Healthcare marketers need to know that yesterday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a web site designed specifically to bring attention to companies that have recently experienced a data breach related to protected health information (PHI).
As good stewards of our healthcare brands, we know that any hint or perception of a PHI data breach has the potential to spur a broad and vocal response among the media, not to mention the reaction from patients, providers, payers, board members, investors, and any other partners. Loyalty is hard won and patient trust is an asset that you can’t afford to risk.
The HHS web site is designed to “keep us honest.” And it is just one step in the evolution of HIPAA enforcement and mandates for public notification about PHI data breaches, all of which have gotten a massive shove into the next decade by the HITECH Act. HITECH is the insiders’ name for the section of the stimulus package (the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act; ARRA) that involves health information technology (HIT).
Predictably, the notification requirements go much further than just posting the information on a federal web site. While healthcare CFOs, CIOs, and legal teams have been wrestling with other aspects of HITECH long into the night for months, most have neglected to bring their communications team into the loop.
Now that there is a central resource for reporters to follow and regulatory requirements where even the most well intentioned healthcare entity might get their wires crossed, the communications professionals have a definitive role to play.
This is a perfect opportunity for healthcare communications teams across America to begin building their crisis communications plans – in conjunction with their stakeholders – before a crisis arrives. If there has to be an issue there is no substitute for being able to frame the issue yourself. In this context, playing defense is a losing proposition.
Andrea White specializes in communications issues related to health information technology and the HITECH Act. Look for more blog entries on this subject in coming weeks!
Tagged as:
Crisis Communications,
Healthcare Marketing
Many years ago when I was trying to decide what I would do with my life, I told my parents I was considering a career in communications. I’ll never forget my dad’s response. “What are you going to do with that degree besides stand in the unemployment line and ‘communicate’ about how you can’t find a job?,” he said. Ouch.
Luckily, I didn’t let his opinion deter me. Today I’ve worked in public relations for more than 15 years and I love what I do. More importantly, I see tremendous value in it. It takes great skill to understand all sides of an issue and articulate your position in such a way that persuades people and moves them to action.
Too often, however, people forget that being an effective communicator is about more than finding the right words; it’s also about finding the right message. Sometimes that means sorting through page after page of data to find that one statistic that perfectly supports your position … or immersing yourself in a company’s business to understand the essence of who they are so you can find the best way to share it.
The right message is almost always the result of asking the right questions. Whether that means exploring unpleasant ‘what ifs’ and worst case scenarios or asking the “dumb” questions no one else wants to ask, it’s a communicator’s job to ferret out the truth and build their position around it.
So while my dad may have had a point (PR folks are a friendly bunch), I’ve come to realize that being an effective communicator takes more than glad-handing and rhetoric. Among many other skills, it requires a natural curiosity, dogged determination and an appreciation for data and sound logic.
That’s a tough pill to swallow for us right brained types, but hopefully, it’ll put my dad’s mind at ease about my future employment prospects.
Tagged as:
Corporate Communications,
public relations,
Writing
Big and small businesses executives know investing in some kind of marketing is imperative, but the question is… how much do you spend?
Recently one of my clients was preparing for a budget planning meeting and asked me how much they should allocate for marketing and advertising. That’s a good question, but the answer depends on what kind of business you are talking about. For instance, organizations like acute-care hospitals have traditionally used the figure of three percent of gross revenues, but not all industries have a standard or best-practices number. In order to answer my client’s question, I conducted some research and discovered this not an easy question to answer. In the process of my search, I did stumble across a few interesting articles and Web sites.
An article in BusinessWeek suggested companies should begin the process by determining the advertising-to-sales ratio in their particular field. Since this information may be difficult to find, the article suggested starting at five percent of your gross revenue and adjusting the projected spending after evaluating market size, media costs, competitor spending and company growth projections. Start-up companies generally tend to spend more of their budget on marketing, and this figure could range from 5-15 percent.
The Web site www.entrepreneur.com also provides an informative article called Calculating Your Ad Budget that provides a numeric formula companies can use to help determine how much they should spend on marketing and advertising.
Developing a marketing budget is a process that most businesses go through on an annual basis. Not only must they determine the right amount to spend on marketing, it’s also crucial to determine a way to measure the success of the marketing efforts and the return on the investment. These efforts will help you determine if your company needs to be more aggressive or can try to reduce the budget the following year.
Tagged as:
Advertising,
Marketing
Companies continue to take a creative approach to reach out to bloggers as a way to market products. This was seen in action at Blissdom 2010, one of the nation’s premier women’s blogging conferences, held at the Opryland Hotel February 5-6.
We worked with our client, Soles4Souls, to reach out to this influential group of bloggers at the conference.
Soles4Souls, the shoe charity, sponsored a booth and encouraged attendees ahead of time to bring shoes to the conference to donate to Haitian relief efforts. By leveraging Twitter, blogs, the Blissdom website and its e-newsletter, word spread quickly for attendees to bring shoes to donate at Blissdom.
And did they ever!
More than 1,000 pairs of shoes were donated at the conference. Attendees who donated shoes were entered to win a pair of shoes signed by Rascal Flatts; that contest enabled Soles4Souls to capture the bloggers’ contact information. Soles4Souls also had the opportunity to personally interact with bloggers when they donated shoes and generated several positive leads for future blog partnerships. The organization also included information in the conference swag bags about how bloggers could partner with Soles4Souls on their blogs.
Soles4Souls successfully maximized its sponsorship to reach out to an influential audience, demonstrating the importance of including blogs and bloggers in marketing strategies.
Our firm is fortunate to work with a number of really remarkable business leaders – successful men and women of intelligence, vision, intuition and guts. We’re honored to work with them, and humbled by how much we learn from them.
Opportunities to learn and grow from examples of leadership (good and bad) abound in the headlines of any given day:
Toyota’s recent recall problems … Waste Management’s decision to put their CEO (and their brand) on a reality TV show … the New Orleans Saints risky decision to do an onside kick at the open of the second half of Super Bowl XLIV … Sarah Palin’s key-note address to a new political movement.
Each of these issues is, or will be, a study in leadership. How the organizations are led through change/opportunity/risk/challenge will determine how these organizations succeed … or not.
Among the many leaders our firm has been fortunate to know over the years is our dear friend, Chuck Lauer. Chuck was publisher of Modern Healthcare for more than 25 years and continues to be a highly regarded leader in healthcare. His recent editorial in Becker’s Hospital Review is an excellent insight into the qualities, characteristics and requirements of true leadership. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Tagged as:
Leadership
Times are tough at Toyota. What with the piling on of slippery floor mats, sticky accelerator pedals and faulty brakes, it’s no wonder they are experiencing serious damage to their brand. And they’re taking a lot of criticism for the way they are handling the crisis.
The crisis managers at Toyota have got their work cut out for them. It’s not going to be as simple as offering an apology for the anxiety and inconvenience created by the recent recalls. New evidence reported in the New York Times indicates Toyota has a long and disturbing history of trying to cover up defects in quality and safety.
Now, it’s not just the latest double dip of recalls that Toyota has to overcome. The problem appears far more systemic: If it is true that Toyota has repeatedly been aware of safety issues and consciously waited up to eight years (while they were developing new replacement models) to recall the cars that were potentially putting Toyota fans and their children in the line of danger, they have violated consumer trust. Perhaps permanently.
For decades, Toyota has enjoyed the kind of customer loyalty that was the envy of every American corporation. There are blogs, member organizations, Facebook pages and all kinds of online chatter from people who call themselves lifelong fans of the car manufacturer, many who have said they would never own anything other than a Toyota. And why do they love this brand so much? Quality and reliability. Ouch.
There is only one way Toyota is going to regain its credibility with its customers and the market: prompt response and complete transparency. They’ve got to aggressively get the parts to the dealers and get these cars off the road as quickly as possible and with minimal inconvenience to the customer. They’ve got to offer special service checks and insurances for a long period of time, 24/7 hotline phone numbers and online access for people to talk to service experts, daily progress reports to the media, bloggers and the international public and aggressive incentives for new buyers. Most importantly, they should throw out the people who made the decisions not to issue recalls sooner when it came to choosing between their admiring public and corporate greed.
These are not “PR strategies.” Or are they? The only thing that is going to save Toyota is for its leaders to start thinking of their business from the customer’s perspective. When they start to relate better to all of their publics (customers as well as shareholders), they can work through this credibility crisis and re-emerge, albeit it in five to ten years, as a dominant and trusted corporation.
We are, after all, a forgiving and forgetting public.
Tagged as:
Branding,
Crisis Communications,
public relations
Behind every dark cloud there’s a silver lining… or so the old saying goes.
According to a recent Economist article, PR firms are reaping the benefit of corporate America’s woes. As auto executives caught heat for their private jets and bankers endured criticism over everything from inflated bonuses to H1N1 shots, PR firms increased their billings by nearly 3 percent in 2009. A remarkable achievement considering that spending on advertising contracted by 11 percent over the previous two years.
So what gives? While it’s true the recession put a bullseye on the backs of some industries – increasing PR’s clout in the executive suite – this alone can’t account for the industry’s growth. Some say growing interest in social media has given the industry a boost. While this may be true, I don’t believe this is the sole driver either.
Could it be that corporate America is realizing what many in the industry have known for years: that PR is effective in good times and bad? In times of trouble, a sound public relations strategy can calm angry customers and reassure worried employees. In times of growth, good PR can raise a company’s profile and generate much-needed buzz. When business is booming, PR can strengthen customer relationships and engender loyalty. Throughout it all, public relations can build, sustain – and even repair – trust in a brand.
If you look at it this way, some might say PR is recession proof. And, in my humble opinion, if it’s not … it should be!
Tagged as:
Economy,
public relations
As Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube continue to infiltrate companies’ strategic marketing plans, it’s important to understand the purpose of social media. The purpose of social media is to connect with your audience. Let me reiterate, connect.
