Keith Rowland FCIM, Chartered Marketer
http://www.medicalmarketingcentre.com
Culture
A map of nationalities according to how emotionally expressive and confrontational they are.
Paul Reynolds, GI Brands- International Strategic Marketing
https://www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6259500609142165504
Very useful if you work internationally and want to adjust your style to fit the local culture.
The diseased organisation
Prof Brian D Smith
Like humans, organisations can be afflicted by genetic disorders that hinder performance and threaten survival but these can be understood and cured
We all have experience of dysfunctional organisations, ones in which some underlying pathology is reducing their performance and perhaps threatening their existence. In medicine, evolutionary science and genetics have recently thrown light on the causes of and cures for genetic disorders. In the same way, an evolutionary perspective on organisational behaviour illuminates the failures of life in companies and guides approaches to creating a fit firm.
Even today, armed with an arsenal of scientific knowledge and gene editing techniques, the first default position for many medical practitioners is to treat a condition symptomatically. The same is true for many leaders in the life science industry. Faced with the choice between a possible cheap and quick palliative and an expensive and difficult cure, many executives opt for the former.
Why Does Customer Experience Matter?
CIM Exchange
https://exchange.cim.co.uk/editorial/why-does-customer-experience-matter/
Customer experience is not the same as customer service. Customer service typically refers to the degree of assistance and courtesy granted to those who patronise a business. Customer experience, on the other hand, is the sum-totality of all interactions a customer has with an organisation throughout the duration of their relationship, from pre-purchase to initial investigation, enquiry, negotiation, purchase and post-purchase, too.
Satisfied customers are loyal, spend more money and refer others. Positive word of mouth reduces marketing budgets. It also costs less to keep existing customers than to attract new ones.
Marketing
Marketing has its own fake news problem
Jason Miller
http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/04/07/marketing-has-its-own-fake-news-problem
Ideas snowball very fast in our industry because we’ve got a bad habit of suspending our capacity for critical thinking as soon as our peers start to get excited about something. It’s a kind of marketer’s survival instinct – to ensure that above all, you’re never seen as a luddite or resistant to change. This instinct to adopt new ideas and new claims without pausing to think about them has led to a rash of pretty absurd stories that have far more influence within marketing than they should.
- Human beings have a lower attention span (8 seconds) than a goldfish (9 seconds).
- A minute of video is worth 1.8m words
- Buyers are 67% (or 90%) of the way through the purchase journey before they want to talk to a supplier
Getting Your Data Right GDPR
CIM Exchange
https://exchange.cim.co.uk/blog/getting-your-data-right/
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes in to force in 2018, aims to bring definition, clarity and accountability to data practice, and enforce transparency via a legal framework for a ‘Single Digital Market’. Marketers must recognise that GDPR isn’t a set of guidelines for best practice, it’s a new set of laws.
All private and public organisations that process the personal data of EU citizens will have to assess and change their approach to the data they hold. It also affects any company anywhere in the world doing business within the EU. For example, a UK company looking to a future outside of the EU, but still holding data about EU citizens, will still need to conform to the new laws.
- Be clear – tell consumers how you will use their data
- Show the benefits – explain to consumers the many positive benefits of data collection
- Show Respect – make sure trust, honesty and transparency are at the heart of the relationship between your business and your customers
- Be in the know – continually familiarise yourself with the dos and don’ts of data rights, the law, such as the upcoming changes due to new GDPR legislation, and best practice
New laws could transform digital marketing
Johnny Ryan, Head of Ecosystem at the anti-ad blocking solutions provider, suggested the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Regulation – both set to come into full effect in May 2018 – will make a profound impression on the marketing industry.
The provisions in the GDPR and draft ePrivacy legislation raise the bar for consumer consent in digital marketing, for example by requiring active validation rather than letting brands use unchecked boxes or silence as a marker of agreement.
Why choose a career in marketing?
Michelle Riordan
Marketing does more than build memorable campaigns. It leads to business success by identifying something that people or businesses want and are prepared to pay for, or a problem that they would like solved. It develops products or services that meets that need and sets the right price for them. Only then, as above, do the promotional aspects of the marketing machine come to the fore.
It’s a big, but rewarding challenge – and one that requires, and helps to develop, a diverse skillset and a creative and analytical mind. This brings wide-ranging benefits for the individual. For example:
- It will allow you to be creative – for example, helping to design new brands, products and services, and finding fresh and inventive ways to promote them.
- It will ensure you are up to date with the cutting-edge technology that is changing the world and the way we live every day
- It will keep you in touch with real-world market forces and social trends, rather than dry theory.
- It will provide opportunities to develop your skills in rigorous, hard-edged research
Social Media
If Social Media Flunks Your Brand, Try Native Advertising
James Jorner
70 percent of consumers say they’d rather learn about products through content than traditional advertising.
Businesses can tailor their ads to their target audiences and capitalise on making them as natural as possible to increase click-through-rates. A HubShout survey revealed that 67 percent of users are more likely to click on sponsored articles than banner ads.
Healthcare technology
HoloLens system uses augmented reality to aid spinal surgery
Adario Strange
http://mashable.com/2017/05/06/hololens-spine-surgery-scopis/#Nvv_hgw6csqp
Augmented reality (AR) isn’t just for Pokémon Go and Snapchat masks, the technology will can have practical applications in areas like medicine, too.
At least that’s the promise of the new Scopis Holographic Navigation Platform, which is designed to be used with the Microsoft HoloLens to help doctors perform spinal surgery.
The company claims that its system can use 3D tracking with the HoloLens to help accurately find spinal screw positions faster during surgery. The system also allows the medical team to place virtual monitors above the surgery space, giving the surgeon a hands-free way to refer to charts and images while operating. Scopis also employs the HoloLens’ familiar finger gestures (which look like you’re pinching the air) to allow the surgeon to control the AR content.
Sales Management
Some Sales Management myths
Tim Royds | 14 May 2017
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/some-sales-management-myths-tim-royds
It happens all too often… practices become embedded not because they are the most appropriate or effective thing to do, but because that’s the way they’ve always been done.
Here are some common myths to avoid:
- High Performers need to be given more leeway. Nobody should get away with inappropriate behaviour. If it’s good enough for one person to be doing it, then it’s good enough for everybody to be doing it.
- Begin every sales meeting by reviewing the figures. By all means pick out specific successes which deserve recognition, or highlight where the team is doing a good job although the results appear otherwise.
- Motivation is the same as engagement. Money can motivate, but engagement is a strong psychological link between the employee and the organisation.
Medical Marketing Centre 