Marketing leaders – Target Marketing

All across the nation, the healthcare delivery system is consolidating, producing organizations with larger geographic footprints and operating under new names and logos. As familiar names become subordinate or vanish entirely, will the new healthcare logos truly come to represent brands?

It’s worth remembering that logo and brand are not the same things. A logo is an empty vessel awaiting experiences, emotions and witnessed demonstrations of core values to slowly fill with the emotional qualities of a brand. Hospitals and physician practices, traditionally seen as local or regional enterprises, were places strongly associated with memories. As employers, these same sites created shared experiences among large numbers of employees and developed certain rhythms, traditions and culture.

Delivering on a brand promise in healthcare relies on people willingly contributing their discretionary energy. This type of morale is more easily built at a local level, as people come to know each other, their leaders and their “place in the world.” The mergers that lead to these scaled-up systems are driven by forces that are beyond any one person’s ability to control. As old signs come down and new ones go up, will employees, volunteers, physicians, and consumers feel slighted or remain connected? Will the intangible quality of team spirit transfer to the new entity?

Marketing teams are fully consumed during these transitions. The role of “logo cop” resurges to the forefront, as materials are retired and the new logo applied. The meaning behind the new name and logo design will permeate communications, seeking to build a bridge between the old and the new. And marketing leaders will have to refresh their marketing framework, and ensure that employee communications remain integral for an extended period.

From an employee perspective, this transition can contribute to feelings of cynicism and being diminished within a much larger organization. The transference of loyalty won’t truly begin until patients , and employees experience or witness some type of benefit from the larger enterprise.

Leaders navigating these situations can help their teams by preserving established traditions and practices and phasing in new ones that celebrate the local facility’s contributions into a larger framework. Competitions among newly affiliated facilities can take local pride to a new level and provide time for employees to adjust. Activities of the Auxiliary, Foundation, Human Resources, Philanthropy and even Department-level celebrations should remain visible — to avoid a perceived loss of mission. This juggling of past and future won’t be easy.

Have you experienced a merger recently? What would you say were the best aspects of how it was handled and what actions may have undermined employee morale or competitive positioning?

If you’ve been in marketing, say, 20 years, do you have a career full of wide-ranging experience? Or are you stalled with only five years of experience repeated four times? Growing your value proposition to management is essential, because sometimes marketing leaders have to make difficult choices of whether the right people are “on the bus,” if they need to be “moved elsewhere on the bus,” or if there are people who need to be “moved off the bus.”

The bus metaphor comes from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. In my last column, “Neuroscience, Leadership and 7 Challenges for DM Leaders,” I described a brain-adaptive approach linking neuroscience to leadership.

Today I share another requirement of leaders as described in “Good to Great.” This is where great leaders get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out the route to their destination.

If you’re not a direct marketing leader today, but aspire to be a well-rounded professional, in a moment I’ll share five growth practices you can adopt to position yourself to not only have a seat, but someday drive the bus.

But let’s begin with looking at what leaders are encouraged to consider as they look at their “team on the bus.” The concept of “First Who, Then What,” from “Good to Great” summarizes it well:

Good to great leaders begin organizational transformation by first getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.
“Who” questions come before “what decisions” like vision, strategy, organizational structure and tactics.
When in doubt, don’t hire.
When a people change is needed, act.
Put the best people on the biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.

For leaders, seating your team on the bus, and in the right seat, they (you) must leverage individual strengths that will have the highest impact on an organization’s success.

For direct marketing team professionals, there are five practices where you can bring value to both the organization, and to yourself and your own future.

Reinvent every few years. You don’t want to be the professional who has been in the workforce for 20 years, and suddenly realizes that it’s really only five years of experience, repeated over and over, like you’re on a treadmill.
If you want to grow, ask leadership in your organization what you have to do to attain certain goals. Muster the confidence to ask someone you admire, and who’s successful, if they will be a mentor.
Learn about what others are doing in your organization. Cross-train yourself. If you’re a marketing manager, learn more about product fulfillment. If you’re a copywriter, learn from the marketing manager. If you’re deeply rooted in direct mail, learn digital. Not only will you become more valuable, but you’ll enrich your understanding of the bigger picture.
Attend events, especially local programs. Read every day. Challenge yourself, from time-to-time, to read about a topic outside your normal area of interest.
Peer into the future. Anticipate what you can contribute to transform your organization’s direct marketing success.

For aspiring leaders: when you take charge of your career and your future with these five practices, you can improve the odds that you’ll be placed on the correct seat of the bus in your organization.

For leaders: evaluate your organization’s structure and the people on your team now to determine who should be on your bus and where they should be seated. This is your first step to grow from good to great.

(Read more about using neuroscience in marketing, along with left brain/right brain thinking in my new book, “Crack the Customer Mind Code” available at the DirectMarketingIQ bookstore. Or download my free seven-step guide to help you align your messaging with how the primitive mind thinks. It’s titled “When You Need More Customers, This Is What You Do.” )

Tag: Marketing leaders

Of the New Healthcare Logos in Mergers, Which Ones Will Become Brands?

5 Practices That Grow Good to Great Marketing Leaders