mommyjenlin

Marketers in the technology sector have made significant strides in developing and deploying their marketing performance measurement(MPM) strategies. Most have moved beyond the unrealistic quest to establish the perfect return on investment (ROI) metric, and have developed a solid marketing operations area that focuses on maintaining a set of pragmatic marketing performance objectives and metrics. Even so, many companies remain behind the MPM development curve, with the economic, marketplace, and corporate pressures continuing to grow. Where are the best practice leaders today (i.e., MPM 2.0), and what does their next generation MPM process look like? Here's a quick look at the state of the industry today for MPM based upon a recent study by IDC's CMO Advisory Service: Marketing Operations is "leading the charge" to improve the group's measurement process and drive analytical rigor across the organization in addition to the more familiar art of marketing. (refer t...

Or as the Rolling Stones put it, I can't get no... satisfaction. My very second blog last year was on patient satisfaction. Well, I said it then and I will say it again, its more than the hotel services. Its not entertainment so Disney doesn't work well in serious life and death situations. Its about understanding and creating a culture of satisfaction which most healthcare professionals and organizations are clueless about. Clueless organizationally and clueless from a leadership perspective. So in the interest if time, here is the voice from the wilderness again...... The Patient Satisfaction Imperative Ever wonder why in the healthcare industry that satisfaction is sometimes so hard to come by? That is not to say that every hospital or health system has a satisfaction or service problem. There are many exemplary examples of service focused healthcare organizations that day-in and day-out deliver high levels of patient and physician satisfaction. Yet, in an industry where we ...

SSM Healthcare SSM Healthcare in St. Louis, MO, announced that they will be closing St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Blue Island, Illinois after years of sustaining losses for that hospital in eight figure range annually. In the press reports SSM could not even give it way. They have taken some hits in the media, but decision like this are never taken lightly. I know some of the senior leadership at SSM and I can assure you that they took this decision with the greatest of care and deliberation. Mission has always come first. And I do agree that SSM has to consider the viability of the system as a whole to carry out their mission of service and care to all. Sometimes one part must be sacrificed so that the mission can continue on for the greater good. What is missed in all of this is question: where were the other Catholic systems in the Chicago area, Provena, Resurrection, Loyola, and St. James, Palos Community (yes they are Catholic but keep it a secret), Mercy and St. Jose...

IDC just completed its 4 th annual Sales & Mktg . Effectiveness Summit. This was a full day event in NYC that included a great line-up of executive speakers from Careerbuilder , Akamai , Salesforce .com, ESPN, American Express and others. Although this certainly won't do the event justice, here are a couple of the "gold nuggets" that I took away from the event: Sales may be the "top scorer" in your company, but marketing most likely has the most "assists". [Mary Delaney, Chief Sales Officer, Careerbuilder .com] Do your sales & marketing teams appreciate the contribution of each group as well as the need to work as a team? "Candor", not "Cancer". [Delaney] That is, honest feedback can either be brought to the right person/team so that something can be done about it - Candor; or it can spread to every other individual in the organization resulting in lack of action and a reduction in efficiency and moral-Cancer. (I believe M...

The last couple of weeks have been interesting in the world of hospital marketing. It was one of those what were they thinking moments. Let me set the stage. A new hospital opens in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It has been under construction for two years and is the first new greenfield hospital in 25 years. Looks like a major PR opportunity but no. The marketing consisted of some billboards without any mention of location, one full page advertisement, and one direct mail piece. Most of which happened during that two years before the hospital opens. Now that's useful. So what do they do, open the hospital, a couple of newspaper stories and a billboard way off the expressway and a radio commercial. Build it and they will come mentality. Guess what? People are not coming. So for the last couple of weeks high on top of the hospital, the Adventist's and yes its Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital puts a giant black sign with white letters saying "NOW OPEN". Oh, I bet that will draw ...

Its been a short while since I have posted. The main reason being the wealth of new knowledge and lessons learned at the American College of Healthcare Executives, 75th Annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership. The theme of this years Congress was Redefining Healthcare. Much to ponder from new insights and understandings. An under-current of thought at the Congress was the sense that healthcare is undergoing some fundamental restructuring. No, not the kind that really addresses the underlying systemic process and care issues, not the "medicalized" social issues like the estimated 47 million men, women and children without health insurance, nor the crisis in Medicare solvency. The kind of change that over a generation will have a basic and fundamental shift based on the transparency of quality and data reporting. Where we were Healthcare in general for far too long, has been mired in secrecy and arrogance. No data releases, no voluntary reporting of adverse events, little effo...

Well, we've just completed our 6th annual technology marketing barometer study, and I have some good news and bad news to share with you. Let's get the bad news over with first. As marketers, we have our challenges cut out for us in 2008: Challenging economic environment in 2008: An unsteady marketplace is introducing significant aversion to risk by tech executives. Drive for overall marketing efficiency and effectiveness will continue with mounting budget pressure and market competitiveness. Market and marketing channels will continue to proliferate, creating challenges and opportunities. Tech marketing budgets will increase by 4% for the full year 2008. Although this is an increase, it is the lowest that IDC has forecast in the past four years and portends further pressure on the marketing function for cost control and productivity increases. Now a bit of good news. For the companies that have been diligent in improving their marketing operations and effectiveness during th...