Reputation Management

Merck Manuals Gets an Effective Digital Facelift

By 2020, Merck Manuals wants to reach 3 billion people and give them current, accurate medical information, says Derek Mabie, President and Founder of Evolve Digital Labs. While Merck has been a trusted peer-reviewed resource within the medical community since 1899, he notes, the process by which medical professionals find the answers they are seeking Read More

From Market Data to Content: How Merck Manuals Digitally Connects with Consumers and Physicians Across the Globe

// By Derek Mabie // By 2020, Merck Manuals wants to reach 3 billion people, giving them current, accurate medical information. The nonprofit organization has served as a trusted peer-reviewed resource within the medical community since 1899, providing health information to medical professionals and individuals seeking information on everything from flu vaccines to complex cancer Read More

The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Health Care Price-Comparison Ad

Peter Hochstein

Early this year, says copywriter Peter Hochstein, “a group medical practice called the Toledo Clinic in Toledo, Ohio, got what must have seemed like a bright marketing idea. “With the help of a mom-and-pop advertising agency called Modern TECHnique in Avon, Ohio, the clinic ran a full-page ad in the daily Toledo Blade. The ads Read More

Speechless in Toledo: A Group Medical Practice Ad Compared Its Prices to Those of Local Hospitals. But Suddenly, Nobody Seems Willing to Talk About It.

Peter Hochstein

Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Early this year, a group medical practice called the Toledo Clinic in Toledo, Ohio, got what must have seemed like a bright marketing idea. With the help of a mom-and-pop advertising agency called Modern TECHnique in Avon, Ohio, the clinic ran a full-page ad in the Read More

A Rebrand That Keeps Residents From Fleeing To The City for Health Care

When your health system lives in the shadow of academic medical centers and urban-based powerhouse healthcare brands, its takes real work to compete. Cape Cod Healthcare (CCHC) has undergone a transition to do just that, according to Patrick Kane, Senior Vice President of CCHC’s Marketing, Communications, and Business Development. A series of organizational changes have Read More

Could You Gain by Affiliating with a Larger Health Network?

Grinnell Regional Medical Center Logo

Is bigger better? For Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC), a 49-bed rural hospital in Grinnell, Iowa, affiliating with the larger Mercy Health Network in Des Moines has certainly had its benefits. Back in 2009, when GRMC first decided to explore creating an affiliation with a bigger network, there was growing recognition that for a community Read More

You Don’t Have to Go It Alone: Why One Rural Health Care Organization Joined a Larger Network—and What You Can Learn From Its Example

Lisa D. Ellis

By Lisa Ellis Is bigger better? For Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC), a 49-bed rural hospital in Grinnell, Iowa, affiliating with the larger Mercy Health Network in Des Moines has certainly had its benefits. This affiliation was approved back in 2009, after GRMC’s leadership decided to look for new ways to position itself so it Read More

How the Mayo Clinic “Localized” Its Established Global Brand

The internationally known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is among the world’s few destination medical facilities. Popular perceptions were, and probably still are, that it’s where you go for the gravest cases, the ones that can’t be handled wherever else in the world you live. But now, in addition to its destination facility in Rochester, Read More

Going Local: Mayo Clinic Adapts Its International Reputation to Nearby Markets and Facilities in the Upper Midwest

Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein The internationally known Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is among the world’s few destination medical facilities. Popular perceptions were, and probably still are, that it’s where you go for the gravest cases, the ones that can’t be handled wherever else in the world you live. Recently, changing conditions in Read More

Humanizing Robotic Surgery Sets Michigan Facility Apart from the Competition

Back in 2008, Saginaw, Michigan-based Covenant HealthCare saw an opportunity to “own the robotic surgery market in the region,” says Larry Daly, Director of Planning and Business Development at Covenant HealthCare. The specific focus was da Vinci Surgical System robots, high-tech devices increasingly used in minimally invasive surgery. “Our strategy was to purchase the latest Read More

Online Journalist Tools Make Ideal Match for Health Care Organizations

Lisa D. Ellis

By Lisa D. Ellis The trend of using online relationship sites continues to be a popular way for singles to meet potential mates. Now, some savvy hospital marketers are using similar types of matching tools to connect them with reporters and bloggers as a way to build strategic relationships to help promote their services to Read More

A Fresh Take: How One Hospital Overcame Its Poor Reputation

Fresh Care. Delivered Daily. The concept is simple, yet this hand-picked brand message represents Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) perfectly. It also hits home on many levels for the hospital’s target area, which consists of Greene and Columbia counties of upstate New York. The CMH network has a total of 120 individual multi-specialty practitioners, a hospital, Read More

Small Hospital Takes a Fresh Approach to Marketing; How to Communicate Improvements and Overcome a Reputation That’s Out of Date

By Lisa Ellis Fresh Care. Delivered Daily. The concept is simple, yet this hand-picked brand message represents Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) perfectly. It also hits home on many levels for the hospital’s target area, which consists of Greene and Columbia counties of upstate New York. Hospital Tries To Overcome Past Reputation The CMH network has Read More

Small Budget, Big Clout: OB/GYN Group Enters the Advertising Fray with Narrow Targeting and Mixed Media Branding To Grow Their Business

Advertising Worth Noting By Peter Hochstein You could argue that there’s nothing new about doctors running ads. In New York, one maverick dermatologist has been the star of his own earthy subway car posters for decades. They are busy horizontal spaces that simultaneously display his photograph and such things as rhyming headlines, before-and-after acne treatment Read More

Truth in Messaging—Or Else: 5 Lessons from Brian Williams, Walmart, and GNC

David Mastovich

By David M. Mastovich Can you picture Brian Williams in one of those Southwest Airlines “Want to Get Away?” commercials? The NBC Nightly News Anchor was suspended for six months after misrepresenting events that occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. Bloggers, comedians, and traditional news media outlets continue to feast on Read More

Preparing for Ebola: Advice from the Experts

Lisa D. Ellis

By Lisa D. Ellis If an Ebola patient walked into your organization’s emergency department today, would you be ready to handle the communication needs of the situation appropriately? If not, you could be missing out on some valuable opportunities to educate the community and at the same time, to help to promote the good work Read More