Is the Mass Media Still Relevant for Health Care Marketing?
// By Ross K. Goldberg //
It was just a blink of an eye ago when corporate America understood, some albeit begrudgingly, the need for a solid media relations program as a way to get their organization’s story told. Product advertising was fine, and promotional gimmicks were exciting; but the inherent credibility found in the mass media’s conveying of the message was what built brands, loyalty and trust.
Over recent years that thinking has taken a shellacking as many health care leaders and their corporate counterparts believed they struck gold in their Yukon with the emergence of the Internet. Why work through the media or engage media relations professionals to reach your audience when you can touch them directly through websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and assorted means of self-publishing?
The question before the house thus becomes one that a generation ago would have seemed unfathomable to even ponder: “Is the mass media still relevant?”