Having worked both in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) communications settings, it’s evident many factors differentiate the two, but a lot of the guiding principles remain the same. For example, B2B in its definition requires a 100 percent complete understanding of a product or service, which in our industry is often rather complex. Whereas it’s often easier to describe a consumer product because of the personal connection. How do you sell potato chips? Taste them, describe them. How do you generate leads for your B2B client? Not quite as simple…

B2B requires relationship building at a higher and greater level, whereas B2C can often focus on quick, point-to-purchase decisions requiring less strategizing and more overt creativity. The underlying foundation for both is the same: targeting decision makers with an end goal to inform and influence action.

The following are a few important aspects of B2C communications to keep top-of-mind while entrenched in the B2B world:

1. Public Relations. Public relations in a B2B setting in its definition requires an extraordinary amount of knowledge both of your product set and also of the broader industry issues and trends. There’s less opportunity to not have the facts just right with a trade journalist, who usually also has a mastery of the subject. But don’t forget to take a look at some of the tactics B2C uses in your own strategy, such as an emphasis on creativity and tying in to trends outside of your industry, recent events and other opportunities. We’re all consumers exposed to the same issues every day beyond our jobs. With this in mind, it’s imperative to look at story ideas from the consumer perspective when moving beyond the trades to pitch at a local, regional, or national level. On the other hand, when looking at pitching to trade publications, a top level healthcare IT executive is still reading the news about the presidential debates, and if there’s a creative and smart way to tie in your story with news that affects us all, you’ll likely stand out from the crowd of other pitches.
2. Lead generation. The majority of B2B companies will say the most important part of their marketing initiatives focuses on lead generation. In B2B, companies have a tendency to lean on the conservative side when it comes down to the look and feel of their brands, and for good reason. With a subject matter so serious, there is concern about striking the right chord in a fiercely competitive environment. But there are plenty of ways to think outside the box and be bold with your brand while maintaining the strategic aspect of lead generation. For example, don’t be afraid to experiment with colors in marketing collateral that may be an unexpected choice for the industry. Again, keeping in mind the many aspects of the consumers’ lives that we are trying to reach is key to effective lead generation.
3. Social media. This is a facet of marketing that can easily get overlooked in a B2B environment, simply because many businesses working in this realm are still getting familiar with how social media initiatives can help reach their goals, and the jury is still out on how to measure results. It’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest news and trends being discussed—on Twitter, for example—no matter what the space. In fact, numerous trade editors and reporters sometimes go to Twitter first when in need of a story idea or source. As smart marketers we should use social media as another resource to form and maintain a relationship with media contacts at the very least. Just as trends get started among consumers talking about pop culture, food and the musical festival down the road on Twitter or Facebook, trends are also seen among people discussing niche markets like healthcare. And we should always be on the lookout for ways our clients can “come to the rescue” from a relevant thought leadership perspective when these opportunities arise.

At the core of these observations lies the one major point that both B2C and B2B marketing specialists must keep in mind: if you always “stay one step ahead of your brand” and remember to infuse smart strategies to take your company outside the box, you’ll be on your way to successfully meeting communications and lead generation goals in 2012.

Sabermetrics can be defined as the objective analysis of the game of baseball, specifically through the use of advanced statistics. One goal of sabermetrics is to remove certain biases in order to better understand the value each player possesses in relation to his peers. Certain traditional statistics, such as the pitcher win or the RBI, are loathed by sabermetricians because, although they don’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of a player’s skill, they are considered to be very important metrics during player evaluation.

Sabermetrics burst into the mainstream with the publication of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball. This book tells the story of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, and how he put together a winning baseball team on a shoestring budget by embracing certain advanced statistics. By determining which player traits were undervalued by the market and creatively acquiring players who excelled in those areas, Beane’s A’s were able to compete with teams whose payrolls were three or four times higher.

Sometimes with social media, we tend to overvalue certain statistics, such as the total follower count on Twitter. This is understandable, as everyone wants to have the highest number of followers possible. Not only does this look nice, but it means we’re reaching a large audience. But if Billy Beane were a healthcare marketer, he’d probably compare the total follower count with a baseball player’s batting average. For starters, these two stats are generally listed first, and thus are thought of very highly when evaluating the player or the Twitter handle that precedes them. But neither tells the whole story. A player’s batting average fails to take into account his ability to get on base using other methods (such as drawing walks), it doesn’t measure how many bases the player gains with each hit (a singles hitter can’t be as valuable as a guy who hits a lot of doubles, triples and homers with the same batting average, can he?), and it doesn’t consider how many times the player reached base when an out should have been made but an error wasn’t charged.

Like batting average, a total follower count on Twitter doesn’t tell the whole story. Here are some tips for evaluating a Twitter account by looking past the number of followers it has:

• Look at the quality of your followers: While it would be nice to have 1,000 followers, what good would it do if 950 of those followers aren’t relevant to your business? Many people follow others in order to boost their own count. Take the time to scroll through your list of followers and see how many of them are your customers, prospects, competitors or industry influencers. If your content is not only solid, but is also being read by the right people, your follower total will continue to grow organically, and you will see more benefits in the long run.
• Measure follower engagement: Twitter is unique in that it can be a venue for either one-way or two-way communication. Unless you are a celebrity whose followers are only interested in the details of your daily life, odds are you want to start some conversations via Twitter. Check out how many times per week your account is either mentioned or retweeted. If you have 50 followers and get 10 mentions each week, isn’t that better than having 500 followers and getting the same level of engagement?
• Keep track of your clickthroughs: This goes hand-in-hand with tracking your follower engagement. When you post links, be sure to use a service such as bit.ly or ow.ly that will measure clickthroughs for each link that you generate. If you tweet one article a day that is relevant to all 50 of your followers and average 20 clickthroughs a week, your business will benefit much more than if you tweet 5 articles a day to 500 followers, but still see the same results.

When evaluating your social media presence, be sure to look past the surface. It may take a little extra work, but applying the methods of sabermetrics to your Twitter account can yield some pleasant results.

Michaela Kraft, marketing management at Philips Speech Processing, met with us to discuss her company’s recent social media initiative.

Dodge: Tell us a bit about Philips’ history, your current business model and the challenges you face.

Kraft: Philips Speech Processing, with its headquarters in Vienna, Austria is the worldwide market leader in the professional dictation market and the only company to design and manufacture a comprehensive range of digital dictation solutions as well as analog dictation products. Currently, the company employs around 170 people worldwide.

It is our goal to strengthen the #1 position in the professional digital dictation market. We strive to bring superior quality and sophisticated technology to the digital dictation market, thus providing “advanced solutions that work”. We drive new trends in the speech processing market, which is why we are constantly observing new technological developments and investigating their ability to bring real benefits for the different customers and end-users. The continuous evolution of our solution portfolio (hardware, software & services) for the digital dictation and voice capturing market is the foundation to strengthening our leading position. Outperforming market growth in our key countries and the entrance and growth in new markets is our first priority. We are proactively managing the migration from analog to digital dictation as well as from products to services and solutions.

Dodge: You recently began to leverage social media in conjunction with media relations outreach. Can you tell us a bit about that process and why you decided to make social media a priority?

Kraft: We recently switched from pure distribution to a reseller model which requires two-step communication to reach our end users. By leveraging social media, we’re able to communicate with all of our target audiences – dealers, end users and journalists – through one platform. Our goal is to ultimately increase brand awareness, drive website traffic and generate awareness of new technology/products that are available.

Unlike other media platforms that provide exposure for a limited amount of time – advertising for example – social media enables consistent communication. We have the ability to push new messages out on a daily basis and encourage folks to engage in our topics.

Dodge: Many of our clients are either using social media (blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), or seriously considering it. Can you tell us about Philips’ approach to social media and the benefits of using it? How do you see social media playing a bigger role in your communications with clients and prospects?

Kraft: We’re in a niche market so our messages are very targeted. The ability to link different parties together, the dealers, end users, journalists, and everyone else who is out there looking for information is a huge benefit. It’s also creating a pull for us. We’re creating conversations and getting end users talking. It’s happening more and more via our LinkedIn groups. End users are coming together and talking about topics that impact us. It’s not about selling anything. It’s really about getting the message across.

Dodge: To others considering social media, what key takeaways would you share?

Kraft: You have to be patient – nothing happens overnight. Also, you can only throw out a statement. If you believe you can control everything that is going on in social media and what is being said, you’re for sure wrong. That’s where less experienced people typically falter. They don’t think about a long term strategy or goal. People that don’t think in those terms and view it as a selling tool are simply going to lose.

Dodge: What has it been like working with an agency to help you strategically execute communications outreach?

Kraft: From my perspective, to have someone involved that not only understands our business and industry, but also brings an outside view and new ideas about what is possible and what can be done is a huge advantage. Dodge has a broader view of things than what we have and is constantly helping us identify unique ways to communicate our message. Your experience and what you do in other markets really benefits us. It’s the partnership that makes it successful. If we tried to execute something like this internally, we’d only have our company’s perspective which, in most cases, can be very narrow minded.

Join us for a free webinar on Tuesday, November 15 at 1 p.m. EST, with Ryan O’Connor and Tom Flatt of AMGA for a case study discussion on how you can tie your organization’s message into timely industry issues such as meaningful use, ACOs or ICD-10 and give it the unique spin it needs to get noticed in the crowded healthcare IT market. Click here for more details and to register for the event.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, Dodge Communications’ president and CEO is interviewed to discuss Dodge’s history over the past 10 years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Brad Dodge is president and CEO at Dodge Communications. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Question 1: When you started the company 10 years ago, where did you think Dodge would be on its 10^th anniversary?

Brad Dodge: It’s an interesting question because we didn’t really think about that back then. We were tied up in the day-to-day activities because we were starting a new business. There were so many variables, unknowns and challenges in getting started that we didn’t really think about what the future would hold. Instead, we had to think about what each day would hold. We were doing our own client management and writing our own brochures and things, so we didn’t really think that far ahead. Frankly, we didn’t know if it would be possible to grow the company strictly in the healthcare vertical, and it wasn’t until several years later that we said, “Wow, I guess this thing really can be all healthcare.” We started to get some successes and some long-term clients under our belt, and it became clear there was a real need for these services in the B2B healthcare space; it became obvious we’d be able to grow the business that way.

Question 2: How do you think Dodge has helped shape the healthcare industry over the past 10 years?

Brad Dodge: I think we’ve helped B2B vendors really understand how important it is to have clear messages. If you have clear messages and an integrated campaign that moves those messages forward, then that helps you drive awareness and grow your company. Because a lot of our clients have new technologies, they are way ahead of the markets they serve, and it’s not so easy just to say you’re out there in the market. If you’re selling cell phones, you can say you have the coolest new cell phone because it’s got better coverage. People understand that because they already know what a cell phone is and they’re already using one. They’ve probably tried different cell phones, and they understand the value of good coverage. They know whether or not they need that because those things are easy, but when you’re selling technology like our clients are, they are selling things that people don’t know. They can’t say cell phone because their market doesn’t know what a cell phone is.

A lot of times I use a car example: it’s easy for Volvo to sell a car that is safe because people already know what a car is. If they didn’t, then it would be a different kind of challenge of how to communicate that. Helping our technology clients say, “Back up and try to understand that the marketplace doesn’t even know your product exists or that they have a need for your product, never mind why yours is the best.”  You have to approach it from a different messaging perspective, and I think that’s one thing we’ve helped the vendors do.

One other thing is that we’ve really helped and stressed the importance of reinforcing messages through thought leadership. Through blogs, social media and the types of articles and white papers we develop for our clients, we really help them understand that when a prospect goes to a website and sees all kinds of content—relevant content—that’s approached from different angles but always advances the same message, that goes a really long way. I think vendors are finally starting to understand the work we do and that having a strong thought leadership position is a real strong requisite for what they are trying to do.

Question 3: What’s the best piece of advice you could give to a client who is trying to implement and integrated communications campaign?

Brad Dodge: I think the key to that question is the word integrated, and we help our clients understand what communications is in today’s world order—the speed and diversity through which we receive information—is not consumed the same way it was when we started the business 10 years ago. There was barely an Internet, there definitely wasn’t social media and magazines were all the rage.  Today, there are so many venues to get information from, and we help people understand that they need to be engaged in all types of communication venues to get your message out. So, just pick one thing like doing a webinar—there are dozens of ways you can make your market and your followers and your audience and clients aware that’s coming up. The more types of communications vehicles you use to promote an event, the better results you’re going to get from your investment in PR and marketing.

Question 4: What are your goals for the next 10 years for Dodge?

Brad Dodge: I think we know now that the business is well-established—we have 30 employees now—and we understand what the opportunity is. We understand where we can get better, where our strengths are and how we can distinguish ourselves from competition. We have a plan that says there is going to be a great need for our types of services in the B2B healthcare industry for a long time. That’s because of all the visibility that healthcare has at the federal and global level. There will be a lot of need for what we’re doing.

The business model has been proven and now our challenge is to execute it.  We have a 10 year business plan in place that has us growing to a certain size, and we just want to continue to build on the success we have and continue to grow the way we’re growing now. We realize we are going to have to go into some adjunct markets such as a bigger expansion into medical devices or medical providers or general technology. We know there’s an opportunity for a lot of growth, and we need to approach it systematically with the best practices we have developed so far.

Question 5: What are some of the most memorable moments of Dodge’s history?

Brad Dodge: You know, I think it’s every time we have some sort of a milestone. Just having moved into this office space that we’re in now was a pretty momentous occasion. It caused us to reflect for the past years we were in the other office location and what it was like when we moved in there. It also helps us look forward as to what it will be once we settle into this space. That’s kind of one of the times that you look at it—every time you move your office.

It’s also interesting to look at the employee list from awhile ago. I’m so fortunate to have a really awesome group of people who work in the company because it’s not an easy business to be in. Healthcare and technology are pretty heady business, and for someone to thrive in an environment where they have to have an understanding in healthcare and technology and a domain expertise in integrated communications as well as the fortitude to manage multiple brands at the same time—which is the definition of an agency—really requires a different breed and a stellar person. That’s what we’ve built over the years—employees who have those skill sets. It’s really awesome to work with people who are so competent and capable, and I look back and say, “Wow, the days before we had this employee or the days before we had that employee,” are the momentous times. I think about having first started a relationship with those employees and now they are really part of the fabric of the organization.

There’s also been a lot of trips—the standard conferences like HIMSS, MGMA and AMGA—where we connect with hundreds of people we’ve worked with as clients, vendors, editors or ad reps. It’s so much fun to do an event like that and connect with all types of people. It’s one of the things I look forward to all of the time—going to events and seeing people I haven’t seen in over a year and seeing them face-to-face to have some good social time together and really reconnect.

I think there are a lot of momentous times that I remember at the agency, but they are usually celebrating the people or the milestones, and that’s what make it a momentous event.

It’s rare to mark the passing of an individual who substantially alters the course of human existence. But that’s just what we’re doing this week as we bid goodbye to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Perhaps his inventions don’t quite stack up against penicillin or the wheel, but they nevertheless have significantly changed the way we live, work and communicate.

It’s those last two—working and communicating—that I’d like to focus on for a moment. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I remember life before there was a computer parked in every living room and another one on every office desk. Back then you couldn’t compare any product you wanted, from widgets to EHRs, simply by performing a key word search.

It wasn’t that long ago. Yet it’s almost impossible now to imagine life without the instantaneous and ubiquitous communication enabled by the PC, iPhone^® and iPad^®. It begs the question: Why should corporate messages be immune to this rapidly changing communication landscape? The answer, of course, is that they aren’t.

By promoting the PC, Jobs helped spark a chain reaction that has transformed corporate communication. An effective strategy isn’t limited anymore to traditional public relations and marketing efforts; it also embraces the power of integrated online messages.

This very blog is a case-in-point. After all, I could print these same words on the op-ed page of my local paper. But you’re not as likely to see them there, and you certainly couldn’t respond to them in real time. Integrating social and other online media campaigns with tried-and-true public relations and marketing initiatives opens to door to vastly larger audiences and active, two-way conversation.

Online marketing communication has the potential to engage clients like no other venue before. Whether through the Web, blogs, Tweets, Facebook pages—or some as-yet-unknown forum—companies can’t discount the commanding influence of online messaging.

An article posted yesterday in The Wall Street Journal notes that Jobs “was a key figure in changing the way people used the Internet and how they listened to music, watched TV shows and movies, and read books, disrupting industries in the process.” I don’t believe that Jobs’ innovations disrupted the marketing communications industry. On the contrary, they have helped it become more dynamic than ever before.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications client is interviewed to discuss his experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Marty McKenna leads marketing and commercial operations at dbMotion and joined the company three years ago. dbMotion has been a Dodge client for six years.

Dodge: How has Dodge helped with your communications needs since you started working with them?

McKenna: There are a couple of angles to that. The obvious one of course is that you guys are connected. We’re relatively small, and your connections have helped us place articles and things we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. That might be the easiest thing—helping us get speaking spots at events like World Health Congress and HIMSS, and article placements for the UPMC folks. I think that all works, and along the way, you guys have had a professionalism that is important. You’ve made us look like we know what we we’re doing when we probably didn’t. That’s really helpful.

One of the things I remember from when I first joined was I saw an article that Elizabeth [Glaser] had written, and I thought it was one of my team members who is close to the industry who wrote it. I responded really quickly about how amazed I was at how deep it was it terms of understanding the domain, and everything was well-written and well-connected to what was happening in the industry. I responded to my team member, and she said that it was something we got from Dodge. This gave me a little more insight into what the group there brings to the table. I think the understanding and focus that we’ve seen from everyone at Dodge is really important to me. We need to come across like we know what we’re talking about and that we’ve been in the industry. Everything Dodge has ever written has come across that way.

Dodge: What are some of the major accomplishments you’ve been able to achieve through your partnership with Dodge, and how have these accomplishments impacted your overall business?

McKenna: Probably the biggest one has been that we had two or three presentations at HIMSS last year, and basically from soup to nuts, Elizabeth and the team took it over and took on the challenge. They worked with our clients, such as UMass, and were able to prepare them for the presentation. I think almost everything she [Glaser] has presented to HIMSS has been accepted, that’s probably not quite true, but it’s a very, very high hit rate. From a business impact of course what happens is that we’ll be exhibiting at a tradeshow, or even World Health Conference where Bill Fera was speaking, and we don’t have much activity. As soon as one of our clients speaks, then we’re able to chat with some people, develop leads and opportunities and get the chance to position our product the right way. In that way, it’s been integral to our strategy of really trying to get out in front and get our clients out in front, which is our overall business strategy.

Dodge: Where is the field of healthcare communication headed, and why do you think Dodge is positioned to succeed?

McKenna: I think it all comes down to domain, so I think the advantage of Dodge is that we look at Elizabeth as a business partner for us. One of the projects we’re taking on right now is revamping our website. I can be confident that someone like Elizabeth along with my team will be able to help those folks make sure they don’t go down an alley we don’t want to go down or take us down a place that isn’t right for positioning. It’s a tricky place, so you want to be sophisticated and interesting. Somewhere right on that fine line is where you want to be, and I think Elizabeth does a nice job of walking that line.

In terms of where communications are heading, it’s changing very rapidly; there’s all sorts of things we’re questioning. We’re questioning a lot of the publications, frankly, and how much value we get from them and trying to figure out how to spend our money appropriately. As a relatively small company, we don’t have endless budget, and we don’t have the ability to do everything so we have to be very selective. In that way, it helps to have someone that when we select something, we knock the cover off the ball because we need to do something well when we do it. The people that we work with there [at Dodge] are our trusted advisers that can help us do that.

Dodge: That’s all of the questions that we have for you. Is there anything else you might like to add or a memory of Dodge you’d like to share?

McKenna: I think for us, it really does come down to that business partnership. We don’t work with any companies, whether it’s marketing or professional services or otherwise, that can’t sit at the table with us and help us explore. It’s never a “here’s the textbook way to do it,” it’s actually a dialog, and that’s what we enjoy about Dodge.

I think the other piece, possibly, is the global understanding. The people working with us have done a nice job bridging the gap originally because we’ve gone through a lot of changes. Dodge has been able to roll with those changes. They’ve been significant even in terms of our market positioning.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications client is interviewed to discuss his experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

David Murphy, is vice president of product management and marketing at Health Access Solutions. Health Access Solutions has been a Dodge client for a year and a half. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Dodge: How has Dodge Communications helped with your integrated communications needs over the past year and a half?

Murphy: It’s obviously important to have a comprehensive communications footprint to get your market message heard above the noisy, congested marketplace. I’d say the Dodge team has really helped us to establish a consistent, concise messaging strategy, and just as important, a discipline to be consistent with our messaging across both our internal and all of our market-facing opportunities.

You know, one of the things I think Dodge has helped us do—I talked about crafting a message strategy, but it’s also about looping that effectively together across the full range of media outlets. Dodge has really helped us effectively do that through the website, traditional media—both print and online outlets, social media, the blogosphere, trade conferences, the speaker’s bureau presentation, marketing collateral material, all of that, so we end up with an appropriately tailored message for each forum. I think that’s one area where Dodge has really helped us.

Dodge: What are some of the major accomplishments you’ve been able to achieve through your partnership with Dodge, and how have these accomplishments impacted your overall business?

Murphy: I think the biggest has been the effectiveness Dodge has had in helping establish broad market visibility for us. As an early stage company in an emerging market, this is really important. They’ve developed extensive market exposure for us, and this is really no small task for a small, up-and-coming company like ours with a relatively limited marketing budget.  They seem to have far-reaching tentacles throughout the industry that they can pull at the right time, and that’s resulted in that well-timed interview that leads to the well-timed article that they ghost-wrote and pitched, which ends in a much appreciated inquiry from a prospective buyer. It’s all kind of one integrated stream.

Dodge: Where is integrated communications headed, and why do you think Dodge is positioned to succeed?

Murphy: My impression is, with what we’ve experienced so far with Dodge, is that they’re already well-positioned to succeed because what we’ve seen is really what I’d call their whole-market view coupled with a really effective team approach for developing and executing marketing communications plans. Plus, it’s really clear to us here that they are very client and market focused. I think from that perspective, they’re really well-positioned as a full service agency; that’s how we think of Dodge.

As for integrated communications, where it’s heading, I just expect things to get faster and evermore precise in terms of reaching a targeted market of prospective buyers with a differentiated message. You create a market event or something just happens, and you have to be ready to push the button for a cascading stream of relevant and highly-targeted communications quickly across many media streams. I think that’s the direction we’re going here with Dodge’s help.

Dodge: That’s all the questions we have for you. Is there anything else you might like to add, or a memory of working with Dodge that you’d like to share?

Murphy: They’ve been a consistent presence for us here. As a company and a team, we’ve really grown to rely on them to have our best interests at hand, and they’ve really helped us out in the market. We, both me and my team, find them to be highly professional and well-organized and on task.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications senior interactive developer and producer is interviewed to discuss his experience with Dodge in the recent months. To view earlier installments please click here.

Steve Rigby is the senior interactive developer and producer. He has been with Dodge Communications for four months. He says that the friendly environment at Dodge makes it a great place to work. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Dodge: Since you started working here, how has Dodge helped you develop as a professional web developer?

Rigby: Dodge has really helped me improve my skill sets in probably two major areas. For one, it’s really helped me expand my understanding of the web development process. While I understand the web development process really well, it’s really about understanding how to adapt to the process on-the- fly in order to provide improved customer service or the final quality of a product when delivering. It has really been a great learning experience for me.

In addition, I think the variety of work Dodge brings in helps keep me on my toes. I’m given new challenges and opportunities on a weekly basis that allow me to explore new techniques and keep up with the ever-changing environment that the industry presents.

Dodge: What role do you think design can have in the ever-changing healthcare technology space?

Rigby: I think design’s role has always been to problem-solve. Communicating complex messages is never an easy task, especially when we absorb information visually much differently than we absorb words that are spoken or that we read. The power of design is much stronger at communicating visually. When you put a design in front of someone with a strong message, you have a greater chance of capturing their attention than you would just having the message being spoken directly to them.

Dodge: If you could give advice to clients about picking designs for their integrated campaigns, what would it be?

Rigby: I think when it comes to picking designs, we need to ask ourselves: is this what I want or is this what my customers want? I think it’s in our nature to pick our personal taste. It’s even true for designers when we first enter the field of design, but through years of training and experience we come to learn it’s not really about us and what we do for design. It’s really about who we’re targeting with our design and the message. It’s not to say that we can’t put our own touches on design—that goes for the client or the designer—but it’s really what the target audience is interested in that we should be focused on. When it comes to picking colors or when it comes to picking the right font or the right layout, generally, designers will choose the best means to reach out to that audience based on the information we gathered from the communication brief and the client in the industry. That’s why it’s important to clearly define up-front who our audience is. Then, when we integrate the campaign, we have a better sense of reaching that market than we would picking things based on our own personal preference.

Dodge: What’s your favorite part about working at Dodge?

Rigby: I would have to say, my favorite part about working at Dodge is getting to work with the people who I work with everyday. Dodge has some of the most friendly and genuine people that I think I’ve really ever had the opportunity to work with, and that type of environment just makes it a fun environment to work in. It brings out the best in everybody, which I think brings up the quality of the work that we do.

Dodge: What’s one of the most memorable moments you’ve had at Dodge?

Rigby: I think the most memorable moment to me was when I first signed on and joined the company. We had just been awarded one of Atlanta’s best places to work in 2011, and it was a great feeling to know that the people who I work with, as I mentioned  earlier, are great to work with. When I heard this, it reaffirmed that I made the right choice to work with Dodge.  We all gathered in the conference room to celebrate the news—we popped some champagne and had strawberries dipped in chocolate, and everyone just had a good laugh. We got to toast to our continued success and keeping Dodge a great place to work.

I’ve been watching the coverage of the interviews with former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell this week with great curiosity and amazement. The buzz started when she walked out of the interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan when—apparently—she’d had enough of his questions that weren’t what she wanted to talk about. After that, Morgan talked with Anderson Cooper, and both agreed that the interview questions were fair game because they addressed topics discussed in the book and in other public forums. I thought that might be the end of the discussion. Then, to my surprise, she appeared on the Today Show to explain why she walked off the set at CNN. “We were late for another interview” was the main point she tried to put forth. Let’s have a show of hands who believes that excuse. No one? C’mon, she and her advisors must have thought SOMEone would believe that. I mean, forget the fact that she spent the first 8 minutes of the interview criticizing Morgan’s approach as creepy, and alleging he used such tactics because he was desperate for ratings. “I was late” was the main point.

I believe that these interviews illustrate why any person, company or other organization needs to have a clear messaging strategy and platform before venturing out onto the world’s stage. Any communications strategist could have predicted what Morgan’s line of questioning would have been, and she admitted on the Today Show that she didn’t even want to do the CNN interview because of Morgan’s style. (She also admitted she didn’t want to do the “I am not a witch” ad but the experts convinced her that it was a good idea. And she lamented that it’s a sexist thing, observing that no one continues to ask President Clinton about his Lewinksy escapades.)

Could you sit through an interview with Piers Morgan? Can you think what he’d ask? Are you prepared with solid messaging that clearly and forcefully articulates your position and advances your message? Do you know how to segue from a question about one topic to an answer about another?

Watching the political process is one of the most fascinating forms of messaging. How many times has President Obama said “millionaires and billionaires?” Do you think he and his minions are speaking off the cuff? Or are they using carefully crafted messaging points that are designed to resonate with the voting public. It’s an integrated communication strategy with a solid messaging platform. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree. Top tier politicians are heavily coached on communications strategy.

Every healthcare, technology and life sciences company needs to be prepared with an integrated communication strategy and a solid messaging platform. It’s the vital foundation you need to promote and build your brand in a tough environment.

Sure, most healthcare companies will never sit down with a tough interviewer looking to exploit scandal. Most healthcare media are hard working folks trying to do a good job and deliver compelling news to their readers, visitors and followers. But if your messages aren’t clear in your interviews, on your blog and on your web content, you run the risk of missing opportunities to advance your message and build your company. You lose the momentum that could be seized by your competitors.

The scariest thing of all is that O’Donnell has worked as a PR and marketing consultant in the past. Unbelievable.