We dress casually at our office. Seems to work pretty well, because our clients, prospects and partners don’t often visit in person. When they do, everyone seems to understand that it’s time step up the dress code. We don’t really have a corporate policy to that effect—it’s just understood.

And when we go on the road to visit clients we have a similar stepped-up dress code. For a prospect, the dress code goes up another notch. And at trade shows like HIMSS, MGMA, AMGA and AHIMA, we all dress pretty much to the nines.

This phenomenon got me thinking. Why do we do this? It’s because we want to put our best foot forward, make sure we’re not disqualified for an opportunity or looked down upon because we’re dressed sloppily or inappropriately. And we sure don’t want to be outdressed by our competition! It’s an easy measure, and is pretty much the norm. And I’m sure all of you do this as well. We want to look as sharp as we feel. We want everyone to associate our dress with the services we provide—buttoned up, sharp, smart, professional.

The truth is that in the post-internet world order, we’re making many different brand impressions other than the way we dress. Think about it. Do you ever visit a company’s Web site for the first time and think (translated to clothing) “wow, these guys have holes in their jeans and are wearing flip flops?” Or “wow, looks like these guys got their clothes at Walmart in the 90s.” Or “wow, I’d never wear something like that to an event like this.”

Ever gotten a Tweet from a company where you said “Did they really say that?” It might have put a little ding in your opinion of their brand.

Let’s try the same analogy for e-mails you’ve received as a first impression to a company. “This guy looks horrible. Why would he wear something like that to a classy event like this?”

Or how about general poise and communication appropriateness? Ever gotten an e-mail that feels like someone is screaming at you and you didn’t even invite him to the party?

Or overly obnoxious, cocky and self centered? Kind of like “Nice to meet you. Let me tell you how great I am. Look, EVERYONE AGREES with ME!”

I suspect you would NEVER do any of these things in person. But, you’re making a brand impression in all of these venues, and you need to carefully consider what your brand looks like, how your brand sounds, and whether you’re confident your brand carries the same tone and personality you would carry if every encounter was in person.

Think about it. Your brand is being represented everywhere, and every brand interaction needs to be carefully crafted so it represents the brand you’re trying to build.

I remember Jerry Seinfeld seeing George’s choice of sweat pants one day, and saying “Sweat pants? Do you realize the message you’re sending out to society? You’ve given up, and can’t compete in the real world.”

Step it up, shine your virtual shoes, and put on the brand face that you’d want. Make sure your virtual wardrobe and dress code represent the brand you want to be.

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, 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.

My heart goes out to all those who suffered losses of any kind resulting from effects of hurricane Irene and the subsequent tropical storm. And I certainly don’t envy the jobs of the crisis spokespersons–governors and mayors, police and fire personnel, disaster response organizations and others.

Spokespersons have a very important responsibility updating citizens and media outlets, conveying difficult facts while being sympathetic and empathetic to the plight of everyone affected. And while “it ain’t that bad” and “sure coulda been a whole lot worse” may seem like appropriate, hopeful observations, tremendous care must be taken in how, when and to whom pep talks are delivered.

Take Connecticut’s governor Dan Malloy, for example.

On Wednesday, in comments I read in a Wall Street Journal article, Malloy said, “Let’s put this in perspective. Only two people died. It’s miraculous if you think about it.”

He was addressing hundreds of thousands of people who had been and were being impacted by the surprising wrath of the storm. People were angry that the response to power outages wasn’t faster and more organized. People were devastatingly sad that their homes were damaged or even completely destroyed. But most importantly, there were families and communities that were mourning the loss of loved ones whose lives were taken by the storm’s furor. “It ain’t that bad”, “coulda been worse” and “It’s a miracle there ain’t more dead” are all very insensitive remarks that–in my opinion–crossed the line from constructive to destructive.

“Aw, he was jes’ tryin to help” you say? Had he considered the impact of such insensitive remarks by thinking of the specific audiences he was addressing, it wouldn’t have taken much thought to realize it.

It all comes around to the need to empathize with your audience’s pain points, whether you’re a crisis spokesperson serving the public, a director of PR for a public company, or a sales manager for a small tech startup.

Be strategic with your messages. Think about what to say, and what NOT to say. Like my dad always said, “Why do you think you were given two ears but only one mouth?”

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.

Every once in awhile, a sales initiative crosses my desk that leaves me totally befuddled. In our business, it’s not uncommon for us to see examples of less-than-effective—if not downright embarrassing—marketing and promotional efforts.

Rarely do we encounter one, though, that fails to communicate even the most basic message of all: what product or service the vendor provides.

This weekend I received a communiqué via LinkedIn that broke this cardinal rule. I was left wondering what the company did and why I should consider reaching out to the representative as requested. Take a look (I’ve left the punctuation and grammatical errors uncorrected)…

Hi Elizabeth

My name is XXX XXX  I happened across your profile and I wanted to take a quick minute to reach out to you. I work or a company called XXXXXX.

My company, XXXXXX, has been in business for over 100 years servicing companies and large organizations throughout Oregon and the United States. We have been recognized in Salem Oregon, as well as named Business Of The Year by delivering versatile, quality, and reliable services for our clients.

I’m writing just to initiate a conversation and see if you would be open to meeting about any potential opportunities for us to work together.

Companies typically hire us for one of the following reasons:
• We eliminate client risks through a system of checks and balances
• We consistently bring clients the best value for their budget
• Through proven methods of lean operations and quality control we protect our customers time

I know connecting with someone out of the blue like this can be an interesting process, so feel free to check me out here on LinkedIn or email me at XXXXXXXX for some background information on XXXXXX and myself.

Whether or not you’re interested in talking, I really look forward to connecting further. Feel free to shoot me a personal invite, and I look forward to touching base with you soon.

Here are the problems with this note:

• I don’t what “space” the company is in.
• I don’t know what the company does.
• The writer asks me to make the effort of “checking her out,” after acknowledging the note comes “out of the blue.”
• Even if I’m not interested in talking to the writer, she is looking forward to “connecting further.”
• Again, the writer asks me to make the effort to shoot her a personal invite.
• I’ve been given no incentive to do more than delete the message.

How much more effective would this communication have been if the writer had simply:

• Defined the company’s market category.
• Outlined the company’s product or service offerings.
• Provided greater specificity about customer results or value delivered.
• Offered a quick, virtually effortless way for me to indicate interest so she could arrange further conversation.
• Proofread the note—or have a colleague do so.

The science of marketing communications isn’t mystical, magical or even complex (really!). At its most basic, it requires only 1) a simple, clear message and 2) a nonintrusive opportunity for further dialog. Unfortunately, the note above fails at both.

Kathleen Plath, VP of marketing at Specialists On Call, recently met with us to discuss her company’s recent rebranding initiative. In a sea of telemedicine vendors that provide the technology, but not the specialists behind it, Kathleen’s company has been on a mission to be heard above the chatter.

Dodge: Tell us a bit about SOC’s history and the mission behind starting the company.

Plath: Specialists On Call, Inc., or “SOC”, is the fastest growing and leading provider of clinical telemedicine services to hospitals in the U.S. We are accredited by the Joint Commission and led by a physician with 20 years of successful business experience. Since our founding in 2007, we’ve offered the services of experienced, emergency neurologists to hospitals through a 24/7/365 on-call service with a 15-minute response time. In fact, to date we have more than 45 board certified, fellowship trained, neurologists—half of them drawn from our university partnerships and half from private practice. These individuals provide emergency consultations to hospital emergency departments, inpatient units and ICU’s via our telemedicine infrastructure, which includes a collection of industry standard videoconferencing, EHR and PACS systems woven into a single cost-effective solution that is coordinated by our centralized call center and clinical staff. This past February we expanded and began providing on-demand psychiatry consultations in addition to our neurology on-call service.

Dodge: Can you elaborate on your business model and how this works and the company’s plan for the next five years?

Plath: We pioneered a successful business model for providing superior neurology physician on-call coverage to hospitals in which those hospitals pay SOC in exchange for coverage and consultations, but they receive and retain all patient and insurance billings. This enables SOC to offer good compensation to our neurologists for their work and, in exchange for that, we demand a professional level of efficiency and customer service from our physicians that is unmatched in telemedicine and rarely found even in bedside consultations. SOC’s business model allows hospitals to initiate the use of our service without any capital investment and then derive a significant positive financial impact, many times in less than 90 days, and from that point onwards derive a growing positive return. Our service is a unique and attractive approach to solving the problem of finding specialists willing to take calls and the responsibilities that come along with that.

As a result, SOC has experienced extreme, rapid growth—starting with six pilot participants in one state, we now have more than 115 hospital clients and contracts for more than 25 hospitals in 17 states. Our physicians are providing more than 1,100 consultations per month, more than any bricks and mortar medical center or telemedicine program in the country. Our plan for the coming years is to continue to expand nationwide, and include clinical telemedicine offerings in other service lines, such as orthopedics.

Dodge: You recently rebranded the entire company from your logo and messaging to collateral and the website. Can you tell us about that process and why you decided to make it a priority?

Plath: Since inception, we had maintained a somewhat “under the radar” approach to give us the time needed to build up a base of business throughout the country. By 2010 we were ready to build a comprehensive marketing and public relations program, which included everything from developing a new website, collateral, and sales presentations and tools to creating a tradeshow and conference strategy, communications approach, and media plan. Initially we had decided to maintain the current logo and branding since it had not been tested in the marketplace, however, it became clear as we moved further into the process of developing the website and collateral that an entire re-branding was necessary.  

Dodge: As part of the rebranding, you also undertook direct marketing initiatives and social media. Can you discuss the importance of looking at all efforts comprehensively and the impact this has had internally as well as externally with customers and prospects?

Plath: We knew that when we got in front of hospitals our close rate was very high—the problem was that not enough hospitals knew about our service. It became very important for us to create awareness of our services in the marketplace. We therefore chose to utilize both traditional as well as online marketing initiatives. Additionally, since we were building an entirely new, comprehensive website, we wanted to realize its fullest potential by driving traffic to the site. Social media, including twitter, LinkedIn and a blog, provides a way for us to drive traffic to our new website and also helps to position SOC as a thought leader in the industry.

Dodge: To others considering a rebranding, what key takeaways would you share?

Plath: In considering a rebranding, it is important to include all of the internal stakeholders very early on in the process, and more importantly, to define what the process will look like. Since rebranding is not to be taken lightly, define what you hope to achieve by the rebranding effort and get agreement on your goals and objectives from all stakeholders. 

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

Plath: More and more people are getting their information through online sources such as Twitter feeds, blogs, etc., including hospital administrators and clinicians. In fact, many hospitals now have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, so it became important that we include social media as a key component of our communications strategy. In terms of efforts to generate interest from the media, gone are the days when sending a press release to the editor will get you noticed. Many healthcare writers and media in general are getting their news and ideas on what to report on from Twitter in particular. Understanding the complexity and daily demands of using social media as a marketing tool is one thing I was keenly aware of and therefore enlisted Dodge’s services to help us get off the ground with our social media efforts.

Dodge: Any parting comments?

Plath: Rolling out the new brand, materials, website, etc. to our colleagues and to existing customers and prospects was so rewarding. People were excited and proud to show off our new personality. Moreover, we were thrilled to learn we won numerous industry accolades and awards for the corporate identity as well as the website…it was hard work, but our efforts have truly paid off.

We enjoyed traveling to the Moscone Center in San Francisco this week to attend the AHIP Institute 2011. There was a good deal of positive energy at the show and we enjoyed visiting with our clients, partners and friends.  And if you weren’t able to attend, you missed a couple of magnificent days of weather–68 degrees and bright sun.

We were generally very pleased with the booth quality at the show. Unlike the AMGA conference, AHIP accepts booths of all sizes, though in general the booths are smaller than at HIMSS, for example. And AHIP does a great job getting the attendees into the exhibit hall to mingle with the exhibitors. Meals, refreshment breaks and cocktail receptions are all in the hall, with everything set up in the back of the hall so attendees need to walk by the booths to get to the grub. Same idea as where they locate the milk and eggs at the grocery store.

Best in show goes to Optum. It was an interesting configuration–20 feet wide and 80 or so feet long. The exhibit itself was very contemporary and elegant with a good use of the narrow Moss header set at several different heights. The video wall was nicely done–well positioned with clean crisp messages. And the workstation kiosks were high quality and effective.

Because the booth properties were so impressive, we decided to focus our lenses on companies’ tag lines for a change of pace. It’s a common complaint at shows that visitors can’t figure out what companies do by looking at the booths. We recommend to our clients that it’s most important to jump that hurdle FIRST in their booth messaging. We believe that some companies do a great job, others don’t. In our business, we talk to many companies that want to adopt a “just do it” style of tag line–all emption and no description. We think that’s a lost opportunity for companies to build brand awareness. Our belief is that a visitor may be in the market for a company’s product or services, but they won’t recognize the company is even IN that category if they’re using a tag line that doesn’t establish the category.

Now, we agree that descriptive tag lines often lack emotion. But we feel that you can put the emotion into the conversation once the potential buyer realizes you have an offering he may be looking for.

OK, here are some examples from the show. Our friends at MedTech publishing nailed it with a very descriptive tag line “Integrated news sources for today’s healthcare management.” They establish the category and the audience.

Now look at the hms booth. We don’t get it. At all.
 

But then we see the extra effort showing all the relevant words that have ‘it’ in them. We still don’t get it.

We liked the tag line for V3 Benefits System, “Software for Health Plan Administration.” Nothin’ fancy, but very simple and you know what business they’re in.

Now how about SAS. “The power to know.” Very emotive. In fact, our photographer was so overcome with emotion that he couldn’t even hold the camera still. No idea what they do.

Best idea gone awry.  FIS‘ chocolate fountain. Everyone loves a chocolate fountain. So fancy. So upscale. So unique. This company had a great idea. But we stood there for 15 minutes watching the server trying to get the thing running right, to no avail. I’ll always remember FIS. But not for the reason they’d expect. Besides, what does FIS mean? Don’t get us started on the power of acronyms.

Back to tag lines. How about GTESS, “Better than humanly possible.” Really? Well, at least they spent the dough to trademark their 5 letter acronym. I’m sure there were a bunch of companies trying to scoop them on that one.

We thought Emdeon’s tag line, although very conservative, was effective. “Revenue and payment cycle management. Clinical information exchange.” Maybe they’re better than humanly possible, but we’ll never know.

OK, here’s another pure emotion, no category from SourceHOV. “Your source for improved customer care and sustained profitability.” Is the visitor supposed to understand how that happens, or is the idea that they have to walk into the booth and ask, “How is it that you’re my source for improved customer care and sustained profitability?” Many corporate marketers and agency folks believe that IS the strategy–to force them into the booth to engage in a conversation. They argue that if you tell them what you do in your signage, they can keep walking and you miss the opportunity to engage. We believe that if your category represents something the visitor is interested in or in the market for, you’ll have a much better chance of engaging, regardless of whether they walk by the booth and look you up on the web when they’re back at their hotel .

Least effective tagline at the show: Inspiris, “Consistently enriching the lives of our health plan partners’ medically complex, chronically ill members, while improving quality and lowering costs.” We think if you added “world peace” in there, you’d have all the benefits covered. What do they do?!

Well, we’ve run out of time here. We hope our insight was, well, insightful! See you at HFMA ANI!

Thank you to everyone who attended our most recent webinar “What’s for launch? Using integrated communications strategies in your company” led by Brad Dodge. The webinar focused on strategies to help combat the biggest challenges for launching a new company or product in a B2B setting. Most organizations underestimate the resources, funding and time necessary to successfully create a sustainable messaging strategy to build brand awareness and identity for their new company or product.

The webinar presents twelve key areas to improve a company or product launch, which you can learn about by listening to the webinar after registering here. We hope you’ll join us for the next webinar on June 16 to learn about establishing credibility through an integrated communications campaign.

During a recent visit to my neighborhood burrito bar, I was struck by a minor change at the cash register. Instead of the usual glass tip jar, employees had purchased a (clean) red plastic gas can, cut a big hole in the side and adorned it with a “gas money for the crew” sign.

Nothing about the message was new; servers have long and openly requested tips for commuting expenses. But the manner in which the message was packaged and delivered was fresh – and prompted more than one customer to chuckle and throw in an extra dollar or two.

It was a timely reminder for those of us who work in the marketing and PR world – and a valuable lesson for us to share with clients. Successful messaging and promotion campaigns don’t necessarily require bells, whistles and razzmatazz (an animated, life-sized cutout of Jimmie Johnson with a sound chip of engines revving would not have caused me to increase my typical tip the way the gas can did). But they do rely on clarity and impact. Here are three rules of thumb to keep in mind…

1. Remember the old “KISS” adage – “keep it simple, stupid.” Aim to communicate one clear idea through a headline or graphic. Trying to do too much dilutes the message and fails to direct your audience to the most important take-away concept. That will cause prospects to shrug and pass you by. Supportive and subordinate messages can be presented in secondary copy or follow-up communications.
2. Deliver your message in an inventive, compelling manner. Good creative comes in many packages – from simple to complex. But no matter what the package, it must be germane to the message (that’s why the plastic gas can worked so well), fresh and grab attention. Think seamless; you want words and images to deliver an identical, integrated message, providing no opportunity for your audience to say, “huh?”– even for an instant. Once their train of thought is interrupted, you may never get it back.
3. Don’t forget that you are not your audience. Deliver a message that will resonate with them. You are familiar with and enthused about your product or service. But no matter how misguided you think they are , your prospects are skeptical and need to be convinced. Get into their heads. What will make them pause to consider your argument? How can you communicate value quickly and convincingly – with the least amount of work on the audience’s part? Grab attention and deliver that one clear idea in a memorable way.

In some cases, successful communications come from a flash of inspiration. I doubt the burrito builders in the example above held multiple brainstorming sessions to come up with their tip jar idea – although it probably was bounced around behind the counter and refined during a conversation that began with “What if we tried this…?”

More frequently, however, the effective delivery of a message takes planning, strategizing and careful execution. One of the most effective campaigns in recent years was launched by Chik-fil-a. Having cows hawk chicken sandwiches in a burger-crazed world was brilliant. The message was clear: Eat more chicken. The images were attention-getting and compelling, and supported the core message/headline seamlessly. It was fun, inventive and designed to attract consumer attention – and appeared to be a no-brainer campaign.

But I’ll bet the farm that it took time, and that corporate, marketing and creative staffs collaborated to critique, buff and polish the basic idea to ensure the right message was delivered in the right way to the right people.

The campaign was simple, spectacular, strategic. And, needless to say, successful.