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.

Our new VP of SIGs, Rex Parsons, called a meeting of all the SIG chairs in July to talk about the program and make plans for improvements.

At the meeting were Erika Pryor for Social Media, Ann Beeson for B2B, John Hondroulis for Internet/e-Commerce (which we decided to change to “Interactive”), Dave Demarchi for the In-Transition group, Bill Troy for International and Lisa Bowers for Nonprofit.  Joining us was Martin Poston, new VP of Communications.

We kicked off the meeting with a short team-building exercise that I led using management tools from ADVISA.

In true marketing fashion we focused on research and communications.  Rex shared some key research on SIGs that showed the primary reason, by far, for people to decide on attending a SIG was the speaker.  Location, timing and networking opportunities were all much lower.  This highlights the focus that the SIGs must maintain on developing topics and speakers of high interest.

Rex also shared research showing which SIG areas were of greatest interest to our audience – there was a long list but all I can remember from that slide is that Health Care marketing (my team’s focus) had the lowest number.  Good thing I like a challenge!

Regarding content we discussed the growing importance of mobile technology and its impact on marketing.  This is an area all the SIGs hope to explore more in-depth in the upcoming year.  We also thought a day-long program focused on marketing involving all the SIGs might be a good approach to try – this would replace the regularly-scheduled morning programs for a time.

In the area of communications we discussed ways to improve the promotion of the SIGs.  We plan to move the initial email blast earlier in the promotion cycle and increase the frequency.  Martin is also looking at how to improve the interaction with the event registration program – currently there are very few people with the training necessary to effectively use the system.  The website was another key topic – it needs a bit of help, for example the names of people associated with the SIGs (yours truly, included) had not been updated as of the time we met.

We also committed ourselves to goals to increase attendance and membership recruitment – which means we have to improve the content of the meetings, the speakers we include and communication of all this.

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – Topic TBD! 

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.

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!

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.

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:

• Training for event participants – so they understand the business goals for the event and don’t get too caught up in any of the fun or entertainment designed for the guests
• Plan for real-time course corrections during the event – stay on top of what is happening and make changes as necessary to stay on track toward your goals
• Utilize email and text messaging to attendees during tradeshows to draw traffic to your booth or presentations or parties
• Leverage Linkedin discussion groups to build a buzz about your tradeshow activities and promote appointments at your booth

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.

At best, the massive Deepwater Horizon spill could be seen as the necessary price to be paid for our reliance on hazardous petrochemicals to fuel our way of life.  What is especially disturbing, and may prove fatal to the BP brand, is that the drilling platform operation seemed to ignore serious safety warnings in the interest of corporate profit.

Such profit-driven shortcuts are bound to happen, too.  They might be seen as the inevitable price of the an efficient capitalist marketplace.  What is especially galling in this case, however, is that BP – and the oil industry in general – had no fallback solution to such a catastrophe once it took place.  The only good thing that can be said about all the attempts to “cap” the leak is that they made hilarious fodder for a Saturday Night Live skit.

Finally, and this may the final nail in the coffin – BP’s leadership took months to develop an effective PR strategy to minimize the impact on their brand.  Time will tell if the corrective action is too little, too late for the brand as whole.

For me, anything with the BP logo became toxic when evidence surfaced that they played fast and loose with necessary safety standards.

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences that led to my chairing the Healthcare SIG. This edition describes what happened when I had to assume my duties earlier than planned.

If doing it yourself is the best training then I got excellent training in how to manage a SIG event in advance of assuming my full responsibilities as Chair. My predecessor was scheduled to manage our May event, the final one of his tenure, but a change of business plans meant he’d be out of town and he asked me to take over – so I did.

I had been looking forward to closely observing the operation of the May event so I’d be fully prepared for the next one. But, as I often say in my consulting work, “Flexibility is my middle name” – one simply has to adjust to circumstances and make the best of it.

Thankfully I’d already met the team that would be handling key elements of the program – such as ensuring the location would be ready at 7AM the morning of the event and taking care of registrations when people began to arrive.

What I now had to do was establish contact with the planned speaker for the May event, Brenda Stier, CEO of Marketing Works, so I could get acquainted and prepare to introduce her at the event. The topic of her talk was “Event-Driven Marketing.” It felt odd to me that I was going to be introducing a complete stranger at a public event but at least our brief phone conversation made me a bit more comfortable with the situation. I learned that Brenda’s enthusiasm for experiential marketing comes, in part, from her own enjoyment of in-person contact. She loves to make connections with people by looking them in the eye, in person, and that told me enough to look forward to meeting her myself!

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Even-Driven Marketing: What’s the Payoff?”

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.

Previous versions of “The SIG Chronicles” described my experiences that led to my chairing the Healthcare SIG.  This edition covers my attempts to get a handle on what the group needed to accomplish as I took on this responsibility.

As a business professional I’m sometimes frustrated by the haphazard and incomplete planning and organization that takes place in many volunteer activities.  This is certainly NOT my experience with the Columbus Marketing Association (CMA).

An outstanding example of volunteer organization and accountability is Ray Smith, VP of Communications for the CMA when I first got involved with this blog.  Also, when I asked what resources I could draw on in planning for the SIG I was emailed an electronic copy of the 21 page manual that, somewhere in all those pages, I found the answers to my primary questions.  Finally, the CMA has a highly professional administrative support person who handles many of the necessary details in the team’s work.

The key challenge in being chair of a CMA SIG is to identify and recruit speakers or panels to address topics of interest regarding the SIG’s focus.  The goal is to have your schedule fleshed out six months in advance – so this means having 3-4 events nailed down at any one time.  When I started working on the SIG we had only one lined up.

Luckily, at the March SIG event I met a speaking candidate who eventually became my first recruit.  To reduce the goal of finding more speakers to something more concrete I developed a scheduling document that summarized our status and upcoming events dates and possible speakers – looking forward a full 12 months.  Working this schedule with my fellow volunteers we got a six-month plan filled out in time for the next event in May.

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Surprise!  Premature Leadership!”

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.

Injecting a sense of urgency into your customers is more important than ever and I will never argue against this time-honored marketing tradition.

However, after watching the local news on television last week, I found there is a limit.

It had been months since I watched the local news. Last week, I caught the first fifteen minutes of the late evening news. The over-the-top program has reached breakneck speeds in instilling urgency into their viewers.

Every story is infused with drama. The news anchors started with “breaking news” and breathlessly plunged ahead to “developing stories.” Back and forth between the anchors and reporters “on the scene,” the segments were presented with high-energy (the news anchors do not even sit down anymore to read the news) and a lot of hand gesturing.

The set-up to the segments nearly dares viewers not to watch.

I turned the channel halfway through the program.

As important as it is to keep your customers on the edge of their proverbial seats, there is a fine line between driving them to action and wearing them out.

I was worn out before they even got to the weather report.

Neal Roberts’ eyes light up when he advocates for more bicycle riding.  He speaks from the heart when he describes how “micro-entrepreneurs” are creating new economic momentum in Central Ohio.  What is cool in his life today is the way he has integrated these two passions, his professional skills and personal life into a balanced whole.

My “Profiles in Cool” radar lit up when I heard Neal speak about the “2 by 2012” campaign his advertising agency – Adrenaline Branding + Marketing – was developing for Consider Biking.  Neal is an avid cyclist and the drive to boost Columbus’ currently abysmal alternative transportation usage has his heart pumping as much as the daily 34-mile roundtrip ride from his German Village office to his home.

His enthusiasm isn’t just for the actual goal of the campaign, though, it also infuses his creative approach to the marketing challenge itself.  Demonstrating marketing artistry that any business leader would love to claim as their own, Neal’s campaign simplified a dry statistical objective regarding transportation usage into an easy to understand goal of having people commute by alternative transportation just two days per month by 2012.  Then, when creating the logo for the campaign, he built on the common behavior of cyclists’ acknowledging each other with a wave when passing in opposite directions.  This bond of solidarity is an important morale-booster when persevering against vehicular traffic and weather conditions.  The 2 by 2012 logo incorporates a two-finger peace sign as an encouragement to use this symbol among cyclists (you can view the logo at Consider Biking’s website).

He created the co-working business when his own work-from-home plan foundered on endless distractions and a paucity of professional interaction.  He needed a place to work where he could be with others and away from home – but still be the solitary business person in his current professional situation (collaborating with colleagues in other states).  He wanted to be in the midst of entrepreneurial energy, not just because he respects people with that drive, but he sees the economic future belonging to people who can harness the productivity new technology provides to do more with less – including less massive organizational structures.  In that spirit, rather than search out a provider of co-working services he created his own!

No better market research than that – if you need something, chances are that many others need the same thing!

When I spoke with Neal he was in the midst of the final plans for a May 17 launch of the “2 by 2012” campaign involving a bike ride from the OSU Gateway area to the Statehouse involving 70 local leaders – including Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman.  It was a “great project,” in Neal’s view, because it combined passion and pressure.  The launch went off in a drizzling rain, suitable, perhaps, since to achieve 2 by 2012 in Central Ohio people will need to have many such intimate experiences with inclement weather.

Running an advertising business from his own co-working business and pursuing his passion in cycling both personally and professionally – and balancing this with family commitments – Neal is doing the things he loves, and that is very, very cool.

Author’s Note:  This “Profiles in Cool” blog series puts the spotlight on folks in Central Ohio doing “cool” things in the field of marketing.  My definition of “cool” is 100% subjective – I welcome your comments!

Earlier in “The SIG Chronicles” I described how I got involved in the Columbus AMA and wound up chairing the Healthcare SIG.  This edition records my impressions upon attending my first-ever Healthcare SIG event.

Part of the fun in taking on any new challenge is the little bit of thrill one gets in experiencing the unknown.  Admittedly, the thrill of finding an office in the predawn darkness of Powell, Ohio, on March 25, 2010 isn’t going to rank high on anyone’s list of lifetime memories, but, first impressions do stick with you for awhile.  So as I pulled into this new (to me) parking lot it was good to see other marketing professionals arrive at 7 in the morning in preparation for our program that day.

The presentation, “The Day Marketing Saved a Life” by Laura McCoy, VP of Marketing and Communications for OhioHealth, was quite excellent.  It focused on a comprehensive OhioHealth marketing campaign whose crowning achievement was the video advertisement of their patient from Ireland who had some vascular surgery on his leg which avoided possible amputation. 

 The line that stuck with me the first time I saw the ad – and in Laura’s presentation I learned was the result of almost two complete days of filming in Ireland with the patient – went along the lines of “Doctor’s told me I might lose my leg, which was really bad news because I wasn’t done using it.”

Like most creative breakthroughs, that line came about because of outstanding marketing work in framing the strategy and pursuing stellar execution.

What I also spent time doing that day, though, was paying attention to the logistics and teamwork necessary to pull the event off.  The registration table at the event is the culmination of advance work involving a web communication team and event administrator, plus leadership coordination of materials and site requirements, plus volunteer commitments to pull the whole thing together at the event itself.  Refreshments involve leadership preparation, planning and finally execution in getting up early enough to have stuff ready at the site by 7AM – no mean feat.

Laura’s involvement and presentation, I learned, was the result of months of pre-planning and content preparation.  To the casual attendee all this advance work is not visible – all you see is a smooth-running program and thought-provoking communication in an environment conducive to networking with other Central Ohio marketing professionals.

Next in “The SIG Chronicles” – “Planning the Work”

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.