Archive for the 'Marketing Trends' Category

06
Feb
13

“2013 Health Care Advertising: Looking for Answers”

By Tracy Weise 2 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Business growth, Business Strategies, business to consumer, Communications, health, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, internet marketing, lead generation, Marketing Trends, Mobile advertising, Predictions and Social Media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Here is a preview of my featured article,”2013 Health Care Advertising: Looking for Answers,“ seen in the February issue of The Review.

To read the entire article, click here.

With the future of health care evolving, consumer behavior and attitudes must be examined. Weise Communications Co-founder and President Tracy Weise offers her top five suggestions for health care advertising and consumer engagement for 2013.

1.            Create Medical Communities through Social Media

Hospitals and health care systems can optimize outreach to educate consumers by moving beyond corporate websites and creating a strong social media presence via social media sites, blogs, referrals and webinars.

2.             Increase Engagement with Mobile Media

As more consumers utilize their smart phones and tablets for Web browsing, medical apps will allow consumers to order medication, set appointments, learn about health initiatives and obtain the contact information of health care institutions.

3.            Take a Broad Approach to Community Wellness

Online and offline advertising communication messages featuring, “well care” not just “sick care” will motivate consumers to take control of their own health in order to decrease hospital readmissions.

4.            Be Keenly Aware of the Competition

In order to prevent patients from traveling far and wide seeking optimal doctors and ideal medical costs, health care advertising can lesson competition for the health care consumer by creating specific and consistent messages to target audiences.

5.            Show Sensitivity for Consumer Anxiety Through Proactive, Targeted Communications

Health care institutions can ease consumer fears of the changing health marketplace by emphasizing positive messages about health care changes, providing dedication to community health, and advocating for the most profitable health care institutional services.

 

19
Dec
12

Healthcare Marketing Predictions for 2013

By Mark Plumb 2 Comments
Categories: Communications, health, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Healthcare reform, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Predictions and SHSMD
Tags: , , , , , , ,

X_Ray_Heart_by_mmattes_GreenBlack1With the major healthcare reform provisions slated to take effect in 2014, less than 13 months away, Weise Communications believes 2013 will be a year of preparing for those changes to occur. As we have spent the last year with physicians, medical practitioners, highly publicized medical facilities and budding health and wellness entrepreneurs, we have compiled our list of healthcare marketing predictions for 2013.

Physicians and medical professionals will embrace technology to enhance the patient experience. We foresee software as a service (SaaS) combining with platform as a service (PaaS) to provide cloud-based solutions that will enhance EMR and patient communications.

Consumers are abandoning PC/desktop computers, the entire medical community will need to adapt to tablets and mobile. 2013 will be the year that the luxury of a mobile optimized website will no longer be optional.

HIPAA for mobile will be a massive concern for 2013, so EMR costs will continue to rise. Mobile will be an extraordinary opportunity for marketers in 2013.

More than ever before, patients are becoming advocates for their own health and wellness. They are relying on sources like WebMD and Everyday Health for information. Also, they are using social media for validation and referrals. There will be more pressure on medical facilities to embrace social media to ensure accurate information is being delivered from a reputable source.

Franchising and licensing will continue to be a business model that ensures affordable and accessible healthcare treatment options. It will also provide an alternative to the increasing amount of government involvement in the healthcare decision-making process.

Let us know your healthcare marketing prediction for 2013, and we’ll plan on discussing how accurate we are at SHSMD 2013 in Chicago. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

 

12
Dec
12

Healthcare Advertising: E-Cigarettes; Messaging Targets Many Audiences

By Tracy Weise 12 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Branding, cigarettes, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Reputation and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The marketing of Electronic Cigarettes, the “cigarette alternative,” is becoming more aggressive and reaching larger audiences. While these devices have been available for several years, the advertising is now reaching new venues. Advertising can be seen on cable TV and is pervasive with online videos. Websites clad with sexy women in sultry positions and superhero men puffing on electronic cigs are easy to find. Adding in fun and young flavors such as bubblegum, strawberry, chocolate and peach and you have a whole fun new and sexy category of safe smoking. This ultimately creates a market for e-cigs that include non-smokers.

Image

Image

Image

Image

An article by Anthony Nagy from Business Insider discusses the advertising messages presented by manufacturers of e-cigs. I agree with Nagy’s overall assessment that the marketers are missing an opportunity to message the health benefits of the devices. If, as proponents state, it is true that this is a great alternative for those addicted to the unhealthy habit of smoking, then shouldn’t the messages tailored for smokers include this health message?

We did find one such an example:

Image

The New York Times suggests that many of the current campaigns are reminiscent of iconic cigarette ads. Clearly those campaigns were successful and with the prevalence of online ordering, it is a strong possibility that a youth market will be intrigued and motivated by the campaigns. After all, what teenager does not want to be sexy and strong? Without the prevalence of the aforementioned health messaging, however, I wonder if the campaigns will be the first step in developing young smokers? Is it possible that e-cigarettes could the gateway to smoking real cigarettes rather than (or in addition to) the bridge to quit?

What do you think about the marketing for e-cigs? Are they reaching audiences in the right way? Will the marketing of these devices lead to a healthier society with less smoking or create a new era of people who jump from electronic cigarettes to real ones?

Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise Ideas.

13
Nov
12

From Ice Cream Sandwiches to SEO

By Mark Plumb 7 Comments
Categories: business to consumer, Google, Marketing Trends, Mobile advertising, mobile marketing, Search engine and SEO
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I just got my Android Smartphone firmware and software update to the latest Android Platform called Ice Cream Sandwich. Do you know what was the most noticeable change? Voice-activated Google.

Say What?

I’m serious. I can now conduct a Google search by speaking into my phone. This got me to think about the impact to SEO.  Voice search is not new, iPhone 4S Siri is basically voice activated search. However, with a direct voice activated Google search, I see the popularity of voice search taking off.

One of the interesting differences: when I am typing, I see projected search suggestions. That won’t happen while I am speaking. Also while typing, I am more likely to keep adding modifiers to whittle down my search results. I don’t think that will happen while I am speaking. We tend to speak naturally even when using voice activated software and that will mean a different set of search results.

Also, the accuracy of uncommon searches that are spoken can be challenging. For example, I wanted to search about the General Petraeus Affair, my spoken search result was “general betray us affair.” As I think about it, the search results probably would have taken me to the same place.

One other difference, voice activated users will need to see search results in a more consumer friendly format. I’ll accept fewer results but I’ll definitely need a better idea of where the results will take me.

For marketers, there is one thing I see that will be very important in the future – Video Optimization. All marketers will need to pay close attention to their video descriptions and how it can be shared on social networks. Think about how the video will be searched when spoken as well as keywords for typed searches. With the number of Smartphone users growing and two of the favorite activities being watching videos and sharing them on Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest, implementing good SEO practices will reap benefits.

Let us know what you think the impact of searching out loud will have on SEO. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

03
Apr
12

QR Codes – Unfulfilled Potential: The Next Big Thing or Robot Barf

By Mark Plumb 4 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Mobile advertising, mobile marketing, QR Code and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

The possibilities seemed limitless. QR codes allow consumers with mobile devices to access great content, in-depth information and a higher level of engagement. Yet, companies consistently botch the execution of QR codes.

Back in August of 2010, The Side Note wrote about QR codes for the first time. The inspiration for that article was a Calvin Klein billboard in New York City linked to a video that could not be aired on broadcast television in the U.S. At that time, we saw QR codes as a cutting-edge way for businesses to reach consumers. Little did we know, the Calvin Klein billboard would be one of the better executions of a QR code. It teased to create interest, it clearly identified the sponsor and it delivered content that could not be accessed in another way.

Frankly, the blame for QR code failure lies with marketers. QR codes are simple to use, however the delivery of content requires more finesse and significantly better execution by marketing experts. Since consumers don’t know what the QR code does before they scan it, companies need to reward them for stepping into the unknown.

These errors are frustrating because the majority of these mistakes are the marketing version of basic blocking and tackling errors in football. We’ve categorized errors into three types: stupid, lazy and ignorant.

  • The stupid… the content linked to the QR code is not optimized for a mobile device – this is forehead smacking stupidity.
  • The lazy… businesses use a QR code to direct consumers to their business website – too boring, you have to include more engaging, exclusive and interesting content; Bonus error: if the website is not mobile optimized – that error is both stupid and lazy.
  • The ignorant… simply putting a QR code on an ad with the assumption that consumers know what to do – a friend recently said to me, “These things look like a robot barfed, what do I do with it?”

A little more about the ignorant errors, you would assume that college students would be on the forefront of innovation. Research company Archrival surveyed 500 students at 24 colleges and universities. In the study, Archrival found that although 80 percent of the students owned a smartphone and had seen a QR code, only 21 percent were able to successfully scan the QR code used in the study. A legitimate argument can be made that preloaded software on smartphones with an easier way to scan the codes will increase understanding and if people understand it, they will use it.

However, I believe that the payoff needs to be better. The content someone receives when scanning a QR code needs to deliver undeniable value. For example, give me a discount on something I want. Make something available to me because I scanned the code that others cannot get. Show me something amazing that I can’t see everywhere else. Too often the result of scanning a QR code (assuming I’m successful) is a massive letdown.

Today, I mostly see QR codes sending me to a standard company website. The same website I can get with a simple Google search. This key insight is most succinctly stated in this article from Sean X Cummings, “People will not adopt a technical solution that serves to replace a manual task, if that solution is less efficient than the manual task it replaces.”

Overall, the message to fellow marketing professionals is…step your game up!

20
Mar
12

And it Has Changed…Again.

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Brand Loyalty, Business growth, Business Strategies, business to consumer, Facebook, internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Social Media and Social Networking
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Just when we all have gotten used to the “new” look of Facebook, the beast has evolved once again.

It seems that Facebook is trying to keep people on their toes with the endless face-lifts, and while most of us struggle to figure out how to simply maneuver to view photos, businesses are using the new Timeline to their full advantage.

How you ask? Here are a few perks of the new Timeline that will get your company ready for the switch:

  • Cover photo and profile image

Instead of just one small image to represent your brand, you can now also use another image as your cover photo. This photo spans the top of your page and is the background for your smaller profile image.

  • Large pinned posts

 Timeline will not allow you to create a default-landing page, however you can manage the posts that appear on your wall.  By moving a pinned post to the top of your wall, you can keep the most important and intriguing information and images in the forefront.

  • Ability to set company milestones

 The Milestone section of your Timeline can update your fans about big events in the life of your company.  People can visually see the history of your company and relate past experiences to themselves and other companies similar to you.

  • Facebook Offers

 Similar to the Facebook Deals seen on the old Facebook format, the Facebook Offers are sent out to your fans via the news feeds.  Not only is this more visible, but it is more personable when they click to claim the offer and it is sent directly to their email.

Whether you are a new company or a mature one, the new Timeline can help to increase awareness of your brand and expand your network.

Give it a go, and let us know how the re-facing of Facebook is working for you, or if you need help adjusting- give us a call!

27
Feb
12

Move over Facebook, there is a new social media channel in town

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business growth, business to consumer, Creative, internet marketing, Marketing Trends, PInterest, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, Top Web sites and Web sites
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pinterest has turned the act of “pinning” into a downright obsession among its 10 million users, providing never-ending pages of images that suck you in and leave you scrolling for more.  Needless to say, this site has taken procrastination to the next level.

Maybe it is the ease of pinning a variety of interests to your own boards that other people can “like” as well, or maybe it is just simply enticing because of the wealth of diverse images at your fingertips.  In any case, the female fan base has found reason to take up pinning as their new hobby.

Not only is Pinterest surpassing Facebook, Tumblr and the like in driving traffic to top websites such as marthastewartweddings.com, cookinglight.com, and self.com but according to The Week, it is doing so at an exponential rate unseen in other social media channels.

Once an image is repined, it is exposed to an entire new circle of people.  A cycle of advertising exposure that is essentially never-ending.

It makes sense, then, that businesses should jump on board this speed train.   And that, my friends, is exactly what is happening.  Because when it comes down to it, this is target marketing at its finest.

Businesses considering Pinterest can:

  1. Create their own pin boards that represent their company and their values. Think past and future designs, products, interesting product uses, ect.
  2. Smaller companies can even go as far as pinning interests that its employees have, making their company more personally relatable.
  3.  Add pin buttons (similar to the Facebook “like” button) to their website so people surfing their site can follow their boards on Pinterest.
  4. Feature new and upcoming products on these boards so the company can get a feel for the popularity based on the number of repins.  In short, it is test marketing without the legwork.

Obviously Pinterest is a great social media channel for any company who is advertising products that can be represented visually (food, magazines, fashion, automobiles, home improvement, art, etc.).   But it doesn’t have to stop there.  For instance, travel agencies can use visually enticing beaches or monuments to capture attention and fitness centers can use images of fit models to make people stop, think and click for more.

When it comes down to it, the basic psychology is this: people want to share their interests, but more importantly they want what everyone else has.  The higher the repin number, the more appealing that product becomes and the more attention it gets.

What do you think about Pinterest and how is your company including it in your social media efforts?  Have you pinned today?

16
Jan
12

Franchise Marketing: Blogs For Franchisors

By Tracy Weise 6 Comments
Categories: Blogs, Franchise, Franchising, Marketing, Marketing Trends and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , ,

The contributors of The Side Note read, a lot. As employees of an agency that values continued education and is constantly seeking better ideas and solutions, we have managed to find many blogs we value. We want to share some of our favorites. This posting will focus on our favorite blogs for Franchisors.

There are countless blogs that provide franchisees and perspective franchisees all the nitty gritty details about franchising. We chose to ignore most of those. We read blogs that help franchisors and their corporate staff who support the franchise system. The following blogs fall within that framework.

Our Favorite Blogs For Franchisors

1. The New York Times: You’re The Boss Blog

This blog is fantastic for all sorts of great information on running a business. They also throw in franchise-specific blogs. Many of the postings are real-life examples, not just theoretical, which makes this our favorite business blog.

2. The Entrepreneur Blog

We love it because you can search for blogs on marketing, franchising, technology, money, etc. Well written and a great publication to boot.

3. Inc’s Franchise Section

Stories in the Inc franchise section are about franchising success, franchise growth and business ideas. It is a great news source and case study section for franchise executives. (Cheers to our friends Ron Lynch of the Tilted Kilt and Shelly Sun of BrightStar for making Inc’s 2012 top Franchises!)

4. Open Forum: American Express

All business executives should keep an eye on this blog. The contributors of Open Forum stay on the pulse of business trends and national news that impacts business.

5.  Duct Tape Marketing

This blog provides great insight into small business marketing. Good for the franchisor leadership and marketing teams for helping their franchisees keep on top of marketing themselves within their communities.

6. The Business Owner Blog

A Franchise system dedicated to growing businesses, The Alternative Board publishes a blog focused on just that – business growth. Franchisors in all areas care about growth and can learn tips from The Business Owner Blog.

7. The Franchise King

Against our original specifications, this next blog is NOT oriented to franchisors, The Franchise King is written for potential franchisees. He provides insight to people looking to own a franchise as well as helping them determine if they are cut out for franchising. Many of his tips can be helpful to franchisors in determining how your franchise system looks to potential buyers. He also points out some grave mistakes made by franchisees – issues that franchisors can use as teachable moments for their system. Because of his significantly high readership, franchisors need to know what he is saying because their prospects franchisees will know.

Finally – don’t forget to subscribe to The Side Note Blog to get your ongoing updates for integrated marketing, advertising and PR for franchise systems.

Did we miss one of your favorite blogs for the franchising industry? Be sure to tell us about it here!

29
Sep
11

Franchise Healthy: Mascot Out, Guacamole In

By Tracy Weise 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Franchise, Franchising, Health and Wellness, Marketing, Marketing Trends and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Burger King Retires their King Mascot in Favor of a Fresher Menu

In the past several years, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR) have starting implementing healthier menus to reach a larger demographic of customers.  This new craze has helped many restaurants increase sales and use new marketing and advertising campaigns to draw in a previously untapped audience of healthier consumers.

The Burger King franchise recently (finally) decided to jump on the healthy trend.  Burger King, the home of the Whooper, is attempting to re-brand the system by adding a fresher approach in their fast-food menu which began with the success of the new Whopper Bars.  The Whopper Bar is a concept designed to create a more “gourmet” atmosphere for “Whopper Connoisseurs.”  With an open kitchen concept and the “create your own Whopper” menu, Burger King was aiming to reach new markets and satisfy new types of customers.  Due to the success of the Whopper bars, Burger Kings is dethroning the King mascot in favor of a fresher approach to advertising that reflects the new menu.

Freshness and healthy meals are some of the most important categories that are increasingly emphasized in the fast food world.  Competitors of Burger King began this new approach a while ago. McDonalds’s started the trend with healthy alternatives such as oatmeal, sliced apples, and salads. Subway also launched its new avocado topping and even the Cheesecake Factory has their new skinnyliciouse menu (can you use the words skinny and cheesecake in the same sentence???). Guacamole, oatmeal, and other healthy foods have proven to be very appealing to mothers and health-enthusiasts, which could be an untapped for Burger King.

Below is Burger King’s new TV spot. Its refreshing in so many ways, most notably because its not a Peeping Tom wearing a crown.

Burger King might be a little late catching up with the new changing food trends, however this new strategy will most likely prove to bring a wider consumer market into the historically  successful Burger King franchise system. According to an AdAge article, a survey by YouGov’s BrandIndex among people who had visited fast-food restaurants in the hamburger category in the last month — the same time that Burger King launched the campaign for the California Whopper — their perception of Burger King had gone from a 24.2 before the ad aired to a 34.3 just two days after the launch of the spot. (YouGov BrandIndex’s scores range from -100 to 100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive.)

Have you seen other industry trends that companies should jump in to increase market share & revenue? Tell us about it here or visit our Facebook page.

20
Sep
11

Top Ten Things We Learned at SHSMD2011

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Business Strategies, Communications, Facebook, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Healthcare reform, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Public Relations, SHSMD, Social Media and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Attendees of SHSMD2011 are all dealing with re-entry work, attempting to sync their Poken and evaluating to-do lists based on the SHSMD conference. While everyone will have their personal take-aways, Jay Weise and I developed a top ten list of things we heard and learned in Phoenix.

1. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes provisions about IRS oversight of requirements that nonprofit healthcare providers must meet in order to maintain their tax-exempt status. Nonprofit organizations are seeking assistance to track community benefit programs and keep it in a format approved by the IRS. This is an opportunity for the right company.

2. HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a national survey that asks patients about their experiences during a recent hospital stay.  When will the general public adopt HCAHPS as criteria they use to select a hospital? Unfortunately, there is a lot of focus by hospital administration on these scores, but no evidence that a patient is using it in the hospital selection process.

3. The new buzzword, ‘Patient Experience’ Not patient-centered, not patient-centric, not patient-focused…Patient Experience.  This is intended to represent the totality of the interactions and perceptions of interactions between the patient and the health care facility. Patients with a more favorable experience are more likely to adhere to treatment protocol, have a positive outcome and provide favorable recommendations to others.

4. A big question from the conference: is government mandated health care constitutional? When will a ruling that provides certainty occur? How much legislative change will occur to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prior to the large provisions taking effect in 2014?

5. From Michael Sachs’ keynote presentation on Friday, Constitutionality ruling on healthcare reform will not affect the macro trends in the healthcare industry.

6. Hospitals are waiting for someone to figure out a strategy for Accredited Care Organizations (ACO’s) before they adopt it. Right now there is too much uncertainty and confusion. ACO’s are too far away from current Key Performance Indicators.

7. From Jeff Bauer’s keynote presentation on Saturday, “By 2020, there will be more people living in the United States under 18 that were born outside the U.S. than were born inside the U.S.” The impact on medical treatments will be far-reaching. For example, men of Korean descent do not have the genetic enzyme to process the anti-depression drug, serotonin. How will this effect care, drug protocols, pharmaceutical company focus and online information?

8. Marketing strategist in healthcare organizations are the only people in the organization that can bring the customers point of view to strategy. Hospital Administrators are counting on the marketing strategist voice. Marketers need to speak up.

9. Healthcare marketers must consider the system of care is not inside the hospital walls, it is outside of it. Healthcare marketing strategists must take the leadership position and consider all entry points including: the website, community events, referral lines, physician offices, etc.

10. Integration across multiple platforms of data and across functional areas within a medical facility must occur to provide value to patients. The cost-efficiencies will be mandated in health care reform and are essential in a competitive environment.

Maybe we should have called this a top fourteen list because we have to include some of our favorite quotes:

“Patients fear rude doctors and nurses more than death.” – Colleen Sweeney, Director of Innovation, Ambassador, and Customer Services,
Memorial Health System, South Bend, IN

“HIPAA is the mullet of patient safety, your data is not as protected as you think.” – David McDonald, CEO, True North Custom Media, Chattanooga, TN

“Be realistic when setting Facebook goals for any hospital. Who really wants to LIKE a hospital?” – Dean Browell, Executive Vice President, Feedback, Richmond, VA

“The FDA has rejected many new cancer drugs because they were tested on the wrong kinds of cancer.” – Jeffrey C. (Jeff) Bauer, Ph.D. Health Futurist and Medical Economist, Chicago, IL

Want to find out more about what we learned at SHSMD 2011? Give us a call. Want to add to this list, share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

« Previous Entries

Share The Side Note

Facebook Twitter More...

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,044 other followers

Weise Twitter

Archives

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,044 other followers