From pressure to take a stance on social issues to higher expectations from the C-suite, challenges abound for health system marketing departments. Here, three health system marketing leaders share the most challenging issues they are facing.
Paul Matsen. Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Cleveland Clinic. I would say there are two different challenges. One challenge is that the expectations for brands and organizations are changing.
Organizations, whether that be for-profit businesses or nonprofit health systems, are looked to for responses on complex issues. And I would say that was something that wasn't necessarily a focus for chief marketing officers or organizations years ago. So, as we're dealing with issues of reproductive rights, social justice and interrupting gun violence, people look to organizations like Cleveland Clinic to provide leadership to respond to those issues. We obviously take those issues very seriously and we have to communicate to our own internal caregivers, so they understand where we stand, but also to our communities as well. So that's one area that I think has evolved dramatically for marketing and communications officers over time.
The second is the complexity of the digital landscape. It's never been more complex as technologies continue to change rapidly. And as a result, how marketers manage their media investments, their marketing investments has also had to change. So it's critically important that everyone in marketing, particularly marketing leaders, have a deep understanding of the digital landscape and how to best leverage digital to build brand and reputation and to attract patients as well.
Steven Telliano. Assistant Vice Chancellor of Strategic Communications for UC Davis Health (Sacramento, Calif.). There are a lot of challenges facing chief marketing officers today, some of which include widespread consumer distrust, deep-seated skepticism of claims made, heavily splintered audience attention span, increasing competition for audience interest, increasing costs and choices for ad placements, increasing volumes of data to analyze to attempt to inform marketing programs and greater expectations (and need for) results by leadership.
Skip Hidlay. Chief Communications and Marketing Officer of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (Columbus). I think we face two key challenges. The first is creating inspiring recruitment marketing campaigns to help our HR teams fill hundreds of job openings for front-line clinical and support staff.
The second is engaging front-line clinical teams to continue enhancing patient experience at a time when physicians, nurses and other clinicians are struggling to overcome pandemic fatigue and short staffing levels.