By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG. This edition covers my experience in a July meeting of all the SIG leaders focused on improvements to our program.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Apple’s advertisements for the video calling feature on their latest iPhone have caught my attention. While elusive, the promise of combining a video feed of the person with whom you’re talking via a phone has been around at least since Dick Tracy’s fancy wristwatch. Technology that actually delivers on this promise has blockbuster potential.
Apple had done a good job of focusing on the human element of its technology – a grandfather viewing his newborn grandchild for the first time – a woman telling her mate that she is pregnant (though she describes their efforts at achieving this status as “work,” a term that is at odds with my personal experience). It is this human touch that makes the promise of the technology so powerful. In this disconnected age, anything that brings people closer together has tremendous value.
This makes me think of Aldous Huxley’s “Feelies” described in his 1932 novel Brave New World, one of my all-time favorites. When will Hollywood transcend “moving pictures” to create actual experiences and transmit feelings directly? The recent success of 3D is a step in this direction. Virtual reality devices are another stab at this. Someday, perhaps, we’ll be able to experience love scenes where we feel everything, including the hairs of the bearskin rug on which the movie stars lie, as Huxley described it.
Huxley’s future was largely dysfunctional, of course, but I don’t foresee sinister implications from video calling – it looks like a great thing!
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my early experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG. This edition promotes the upcoming SIG presentation on September, 23, 2010 by Amy Dawson, Sr. Vice President and Healthcare Group Account Director of Fahlgren. Established in 1962, Fahlgren is a Columbus-based full-service communications agency with 160 associates in seven offices across four states.
Make Twitter, Facebook and YouTube work for your medical practice using proven strategies and tactics from a master in the field! Newbies and social media “veterans” will benefit from real-world case studies and execution tips for marketing medical services from Amy Dawson, Sr. Vice President and Healthcare Group Account Director of Fahlgren.
Prior to joining Fahlgren, Amy spent 13 years with OhioHealth, and she has extensive background in public relations and marketing on both the client and agency side. Her work has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally, including a PRSA Silver Anvil Award for Excellence in Healthcare Marketing Communications. She has worked with integrated health systems, academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, physician practices, medical device and distribution brands and health-related non-profits.
Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010
Time: 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM
Location: 1266 Manning Parkway, Powell, OH 43065
Cost: $5 for AMA members, $15 for non-members
Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – Making SIGs Better
About “The SIG Chronicles:” This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my early experiences as chair of the Healthcare SIG. This edition describes the presentation by Brenda Stier, CEO of Marketing Works at our 5/27/10 event.
Brenda began by asking us to think of the best marketing event we can remember attending and also the worst – what was the difference? For me, the best was a nonprofit organization’s annual fundraiser dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan. That one black-tie event funded the bulk of our budget for the year but it took almost one person’s full-time commitment to pull it off. The worst were probably some radio tie-ins during my time in Regional Marketing with SC Johnson – if the radio station’s reach was too narrow we got virtually zero in-store activity.
A key element in favor of “experiential marketing,” as Brenda called it, is the QUALITY of the contact you have with the participants. Events can make connections with key stakeholders and provide an opportunity for lengthy interaction that is impossible in the day-to-day world. This quality connection can reduce the elapsed time necessary to achieve closure on a decision. Relationships built this way tend to last longer, as well, since you create a bond that extends beyond a mere transaction.
Balanced against this quality, of course, is the cost in time and money to make an manage an event – but the budgetary discussion should include an emphasis on how much better the quality of resulting connections can be.
Brenda also emphasized several tactical considerations to maximize the impact of your event:
Marketing Works, Brenda’s firm, has organized several events for healthcare clients and she highlighted case studies on projects for Neurological Associates and another for Progressive Medical.
Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Social Media for Healthcare Practices”
About “The SIG Chronicles:” This blog series records Paul Dumouchelle’s experiences, impressions and insights gained as Chair of the Healthcare Marketing Special Interest Group for the Columbus branch of the American Marketing Association.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
The core responsibility of any marketer is to maintain, sustain and build the strength of their brand. The discontinuation of a brand, then, is the ultimate failure. We’ve seen the demise of some once-iconic brands in the recent past.
Lehman Brothers, once a major force in corporate finance, is no more. The Pontiac brand of cars is on its way out. Compaq computers – the pioneers of portable computing – absorbed into HP. Airline brands seem to come and go with alarming frequency – alarming, that is, if you rely on them for safe transport.
So what will become of BP? Retailers carrying the BP brand try to deflect the negative public sentiment toward the oil giant by saying they aren’t part of the BP corporate entity. They also claim that BP gets only a tiny benefit from any sale of their gasoline. I am skeptical that the buying public is going to ignore the signage of a gas station based on these arguments.
