Chief Marketing Officers — Your CEO Is Counting on Your Expertise
View From the C-Suite:
- Greg Feirn, CEO; and Christine Albert, SVP; Marketing & Communications, LCMC Health
- Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, CEO; and Suzanne Hendery, Chief Marketing & Customer Officer; Renown Health
// By Sheryl S. Jackson //
Strong relationships between CEOs and CMOs help organizations align on a shared vision, invest in the right priorities, and achieve their strategic objectives.
Trust. Respect. Transparency. These are the words used throughout a conversation with CEOs and CMOs (chief marketing officers) from two different organizations to describe how a good relationship between the CMO and CEO can lead to effective investment in marketing communications.
The Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Virtual Summit keynote, “Making the Case for Investing in Marketing Communications,” highlighted the relationships between the CEOs and CMOs of Renown Health in Reno, Nevada and LCMC Health in New Orleans, Louisiana. Moderated by Daniel Fell, senior strategist at Optum, the session included a case study from each of the health organizations that shows why investing in marketing communications had positive impacts on both organizations.
LCMC Health’s investment in CRM campaigns drove a higher percentage of revenue from commercial payers than the health system’s overall average — 45 percent vs. 33 percent, and a rebranding effort produced a consistent message and logo across the system’s five hospitals compared to the previous 130+ variations of logos that resulted as the system acquired hospitals. The rebranding efforts led to six logos that visually connect the five hospitals as a member of LCMC Health, while still providing them with their own identity and name.
At Renown Health, the introduction of the 2020-2022 strategic plan and a major rebranding effort occurred at the same time, an undertaking that Suzanne Hendery called “daunting” but was possible thanks to the support of Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, CEO of the health system, along with other C-Suite team members who offered to help.
These investments are the result of a strong relationship built between these two CEO-CMO teams, points out Fell. He asked participants to answer the question: “How were these relationships developed, and is there a particular ‘language’ that is necessary to bridge the different perspectives and focuses of the CEO and other C-level leaders?”