The Pink Coats of Health Care Marketing

The Pink Coats of Health Care Marketing

Change

• The HealthCare marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade– Each market will differ, but overall change has

happened and will continue to happen– The difference is how sharply the competitive

forces in HealthCare marketing and advertising have shifted and intensified

Change

• In today’s rough economic times, a HealthCare provider will either stand out from the competition or will be invisible to the decision makers

The Competition Has Shifted

• Recently Physicians Have:– Gone from private practice to being employed by

a Hospital– Retired or scaled back– Joined or formed a medical group practice– Taken on an aggressive marketing position in the

market place– Done nothing and have lost market share


• Health Care Providers (Home Health, Hospice, Rehab, etc.) Have:– Seen their reimbursement decrease– Been saddled with increase in regulations,

requirements and paperwork– Been bought by Payers (Hospital, Managed Care,

Insurance Companies)– Seen decrease in self pay patients


• In the past a solo or small group practice competed mainly against other solo or small group practices

• Now they compete against major health systems, large group practices, and specialty providers

• Hospital employed physicians might find themselves competing for a slice of the hospital advertising budget

The Competition Has Intensified

• What was once a stable marketplace is changing almost daily

• Those healthcare providers and medical facilities that remain are more aggressive in their efforts to capture and retain new patients and market share

The Competition Has Intensified

• Reimbursements are down• Patients are more selective or scarce• Even the “terms and definitions” have

changed– Accountable Care Organization– Bundled Payment Initiative– Health Care Reform

Pink Coats

• In these tough economic times, only a few HealthCare providers, Hospitals and other Medical entities will make positive headway

• The successful ones are the “Pink Coats”– They distinguish themselves from all the

“White Coats”

Pink Coats

• Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, uses an illustration about marketing that fits today’s HealthCare marketing– If you substitute “service” or “healthcare” where

he writes about a “company” his core ideas hold true with HealthCare Marketing and Advertising today

Pink Coats

"Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring," Godin writes. "They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring.”

“A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow-the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows-is that it would be remarkable.”

“Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible."

Pink Coats

• Godin defines a Purple Cow (Pink Coat) as anything;– Phenomenal– Counterintuitive– Exciting– Remarkable

• Every day Patients and prospective patients ignore a lot of brown cows (White Coats), but a Purple Cow (Pink Coat) would be something to catch their attention

Pink Coats

• In contrast with the sea of “White Coats”, “Pink Coats” makes the point that creating and marketing a consistently remarkable product, service and brand inspires notice and wins new business

You can be remarkable, or you can be invisible

Reasons Patients Choose Specific Providers

• People prefer to buy brands because they want to reduce perceived risk

• People buy brands for status• People refer more often and passionately to

a brand they like and trust

How to Use Branding

• Providers can build and accelerate reputation through branding

• Providers can attract more of the cases they want through branding

• Branding will give the Provider a competitive advantage

• A branded Provider will be worth more than a non-branded Provider

Messaging of Differentiation

• In the increasingly competitive and constantly changing healthcare environment, a strong message (Brand) of differentiation in HealthCare advertising attracts positive notice, inspires name recognition and recall, and enhances professional reputation– It also provides a stronger footing for making any

business or personal changes that might be appropriate in the future

Message of Differentiation

• In fact, fitting in and being just like every other “white coat” may be the most risky course in a dynamic period– In a crowded marketplace being the same may

seem like the safe course• In fact not standing out-in a positive and remarkable

way-is the same as being invisible• If you are seen as a commodity and interchangeable

with everyone/anyone else, you are not seen at all

How to be a Pink Coat

• Differentiate your customers– Find the group that's most profitable– Find the group that's most likely to influence

other customers– Figure out how to develop for, advertise to, or

reward either group– Ignore the rest– Cater to the customers you would choose if you

could choose your customers.


• If you could pick one underserved niche to target (and to dominate), what would it be?– Retail Examples of products and services already sold

or provided in larger locations but are successful in a niche environment:• Toys R Us (Toys)• Barnes and Noble (Books)• Hobby Lobby (Crafts)• Northwest Surgery Center (Surgery)• Doc in a Box (Simple Health Care)• DSW (Shoes)


• Create two teams: the inventors and the providers

• The two teams should be recruited by every level of your organization– Let them work independently– Let the inventors develop the next program or

service– Let the providers develop the implementation– Rotate people around


• Start with your best customers (patients)• Do you have the email addresses of the 25%

of your customer base that loves what you do? – If not, start getting them– If you do, what could you make for them that

would be “super special”?


• Remarkable isn't always about changing the biggest machine in your factory, service in your practice, procedures performed, etc.– It can be the way you answer the phone, launch a

new brand, decorate your office, or price a revision to your service (bundling)

– Getting in the habit of doing the “Pink Coat" thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what's working and what's not


• Explore the limits– What if you're the cheapest, the fastest, the

slowest, the hottest, the coldest, the easiest, the most efficient, the loudest, the most hated, the copycat, the outsider, the hardest, the oldest, the newest, or just the most!

– If there's a limit, you should (must) test it


• Think small– One vestige of the TV-industrial complex is a need

to think of mass markets– If it doesn't appeal to everyone, the thinking goes,

it's not worth it– No longer– Think of the smallest conceivable market and

describe a product that over-whelms it with its “remarkability”

– Go from there


• Find things that are "just not done" in your industry, and then go ahead and do them– For example, JetBlue Airways almost instituted a

dress code -- for its passengers! • The company is still playing with the idea of giving a

free airline ticket to the best-dressed person on the plane

– A plastic surgeon could offer gift certificates– Packaging services into one service (Executive

Physicals)


• Ask, "Why not?" – Almost everything you “don't do” has no good

reason for it– Almost everything you “don't do” is the result of

fear or inertia or a historical lack of someone asking, "Why not?"

The Pink Coats of Health Care Marketing

Fred J. Tyson PhD239-822-3769

[email protected]

Health & Medicine

The Pink Coats of Health Care Marketing