Healthcare Marketing Matters: Press

How much more effective would your marketing campaigns be if you made a conscious effort to frame your messaging in your Media Relations (MR) and Public Relations (PR) campaigns around the main brand messages you use in your marketing campaigns?

More often than not, brand messages in healthcare PR-MR rely on the "about us" statement to carry that weight. Little if any attention is given to using public and media relations as a strategic and integrative vehicle in the overall marketing effort.

And that is a missed opportunity.

As healthcare organizations, we are expected by our audiences to advertise, write white papers, create case studies, write impactful sales materials, partner with leading market research organizations to present "groundbreaking" topical surveys and results, as well as other materials. That is a given. People see and read, they (hopefully) advance the brand, maybe generate some sales leads or in some cases bring a sense of accomplishment to internal audiences because in the end, all of these materials are "about us". Activity measurement as opposed to outcomes measurement.

Now think. What is the value of these same messages being crafted in such a way through PR-MR to your organization? The more people say they don't believe what they read and see, the more that they believe what they read and see. A positive news story online, print or electronic carries with it a measure of credibility conferred by the publication, news organization or web content carrier that the story has some measure of truth and validity. Can't buy that in advertising, direct mail or contests.

PR-MR can be summed up by the following:

Presence Builds Preference

and

Perception- Leads to Opinion- Becomes Fact

PR-MR can provide you with a continuous brand presence in the market that you cannot afford through traditional or online paid efforts. It can successfully build positive impressions, solid opinions which after a while other companies and individuals will come to believe about your organization and, this is an important and... build relationships with the media and audiences that can be leveraged to your benefit in times of crisis.

In my experience, it is not uncommon to generate on an annual basis for small healthcare organizations $1 million plus in equivalent advertising through a PR-MR program. For larger companies, an aggressively planned and consistent PR-MR program generates $10s of millions of equivalent advertising dollars. Ask your Executive Suite for that kind of money for paid advertising in this or any economy and see what happens.

If you are not integrating your brand messaging into your PR-MR efforts, your losing the opportunity of a lifetime and potentially your markets.

PS. It's just not writing press releases.

If you need assistance or would like more information, you reach me directly at 815-293-1471.

The Chicago Bears, Brian Urlacher and HIPAA

No, this is not a joke. It has been most interesting reading sports columnists and broadcasters lament to a great common chorus that no one knows about the extent of Urlacher’s injury and his neck surgery. The Bears aren’t talking, the doctors aren’t talking and nobody else is talking. It is as if some serious plot has developed to keep the real story from the media. Hogwash…..

As a 20 year healthcare executive life changed a few years ago when HIPAA became the law of the land. Simply put, if an individual does not want anything released about their medical condition, treatment, so forth and so on, that was that. No press leaks, no briefings from the Bears, no info from the hospital, doctor’s or anybody else. The federal government has clamped down really hard on the privacy issue and this falls into that. Urlacher is the only person, who can make the decision on who does or does not receive any information about his medical condition or treatments. Who he designates as being able to receive information is prohibited from releasing any content. If you want to know you have to speak to Urlacher.

What you simply have here is that he decided not to allow for the release of medical information. The Bears won’t say anything, the hospital won’t say anything, and the doctors won’t say anything. Why, simply put they are prohibited by Federal law. Big fines, imprisonment, law-suits, malpractice judgments and loss of professional license will result if found violating HIPPA. That’s all it is, nothing more than that.

Gone are the days when tips would be called in. Staff will get fired for that. As a healthcare marketing executive, HIPAA makes life a lot easier for me and not having to deal with the press. Privacy is privacy and the law make no distinction whether you are Joe average or a superstar. Everybody is this same. It does make the media job harder.

So everyone please stop with the grand conspiracy theories and keeping things quite because the Bears don’t want others to know. It’s all about privacy and his wanting some. Everybody is pulling the media chain, you guys give free press and the Bears and NFL are laughing all the way to the bank.

Frankly, as a Bears PSL and season ticket holder, at this point could care less. They will be bad next year and the year after that. I have no confidence in an arrogant coaching and administrative staff, that can’t change and adapt to different situations. They are self delusional in thinking that and believing that they are better than they are. Their window slammed shut and is closed tight for at least another three years.