By Abe Kasbo

So the CMO of Proctor and Gamble did it, so did his peer at American Express. And in February of 2006, John Stratton, VP & CMO of Verizon who controls a budget of more than $2 Billion bluntly warned “major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one understands exactly where it will land, or even if will land, or just disappear altogether.”

Mr. Stratton is referring to Madison Avenue’s love affair with existing media, “antiquated media plans,” and its apparent inability to capitalize on a variety realities including, media fragmentation, the Internet, brand loyalty shifts, and the changing American demographic scene.

So what’s happening? It appears that advertisers are lauding the Internet, but still are unable to make sense out of it. Kind of puzzling though considering Google’s meteoric rise – if that indeed can be used as a measure. If you’re American Express, Coca Cola, your fully invested in your marketing plans, but where do you get the biggest bang for the buck? Where and how do allocate your budget in an increasing wired world? And what do you make of the mobile web?

Media will change rapidly and the next medium is right around the corner. Regardless, this continues to be an issue of asset allocation, messaging, and consumer engagement. It’s those advertisers that can consistently bring those elements together that will be fully invested in the market – smartly.

So with that in mind, advertising firms need to step up and partner with their clients utilizing a different financial model to continue to expand their business and deliver more value to their clients.

By Abe Kasbo

A couple of days ago a report issued by Delloite’s Consumer Products group said that consumer online reviews strongly influence purchase decisions. Online consumer reviews are the “pimp my ride” version of “this is not your father’s Oldsmobile,” the highly effective, ever selective, never underestimated power of word of mouth.

So this report confirms what we know about how brands are created and built. By the consumer, and the internet is the ultimate word of mouth play, because it roars. It’s natural that “consumers are turning to online reviews in large numbers, and those reviews are having a considerable impact on purchase decisions,” said the report. It went on to say that 62 percent of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet, and of these, more than eight in 10 say their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews, “either influencing them to buy a different product than the one they had originally been thinking about purchasing, or confirming the original purchase intention.”

And just to confirm that is a human behavior issues, much like word of mouth, the report said that “seven in 10 of the consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact.”

Not surprisingly, the survey also “found that reputation and word of mouth are the key factors that influence consumers’ decisions to purchase a new product or brand, many other factors also play a significant role.”

So it’s our job as marketers to provide our consumers not only with the products and services to keep them loyal to our brands, but also to provide them with the outlets and the opportunities to recommend our products and services, both on and offline.

By Abe Kasbo

We’ve all been there. hunkered down, coming up with names for our businesses, products, and so on. And let’s face it, some of us have come up with some good ones and other, well, not so good. But what’s the difference between the good and not so good? How do you know?

Let me give you an example. About 18 months ago, we decided to change the name of my firm from Integrity Worldwide to Verasoni Worldwide. Why? We were getting exposure to larger and more international clients and needed something to reflect that growth and international exposure. Also, we wanted a unique name, and name that stood on its own as a URL. Our old URL was long an cumbersome. The name change was a fundamental strategic decision for us. A key part of the change is communicating the name change to our clients and the market. So we developed a strategy on how, when, and what we were going to say, to whom, how often and by why media. And excuted that plan so every client was clear on the name change and new clients at the were aware of the name, for due diligence purposes.

When looking at branding and messaging issues, businesses must look at several factors, including:

1. What do you intent to convey to the market?
2. How will you do it?
3. How will you distribute the message?

The fact is, businesses like Google and Yahoo! did not spend thousands of dollars doing market research to get the perfect name. They understood the culture, technology, the space and their potential impact on the market. In fact, by all measures, they were ahead of the culture on this, committed strategy and budget to brand distribution (and delivering for their clients too)…and now Google is a verb.

Google and Yahoo!’s names are much more about their customers and the culture than about their techical businesses. Imagine if someone at Yahoo! when sitting around coming up with the name for the business said, “I got it! We’ll call it Associates Search Specialists.” After a colleague checkout the acronym, they decided against it. Meanwhile in meeting at Google before it was Google of course, someone said “I got it! Let’s call it, SirChing! And our mascot could be an English gentleman holding money…get it? Got it.

It seems like businesses worry too much about the development of logos and spend a ridiculous amount of resources mulling over logos and colors. It’s perfectly understandable that businesses want to project the right image, at the same time, this imperfect process is often injected with personal biases rather than market driven decisions. As long logos and marks and messages are appropriate for your market, provide your business with a sense of clear and distinct identity, you are on the right track. Think about it, no one drives by McDonald’s and says “boy, I really hate that logo!” And that is why, you get the biggest bang for your buck when your market messages are shaped for the market and driven by a thoughtful brand distribution plan. You can have the perfect message for the market, misplace it, and now your marketing investment is effectively wasted. And the converse is true here too.

More to come…

By: Abe Kasbo

Often marketers tend to think about media as an end-goal for campaigns when then ought to be thinking about the market. I often hear, “we’ve gotta be on TV,” or “we’ve got to get on Youtube,” or “our competitors are running are on the radio.” My typical response is almost always, “so what?”

With so many trumpeting the demise of traditional media and touting the new social / Internet marketing Holy Grail, the numbers are telling. While there is a noticeable shift in marketing and advertising dollars from “old-school” to “new-school” media, the fact is large marketers are still masters of the traditional media domain. They are also endowed enough to experiment in and rule new media. Meaning that they have enough money in their coffers to see if something works, without degrading their market position.

Strategy (which incorporates, research, creative, messaging, placement, above the line and below the line tactics, etc) drives successful marketing campaigns, while media are vital spokes in the wheel. Media are essential tools that help you distribute your strategy. So use the tools wisely, but understand their nature as delivery mechanisms, and make the most of them by ensuring that your strategy is solid.

By Abe Kasbo

In our talks with with our clients, we hear a incessant cry for “Public Relations.” What they almost always mean “is get me in the paper.” Certainly, press coverage is a great way to get the word out and to let people know about your differential advantage, people, technologies, business processes, etc. We also recognize that print articles the right media outlet has real value. Good press can attract attention, move product, and lend some credibility to young and established business alike.

We also recognize that pitching the media these days, strong relationships or not, is becoming more challenging simply because of amount of “stuff” assignment editors and reporters have to go through. Control over the message can be a particular challenge and certainly, at times, the timing of when the piece would hit the street may not be in concert with your business goals.

It’s why we ask CEOs, CMOs and marketing and PR managers, “what is your PR plan when you are not in the media?” Because for the most part, businesses are over-whelming NOT covered by the media. So what’s your plan?

Think Outside the Media for More Strategic Public Relations:

Strategic marketing and PR strategies must be business driven. Business owners and investors must be invested in strategic public relations, of which, media relations is an important component. What to do? Here are six ideas (with more to come)

1. Strengthen business relationships with your customers for continued loyalty and growth. So develop a customer relationship campaign that will engage the customer and strengthen your relationship, as well as provide you feedback on your products and services. Yes, that’s PR.

2. Be a resource for your clients and investors. There are many ways to do this including the web, face to face, conferences, etc.

3. Investor and network relations is key. Don’t skimp here, engaging your investors is key to many things including, when appropriate, next round of funding or asking for business referrals!

5. People buy from people. So your company or its representatives must have a plan to be present in venues directly related to your business – whether on the buy-side or sell-side.

6. Create or participate relevant events that involve people and can generate news.

So, by recognizing that PR is much more than sending out press releases and getting in the news, your business can implement more strategic public relations and marketing strategies that delivers a real boost to your business.

More to come…

By Abe Kasbo

There are certain tendencies in almost every industry to communicate to the market in sector specific lingo, and actually believe it will deliver results. This lingo usually leaks into advertising, marketing communications, and worse, the language between the business and its customers. This isn’t good for both the business and its clients. Let me explain by giving you an example from health care. (Not singling out health care here for any reason, and this practice is pervasive in many business sectors).

In hospitals, people speak differently. They refer to Mr. Johnson as a patient. To physicians as “providers.” People who come in for a particular test or procedures and leave the premises the same day are known as “outpatients.” Similarly, people who stay in the hospital over night are referred to as “in-patients.” Out if you go, in if you stay. Seems simple enough, yet there’s something about these terms that are simply not “patient-friendly.”

If you work at a hospital or a large medical practice, it’s fashionable, if not a must to speak hospitalese to your your peers. While this language is certainly as young as western medicine itself, it is pervasive. Hospitalese, like a bad virus, quickly spreads from employees, physicians, nurses to the patients, and general public even though usually, both the patients and general public the lingo confusing.

Take for example my favorite word from that comes from that foreign language known as hospitalese – “Ambulatory.” Hospitals name some of their “outpatient” (there’s another term that drives me loopy) services as “Ambulatory Services Centers.” Like “Westmount Ambulatory Imaging Center,” or “Westmount Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Center,” or the Ambulatory Care Center of Westmount Hospital.” My question here, isw what does “ambulatory” mean? So I looked it up. Here’s an official definition from the Random House Unabridged Dictionary

am·bu·la·to·ry [am-byuh-luh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, noun, plural -ries. –adjective

1. of, pertaining to, or capable of walking: an ambulatory exploration of the countryside.
2. adapted for walking, as the limbs of many animals.
3. moving about or from place to place; not stationary: an ambulatory tribe.

Hmmm…Having said that, let’s look at the operative or key terms that will resonate with the market. If you’re promoting surgery, then focus the message so there’s less distraction. “Westmount Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Center?” or ” “Westmount Hospital Surgery Center?”

Simply put, diluting your message with industry lingo adds to confusion and confusion is enemy number one to your brand and brand equity. With the downward pressures on hospital budgets, one can ill afford to loose focus of communicating more directly to the market. So speak directly and let your message carry a big stick.

by Abe Kasbo

[This article was published in Strategic Healthcare Marketing's May, 07 issue]

Yes, I am encouraging hospital CEOs and chief marketing officers to think inside the box to build successful marketing campaigns that positively contribute to their organization’s bottom line. Successful corporations tap this kind of thinking every day.

Anyone whose kept a keen eye on recent advertising and marketing trends fully recognizes that the increasingly potent cocktail of media fragmentation, greater advertising clutter, Internet influences, and subsequent consumer control over media has made creativity in reaching patients and physicians a hot commodity. I am not talking about creativity in the sense of creating branded or image ads. I am talking about implementing what some may consider being non-traditional marketing strategies that will drive your business and increase patient volume. To do that, you have to fully understand what’s inside your box.

Industries outside of health care have heeded the message, understanding that the advent of the Internet, mobile phone, and iPod has brought about fundamental changes in the way people consume and respond to media. The marketing heads of the world’s largest advertising powerhouses, such as Procter & Gamble and American Express, have recently demanded more accountability from their agencies, noting that traditional ad campaigns are simply not working to their satisfaction. Corporate marketers are no longer settling for great ads, logos, and tag lines. They are seeking a tangible return on investment through concerted campaigns that push the traditional bounds of advertising and marketing.

Indeed, what’s inside the box can drive volume and positively contribute to your bottom line. Here are some ideas to fuel your thinking:

Define the key elements of each service line in your hospital and their relationship to the overall market. Your marketing efforts must reflect your strategic plans and should focus on those services that provide your institution with the best opportunities to profitably grow patient volume in your primary and secondary markets. Prioritize your service lines with this objective in mind. Carefully researched and executed advertising should enhance your organization’s brand while it tells your market about your hospital’s unique and specific services.

Take a broad view of the market. Today, a variety of different types of providers from outpatient surgery centers to imaging facilities may be competing for patients in your primary and secondary markets. By recognizing these entities as competitors and understanding their services, you can more clearly define your offer and what sets your organization apart.

Give your brand away. This is what successful brands do every day. Google, Yahoo, Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, and MySpace create communities of people who share a passion based on their experiences with the product or service. The company here is almost irrelevant; no one talks about the parent company of MySpace, News Corp. Community building, although non-traditional, is an activity that allows for more business growth potential than any other communications form.

You can build communities by looking inside, to the people whom you’ve successfully treated as well as loyal physicians and volunteers and bring them together around specific events and functions. Let’s say you have patients with a unique experience with your hospital and you know that there are people in the community who would benefit from the same service. Involve those patients in your community outreach plan, and if they agree, and usually they do, ask them to speak at events on behalf of your hospital. Perhaps you can also feature their stories on your Web site or through a blog.

Make every patient a spokesperson. Focusing on the experience rather than the transaction is a surefire way to get advocates in the community to rave about your hospital. In speaking with marketers, I find that while the “patient experience” is important to them, they tend to focus more on advertising. Without a doubt, the patient experience piece takes time and effort to develop because so much of it has to do with how everyone in the organization interacts with patients, physicians, and visitors. However, staff encounters, or touch points, with patients and others are an integral part of how your institution communicates its brand and is perceived by various constituents. Experience management requires leadership commitment to operational changes and investment in training and incentive programs.

Consider how much you spend on external versus internal advertising. Let’s say you spend $7,000 a month on image print ads. Are you getting a good return on the ads? Consider moving some of your budget to inside your building to build your brand in-house. I once worked at a large academic medical center where the lobby traffic averaged about 2,500 people per day and that didn’t include employees, now that’s measurable.

Embrace the Internet. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 93 percent of health seekers have gone online to look for information about a particular illness or condition. Your Web site is your key to solid connections with your community. Utilize search engine optimization and fill your site with appropriate clinical content and relevant service information. Position your Web presence as your community’s health care resource and communicate that consistently to your community. Make it easy to do business with your organization by including tools such as online bill payment and registration for elective procedures and diagnostic tests.

Your Web presence is a vital strategic and business development function that needs to be an essential part of your strategic planning. We are now in the pull media age, meaning that the consumer chooses what he or she will watch and see.

Tap appropriate social networking sites. If you have specialized services where people choose to travel for care, such as cardiac or bariatric surgery, tell the world. Some sites to consider: OrganizedWisdom.com, DailyStrength.org, PatientsLikeMe.com, and Sermo.com (for physicians only).

Know that your employees are your sales team. Yes, your physician relations department is also very important, but if your organization has 1,000 employees, then you have 1,000 sales representatives. Be sure that your employees know about the organization’s key services, physicians, what sets it apart from the competition, and other relevant information that will enable them to engage in positive word-of-mouth communications with friends, neighbors, and family members. If recipients of positive communications believe in the clinical excellence of your physicians and nurses, they will also utilize your services. Remember that people buy from people.

Your communication should be to the point and focus on the benefits. Use different formats and make them fun. Think way beyond employee newsletters to intranet quizzes, facility treasure hunts, electronic bulletin boards, and one-minute stand-up expert talks. And, be sure the workplace is highly regarded by employees and the community at large.

Stay focused. Just because the competition places an ad in your local newspaper doesn’t mean you have to respond in kind. Focus on your game plan and brand distribution strategies. An effective marketing and public relations plan is a disciplined one based on which service areas you want to grow in a given area. Diverging from the plan for emotional reasons is likely to take you off course and waste resources. Keep an eye on your competition and their campaigns, but do not feel you have to respond to one or two ads. Research tells us that frequency reigns in media campaigns and most likely a few ads will not sway the market.

Although exposure to the market via traditional communications efforts is vital, it is equally important to demand more creativity from your marketing strategists and ad agencies. This year and next portend a far different marketing universe than 2005 or even 2006. With the speed of technology adoption by consumers, who knows what the media outlook will be like in the next few years. Accordingly, hospital CEOs and marketers must also recognize these changes in the market and consumer behavior quickly in order to build market-driven strategic marketing plans.

By having a thorough understanding of your box and what’s in it, you can create meaningful campaigns, using the right mix of traditional and non-traditional tactics and brand distribution strategies, to drive volume and heighten patient and physician loyalty.

So the next time you’re working on your strategic marketing and public relations initiatives, look inside the box for non-traditional ideas that, if implemented correctly, can pay off in a big way

Abe Kasbo is the CEO of Verasoni Worldwide, a marketing and public relations firm in Montclair, NJ. Kasbo is also an adjunct instructor in health care management in the Graduate Department of Public and Healthcare Administration at Seton Hall University. He can be reached at kasbo@verasoni.com.

By: Abe Kasbo
Successful brands have some common elements. They are usually recognizable; consumers have a distinct feeling or affinity about what these brands represent to them. And consumers tend to internalize the brand. Internalizing the brand simply means that consumers tell themselves stories, or rationalizing, about why they are loyal to the brand.

But to get to that point takes a carefully planned and executed brand distribution plan. This takes the business message and gets it out to your customers. In the process, you must carefully consider your media from traditional advertising, direct mail, to the internet.

In overall planning and budgeting, plan on the plan and not just the logo and taglines. After all, what good is a great business message if you have no way of getting it out to your customers and creating value for your business?

By: Abe Kasbo

So what does marketing have in common with the investing? Plenty. There two distinct types of marketing approaches, the individual investor and the institutional investor. Some typical traits of marketers as individual investors are:

1) Overwhelmed by day to day marketing responsibilities among others

2) Approach branding as a “To Do.” And says something like “We have to brand ourselves.”

3) Usually rely on marketing activities rather than marketing plans

4) Usually rely on little data to understand true impact of marketing

5) Usually rely on relatively small timeframes per marketing event in making marketing decisions.

6) When business is flat or down, blame “marketing”

The individual investor typically reacts to the market’s gyrations. Their horizons are short, and immediate gratification is required. Their psychology and well being is typically tied to the swings of the market. Their portfolio is up, and they’re looking for a guest appearance on CNBC. The market is down and they’re in sell mode!

By contrast the institutional investor has a long-term view of the market and views his / her investments as vehicles to gain and retain wealth over time. Up or down, they are tied to strategies and not individual stocks. Warren Buffet’s decision to invest in a business rarely involves market timing and his success is necessarily a reflection of his long-term view of businesses he buys and the markets they are in.

Today more than ever, companies and their marketing executives must act as seasoned institutional investment managers rather than individual investors. Focusing on the long term view of building their businesses by rolling out concerted and thoughtful campaigns, rather than swinging for the fences by dropping marketing bombs.

We understand that CMOs are under tremendous pressure to perform and because companies want results yesterday, but those in the executive suite must advocated and guide company leadership beyond the sexiness of certain marketing vehicles and down to the business of marketing. After all, marketing is a business imperative. When companies and their CMOs act like professional wealth managers or institutional investors, they benefit from:

1. Objective and complete view of the market, allowing them to plan and roll out smart campaigns

2. Recognizing that the company is in the business for the long run, CMOs can plan and execute traditional and non-traditional campaigns for the long haul, while more immediate marketing activities are taking place.

3. Becoming “media agnostic” allows you to focus your marketing dollars on only what seems to be effective. And when something fails, be sure to understand exactly why. Strategy and execution is key; everything else, though important, is a commodity.

4. Remember, like investing in equities, past performance of your marketing efforts are not indicative of future results. Whether a campaign or activity has worked or failed, be sure to revisit that scenario to properly assess the reasons it worked (ie: repetition of message, great placement, etc.), or failed (not enough impressions in the market, bad target and message, etc).

5. A good marketer understands that branding is a result of what their enterprise does, rather than an activity that must take place. So rolling out a new logo and look is only considered branding only if placed in the context of an integrated marketing plan, media distribution plan, etc. And running print advertising must consider other variables like creative, timing, web, among other things.

6. Understanding that marketing takes work and active management.

As marketers, companies must move to an institutional investor mind frame to get the most efficient and effective results in the market place.

By: Abe Kasbo

4 In 10 Discuss Brands Online.

A recent study by Yahoo indicates that a sizable chunk of web users “also spread the word about the products they favor.” These people are being called “brand advocates.”

In a study surveying 2,261 consumers who had recently made major purchases the study concluded that 40% of respondents were also “brand advocates,” defined by the report as “adventurous opinion leaders who are socially well-connected, express their opinions and viewpoints and continually discover new content online.”

“Among other traits, so-called brand advocates were more likely to use social media than were the non-advocates,” the study said.

Eighty-seven percent reported using search engines several times a week, compared to 74% of the non-advocates. Likewise, 45% said they watched online video several times a week, compared to 19% of non-advocates, while 32% either wrote blog posts or message board entries, compared to just 8% of the non-advocates.

The study also revealed that “Brand advocates who had just taken out home loans were especially likely to discuss the transaction online, with 59% of that group saying they had written about their purchase, compared to 30% of the non-advocates. Fifty-six percent of consumer electronics purchasers who were also brand advocates wrote about their purchase online, compared to 27% of the non-advocates; among automobile purchasers, 52% of the brand advocates wrote about their buy, compared to 20% of the non-advocates; and for hotel travelers, 44% of advocates wrote about the hotel, compared to 15% of the non-advocates.”

I would expect brand adocates to increase in number and the power. Their numbers will surely increase as the penetration of the internet becomes even more ubiquitous. Surely, 3G mobile devices and networks will provide more opportunities for these brand champions to more quickly and easily spread the word.