recent Wisconsin Healthcare PR and Marketing Society (WHPRMS) webinar, “Inspiration Interception: Brand Lessons from the Super Bowl,” we discussed three “truths” from the country’s splashiest ad season that can be applied to healthcare marketing.
1. Be real time
Strive for advertising that takes into account the moment we’re in (job loss, real estate decline, rising gas prices), and how people’s lives are being impacted – in order to create branding that is relevant and impactful.
2. Know your audience
Even by just using sweat equity, you can learn more about your audience – their lives, values, aspirations, and struggles – and create campaigns that connect with them on a deep level. Try informal groups, hanging out in the waiting room, even going to a competitor’s ER and sitting/observing.
3. Connect a bigger truth
We’re in the business of life and death, and our branding should reflect that. We should strive to connect our hospitals with a larger story, which is ultimately more meaningful to our audience.
One participant asked which would be the most important “truth,” given the reality of limited marketing budgets.
That’s tough. Each one could resonate more strongly than another, given your specific market influences, audiences and conditions.
All things being equal, Real Time might seem to have the edge – as we discussed. There’s a reason Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” spot remains one of the most memorable and discussed as from this year’s big game.
But maybe the real answer isn’t just one answer. The GE “Stories: Healthcare” spot shows the Bigger Truth of connecting to something more important than the feature of an imaging machine – but it also blends in a Real Time idea (that in a tough economy, seeing that your good work matters can be powerful.)
The idea of Maturialism also underpins our second “truth”: know your audience and talk up to them.
We also reviewed three different brainstorming exercises, such as This or That, Picture Comparison, and finding Linear and Non-Linear parallels. Chrysler chose to do a unique length (two minutes), subject and timing (halftime).
Steward Healthcare in Massachusetts launched a brand campaign with a regional buy during the 2011 Super Bowl and they plan a similar buy during this year’s Summer Olympics.
Some say we’re experiencing an “era of disruption” in healthcare. How can we challenge our thinking or challenge the way we’ve been doing things? What might you do next to push your hospital’s brands forward?
If you need a little more inspiration, look for lessons from these leading brands.
Just as men and women are different, so is the style and delivery of how to calibrate messages that respond best to men. Here are 5 best practices to grow male engagement with your healthcare brand:
Offer the lure of control. Men like to think they’re in control. (It’s a guy thing.) Position your brand or offer as a means for men to feel like they are in control of their healthcare – for example, a simple screening to rule out prostate cancer, or web-based content to help men know the right questions to ask their physician during their next checkup.
Men find the humor in their stereotypes. This is why shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons and King of the Hill have been so successful among men. It’s okay to use humor to sell your healthcare brand, and may even help to alleviate a guy’s worry over getting a screening that he’s put off. But, there are limits. (Read this blog post on brands that failed the humor/stereotype test.)
Cater to the male disposition to hierarchies. Emphasize your physicians’ expertise, training and recommendations. According to Reyn Kinzey of Kinzey & Day Research, men respond more to authority figures than women, which is one of the reasons why men don’t ask as many follow-up questions to their healthcare provider as women. Accordingly, featuring your physicians in advertising efforts can be an effective tool for engaging guys.
Use the Internet as a “safe zone” for men to learn and ask questions. We all know men don’t like to stop and ask for directions, and that mindset applies when learning about healthcare. The Web is a great vehicle for men to intake healthcare in a controlled environment without having to give the appearance that they are confused or need further explanation. Invest in your health system’s website and enrich it with content that will help men make the right decisions regarding their healthcare choices.
Market to the man, appeal to the woman. While it’s important to develop a plan for marketing your health brand directly to men, it’s important to remember that his spouse, partner or family member is a crucial secondary audience. She’s the one that will nudge him to attend that screening or make the doctor appointment. So, when developing a direct mail piece, write it to appeal to both male and female audiences. For the guys, give him the facts and emphasize technology and expertise. For women, reinforce the positive benefits of early detection/treatment and the simple steps to take action.
We’d love to hear from you – what have you found that works well when marketing to men?
We all know women tend to be the primary healthcare decision-makers in the home, yet recent trends indicate men are becoming more knowledgeable and engaged with healthcare decision-making.
When we develop branding and service line marketing campaigns for our clients, we use primary research to get insights into the hearts and minds of our audiences, segmenting by geographic area, income levels, co-morbitity factors and psychographic qualities. This results in a customized approach that works best in unique markets.
But, when we talk big picture about marketing healthcare to men, we find there is a simple way to illustrate the three unique male audiences that can benefit from our healthcare communications. As TV and pop culture junkies, we can’t resist a nod to three of our favorite guy TV characters: Homer Simpson, Frasier Crane, and The Fonz.
Healthcare Male Audience 1: Homer Simpson
Homers lead sedentary lifestyles and are at high-risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and are often good candidates for metabolic surgery. (Did you know 33% of all men 20+ are obese?) Homers are among the growing numbers of stay-at-home dads – doing more and more of the cooking, cleaning, errands, and managing the family’s healthcare. (After the Great Recession, men constituted most of the job losses, and today, 1 in 5 men are unemployed.) With some nudging, Homers can be encouraged to participate in their own health care. Opportunities for health providers include screening events, seminars and events, and web-based content like search marketing campaigns. (Web-based video is popular with Homers, too.) Since Homer runs the kids to doctors’ appointments, they are also good candidates for health providers to communicate pediatrics messages.
Great mediums for reaching Homers: Television, radio, outdoor. Simple, direct messages work well with Homers.
Healthcare Male Audience 2: Frasier Crane
Frasiers are e-hypochondriacs – the guys who spent hours on-line researching ailments and illnesses, and don’t bat an eyelash about leaving town if they feel they can get better medical care elsewhere. This is the male audience who responds to quality ratings programs like HealthGrades and U.S. News World Report rankings, so fill your website with third party accreditations. Frasiers desire premium brand status – so emphasize your hospital’s reputation in key service lines like orthopedics, cardiac and cancer.
Great mediums for reaching Frasiers: The Internet, direct response. They are less likely to participate in event marketing (like screenings), unless they feel it is a VIP setting and have the opportunity to engage physicians directly.
Healthcare Male Audience 3: The Fonz
Fonzies are stoic, hard-working guys who never see the doctor, and when they do, it’s only because someone forced them to. (Namely a spouse or concerned family member or friend.) Fonzies prefer to “tough it out,” and as a result, are typically the guys who see the doctor only after the condition has reached critical stage. They may not have a spouse or partner in the home, tend to work long hours and often ignore healthcare marketing messages.
Great mediums for reaching Fonzies: Television advertising on male-dominated programs is effective (thinks sports programming or newspaper advertising in the Sports section). Fonzies don’t use the Internet for health searches with the same level of engagement as Frasiers, but they do go on-line. Web banner advertising on sites Fonzies frequent (news, sports, weather) are effective at reaching them. Fonzies will attend screenings, but only under duress from family or loved ones. As a consequence, consider promoting screening events to the female and encourage her to get Fonzie to attend the event.
Marketing healthcare to men is still in its infancy, and this approach to considering the male healthcare demographic does oversimplify several key nuances that will help you most effectively market your healthcare brand. But, it’s a step in the right direction, and we’d love to hear your questions or success stories.
This spring, members of our Franklin Street team will be presenting a discussion on marketing healthcare to men at the Virginia and the New England healthcare marketing conferences.
It’s a fun presentation with lots of examples of great healthcare and non-healthcare marketing to men.
But it does beg the question: why would you want to market healthcare to guys?
After all, women make most of the healthcare decisions in the household, right?
It’s true: women have and still make most of the healthcare decisions. Women are more engaged with healthcare in general than men. But there are four key trends that are creating more male engagement with healthcare brands. If you’re a health system or provider seeking to grow volume and share, pay note.
Trend 1: The Great Recession Has Created Millions of “Dad Moms.”
With the Great Recession, about one in five men are unemployed. As a consequence, men are sharing more of the household responsibilities – including managing the family’s healthcare needs. Proctor & Gamble and other big brands have recognized this shift and have capitalized on it – check out P&G’s sponsored ManoftheHouse.com, a resource for dads to brush up on their ironing and cooking skills. According to Nielsen, one-third of primary shoppers in the household are men, up from 14% two decades ago.
Trend 2: Changes in Masculinity Have Created More Male Interest in Formerly Foreign Topics – Like Healthcare.
Leo Burnett Chicago published a study earlier this year on consumer trends, and one of their key findings is that traditional masculine roles are in the decline, which means men are more comfortable engaging in activities once alien to them. (Can you imagine Clint Eastwood folding laundry? Maybe not. But you could see Ross from Friends starching shirts.)
According to The New York Times, dads are spending 22 hours a week on childcare-related activities, double what it was 30 years ago. Given these changes, it begs the question: what are healthcare brands doing to reach and engage “dad moms”?
Trend 3: Age and the Internet are Fundamentally Transforming How Men Engage Healthcare Brands.
As men age, their inhibitions in discussing healthcare decline. In fact, according to researcher Reyn Kinzey (Kinzey & Day Research), by the time men are in their early 60′s, there is little difference between the sexes in their openness to discussing their healthcare situation.
In a related set of research, The Pew Internet Study finds that as men age, their engagement with health information on-line matches women. In the coveted 55-64 age cohort, 75% of all men who use the Internet do health searches, the same percentage as women.)
Trend 4: Men are High Healthcare Consumers.
Technically, this isn’t a trend, as it’s been the case since the dawn of modern medicine. Men are simply more likely to get sick, injured or die earlier than females. Consider these facts:
Men represent 50% of the work force, yet account for 94% of all on-the-job fatalities.
Worldwide, men have a life expectancy of 64.52 years, as compared to a life expectancy of 68.76 years for women.
Being a male increases the risk of heart disease by 17%.
Between 70% and 89% of sudden cardiac events occur in men.
33% of men ages 20+ are obese.
Given the fact men are high healthcare consumers, it makes sense to market to them. But the question becomes, how? What are the right messages and strategies to connect with guys? More on that later in blog posts to come…
Do you see men dealing with healthcare more in your own life? Do you agree this shift is taking place?
Beyond the standard capabilities, case studies, examples of strategic approach, bios, client list and creative process, what do you really need to know about a potential marketing partner? Just like in dating, checking profile statistics is important first step, but you’ll want to dig deeper before a second date or the possibility of forming a valuable relationship. Asking these seven questions could make the decision easier:
1. What is the future of healthcare marketing?
Sounds esoteric, but it’s important to know if the firm has a perspective on best practices across the country, not just in your backyard, including benchmarks for expected return on investment for campaigns. More than that, they should be on the pulse of consumer trends that can help keep you ahead of the competition. Be sure the agency’s answers show they understand all aspects of marketing, not just advertising. And watch for jargon. To paraphrase Einstein, if they really get it, they can explain it simply.
2. What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?
Another good way to find out how the agency thinks, according to Edward Boches. Did they seek and recommend the most effective strategies for the challenge? Or did they take a safer, easier or self-serving route? How are they addressing trends and applying best practices? Look beyond the most clever or creative tactics. If they didn’t hit goals, does it matter how great the idea was?
3. What size client would we be?
Naturally, you want your hospital to be considered special and worth attention from the firm’s A Team. Determine if a small, medium-sized or large agency will best fit your needs. Inc. cited Horn Group and Kelton Research that found 66% prefer agencies with less than 50 people because there are “fewer hoops to jump through, more consistency in account teams and more intimate partnership, regardless of budget.” Generally you want to be in the top third of an agency’s client base. Too large and the firm may not have the staff or resources to help you effectively. Too small and you may be ignored or handed off to junior staff. Ask if the firm limits its client base to guarantee high levels of attention and service. An agency’s rapid growth could mean a shift in your level of importance.
4. What do you look for in your team?
Who doesn’t want incredibly talented people on the job? But if you’ve got to work together when stakes are high, budgets are under fire, deadlines are looming and you need to share honest feedback, chemistry is critical. Beyond talent, check if the agency looks for similar qualities in its people as you do for your team. Are they proactive? Curious? Good listeners? Strategic thinkers? Passionate about continuous improvement? Buttoned up or showy? Bold? Team oriented? Collaborative? Knowledgeable about what drives revenue and decision-makers in hospital markets? (You don’t want them playing catch up.) According to Inc., “the more knowledge the agency’s people possess, the more creative they can be. That means a powerful agency asks questions, listens to answers, engages in tireless research, and never stops learning.”
5. Who (really) will be on my team?
Like the previous questions, how important is it have to have the full attention of agency leadership and seasoned staff? Ask how much access you’ll have and be clear what you expect. Try to meet or talk to the people who will actually be handling each part of your business. If possible, visit their office. See for yourself their culture, work in progress for other hospitals, and enthusiasm for creating health and wellness marketing that works.
6. Describe my brand.
A great way to find out if the firm has done its homework. With limited access to your hospital’s vision or operations at this stage, no answer will be perfect, but did they notice unifying messages or previous marketing efforts? Did they offer insight into your positioning or competitive situation? What – and how – they discuss these points may reveal if they’re good researchers, independent thinkers and truly interested in your situation.
7. How have your clients grown? Inc. notes the best firms grow based on the growth of current clients and their ever-increasing marketing investments – a better benchmark than growth from lots of new clients. A similar question: What’s your longest-running campaign? It may not be among the first examples the firm mentioned or the sexiest creative, but chances are it’s very successful. Find out why.
Other Considerations:
Does the location of the firm matter? (Should key audiences in your market choose the most convenient hospital?) You can work together on expectations for personal attention. Ask how often an out-of-market firm works with local vendors to maintain those relationships or cost efficiencies.
What do you think? What are other questions you should ask your next agency?
Chipotle, the Starbucks of burritos, proves once again small things make a huge impact on a brand.
The other day at lunch, I noticed one of the soft drink dispensers was out-of-order.
Instead of Sharpie scribbled scrap of paper taped to the dispenser, Chipotle used the opportunity to reinforce its irreverent brand.
Tricia, our spring digital intern from VCU, calls it service recovery – the opportunity to make a customer even happier during a service lapse.
In hospitals, things don’t always go according to plan. And for patients and families, sometimes what they face is much bigger than the prospect of a meal without an ice-cold Dr. Pepper.
Customer service programs like Disney, Ritz-Carlton or Studer Group focus on the small things that add up. Marketing communications has its role in these programs, and the net effect is the shape of a hospital’s brand. But tackling any of those programs is no small charge.
So this is my call-to-action for hospital marketing and communications professionals: how can your organization create a better patient and family experience by paying attention to the small things, like Chipotle does?
How can you make an Emergency Services waiting room more enjoyable for families?
What are the small touches to the lobby that give patients and visitors an amazing first impression? To borrow a phrase from 2005, what can you do to provide a “Wow experience?”
Look to Chipotle for inspiration. If a burrito bar can be nimble and showcase a personality, just imagine what we can do in our hospitals.
Even without a down economy, fundraising can be a challenge. Memorial Health Care in Chattanooga, TN is embarking on an ambitious fundraising campaign to allow the brand to continue its strategic goal of being a regional destination for world-class services and to fulfill its faith-based mission of service. To support the hospital’s fundraising efforts, Franklin Street developed the strategic healthcare marketing and fundraising materials. The campaign theme, “Inspired Heroes,” comes from Memorial’s core brand of “Inspired Medicine,” acknowledging its deep faith-based roots coupled with Memorial’s innovation in healthcare.
The campaign seeks to raise community financial support for five key initiatives: a new heart center, infusion center, lung center, expanded surgical services, and a new chapel. The campaign elements include television commercials, print advertisements, and a landing page on Memorial’s website where interested donors can learn more and even donate online.
Franklin Street has had the privilege of helping its non-profit clients raise over half a billion dollars in our 25-year history through fundraising and service line marketing. There are many best practices in developing fundraising materials, but here are three lessons in success:
1. Make the campaign an opportunity for donors to give from their hearts, not just their wallets: people should feel an emotional connection to the cause and that they are part of something bigger than themselves.
2. Make the campaign welcome to everyone, regardless of the size of donation: fundraising campaigns are inclusionary efforts; everyone can make a difference.
3. Make the campaign title an anthem: in the case of Memorial, we chose “Inspired Heroes” because it harkens back to the hospital’s core brand, was simple and memorable, and elicits an emotional impact.
To view all of the commercials in the campaign, visit our YouTube Channel. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.memorial.org/hero. To see more of Franklin Street’s campaigns for Memorial, visit our website.
In 2008, Holy Cross Hospital opened the nation’s first geriatric emergency department. The new design, featuring handrails along every corridor, larger clocks, and pressure sensitive beds that can be set for those patients who tend to wander, caters to an ever-increasing population of elderly E.R. frequenters.
“When you talk about marketing hospitals, there’s a saying that kind of everybody knows, which is, ‘The emergency room is your hospital’s front door,’” said Dr. Bill Thomas, a geriatrician who helped open the first senior emergency room in the country. “Among the most vocal users of that front door, and the people who sometimes have the strongest opinions of that front door, are elders.”
MSNBC notes that the trend continues to snowball as hospitals across the US see the flourishing results of these specialty ERs. Emergency Medicine chairman Dr. Mark Rosenberg of St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, NJ says his center saw a 15% rise in patients last year. Rosenburg started a 14-bed Senior Emergency Center just over two years ago and plans to open a larger one this autumn.
Of course, not all health systems are quite prepared to adopt this new program; however, many are changing protocols and increasing awareness to cope with a flux in elder care. How is your hospital preparing to serve the growing population of seniors?
Should your hospital consider creating a specialty ER for seniors? Consider these questions as you make your plans:
Is your hospital located near retirement communities or 55+ independent living communities?
Is your hospital service area a destination for retirees?
Wal-Mart is addressing the difficulty of navigating its super centers by cutting store sizes and wider checkout lanes to make it easier for wheelchairs. How easy is it to navigate your ER? (Both driving to and once inside?)
Are you considering the addition of freestanding ERs? This new trend is perfect for senior citizens as convenient location is critical for senior-friendly design.
good point on humanity of the term. Might counter w/thinking bout patients as consumers may faciliate patient-centerdness.
I always thought customers/consumers as the real innovators in any industry. They might not make the product, but they inspire the product and innovation. Consumers elected to end CDs and get their music digitally. I look at how plentiful it is in Richmond now to get organic beef and dairy products. That wasn’t the case only a few years ago. Consumers vote with their wallets, and the same is true of healthcare.
But that word still bothers me: consumers.
It sounds so cold, detached, like the expressionless Pac Mans I tweeted about, gobbling up healthcare.
As marketers for health organizations, it’s our job to develop communications that connect, resonate, engage. It’s hard to muster the creativity and inspiration for campaigns when all we can say about these people is that they are “consumers.”
Years ago, the agency for Dell Computers brought life-sized cutouts of guys with beer bellies and Hawaiian shirts to the presentation of their ad campaign for Dell. The agency explained, “We’re not talking to consumers who are IT professionals. We’re talking to guys who like to grill out, watch sports, could stand to lose a few pounds and make IT decisions.” It helped Dell understand that their advertising had to go beyond photos of computer monitors and advertising copy full of technical specifications but lacking in emotion and a real connection with the audience.
Is that what’s wrong with so much healthcare advertising? That it feels like it was written for consumers and not moms and dads, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins…Human beings, after all, with lives, passions and legitimate fears about what happens after they enter the hospital.
We know better than to use the word “consumer” in a public-facing ad, of course. My concern lies in the invention process: are we setting ourselves up to fail by continuing to use “consumer” in our lexicon?
What do you think? Should we replace “healthcare consumer” with something else? Healthcare audience, perhaps? Or prospective patients?
Huntington Hospital, established in 1916, is a well-respected 408-bed nonprofit community Hospital located in Huntington on Long Island. Huntington Hospital has been a member of the North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System (NS-LIJ) since 1994. NS-LIJ is one of the nations integrated healthcare networks, and the largest in New York state.
This past autumn, Huntington expanded its advanced cardiac program. The hospital’s cardiology services include diagnostic cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and radio ablation. They are in the process of building a second cath lab and will soon offer elective angioplasty, a huge development for any hospital.
Huntington Hospital will be able to provide most invasive cardiac procedures short of open heart surgery. Additionally, 2011 hailed a new designation as a teaching hospital for Hofstra.
In short, the cardiac program is comprehensive.
So what could be the problem? Consumers in this area have an abundance of choice. There are about ten hospitals within thirty miles of Huntington, and New York City is just about an hour train ride away.
Our job? Show residents in this area that they are lucky to have Huntington as their local hospital offering both state of the art services and a caring staff.
After extensive market research, we discovered that residents there wanted to be educated on how to stay healthy, so we focused our campaign on preventative care urging residents to develop a relationship with a local cardiologist. By creating a strong tie to both the Huntington Hospital and a specific doctor, we knew locals would stay in town for major and minor heart care alike.
To answer this call, our creative team developed work that promoted the urgency of heart care and the benefits of preventative care through direct mail, newspaper advertising and flash banners. With a strong call to action and a dramatic viewpoint from an emergency care patient, the ads offered a strong incentive to choose Huntington and choose early.
So what is the lesson? Creating ties through preventative care may result in long term relationships. And a big fish may still need to strike the right chords if the pond is big enough.
