Transcription:
Health Care Marketing Plans, Communications and Market Research

Intro: The following SHSMD podcast is a production of DoctorPodcasting.com.

Bill Klaproth (host): On this edition of the SHSMD podcast, let me ask you this: do you want to be the best healthcare marketer you can be? Yes. Check. Are there maybe some gaps in your skill level that you need to work on potentially? Yeah. Check. Do you want to enhance your overall career development? Definitely. Check.

Well, we have this session for you and a great podcast coming up with Rob Klein, David Marlowe and Joel English, as they will be discussing highlights from their course, Healthcare Marketing Plans, Communications and Market Research. They're doing an in-person intensive workshop of this as a preconference session at the SHSMD Annual Conference this September in Washington, DC. This is going to be good. You're going to want to listen to what Rob, David and Joel have to say coming up. So let's get to it right now.

This is the SHSMD Podcast, rapid insights for healthcare strategy professionals in planning, business development, marketing communications, and public relations. I'm your host, Bill Klaproth. With me, Rob Klein, founder and CEO of Klein and Partners; David Marlowe, Principal at Strategic Marketing Concepts and Joel English, Managing Partner for BVK. Rob, David and Joel, welcome to the SHSMD Podcast. As you know, we start every episode of the SHSMD podcast with rapid insights. One quick tip someone can use to make their marketing communications better today. Rob, you're up first. Give us your rapid insight.

Rob Klein: Thanks, Bill. Well, I'm a market researcher, so I've been doing a lot of national studies on COVID brain and it is real. It is impacting people's cognitive processing. And what that means is it's impacting their memory, their attention span, their patience and their brand linkage, if you will. So what that means for healthcare marketers is when we're developing creative and placing our ads, whether it's traditional or digital, the key is it has to be simple, repetitive, and catchy, and the brand has to be the star.

Bill Klaproth: I love that. Simple, repetitive and catchy, and the brand has to be the star. Rob, thank you so much for that. Okay, David, you're up next. Give us your rapid insight.

David Marlowe: The focus in our industry has been heavily marketing communications. But I think my insight is that, to be successful, you have to take a very broad view of marketing. You have to take into account access. You have to take into account service mix and quality. You have to take into account price. And all these factors, even if the marketing function doesn't directly control those, they have to be recognized, they have to be dealt with. Because if you don't, the marketing communications alone may not do the job.

Bill Klaproth: Love that. That's really good. So remember to take that broad view of marketing. Great tip, David. Thank you. And Joel, last but not least. Give us your rapid insight.

Joel English: Well, I'm going to build on what Rob mentioned, and that is the preeminence of brand in terms of connecting with people. And so, as each individual organization creates their brand value proposition, the best way to think about it is that your brand value proposition needs to be the intersection point between the greatest aspirations and fears of the people you care for and who you employ and your greatest aspirations and strengths and accomplishments.

Bill Klaproth: Great stuff, all three of you. That is wonderful, Joel. Thank you so much for that. And thank you, Rob, David and Joel, for your time. This is really going to be a great podcast. David, let me start with you. This is going to be a great pre-conference session. The course is Healthcare Marketing Plans, Communications and Market Research. David, how did this whole thing get started?

David Marlowe: It really goes back about 15, 16 years ago. And I will give credit to Rob and Joel, because they really started this and then pulled me into it. But the basis was that a common insight that the focus of most of the education in healthcare marketing, certainly with SHSMD, tended to be more on attempts to talk about cutting edge, what were the latest and greatest tactics and approaches and so forth. And there wasn't a lot of conversations on basic core essentials. You sort of either knew them or you picked them up as you went along in the organization, and really nobody was teaching that. And we thought there was a significant gap out there and developed a course and it took some trial and error, but the fact that we're still doing it 16 years later, and probably what 1,000, 1500 hundred people later, there's clearly a need for it out there.

Bill Klaproth: Absolutely. So focusing on basic core essentials of healthcare marketing, that is really important. So let me ask each of you the exact same question. Someone might think, you know what, "Hey, I've got a degree, I got a job, I got the title. I really don't need this." So who is this course best designed for and why is it important they attend? Rob, let me start with you.

Rob Klein: Sure. As I said before, I teach the market research class. And my objective with the class is not to make market researchers out of anybody, but to take healthcare marketers and make them better buyers and users of market research. Because any data you look at could look good to you. So helping them understand how to determine good data versus bad data, because data is there to help you make a better decision. And if you have bad data, you can't possibly make a good decision .

Bill Klaproth: Yeah. In our world today, understanding data is crucial. Joel, let me go to you. From your point of view, who is this course best designed for and why is it important they attend?

Joel English: It's really designed for anybody who wants to be able to think about the building blocks of sound marketing and communications in the context of healthcare, because healthcare is a singular industry because of the impact of insurance and the impact of the government as a payer. There's a lot of things that makes healthcare little bit complicated, a little bit different than a lot of the industries that many of these folks are coming from. And I think what this session will do for them is not give them those building blocks, but it'll help them to be able to know how they need to be arranged and fit together in order to be most effective.

Bill Klaproth: Right. And David, how about you, your thoughts?

David Marlowe: Well, if you look at who's attended over the years, it does lean somewhat towards people who are either in more junior positions, if you will, entry level or marketing manager level positions or people new to the healthcare marketing sector. But you'd be surprised. I don't know if Joel and Rob concur, but you'd be surprised how many vice-president titles, for example, we've seen over the years attending. And I think a lot of that reflects the fact that people coming to healthcare marketing come from a lot of different backgrounds. And the fact that you are an expert perhaps in one particular component, maybe public relations for example, doesn't automatically mean you know every element that you have to know.

In my particular area, the planning side, the industry has gotten, I think, so hectic that there's a tendency to get away from any attempt to plan. And I think what we're trying to do is to get people to understand that even though it takes time to do it, having a good plan really heads off a lot of problems that shooting from the hip, if you will, can really generate.

Bill Klaproth: Right. And this session is going to cover three parts. So part one is market research. Rob, that's your area of expertise, right?

Rob Klein: Correct.

Bill Klaproth: And then part two is David, healthcare marketing plans that work. And then part three marketing communications. Joel, that's your end of this. So can you tell us about each? I'll ask each one of you to talk about your individual module and what will session-goers learn as far as additional skills and knowledge? And how can that benefit their hospital when they get back to the shop? And also career development, which is very important as well. So, Rob, can you start us off and talk about your module of market research?

Rob Klein: Absolutely. So we only have three weeks to do the online class and then in the upcoming in-person that we're going to be doing would even be shorter, in a matter of hours. So what we're going to do is give an overview of all of the different tools in the toolkit. But more importantly, we're going to talk about understanding why we do research, when we do research and then what tool do we pull out of the toolkit.

Too often we talk in terms of we need to do focus groups. Why? So really what I want to accomplish in the in-person workshop is understanding when to do research, why we're doing it, what business issue or decision do we have to make, where we feel that we need more information to make a more confident decision. So it's really backing up to the beginning of where do we put the boat in the water to begin with before we go down the rapids? Because just like going on the rapids, once you start market research, if you get too far out and you haven't designed it properly, you're not talking to the right people. You're not asking the right questions. It's very expensive and time-consuming to paddle back up. So it's so important in our class to really set the stage of when, why and how we do research.

Bill Klaproth: In that way, then you get better data. As you said, we need to interpret the data properly. So if we have incorrect data or corrupt data, that's not good either. Is that right, Rob?

Rob Klein: Correct. And if I can add too, the real purpose of market research is just to reduce the risk inherent in all decision-making.

Bill Klaproth: Okay. That's great. Thank you. And then David, and this kind of lines up, right? Market research first, then healthcare marketing plans next and then marketing communication. So David, you're part two then, healthcare marketing plans that work. Tell us about your module.

David Marlowe: The focus of the module is on the understanding of the process of doing the marketing planning. I use a lot of examples, but it's not meant to be marketing's greatest hits in 2022. It's more, you know, what do we have to do to have an effective marketing plan? And what I do is walk everybody through, "Okay. Here's how you get organized. Here's the realities of the politics." To Rob's point, you know, are you going to this plan with market research that was done back in the 1990s? And don't laugh, I see that.

So what is involved? What's the process? How do you do a market audit? What kind of information do you look at? How do you convert reams and reams of data into actual useful observations? How does that lead to a specific set of marketing strategies for the coming year or two? And then how does that lead to the specific quantifiable objectives, market actions? What are you actually going to do? And then finally, translating that all into a budget. Too much of the work we do in healthcare marketing, the budget is, shall we say, informal at best. And really a good budgeting process should come from a detailed marketing plan. So that's the focus of it. It's how do you do all this? Where are the pitfalls? What should you include? What do you not have to include? How do you get over the hurdle of "Boy, this takes time? I'm really busy"? Okay. How do we make it as simple as we can make it?

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's really good. So the process of a marketing plan, the proper process, which leads to strategy and then funnels all the way down leading to a budget. So we talked to Rob. We've got to do the research first, right? And then David, we're going to put the marketing plan together. And then once that's done, we are over to Joel with marketing communications. Joel, tell us about your module.

Joel English: What's exciting to me is, in the real world, if people have paid attention to Rob and to David, by the time marketing communications is in play, it's going to be based on sound data and smart business thinking, which then dramatically increases the success of marketing communications. And so my module actually builds on what Rob and David talked about. We begin with that as a starting point, and then we peel back the layers of branding to make sure that people really have an actionable, thoughtful way of building a brand value proposition that, as I mentioned before, represents that intersection point between the greatest aspirations and fears of the people we care for and our greatest accomplishments, passions, and resources.

And so, we talk a lot about branding, about brand value positioning. We talk about brand architecture, so that there is a sound brand foundation of core communications. Then, we peel that back further and we look at tools and approaches to make sure that we convert those insights into effective communications. We talked about what effective communications is and isn't, and then we extend it further to now, how do we get effective communications in front of the people that we want to in a way that will cause them to act. So we do spend quite a bit of time on digital and social, because those are two areas where we have an ability, not only to talk to people, but talk with them. And so we spent quite a bit of time in that area alone.

Bill Klaproth (host): Yeah. So speaking about spending a lot of time in a certain area, this pre-session is very intensive and lasts over a day and a half. Can you tell us more about the format of this?

David Marlowe: Yeah, it is a day and a half and we loaded a lot in a day and a half. I think Rob, Joel and I each have roughly three hours of actual course time. And then, we also do cap it off. We do have last presenter, Suzanne Henry from Renown Health. And what she does at the end really is what they used to call in graduate school a capstone case. It's pulling together elements of research and planning and communications to give an example of how it all comes together. It is a fair amount of day and a half. And then, you may well ask me this later, but besides attending the class, there is also the option of doing some online electives. We've got five or six, I think maybe seven of those, like as part of this and in specific topics such as pricing. And then, if you want the certificate for this, there are three tests, quizzes. If you want Rob's, he's got one. I've got one. Joel's got one. And it's not like taking the SATs. It's open book, but you do have to take some rigidity to the process. You do have to demonstrate that you've learned what comes out of the sessions before SHSMD issues a certificate.

Bill Klaproth: Well, this is really going to be a dynamite session. So let me ask you each additional thoughts on this from your own perspective, each teaching a different module. Just give us your final thoughts on this. We'd love to hear that. And Rob, let's start with you

Rob Klein: As I said before, data really is there to help reduce the risk inherent in all decision-making and data are the great equalizer. They end all arguments. Prior to starting my own company, I worked at a large market research firm and Procter and Gamble was one of our primary clients. And I spent a lot of time at their headquarters in meetings, presenting the research. And once the research really said, "This is what we need to do," there was no more debate. The decisions were made and they said go or no-go. And there was no argument of, "Oh, I like this" or "I like that." Whatever the data said, that drove the decision-making and that's why they are such a successful corporation.

So I use that analogy when I'm talking with students in the research class. Data is here to help you not uncover and say you have an ugly baby. It is there to help you make a better decision. I always tell people, "I'm not a market researcher. I'm in the career development business. I'm here to make you look good and help you get promotions and raises." That's really what data does by helping you make really good decisions.

Bill Klaproth: Data ends all debates. And I love how you put that you're really in the career development department. And that's a factor of courses like this, is that education that you're going to get from this and career advancement. So not only will it help you in your day-to-day job, but if you aspire to move up into other things, this can be really important. David, how about you? Any additional thoughts?

David Marlowe: Well, I've been at this for, I hate to say, 43 years. And one of the things I've observed over the recent years is the industry has gotten more and more reactive. And this is certainly true of healthcare marketing. I see our peers constantly reacting to the demands for this sort or things happening. And the problem with that is marketing starts edging into becoming order-takers. You know, where somebody comes running in and saying, "I need a billboard over on I-95," as opposed to being in the position of being internal experts and consultants. What you want is you want leaders coming to you and saying, "Here's an opportunity we have. Here's a challenge we have. How can marketing help us address that?"

So what I want to get is I want to help people get into a proactive mode, anticipating these requests, being able to be in a position to provide that consultative advice, not becoming a marketing restaurant and taking orders. That's what a good marketing plan helps you do. Nothing can stop all these unexpected requests. It's the nature of the industry. Things change overnight. But if you have a good planning process, you get a lot of that under control. You get a lot more proactive. You get a lot more out ahead of the curve.

To Rob's point about career advancement, I have found over the years that the people who have become the leaders in various organizations and systems around the country, the people who are giving the presentations at the annual conferences are those who have been able to get out of the reactive mode and become the proactive consultants.

Bill Klaproth: Such a great thought on not being reactive and being proactive instead. Such a great point. So thank you for bringing that up, David. And Joel, how about you? Any final thoughts?

Joel English: You know, we talked a lot about building blocks. Building blocks are very important to have a consistent replicable process that builds on data, broad-based business thinking in terms of planning, leading to communications. But the other thing that's really, really special about the session, the in-person session, is the value judgments that need to be made relative to your own circumstances and consider it to be the mortar, if you will. And so what you're going to learn is not only building blocks, you're going to meet people. You're going to essentially create your own group of people, people that you relate to, that you can resource. SHSMD does have communities which are great, but you'll have people that you met and connected with in the day and a half, including the SHSMD conference, if you stay for that as well. And that's really critical, not only for you to be able to make the best value judgments to be able to fit those building blocks together in the best way, but also because at various times, nobody has every answer. You're going to want to resource other people. And I'll tell you the reason why David and Rob and I are still leading the session now 16 years later is they were my people way back in the beginning of my relationship and we continue to resource each other, have done that throughout our careers. And so when you come to this session, not only are you going to meet people, but you're going to also be able to resource us. So you'll come out with people, and I think that's a very exciting advantage of this approach.

Bill Klaproth (host): Yeah such a great benefit. I know conferences like SHSMD have been so important in my own career development. But you're right, Joel. It's also about the people that you meet, the networking, the shared experience of going through these early career stages with people who become your friends and confidants throughout your whole career. This is really important and this is part of this as well. Is that right?

David Marlowe: Absolutely. Yeah. I don't know how anybody goes through a career in this field without having a network of peers. I know people who've done it, but I don't know how. It's very, very hard. You have to have people you can pick up the phone, send an email, communicate with, bounce things off of. It's absolutely critical. And this session is a good place to start that.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah. And the mentoring too, as Joel mentioned, they'll get to meet you, Rob and David and Joel, and maybe strike up a relationship and they can turn to you sometime. "Hey, we've got this question. How would you handle this?" or "What do you think about this?" I mean, that's so valuable in somebody's career that they can speak to somebody that's been through it all and has a different perspective and a perspective that they may need, right? So that mentoring too is really important. Is that right, Rob?

Rob Klein: Absolutely. I have students who have contacted me years later and say, "Oh, I remember taking your class at this SHSMD conference" or "I did the summer three-week online class five years ago, whatever. Here's a question I have." I've proofed surveys for people. That's the joy for us as we've been given this beautiful gift of 34 years of a career and all the friends that we've made, that we want to pay that forward. So we love it when a student comes back to us and says, "Can you help me with this? Or can you proof this? Am I on the right track?" That's just music to our ears.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, I think it was Joel that said that some of the people that are on the panels today are your former students. Is that right?

Joel English: Actually, the panel that we're going to be pulling in, Suzanne Hendry, I think has been a professional colleague for all of us at one point in time. And she'll be coming in and doing the capstone. But I would just reiterate what Rob said, and that is it's a joy for us to be able to give back because people gave to us, invested in us early in our careers.

And it's really neat. I mean, David's done everything twice and Robin's looked at the data on it. So you've got a tremendous resource base there. And I've miscommunicated about it at various points in time just for fun. But it is exciting for us to be able to be there. We learn from the conversation that takes place, not only the questions that are asked. We also learn from the hallway conversations and it makes us smarter and better at what we do. So it's a win-win all around.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah. And David, did you want to chime in too? I think you wanted to say something.

David Marlowe: You asked about the mentoring and Suzanne is going to join us, but I would point out that one of Suzanne's associates, one of the people that reports to her, has actually joined me. I do the marketing plan session occasionally separately in other places. And one of her staff has actually joined me in presenting that, and she attended our program four or five years ago. So here's a case where a student from the past has now joined and started helping to present it. That is really a very exciting thing when you start seeing people come along and people that you taught, whatever, 10, 15, 20 years ago, are now leading sessions at the annual conference. It's a great reward.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Rob, David and Joel, thank you so much for your time. We're really looking forward to this pre-conference session. And thank you again. We really appreciate it.

David Marlowe: You're welcome.

Joel English: Pleasure to be with you.

Rob Klein: Oh, thank you, Bill.

Bill Klaproth (host): And once again, that's Rob Klein, David Marlowe and Joel English. And join Rob, David and Joel, September 10th and 11th for SHSMD's Healthcare Marketing Credential, which is being offered as a pre-conference intensive at SHSMD Connections 2022 near Washington DC. Visit SHSMD.org, that's S-H-S-M-D.org/connections, to learn more. And if you found this podcast helpful, and of course, how could you not? Please people, please, share it on all of your social channels and hit the subscribe or follow button to get every episode. We talk about marketing all the time. This will help you in your career. This has been a production of DoctorPodcasting. I'm Bill Klaproth. See ya!