Archive for the ‘Decision Cycle’ Category
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
No brand will have the power of a real connection if it is solely based on internal values, desires, and points of view. In fact, it is critical to have the ability to see your hospice brand outside of your own view. Building a brand that will move the target must begin with focusing on the consumer not the service or your company’s objectives. This is what we call an ‘outside in’ perspective.
And it comes from in depth research, target analysis and an understanding of human nature. And when it comes to hospice, it means understanding the psychological purchase price of hospice care – a phrase Anoroc’s penned after our years of studying the hospice decision cycle. But there is a flip side. Beyond building a brand that moves targets you must build a branding program that turns employees into brand advocates. They are a powerful representation of your brand; they are your brand in living technicolor.
Through the past two decades we’ve worked with numerous companies to refresh, reinvent and revitalize their hospice brands. During the rebranding process a large part of our consideration is focused on internal audiences. From leadership teams drilled down to admission nurses, secretaries and CNAs, they have been a part of empowering the brand refresh by understanding its meaning, being vested in its promise and believing in their role to affect its power. To us, they are a critical audience as critical as the in home gate keeper, the case manager and the physician.
Recently back from a brand rollout in San Diego, where we had the opportunity to present a brand refresh to an audience of close to 500+ employees, never before had the power of internal brand force ever seemed more powerful. Firstly, our client is an agency dream, incredible to work with, a true partner in creating something remarkable. So imagine the brand rollout complete with a theater size screen, swag bags, balloons and a leadership team vested in empowering their employees.
Cue the applause, cue the cheers, cue the employees testifying that the brand reflects who they are, what is in their hearts and their own life story. Cue a company with a vested team of brand advocates talking about their company at the coffee shop, in line at the grocery store, and on the church pew.
Imagine their accountant walking up to me after the presentation and saying. “I always thought I was only the accountant, but now I know I’m much more and even what I do really matters. I’m the brand too!” So as you consider taking a look at your brand and moving to a direction that will speak to a new generation of consumers, consumers more defined in making choice, in researching options, in dictating their own end of life care, don’t forget who is setting next to them at Starbucks.
Anoroc creates hospice communication strategies that engage consumers and referring publics turning them into active hospice advocates and positioning hospice providers as the provider of choice. Learn more at www.redefininghospice.com
Tags: great hospice marketing ideas, hospice marketing agencies, hospice marketing companies, hospice marketing ideas, how to market hospice, marketing hospice, marketinghospice.com
Posted in Decision Cycle, Hospice, Marketing, Purchase Intent, anoroc health | View Comments
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
I am sitting here with a great cup of coffee (Alex’s home brew, among his many talents he is a great coffee roaster), the dogs are milling around and it’s a beautiful sunny day. I can see the top of my Art Deco record player, yes the kind you have to crank, a couple of 78s are scattered about, “All Shook Up”, “Blueberry Hill” and “My Blue Heaven.” We played them Saturday night after arriving home from celebrating a dear friend’s 40th. He began as a client of Anoroc, but they often become life long friends. Life feels good.
This sounds like a personal diary entry, but it actually spurred from working this morning. It’s Saturday but that’s OK. I was reviewing two different concepts, each from a different Anoroc designer we’re preparing for an up coming client meeting. I love branding enough to give up my Saturday morning for it. But somehow these concepts struck such a deep cord with me I had to stop and write about it. I am actually delaying shoe shopping so if you know me, you know something must have struck deeply.
Casey’s concept moves from iconic images to photos. There is the very record player I had as a child, the kind that sits in a case you can close. It has a handle on top making it easy to take to a friend’s house for a sleep over. I played “Bang Goes Old Betsy” on it ‘til I wore it out. My dad bought both the record and the record player for me. He loved the song too. Rachel’s leads with an aged black and white photo of a young couple in a paddleboat, they are looking over their shoulders smiling at whom ever was holding the camera. There are old faded photos in an album I keep a bookcase in my family room just like it. It is of my aunt and uncle when they were young.
The concepts are for a Hospice agency. It’s hard to market hospice, there are a lot of complexities in the decision cycle. Anoroc has been researching and marketing hospice for close to two decades, tons of hospice decision cycle focus groups, secondary research, analyzing obstacles to choosing hospice care, so on. But when you can distil it down to a memory of falling in love on the lake and a little girl’s favorite record, obstacles can tumble into dust. As always, it’s about insight.
“Human nature hasn’t changed for a billion years. It won’t even vary in the next billion years. Only the superficial things have changed. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man – what compulsions drive him, what instincts dominate his every action, even though his language too often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man, you can touch him at the core of his being. One thing is unchangingly sure. The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail,” Bill Bernbach.
I am proud of our 20-something designers and their artistry that touched me this morning. Even though it will inevitably result in a longing for the Louboutins left behind.
Tags: anoroc health, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice marketing, hospice social media, marketing hospice, redefining hospice
Posted in Anoroc, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Marketing, anoroc health | View Comments
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Just finished reading a great article by Tim Bradshaw of Financial Times, Who Wants To Friend A Brand (http://bit.ly/8YxE5V). In his article he points out how social media has fundamentally transformed marketing from a monologue to a dialogue. If you’ve read many of my blogs you’ll know this is what Anoroc refers to as moving away from ‘Sham Wowing’ and onto real communication.
I love what he says here: “When first faced with the prospect of marketing on social networks, many people ask a reasonable question: how many people want to be friends with a brand? The answer – surprisingly, perhaps – is: millions do, on a daily basis.”
And as experienced brand managers at Anoroc we know this is true.
Much of our brand research begins with focus groups that ask: “How do you want this brand/company to communicate with you?” And unsurprisingly enough we hear social media as a chosen platform most every time.
Bradshaw points out that more than 10m people each day become a “fan” of a brand on Facebook. The world’s largest social network – with well in excess of 400m members globally – plays host to more than 1.4m branded fan pages on Facebook. BrandZ Top 100 brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks, along with other smaller brands outside the Top 100 such as Adidas (brand value or BV of $3.3bn in the latest MBO list), have each “befriended” millions of people.
“A lot of our best brand builders are also some of the best companies using social media,” says Joanna Seddon, chief executive of Millward Brown Optimor, which compiles the BrandZ ranking. “A lot of the leadership in social media is really centered in the top 100 brands.”
When Anoroc reviews ROI studies from our campaigns we’ve learned that Bradshaw is speaking Gospel here: “Social media has matured rapidly in recent years. Sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offer scale and reach to rival Google – still the most dominant single site for online advertising – and many television channels. The best advertisers use social media alongside these traditional channels for a combination of brand-building, direct sales, customer service and PR. The worst simply ignore them, blissful only until they realise the complaints and accusations that disgruntled customers are telling other would-be consumers.”
“Social media have given consumers a voice to respond, as well as hundreds of channels through which to do so,” says Debbie Klein, joint chief executive of Engine, a UK-based agency group. “These websites have fundamentally transformed marketing from a monologue to a dialogue. Brands cannot hide.”
And brands that hide, may never be found.
Tags: Financial Times, hospice and social media, NC advertising agencies, raleigh advertising agencies, Raleigh advertising companies, raleigh design, Raleigh design firms, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, raleigh social media companies
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Marketing, Purchase Intent, SEO, Social Media Influence, Social Networking | View Comments
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Just finished reading these two Special Reports via iHealthBeat (http://bit.ly/bKqv2S) on consumers increasingly turning to social media for healthcare information. Reports claim social media’s influence on consumer healthcare behavior is outpacing traditional channels.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Consumers Increasingly Turning to Internet, Social Media for Health Care Information
Recent studies have found that consumers increasingly are turning to the Internet for health information.
In addition to health care Web sites, such as WebMD, consumers are turning to user-generated health content, such as physician and hospital rankings, blogs and chat groups.
While the Internet’s influence on consumers’ health care decisions is outpacing traditional channels, such as television, radio and print media, physicians still are the biggest influence on consumer health behavior, according to Monique Levy, senior director of research at Manhattan Research.
Google and Microsoft’s Bing recently refined their search engines to provide consumers with more credible and relevant information. (Kim, iHealthBeat, 4/15).
Friday, April 09, 2010
VA Taps Social Media Tools To Promote Health Benefits, Other Services
The Department of Veterans Affairs is turning to social media tools to improve communication with veterans and help them access health care and other benefits, the Washington Post reports.
Brandon Friedman — who previously served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq — is leading the department’s push to establish a presence on Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Friedman said veterans are interested in “a two-way conversation” with VA and platforms that allow them to offer feedback on the department’s services. He said that he has facilitated discussions on the agency’s Facebook page and that the department will launch a blog by the year’s end.
Friedman added that VA aims to promote transparency in its social media platforms to align with the Obama administration’s “open government” initiative (Erickson, Washington Post, 4/9).
Tags: healthcare social media, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, raleigh advertising agencies, Raleigh design firms, raleigh social media agencies, Social Media Influence
Posted in Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking | View Comments
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Beyond creating the strategy that determines what users will gain from engaging in social media platforms, is creating tone and voice. For social media platforms to be engaging to women in the caregiving cycle they must embody key characteristics.
Anoroc’s hospice research has determined much about this target. She will most likely see herself as a caretaker and nurturer and it is important to establish a tone that speaks to her with an understanding of this emotional perspective.
Women, in general, are more emotionally connected and therefore are likely to tune into emotional benefits over functional ones. They include emotions in their decision making as opposed to basing them only on rational elements. So don’t be afraid to give them a ‘feeling’ to show the emotion, the ‘what matters’ behind your brand. She will see hospice services as typical among all hospice providers – unless your hospice provides a unique service that makes her world function better – you better ensure your social media platform provides her with the emotional connection she is seeking.
Women also want a dialogue, not just a transaction. That means encouraging a two way conversation on your social media platforms vs solely spouting company news, successes, facts, or services. She really doesn’t care and if this is all you are doing you can wish her a fond farewell.
Research is proving that women are engaging in social media in droves – wonder why? Because women strive to establish links and connect through affinity. Since women seek commonality and look for similarity between themselves and the ‘speaker.’ Make sure your social media platforms are not a nameless, faceless entity. Many organizations newly embarking into social media are making this mistake – remember this online world is about connection, nobody wants to connect to a nameless ‘site monitor’.
Hospice agencies that we have taken down this emotionally supportive and resource driven path have seen an increase in census of 60% plus. Equate that with not only the potential to your bottom line but the potential of increasing the number of families given a better end of life experience. And to those of us who know how profoundly hospice can improve the quality of life for both patients and their families – that sounds pretty dang good.
Tags: Anoroc, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, raleigh social marketing, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, raleigh social media companies, social influence marketing, women in social media
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Marketing, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking, Women | View Comments
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
As we said in Part One, to understand the potential positive impact that social media can have on those who are providing care to a loved one, we first need to truly understand the caregiver. To move the hospice gatekeeper through the decision cycle your social media platform must resonate with her on an emotional level and provide the resources she seeks.
So who is she? What does she want? She will likely be working at least part time and taking care of children. She sees herself as the ‘caregiver’ to the family. She is a nurturer both to herself and others but mainly to others. She is emotionally driven in her purchasing behavior and looks for benefits/outcomes rather than specifics. If she does not have direct experience with hospice she will have heard of hospice through the media. She will not have a complete picture of hospice most particularly in regards to pain control, symptom management and bereavement support.
Her psychological purchase prices (what she must overcome to choose hospice and ask for that referral early on in the caregiving cycle) include:
Am I giving up on a cure?
Am I abandoning hope?
Will my loved-one feel that I am not fighting for them?
Will the care be as nurturing and as compassionate as I would provide?
Will I have the support to really handle this?
Worry about opinions/feelings of other family members.
In the process of creating social media strategies for specific demographics we also need to determine the wants and needs of the on line community end-user. Our hospice research determined our caregiving female’s tangible wants and needs to be:
Information and resources
Knowledge – answers, understanding of benefits
Support
Helping hand in a relevant way
Quality of life for a loved-one
Options
Solutions
Quality of care – physical and emotional
Balance
Her intangible wants and needs include:
Connection
Rational replacement for guilt
Understanding and empathy
The most successful social media strategies that a hospice can engage in are ones that support this key demographic by enabling her to move beyond her psychological purchase price, and that meet both her tangible and intangible wants and needs. More to come on doing just that in part three.
Tags: Anoroc, anoroc agency, healthcare, healthcare social media, Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, north carolina social media agencies, raleigh social marketing companies, raleigh social media, raleigh social media companies, social marketing, women in social media
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking, Women | View Comments
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
There is little doubt that hospice can profoundly improve the quality of life for those facing a life limiting illness. Yet there remains a large degree of misunderstanding, lack of knowledge concerning breadth of services and the struggle with late referrals. Can social media work to improve these barriers to care? I believe it can. Social media may be one of the best things that ever happened when talking hospice. I am not exaggerating, there is tremendous potential for hospice providers. The key is understanding how to use social media to engage hospice gatekeepers. There is a very real and specific strategy.
To understand the potential positive impact that social media can have on those who are providing care to a loved one, we first need to truly understand the caregiver. Note that positive impact equals referral request.
Here’s a little caregiving data: Out of the more than 50 million people who provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or aged family member during any given year, approximately 60% are women (this is your gatekeeper – get her and you can worry less about early referrals). On average she is 46 years old and caring for her widowed mother who does not live with her. She is married and employed.
For close to two decades Anoroc has been conducting research on hospice caregiving, specifically determining VALS (values, attitudes, lifestyles) and focusing on their wants/beliefs/healthcare buying habits and values. In Part Two we’ll share what we’ve learned about this 46 year old female.
Tags: Hospice, hospice and social media, hospice marketing, hospice social media, raleigh media agencies, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, raleigh social media companies, social marketing, social media, social media and hospice organizations, women in social media
Posted in Anoroc, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Healthcare, Hospice, Marketing, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking, Women | View Comments
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
I just read a piece on ‘Why Positioning Fails’ that I basically agree with. But it fell a bit short. As I read it I was coining a piece along similar lines about internal communications. And I thought about it just a bit, and decided that my piece was right… and so was theirs, but not all companies can be as ours. Our brand, and many we serve, are about one simple thing. The truth.
And by that I mean your external positioning must be the truth. If you’re the good guys – then be the good guys. Be good to your customers and your own people. If you’re supposed to be about equality and partnership – then practice it with your people and your vendors. If your brand is about compassion – then be compassionate to your clients and your employees.
While the ‘Why Positioning Fails’ piece urged you to take a few basic steps regarding positioning that are certainly not incorrect – Involve staff in process, Give your team direction, Promote the positioning internally, Help your team become evangelists for your firm – I submit, that there is an easier way. And hence, I present my take.
‘How Internal Positioning Works – considerations for internal communications.’ We’ve positioned numerous companies – externally – but only you can position your company internally. And if you don’t, it won’t take long for the truth to come out.
Involve your staff in the process: That’s not good enough. Make it known throughout your entire company what is important about what your company does… what is the end result? This needs to be a ‘why do we come to work at all’ level, a basic understanding of standards and principles. We can all earn a paycheck doing a variety of other things. Why do we choose to do it this way?
Give your team direction: That’s not really adequate either. All of our roles combine to generate whatever you’ve directed your company to generate. Is that something as good as the next? Something passable? Or are you in pursuit of excellence? Those are not funny questions by the way. Some companies strive to be the cheapest – some to maintain a short term profit and quit –some strive to be the best. Decide which it is, I have a hard time with not reaching to be the best. I’m striving for a level of personal satisfaction, and I believe every one of us knows when we achieve a bar that makes us proud.
Promote the positioning internally: You might do this by accident, and if you don’t do it at all you need to close up shop right now. Encourage and support passionate work. Tell someone they did a great job – say THANK YOU – point out why their bar of excellence made a difference. (I remember the first time I called a particular designer and mentioned the project they had just mounted for presentation – I could feel her tense up on the other end expecting a problem. I told her that I was proud to be able to present work of that level at our meeting – thank you. She didn’t know how to respond – no one had ever treated her decently in the workplace before.)
Help your team become evangelists for your firm: This step is not necessary if your company has heart and you’ve accomplished the previous three steps. And if it doesn’t have heart it’s an enormous challenge to fake it.
So the moral of the story is you have to care and have heart if you expect your company’s “truth” to support positive external positioning.
Tags: anorac, Anoroc, anoroc agency, engagement marketing, raleigh advertising agencies, raleigh marketing agencies, raleigh social marketing, raleigh social media agencies
Posted in Anoroc, Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Marketing, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence | View Comments
Monday, February 8th, 2010
It was a high-five kinda week last week. We had two refreshing meetings, both with new clients. They’re the kind of clients we know will make great partners. The kind of clients that make our job easier.
We begin a lot of relationships at Anoroc with this sentence: “You’re not paying us to tell you what you want to hear.” We mean no disrespect. We simply mean to build a brand that has a chance, you got to get out of your own head. So when clients do this naturally (this is a tough one for many) when our relationship is only a nanosecond old, it’s exciting in our world.
Marketing Soap Box Moment (MSBM): After 20 years in branding, I can quickly narrow down failure to one major cause (obviously they’re others, but this is a big one): assuming others will behave the way you do. Don’t do it, not ever. You are not your customer. I grant you that you may be right when you tell us you know more about your product than any customer could possibly know. Or that you have strong opinions about what you think your customers should do, or want. But if that’s how you develop your marketing strategy, then you have a strategy based on what customers should do instead of what they actually do. And that’s a strategy that will fail.
So back to our refreshing meetings. Here is what ranked the first high-five:
Client: “So we had our logo for a while.”
Us: “Great, what do you think about it.”
Client: “Well I like it, but that’s not what matters. I want to know what you think, how it works in the market. Same with everything else, I’m not paying you to be nice, tell us how it really is, can you do that?”
And the second high-five:
Us: “So we tested your site and people seemed a little confused as to what you were asking them to do. They did’nt really understand the action that needed to happen.”
Client: “Wow, that’s incredible. It makes sense to us, but we’re too close to it and we’re not the client. So we’re ready to re-think all of it, to any degree your research determines.”
Yep, we’re a little expressive. So if you seen any of the Anoroc team running around high-fiving you can bet your Play Doh, a ‘brand’ is about to happen.
Tags: anaroc, anarok, anoroc agency, branding, branding agencies, north carolina social media agencies, raleigh advertising agencies, raleigh marketing, raleigh social marketing companies, raleigh social media, social marketing, social marketing companies, social media
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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
There are numerous platforms and brand opportunities via social media and social media strategies are as diverse as the voices that communicate through them.
Many are dedicated to customer service, care and connection: @Zappos, @JetBlu, BestBuy.com/Twelpforce and @comcastcares. Some are focused on re-emerging their brand through transparency: Sun Microsystem’s CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog (http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan), Scott Monty (Ford’s community manager) blog (www.scottmonty.com). Others focus on re-engagement through viral participation: Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice (233,906 friends were removed by 82,771 people in less than a week) or Starbuck’s My Starbuck’s Idea (www.mystarbucksidea.com). All of these sterling examples of social media well played.
But as I was tooling around today I came across two that, depending on on-going commitment, may make the list of The Best In Social Media. I like these examples because they focus on building brand advocates through not only allowing targets to actively participate in the brand and allowing their followers to be heard and acknowledged, but because they provide a real resource and use participation to turn followers into stakeholders. A great combination that can lead to real brand affinity.
Take a look at Wepc.com by Intel + Asus. Here is a community designed as a source for innovation. Intel + Asus have created a gathering place allowing users to congregate where they don’t merely observe but share ideas and concepts about their “ideal” PC. But here is the gold of this social media platform: design concepts, feature ideas and community insights will affect the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS and Intel. How much louder can you say: “We hear you and we care about what you want.”
Then there is the newly launched Inkpop.com by HarperCollins Publishers and perhaps my personal favorite. An interactive writing platform for teens, Inkpop, was created by HarperTeen. The strategy focuses on encouraging a continuous dialogue with its audience, understanding what their community cares about, and gaining an unfiltered look at teen reading trends. Inkpop enables community publishing through user-generated content, and social networking. But it takes it a step further (and here is the real depth of it’s ‘resource’ strategy) it connects writers in teen literature with talent-spotting readers and publishing professionals.
According to HarperCollins, Inkpop will be the anchor of its ongoing teen strategy.
“What sets inkpop apart from other writing communities is the Editorial Board,” says Kat Musallam, an Inkpop user. “Other communities only have that writer-reader interaction, but to have a panel evaluate your work is something that we writers–especially those who aren’t so familiar with the publishing world–can only dream of.”
Now that is an example of a true social influence marketing strategy that might just turn ink into gold.
Tags: Anoroc, anoroc agency, gazoobot, north carolina social media agencies, raleigh social media, raleigh social media agencies, social influence marketing, social media
Posted in Brand Value, Customer Loyalty, Decision Cycle, Marketing, Purchase Intent, Social Media Influence, Social Networking | View Comments
