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If healthcare is about the patient, then what is healthcare marketing but strategies to acquire new patients, keep existing patients coming back and having them evangelize about your hospital, medical / dental practice or product? And if patient centered care is key, then what is patient centered marketing? What is physician centered marketing?

The internet is has changed the economics of healthcare marketing. It has radically impacted pricing on media buys, the ways people shop for healthcare services – the e-patient – and the way they interact with your brand. Offline communications remains vital, but the right media mix is vital, coupled with referral stream support (physician or otherwise), messaging, among other tactics. Tactics are your tools, your strategy is your foundation.

Speak In The Language of Your Patients When Marketing To Patients

Ambulatory Care Center? 64-Slice CT?  What do these things mean to the patient. Healthcare is confusing enough without continuing to use more terms that patients either don’t understand or care about.  Patients go to hospitals, physicians, dentists, and use medical equipment to treat something. To make themselves feel better.  It is that “something” that must be addressed from a benefits point of view to the patient.  So why take the time, energy and resources to advertise an “Ambulatory Care Center” when you can talk about what you can do to heal that patient?  What good is 64-slice technology if the human expertise needed takes a backseat?  How effective are your messages?

Go Where They Are

This overstates the obvious, but healthcare organizations are still married to outdated means of communications.  The internet can help in a variety of ways including finding the various verticle markets in your own back yard to reach with the added benefit of helping you drive down the cost of effective impression.  Find out where they are online and go after them.

Save Money

Negotiate hard with your media outlets. Newspapers want your business, get the best possible deal you can. Get your agency to work harder for you on media buys…no more auto-pilots!

New Game

It is vital to understand that the internet is the ultimate game changer in healthcare marketing. A Pew Research Center Internet Life Project Study showed that healthcare is the number one searched category in United States.  And with the staggering growth of Social Media, how do we find the right media mix to reach our intended markets, and what are the business ramifications? More to come….

Little Falls, New Jersey. October 8, 2008. Verasoni Worldwide, a marketing and public relations firm based in Little Falls, New Jersey announced today the launch of Cambridge MedCom, a division dedicated solely to healthcare clients. “We’re excited about this opportunity. With Cambridge MedCom we’re building on two things: our experience in healthcare and our growing healthcare portfolio of clients. By creating a separate division, we are leveraging the resources of Verasoni and concentrating our efforts and focus on our healthcare clients and the people they serve,” said Abe Kasbo, CEO of Verasoni Worldwide.

Cambridge MedCom will launch a new web portal by the end in early November of 2008, which will include a blog where visitors can review ideas and concepts to help their healthcare enterprises grow. “Marketing in healthcare market is challenging because the market is very dynamic. Having a dedicated vehicle and resource for healthcare clients to leverage these dynamics, to their advantage, is the reason we’ve created Cambridge MedCom,” continued Mr. Kasbo.Cambridge MedCom’s dedicated toll free number is 888.737.7759 and is live at this time.

Cambridge MedCom, a division of Verasoni Worldwide, is a provider of integrated marketing communications to the healthcare industry, including: hospitals, medical device and products companies, medical & dental practices, and insurance firms.

By: Abe Kasbo

My high school football coach once grabbed my ear right after I intercepted a pass and returned it upfield dodging and weaving for about 30 yards. As this freshman strutted to the sidelines brimming with confidence, coach grabbed my face mask and looked in as if he was searching for my brain and said, “this is a football son, not a loaf of bread. So protect it when you’re runnin’. Tuck it in, hold it tight, it’s what you’re supposed to do…”

Businesses talk about protecting their brand, building their brand, delivering on their brand promise and that what you’re supposed to do. But it’s easier said than done. A successful brand is not an activity, logo, tagline, sales pitch, website. It is a consequence of a combination of many elements about your business – good or bad I might add! And yes, a brand can have a bad reputation!

So let’s unravel this brand thing and look at its DNA. Brands don’t simply happen. We often hear, “we need brand our business,” but when we ask these businesses what they mean by this, they often talk about logos or advertising related activities…which are certainly elements of a branding campaign, but by far in and of themselves do not deliver the power of a successful brand. And so we define brands as consequences rather than activities.

According to Tim Ambler of the London Business School, “A brand is the promise of a bundle of attributes that someone buys that provides satisfaction. The attributes may be tangible or invisible, rational or emotional.” I submit that a brand also has time and experiential elements. Like good wine, it must stand the test of time. And because of communications technologies, people today are exposed to products and information faster than ever, thereby providing the opportunity for business to capitalize on the experiential factor rather than time – and certainly each strategy depends on the type of business or product.

Starting with the basics, ask your self the following questions:

1. What does my business do to engender customer loyalty?

2. Will my clients recommend me?

3. Can my clients take pride in my service(s) or product(s)?

4. What is the value of my product or service to the marketplace?

5. Will my clients forgive my mistakes?

If you answer the basic four questions above, and undoubtedly there are more, you will begin your brand journey…and it is a journey that will take you through time by demanding consistency both in communications to the market and service / product.

So by viewing branding as a consequence of everything you do rather than a single activity, your business can pursue and implement branding strategies that are appropriate for the life cycle of your business…

September 14, 2006 – New York, NY. The Nurture Nature Foundation (NNF) is allocating $1,000,000 over the next year in a joint campaign with Earth Pledge and CUNY (City University of New York) Institute for Sustainable Cities to combat global warming.

This commitment is in response to the call of the Clinton Global Initiative beginning on September 20 for commitments curbing global warming.

“The environmental challenges are so serious,” Theodore W. Kheel, President of NNF, observed, “they must be addressed not only at the international level but by individuals, cities and states throughout the world as well.”

“To strengthen our ability to address the challenge, we have named Leslie Hoffman, Earth Pledge’s executive director, to serve also as NNF’s executive director,” Kheel added.

“I am pleased to be named executive director of NNF, as well as appreciative of the generous contribution to support Earth Pledge,” said Leslie Hoffman. Together with support we receive from the Home Depot Foundation, Bosch, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and others, we are well equipped to fulfill our mission to facilitate the transition to sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through development and promotion of innovative technologies.”

Cities are uniquely positioned to assist in developing environmental solutions as an antidote to global warming. For example, Earth Pledge’s Green Roofs Initiative aims to lower ambient air temperatures and prevent pollution of waterways by creating green roof infrastructure in urban centers.

“Earth Pledge is also currently promoting such relevant environmental solutions as ecologically sound building designs, production of fuel from waste through anaerobic digestion, bio-based materials for apparel and interiors, mass transportation, and local and sustainable food systems,” added Kheel.

“The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities,” said William Solecki, CISC Interim Director, “is excited to join with Earth Pledge in this initiative. To address global warming meaningfully is a central environmental concern of the 21st century. We feel that the Institute, coupled with Earth Pledge, will significantly contribute to this dialogue and progress,”

“The overall mission of the Institute,” Solecki continued, “is to enable urban residents, particularly those in New York City, to better understand the relationship between themselves and the physical environment of their cities in order to identify pathways for environmentally sustainable practices. The Institute’s mission is articulated through a series of outreach activities, educational programs, and scientific projects.”

For more information on the Nurture Nature Foundation, visit www.nurturenature.org

For more information on Earth Pledge, visit www.earthpledge.org