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Welcome To My Den
This is the new, improved and reincarnated Dunn's Den. This blog is about marketing, advertising, social media and the goings on in my local community; from MY VIEW!
I look forward to connecting with you!
Johns Creek, GA – Emory Johns Creek Hospital is the first hospital in the area to embrace social media and Web 2.0 in its marketing and communications strategies. Web 2.0 is the reference to the understanding of the importance and impact of the internet as a viable and powerful platform.The hospital launched its blog as an extension of its website earlier this month and began the first in a series of video clips featuring physicians and administrators.“Traditionally, healthcare marketing has been pretty stodgy in its approach, choosing more conventional mediums and messaging,” said Johnel Reid, director of marketing for the hospital, and a member of the Advisory Panel for the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, an agency of the American Hospital Association.
Healthcare is as competitive as any industry, and more complex than most.Certificate of need laws, the consolidation of hospitals into large, multi-facility systems, federal laws governing physician relationships and marketing, healthcare marketing can become very complicated.“We know that we are in a highly competitive market,” said Reid.There are so many choices for advertisers, the trick is finding one that’s effective at reaching your audience.“We are fortunate because our leadership embraces the experiment – we are able to try new approaches based on what we know about our community, and then develop what works,” said Reid.
The Emory Johns Creek blog has already generated interest and traffic numbers continue to rise.“As we add more features and video, we envision the blog becoming an interactive forum for our patients, physician and community members,” said Reid.The hospital worked with Scott Dunn, of Town Planner Calendar, to produce the video series.“Scott has been a real advocate of pursuing social media – and using the internet to find creative ways to reach our audience,” said Reid.(CLICK HERE to see the BLOG)
“Emory Johns Creek continues to push the ceiling and we’re very proud of that,” said John Quinlivan, ceo of the hospital.“We are committed to bringing the latest and greatest not only to our hospital in the clinical sense, but in every other area, as well.Utilizing new technology – from our imaging and surgery departments, and now to our marketing efforts – is central to our mission.”
Emory Johns Creek Hospital is known for its state-of-the-art technology in a luxurious, hotel-like setting.Services include emergency care, state-of-the-art all digital imaging including a 64 slice CT,The Birth Place with Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 24-hour anesthesiologists, intensive care, advanced cardiac care, rehabilitation services and women’s services.Emory Johns Creek Hospital is home to the Atlanta Bariatric Center, designated a Center of Excellence by the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons.
For more information, or to find a physician on staff at Emory Johns Creek, please visit emoryjohnscreek.comor call 678.474.8200.
A nutritionist came up with the ultimate dog food and his co-workers liked the idea, but it flopped. Nobody tried it on the dog.
You should shove a thousand pounds of “attitudes” and trade them for an ounce of behavior, if you want a product success.
An article in the WSJ talked about some great new design successes, and they all had one ingredient: they came from product users, not from an engineer’s dream.
Women said that a golf club maker’s six iron carried farther than their four iron. So the line was redesigned so each club worked the way it should with women – not with strong teen-aged men.
An auto maker discovered that the Chinese cared more about the comfort in the back seat than in the front.They then reversed the priority in the design.
Some others are still learning.
Segway predicted sales of up to 100,000 a year, but they average under 10,000. “People found them impractical and couldn’t use them to replace driving, walking or biking.”
The Susan B. Anthony silver dollar (1979) was supposed to replace dollar bills, but no-one wanted to carry more coins.“That’swhy people have bowls full of change in their dressers.”
A dozen German car execs came over and virtually lived with American drivers.They were astounded. We didn’t think of our cars as an ultimate driving machine, but as our living rooms.Why?Because America is big and it takes longer to get there. Voila, and duh!
I was asked by a restaurant owner to re-invigorate his sales plateau. I studied his operation numbers, looked at his traffic patterns, and considered his attitude research.I had no good ideas.So I sat in his place—ate, watched and listened.Then the lights turned on for me.It had too many choices, and the essence was hidden behind an abundance of signs and clutter.So my “marketing plan” consisted of simplifying the menu, tossing ¾ of the signs, and having an intensive effort against the hundreds of employees in the adjacent shopping center.
The sales took off to the point where the owner has enough revenue to attract a buyer and sell the joint!
This is called “embedded” research, sort of like “embedded reporters” in the war zone, where the journalists eat, sleep and suffer with the troops.
If you don’t want to, or don’t have the money to fund a big survey or a bunch of focus groups, there is a better way instead.Try investing quality time with you customers. They have answers that will work.
In the very old days, ranchers and farmers were victims of horse and cattle thieves. Hostilities and bad feelings resulted. Some of that still exists.
To protect their property, the owners seared their names, or a unique mark, into the hides of the livestock.(Done humanely, of course.)That way, all would know what was whose. This “brand” said, “Hey, get your thieving hands off of that—it’s mine!”
So branding started out to be a symbol of ownership.
Now it has changed horses, so to speak.The buyer has become the co-owner of the brand. When the horse’s owner wants to sell, if he’s honest and trustworthy, he’ll vouch for the beast: it’s of high quality, and you can count on it!
That’s what brands are about now. A promise, based on the deserved reputation of the seller.
What is your brand?Is it for sale?Compare yours with a no-name—a generic product in your category.
I ask my students— What would happen if brands were not allowed?
A few would say, “That would be good! Everything would be equal. The so-called brands wouldn’t be able to hoodwink us. It would a level playing field.”
But most reflect and say, “Bad news.You wouldn’t know what you are getting. Buyer beware!”
Should there be just one car company, one soap company?Would that be “fair”?Well, would there ever be any improvements, anything new? Can you imagine a generic fan club?
Brands bring life and trust.Building a brand can be painful at first, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Are youthinking about an exit strategy?Is your biggest asset—your nest egg—wrapped up in your brand and your company?(For most small and medium sized companies, the company has become the brand.)
Your Brand Equity is simply what it could sell for. Look at it from the other side of the table.If you were considering two brands to buy—each competes in the same field and has about equal sales.How would you choose?
My measure of Brand Equity is how much the brand will be worth in the future, not what it could be liquidated for now. So you would choose the one that you could bank on (!) to produce the most growing profits for a long time. Here are some things you should compare:
What are their trends on sales and profits, and other assets and debts?
How strong are their products?Any differences, any patents?
How strong are their organizations?Hirable?
Most important—what is each of their Brand Franchises? And that is–
—How loyal are their customers?
—How enthusiastic are they? Would they care if the branddisappears?
—What is their Brand Positioning? Is it unique and sustainable?
A brand is nothing more than a promise. It’s what you expect when you buy it, based on previous consistent performance. What is your promise?
So what is your brand worth? Is it as much as your competitors? If this was a horse race, who would you bet on?
The key to increasing Brand Equity is not just bigger sales.It’s building a stronger brand. That is your greatest asset, the one you should nurture, the “family jewels” that will give your nest egg the most value.
A perceptual map of any category will include a few dominant players, some specialty niche entries, and a lot of losers who are destined for oblivion. Some of the latter will go silently in the night, but a lot will expire violently, with a big bang as they get sucked into that black celestial hole.
Just as a star system expands too fast and collapses into itself with such gravitational attraction that not even light can escape, a swirling, whirling vortex of a seemingly liquid business can suddenly spiral down the drain.
The poet Yeats said, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”The center is untenable. The biggest brands usually have a big enough base to straddle the middle. The specialists cling to the edge. The rest have one of these characteristics—
They try to appeal to all sides, but they don’t have the wherewithal to stretch that far.
They have a niche, but no exclusivity.
They strangle themselves by hiring poor employees.
They fall easy prey to stronger players who delight to under-price and out-service them.
The drown-ees are stuck in the middle of the pool, can’t swim, have no life-preserver and no paddle.
Here’s what they need to do:
A Persian proverb says, “No matter how far you’ve traveled down the wrong path, turn back.
Cut your losses and begin again. You’ve already stopped to smell the roses, so act.
Get back to basics and create a useful brand. Pick an edge to the perceptual map and latch on to it with a strong product and appealing positioning.
There’s a big enough place for you.But it’s not in the middle.
Traditional textbooks cite the four essential “P’s” of marketing:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
I would add “Perception” to the list, but maybe that’s just a sub-set of promotion. Also, “Place” used to have retail connotations, but that’s been augmented by catalogues and direct mail, and now of course by the internet.
Since “P” is a useful letter, I make it the key to successful advertising as well.
Here’s my formula:
P(1) plus P(2) times P(3) equals P(4)
P(1) is Promise. That is the benefit a brand stands for. That’s its positioning, itsreason for being.
P(2) is Proof.Why should customers believe the promise? That adds to its believability and acceptance.
In the old days, that would be enough.At P&G I learned to just “show and tell,” and users will flock to the brand.But now everybody understands there is a vital ingredient, and if it’s missing, it won’t work.
People buy from people they like. Today’s great ads have charm and likeability.
P(3) is Personal Contact.This is a great multiplier. It tells people that you are justlike them, that you have something special for them.
So if you have the right mix of those three “P’s,” you’ll have the potential of a great campaign—
P(4) is Powerful Advertising.
Successful brands and memorable advertising are not only products; they have a personality and a built-in trustworthiness. They have a fulfilled promise, not only for now, but for the future.They are a friend.
A common mistake by advertisers to assume that a new user of a product goes through these stages:(1) awareness of the brand, (2) favorable attitude, (3) purchase. So therefore, the first purpose of our advertising is to create awareness. After all, you aren’t going to buy something that you aren’t aware of.And then, the next step is you must think highly of the brand.And the payoff is you’ll buy it.
The problem is “Awareness” becomes the empty goal of the ads. Awareness of what? Some intrusive ads catch your attention by their cleverness.Did you ever tell your friends, “Hey, did you see that ad where the guy….”?But you forgot what the product was.
Certainly it’s essential that a brand should earn favorable acceptance ratings. I learned this when I had an ice cream client.When choosing the “Flavor of the Month,” we had people come into the dairy and taste and rate a number of new ones. But the “winners” often turned out to be flops in the market place. Why? Because they didn’t have staying power. We switched to a different method. We gave them a generous amount of several flavors to take home.Then we visited them after two weeks and measured how much of each their family had eaten. The winners were the flavors that were consumed most. So the initial attitude was trumped by behavior. And that stood up in the real world.
Here’s a way to get the horse before the cart. Start with the reason-for-being—the one benefit your brand or service brings to the customer, the promise that ends up with purchase behavior. Make that the hero of your ads. Make that the marching order for your advertising agency or your in-house creative group.
What I’m suggesting is to compress the three stages mentioned above. Don’t think of it as a leisurely process.Make awareness/attitude/behavior happen simultaneously. Make the end use the reason for the awareness, and if that’s good enough, favorable attitudes will follow. The cyber generation expects immediate results.
