There’s no shortage of super cool applications for the iPhone. You can pinpoint the location of your favorite Disney character in real time at Disney World. You can determine whether you’re sober enough to operate a motor vehicle. You can tune your guitar, calculate your daily calorie intake, or turn your iPhone into a flashlight.

And now, you can find out how long your wait will be at The Hospital of Central Connecticut’s emergency room. The free iPhone app posts emergency room wait times at HCC’s two campuses. It also provides maps, directions, phone numbers and general information about the facilities. The patient has the choice of selecting the location with the lower wait time, not to mention the peace of mind of knowing that they won’t get lost on the way there.

Not only is this more convenient for patients, it helps the hospital manage demand. Patients know what to expect, and hospital staff can better service their patients. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

With so much focus on patient experience and patient satisfaction scores, hospitals are arming themselves with tools that give them a leg up. Standardized surveys such as HCAHPS measure patient perceptions of their healthcare experience, and are easily accessible to consumers and the media. Hospitals are keenly aware that they need to find new ways to attract customers and win business.

And this gives healthcare marketers something to smile about. Because we’re always looking for a competitive advantage. A way to be different. A way to show the consumer, “we’re thinking about you”. We want to make things quicker, easier and more pleasant for them. Because we want them to share their experience with their friends and family. And we want them to become loyal advocates for life.

Looking for ways to delight your customers? Check out our brand planning capabilities. Or contact us today. We’d love to hear from you.

Flickr photo courtesy of josephpetepickle

With our roots in the typesetting business, Point to Point has changed dramatically over the years. From art studio to design firm to ad agency and now a fully integrated marketing and advertising firm, we’ve evolved for good reason: to be valued.

In each stage of evolution, we’ve managed to add value, streamline resources and offer clients more depth of service.

Last year, when conducting research to better understand marketers’ needs, it became clear that our clients wanted to achieve more with shrinking marketing budgets. What we learned, allowed our company to evolve. Again.

Read more

Flickr photo courtesy of Marcin Wichary

We are all brand ambassadors. We are all salespeople.

I’ve always thought that the world would be a better place if everyone had the position of salesperson at some time in their life. To be on the other side of the table is to have an appreciation of what it’s like to walk in with hat in hand.

If you’ve ever sold something you know what it’s like to fly 500 miles and be told the person that confirmed the meeting isn’t available. To sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes. To prepare for three days, escorted to the cafeteria and present your brilliant ideas next to the condiments table. To write a proposal that was needed the next day  and never receive a return call or any acknowledgment. To be minimized.

We are all busy. We are also representing companies that sell and buy things.

When we act rudely we are making enemies for life. Enemies that tell their friends that they’ve been treated badly. Enemies that raise concern of the quality of the company, the values of culture and how they treat their people and customers.

Interacting with another company presents an opportunity to represent the entity and the values of the organization. Yet, I am amazed that people in marketing, the same people who carry the flag of the company’s brand, can be rude. Rude as hell.

As Clevelanders are often reminded by a larger-than-life LeBron James: “We are all Witnesses.”  If the old adage is true that one unhappy customer tells 10 people, imagine how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost by companies that mistreat salespeople.

Brands get their reputations from all kinds of places. Don’t forget that salespeople are customers too.

If you are interested in more of our thoughts on brand planning, contact us today and tell us about your challenges.

Flickr photo courtesy of Luiz Felipe Castro.

Last night, I was ousted as mayor of one of my favorite local establishments, and I was mad. Mad enough that I had my keys in my hand to drive over there. At 10 p.m.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you’re one of many people out there in the Internets not using Foursquare.

Foursquare, at its core, is a location-based service/game against your friends and city to generate as many points as possible each week. When you “check-in” to a venue, you get points based on it being your first time to a venue, entering a new venue, multiple stops, bringing people along, etc. You become “mayor” when you have the most check-ins at a venue, and “ousted” when someone else has more check-ins.

To make check-ins easy, Foursquare has multiple applications for your specific phone (e.g. iPhone, BlackBerry, Android) as well as a mobile-friendly site (m.foursquare.com). The great thing about the Foursquare apps, is that it’s getting smart enough to know which places are around you based on your phone’s current location. Whereas the game was only in certain cities last year, it is now available to play just about anywhere.

At 10:05 p.m., with my mayoral campaign at the local tavern in shambles, I realized I hadn’t lost out on much, just my pride. But I should have, and did not because the majority of Cleveland-area restaurants aren’t using Foursquare effectively.

As someone that goes out a lot, it’s too bad that some of the more marketing-savvy restaurants, bars, gyms, salons and libraries are not utilizing Foursquare in the Cleveland-area. This morning, I asked via Twitter for some locations that are using location-based services effectively in Cleveland. While I am certain there must be more out there, I received only one response (thanks @JDDrake): Taste in Cleveland Heights. The only other Cleveland/Foursquare deal I could find was at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

I get it that I’m a social media nerd, and I don’t expect every restaurant to be doing this. I also get that venues are leery to jump on another social media bandwagon. But to those I say: Foursquare isn’t new anymore. It has received plenty of publicity, significant funding and significant partnerships in the media. Even if Foursquare goes away, location-based and mobile applications have been a large focus of the tech community for six months, and marketers should be figuring out how to use these for their benefit.

That said, even if this stuff isn’t for you, here are some very basic things your venue could be doing:

Give back to your mayor or frequent visitors
If you own a restaurant or handle the marketing for a certain location, trying to get people to return is THE most basic objective you have. Foursquare can be used as the most basic thing you can do to reward return visitors. For example, if they become the mayor, give them 20% off of their bill or on your 10th check-in you get free drink or a complimentary size upgrade or a free week of service or whatever. Taste gives users 20% off on your 10th visit.

Use to recognize people and get feedback
Because Foursquare is so closely tied to Twitter, it can be easy to view people that are at your location and as well as their Twitter handle. How beneficial would it be to thank people after they visited and get some feedback on their experience? Yelp and Urbanspoon aren’t the only places people go to give feedback.

Tie Foursquare to your Web site, social media accounts
If you are a Foursquare-friendly joint, tell people when they visit your site (button or image) and on social media. Better yet, use that voice to promote your Foursquare deals (and get it on your Foursquare venue page). Next, spread that same message (and specials) on OpenTable. I promise I am not the only person in Cleveland who will visit social media-friendly places.

Encourage “Tips” and “To-Dos”
Every Foursquare user can add “tips” and “to-dos” to venue pages to alert others users of what they should eat. Again, it is no different than other calls to action on your site or landing page, if you don’t ask or direct people towards a certain action, they’ll never do it.

Again, these are just the basics. If you are interested in what we can do for your company, visit our social media marketing capabilities page. If Cleveland wants to be a foodie town (and it’s getting there), restaurants need to a be a bit more savvy to generate more interest with the social media community. Being on Twitter is no longer enough.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be at my local establishment trying to regain my mayorship. I hope they have WiFi.

Is your website appearing on page one of search results?

You may be wondering why I am writing about search engine marketing (i.e., pay per click) and including a chart about natural search results.  Here’s why.  There are 10 natural search results per search results page.  If your website is not in the top 10 (i.e., on page one), you are not being seen in more than 95% of searches.

To bring this to life, lets explore a scenario.  Imagine you are a car dealer.  It is widely known that the internet is heavily used as a research tool by prospective car buyers.  One of the first places a car shopper typically visits online is a search engine.  If your dealership website is not appearing on page one of the natural search results, you have a problem.  You are not being seen by over 95% of searchers.  That is, 95% of people looking for information about their next car are seeing your competitors websites or listing sites such as cars.com or other aggregators.  They are not seeing your dealership in the results.

Do you want to get in the game but not sure what can you do about this?  There are three things you can do (as I see it).

1)  Stick your head in the sand and do nothing.  Not only will this get your face and head dirty and be uncomfortable, it won’t help your website visibility.

2)  Optimize your website to appear high in the natural search results and rankings.  This is a great option and one I recommend but keep in mind this is a solution that generally can require more time to finesse.

3)  Initiate a search engine marketing (a.k.a., SEM, Pay Per Click) campaign.  If you need to increase your visibility now, generate traffic to your site and grow qualified leads, SEM is one of the best options.  It has immediacy and has trackable, accountable results.

After reviewing the data in the chart above and considering your business objectives, which option makes the most sense?  With SEM, you can name your budget, track results and gain visibility almost immediately.  If you need help navigating the search engine marketing waters, let us know.  We’d be glad to educate you and assist with setting up a campaign.  If you are not sure if your current campaigns are getting the results you want, we can help there as well.

Whether it replaces or supplements a print publication, almost every magazine has a Web site. For marketers, the growth of content-rich websites correlates with the growth of online advertising and has opened the doors to new ways of reaching and interacting with our audiences.

Readers enjoy the convenience, speed and cost-effective (free) nature of these sites.  But a new research study may suggest that speed and convenience come at the most costly price of all – less than accurate content.

On Monday, The Columbia Journalism Review released its survey results and an accompanying article of a research project they conducted among 665 consumer magazines (5,000 magazines were approached).

One of the goals of the study was to clarify journalistic standards for new media. Here is what they found:

• 48% of magazines surveyed use less stringent copy-editing requirements on their websites than they do on their print publications.
• 27% use a less stringent fact-checking process on their websites than they do on their print publications. (57% fact-check the same way for print and online. 8% don’t fact-checked at all.)

While best practices for copy-editing and fact-checking are standards for print publications, the study finds that new media has not yet accepted there own set of best practices.

Victor Navasky , Columbia Journalism Review chairman, said of the results, “The conventional wisdom is that you have to be there first in order to get traffic, and you need traffic in order to sell ads, therefore you do not have time to do conventional copy-editing and fact-checking.”

Although editorial content and advertising content often fit in two different worlds, insights like these speak to their undeniable relationship.  A site needs to have visitors in order to sell ads.  But, first it needs to be a credible source of information to intrigue and sustain a high level of traffic.

Old media diminishing or transforming into new media is a sign of progression.  We are a convenience-driven society and fortunately technology has allowed us to be that way. But in this instance, progression can not come at a trade-off for standards.  Sometimes old practices are the best practices.

What are your thoughts on the CJR research findings? To learn more about the steps we take to choosing quality media, visit our media planning capabilities page.

Flickr photo courtesy of Just.Luc

Events

Thursday, March 4 @ 8 a.m.

Led by: Dominic Litten

Topic: Integrating Social Media into Your Brand and Your Business

Thursday, March 25 @ 11 a.m.

Led by: Dominic Litten

Topic: Using Twitter

Heard about Twitter but feel like you need more than 140 characters to say something useful? Then join us for this webinar and see how Twitter can be an effective marketing tool for your business. We will also review the Twitter terminology like “tweet, retweet, hashtag, direct message” and demystify this new form of technology. Register here. To access conference materials, follow this link. Insert the conference ID number, your name and email address. Then click “Log in.”

Voice Conferencing: 1-888-676-3315, Conference ID: 74018

Aw, screw it. Grab whatever's cheapest.

I recently read a thought-provoking article on boston.com outlining how in this long-standing bad economy, more and more shoppers are opting for big box stores’ private label products over their typically more expensive brand name counterparts. Which got this copywriter to thinking about a few things, especially from the perspective of creative development.

My first question is whether any amount of branded advertising is capable of carving out a sense of loyalty in a price-sensitive consumer’s mind right now. Because as one of the peeps quoted in the article said, “I am not loyal to any grocery store or any brand…I am loyal to savings.’’

You see, this trend isn’t just anecdotal, either. According to Nielsen, unit sales of private label goods have jumped 8 percent since 2007, while brand names have declined roughly 4 percent.

The following questions, amongst others, I’m left pondering as I head out to the grocery store with my pockets full of coupons:

• Can more marketing move more brand name products, or as illustrated in the case of Domino’s “Pizza Turnaround,” do branded products need to be improved before people will reconsider buying them?
• Are the big brand names of the future only the big box stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Wegman’s, etc. and their private label products?
• Will brands in the crowded packaged goods category start to disappear as their sales continue to decline, or will they maintain market share by lowering their prices to compete with the private labels?
• Are consumers reaching the threshold of choice—that is, with so many choices in front of them in the cereal aisle, is price the only differentiator left?

All in all, I think the private label movement is proving yet again that we are in the era of total consumer control. Online and offline, consumers are dictating what brands need to be thinking about, not the other way around. It’s also mandating that if brands expect to get premium dollar for their products, the stuff needs to actually be noticeably better than the generic. Because as the data’s proving, pretty packaging and clever advertising just ain’t cutting it anymore.

Curious how this digital advertising firm can improve your brand and set it apart from the rest? Contact us today to learn more.

Photo courtesy of cafemama via Flickr Creative Commons.

My colleague recently noted that TV’s lack of measurement capabilities plays a role in the decreasing confidence advertisers have when investing ad dollars in the medium.  Mediums that offer accountability for the performance – and return – on an ad are becoming the most obvious spaces to invest in.  And as more and more videos are popping up on highly measurable digital media, TV is racing to stay in the game.

There are a number of factors that contribute to choosing the most efficient mix of media, formats and timing for an ad campaign. But the targeting and measurement capabilities are two essential components to consider.

TV has no choice but to investigate ways to offer advertisers a more valuable format, in terms of both targeting and measurement. Comcast has taken the lead by running tests on a new format dubbed addressable ads.  An addressable ad format offers deeper, more relevant targeting capabilities along with an easier way of measuring effectiveness.

Walgreen’s and Walmart took part in a trial performed in Baltimore that reached about 60,000 households.  The addressable-ads were sent to different groups of households that matched the specific audience segments identified by the advertiser.

The results found that there was a 32% less tune away among the homes that received the addressable ads than those that saw a non-addressable ad (one that didn’t speak to a specific audience segment). They also found that this hyper-targeted process is 65% more efficient at reducing undesirable eyeballs.

The most exciting part about addressable advertising is that it opens the door for some exciting new possibilities. Although it’s not actually being done yet, addressable ads have the capability to target to individual household members.

Imagine if only woman were served commercials for feminine hygiene products.  I don’t think men would object to that!

It’s important to mention that 6% of notified households decided to opt out of the Baltimore test.  This is may or may not have been due to privacy concerns, but addressable advertising does utilize behavioral and purchase data to group specific audience segments.  As this technology gets closer to reality, look for some serious privacy debates.

The jury’s still out on TV’s progression toward addressable ads.  Give us a shout out and let us know your predictions. Looking for a media planning agency? Contact us today about our capabilities.

Flickr image courtesy of dhammza

Regardless of what happens in healthcare reform, health systems still need to gain private insurance revenue market share. Now more than ever, providers need to present new and different ways to reach and appeal to consumers through more effective hospital marketing. Below, we’ve outlined four ideas that could help:

1. Given that most people with private insurance work, create office hours that complement working people’s schedules. Why not offer earlier and later hours for office visits and access to diagnostics and labs?
2. Speaking of diagnostics… talk about how your tests are easier, less intrusive and friendlier. We don’t like getting poked, tell us why we won’t.
3. Friendlier? Try reducing penalties and increase rewards. Do you charge for parking while forgetting to thank longstanding patients for the patronage?
4. Patrons? Start thinking of patients as customers. When it comes to outpatient services, they have endless choices to make and like any good consumer they develop preferences for what they like.

If you’d like to continue the conversation we’d love to hear from you. As always comment below or contact us today.

Flickr phone courtesy of Julie70