While it might be fair to say that health system promotional marketing budgets aren’t a significant cause of increasing healthcare costs in the U.S., spending billions collectively as an industry on selling consumers doesn’t help the situation either. And as we‘ve shown, promotional marketing often does little to help the health systems that employ it in the first place. With medical debt the number one reason for bankruptcy in the U.S., and the cost of healthcare continuing to climb, every dollar counts, so every dollar health systems spend matters. And as mission-driven organizations, health systems should be responsible stewards of their finances. In helping to do their part to address the affordability crisis, promotional marketing spend is low hanging fruit.

As noted throughout the ServingOverSelling content there are numerous reasons for the growing healthcare affordability crisis in the U.S. Most of the causes aren’t related to healthcare providers themselves, let alone their promotional marketing. So why pick on health systems? When it comes to advocacy and fighting for a cause, it’s important to focus energy on where you can have the most impact. While we could try to address the egregious profits of health insurers, or the terrible incentives of PBMs, or the high costs of prescription medications in the U.S., or the attack on public healthcare financing by the federal government, our voice would be lost in the crowd and have little impact. Instead we’re focusing on an albeit smaller opportunity – the reallocation of promotional marketing spend to activities that actually serve patients and communities rather than sell to them – because it’s a space we know intimately and one where our voices might actually make a difference.

If you can, that’s fantastic. But be honest with yourself when answering these questions:

• Are you truly measuring business results? Showing that a brand campaign raised awareness or a service-line campaign drove website clicks isn’t enough. If all you are measuring is marketing results, then you’re conducting what could be called “marketing for marketing’s sake,” and potentially driving no real value to the organization.

• If you are measuring business results, are they having a real impact? Ask yourself, does your promotional marketing actually drive material revenue or margins to your organization? From 25 years in the health system marketing space, we’ve seen only a handful of instances where a CMO could confidently answer yes to that question. Ask CEOs, and most will tell you the only ways to drive material revenue or margin growth is through M&A, geographic or service expansion, or payor contract negotiations. And none of that is marketing.

• Even if you are driving positive marketing results or business results, could those resources drive greater value if reallocated? Consider the opportunity cost of a $1 million brand campaign that drives an increase in brand preference during its six-month run: could that money have been used to improve the patient experience or access, address a public health need, or better engage internal audiences, all of which can create far stronger and more sustainable positive impact on your brand than any advertising campaign could?

If your promotional marketing spend isn’t driving material financial impact or could be better used elsewhere, give consideration to ServingOverSelling as a way to help address the affordability crisis in this country and drive better value for your organization and those you serve.

I provide an in-depth accounting of how I came to believe in ServingOverSelling in the first article I published on the topic, “My Jerry Maguire Memo to My Industry.” But the short answer is that healthcare in the U.S. changed, my professional situation changed, and my personal outlook on life changed. As the healthcare affordability crisis grew to devastating levels, I began to see how many people and corporations were obscenely profiting from health system marketing, while I experienced some personal situations that caused me to take stock and truly realize “life is short.” I became disillusioned with my role in it all. Even with all of that, it took nearly a year of being away from the health system marketing space to see how I could have impact with the ServingOverSelling movement. 

If you believe in the principles of ServingOverSelling, of helping health systems return to their mission of serving patients and communities rather than selling them through promotional marketing, there’s no reason you can’t continue to have a successful career. In fact, as we lay out in The New CMO Role, reallocating your promotional spend to other activities such as the patient experience, public health or even communications will allow you drive more value to your organization, not less. With ServingOverSelling, we believe you can have your cake (helping to address the affordability crisis) and eat it too (continue to build a successful career) while also having ice cream on top (bring more value to your organization).