Marketing. How Much Should You Spend? Who Should You Hire?

Cover Story | Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS
First, you need some definitions...The health and human services field has a conflicted history when it comes to marketing. I remember when we held our first OPEN MINDS Marketing Institute in 2001. Only a few people showed up. I was having a discussion with an exec who loved the institute about why so few people were there. He said, "Well, maybe if you didn’t use the word 'marketing.'" There are many reasons for the antipathy toward marketing that you find in the field. There is the group that believes that health care should operate more like a "public utility" where marketing isn’t necessary; that health and human services are basic needs that don’t need a marketing approach; that services that are good and needed don’t need to be "marketed;" that marketing wasn’t really needed—particularly by provider organizations—because the channels for referrals were predetermined by geography and contracts. Whatever the reason, at a time when "competition" for contracts and consumers is increasing and marketing is... Full Article *all members