Having spent 27 of the past 28 years on the provider-side of healthcare marketing, I believe that my comments are representative of many other healthcare marketers who have been frustrated with the old paradigm many hospital executives still buy into which has driven years of hospital-centric marketing campaigns.

Your statement regarding the brand value gained from positioning hospital advertising messages with the audience, rather than against the competition, is priceless!

I commend those hospitals who have had the foresight over the years to recognize the importance of thoroughly learning about their most profitable patients. Time spent understanding how these valuable patients access information about healthcare is invaluable when creating marketing messages that matter (to key patient audiences). Those few hospitals that have done the due diligence necessary to identify relevant insights about their key patient customers, and then have used that information to develop marketing messages that matter to those customers, are the hospital brands that are the leaders in our industry today.

I hope that your words resonate with others. As more and more advocates of audience-centric marketing clearly articulate to their hospital executives, physicians and boards, the value of using audience-centric messages in their marketing, the sooner the new paradigm can take hold and both the customer and the hospital will benefit.
Thanks for posting such a provocative message! Lynn

(BTW, your Google+ button at the end of the post does not work.)