Good Cause Marketing
Charitable activities can enhance your
visibility in the
community and your reputation with patients.
community and your reputation with patients.
As I researched this topic, one thing that
became clear is that there are many different ways to engage in
“cause” marketing. Below, I will explain some of
the various ways to get involved in cause or
“social” marketing. However, you might want to
first consider how it might benefit you and your practice to
engage in cause marketing. Peggy Lineal, the author of Marketing From the Heart: A Guide to Cause Related Marketing for the
Small Business, says that physicians should definitely consider
marketing from their own hearts. Lineal notes, “I think
this will enhance their reputations and their businesses.
People have a lot more choices these days, and it is imperative
for businesses to give back to the community.” Lineal
goes on to say that no matter how we want to think about health
care, the truth is that it is a business.
At the core of cause
marketing is the philosophy of doing well by doing good. Which
is certainly a motto that most of us physicians can embrace.
Many of us are already quite involved with charities and other
socially responsible groups. Yet, few doctors utilize this
relationship as a way to market their practices. To some of us,
charitable work is one of basic kindness and concern for our
fellow man. To others, it is a matter of social responsibility.
Few of us consider it a calculated business decision. This may
be because it seems and feels less altruistic to offer your
support to a particular cause if you are going to personally
benefit from it. However, the truth is that this is a terrific
way to let people who are in need of physician services know
that you are a compassionate and dedicated doctor. Cause
marketing, when done right, is a win-win prospect for everyone.
Joe Marconi, the author of Cause Marketing:
Build Your Image and Bottom Line Through Socially
Responsible Partnerships, Programs and Events, comments on the
pluses and pitfalls of this type of marketing. Marconi writes,
“Over five decades, cause marketing has become a highly
visible, often cost-effective, and frequently controversial
means of increasing recognition. It has created, enhanced, or
changed public perceptions, images, or reputations, and has
strongly differentiated individuals, brands, and companies in
crowded, competitive fields.”
Show your patients you care
To begin to consider the possibilities when
it comes to cause related marketing, first think about what you
can do every day in your own office. Let’s say that you
are a primary care physician in a practice called Your Town
Health Associates. Hypothetically, you asked consultant Richard
Earle to advise you on how you can both help your patients and
enhance your own reputation. Earle, the author of The Art of Cause Marketing, informed you that the vast majority of primary
care physicians never mention smoking to their patients.
Moreover, he said that research showed that “A mention
from their doctor was one of the most effective ways for
patients to stop.”
Earle tells you to
order some brochures from the American Cancer Society or
another anti-smoking organization. He suggests that you hand
them out to every patient who comes to your practice, but
before you do, place a label on them that reads, “Your
Town Health Associates cares about you and your family. Talk to
us about how to stop smoking. We can help.” The label
should also contain your address and other contact information.
Of course, this brochure doesn’t eliminate the need for a
formal conversation with smokers about how to stop; it just
helps create the opportunity. By giving a brochure to everyone,
you are accomplishing two things: 1) You are informing
non-smokers about the hazards of second hand smoke and giving
them information on how a smoker at home can get help; and, 2)
You are informing all of your patients that your group is
interested in promoting healthy habits.
Earle has informed you
and your partners that, among other things, “Physicians
can be the strong voice against smoking, drug abuse, and risky
sexual behaviors. There is a lot of evidence that physicians
can be the most effective instruments of change.” He has
encouraged you to “be insistent and probe.” Clearly
this type of cause related marketing will benefit your patients
and they in turn will think of you as a better
doctor—perhaps the first one who cared enough to talk to
them about these difficult issues.
Show you care about others
If instead you hired Peggy Lineal to offer
you advice on cause marketing, she would tell you to get
involved in something that affects your community. “I
think it is imperative for physicians to join forces in order
to give back to their own community,” she says. Lineal
advises you and your partners to sponsor or participate in a
local walk that benefits a family with a sick member. Get your
staff to participate as well. Invest in t-shirts that have the
name of your practice and a compassionate quote like, “At
Your Town Associates we care about the health of every member
of our community.” You can also put up a sign with a
similar message where the walk begins and ends.
Almost certainly, if
this is an important event in your community, the press will be
there. Lineal explains to you ahead of time that your efforts
will not be missed by the reporter who is looking for an
interesting angle. You take Lineal’s advice and the day
after the walk you obtain a copy of Your Town News and there is
a wonderful story of the event with a photo that clearly
captures one of your partners with her bright t-shirt and your
practice’s logo. Your company’s name was even
mentioned in the story as a benefactor of the worthy cause.
If you are part of a
larger hospital or health-care organization, then there are
numerous opportunities to participate in cause-related
marketing. My hospital has done a lot with this both in the
community and internally. Sometimes they do a combination of
the two. For example, we have a relationship with the New
England Patriots. In order to raise money for different health
programs, the hospital administrators frequently raffle off
football tickets to employees. These raffles benefit specific
programs in the hospital, such as the stroke rehabilitation
program. Employees enjoy participating in these raffles because
they get the chance to obtain great seats at a Patriots’
game along with the opportunity to donate money to a familiar
charitable cause.
More than likely, you are
already involved in a variety of charitable activities and
altruistic causes. There are many ways to use these connections
to enhance your professional reputation. If you aren’t
already involved in charitable and social causes, now is a
great time to start. Remember that cause marketing is based on
a simple principle that your parents taught you long ago:
It is better to give than to receive. g
Julie
Silver, MD is an
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of
several books including Chronic Pain and the Family. She is also directing the new Harvard CME
course, “Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative
Non-Fiction” (for more information go to http:
//cme.med.harvard.edu/.)
