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Posts by David Brond

  1. Destinations

    Greater Philadelphia Region Local Tourism Survey 2023

    As the world slowly but surely starts to open up again, travel enthusiasts everywhere are itching to get out and explore their own backyard. Whether it’s a day trip to a nearby county or a weekend getaway to a city, the concept of being a “local tourist” has never been more appealing. In fact, according […]

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  2. Destinations

    Local Tourism 2023 Survey

    AB&C recently conducted a survey of consumers in the five-county Philadelphia region, Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware. The survey covered topics including upcoming local travel plans and preferences, anticipated day and overnight trips, key catalysts for deciding to visit new places, as well as preferred media for learning about destinations and attractions. Below is […]

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  3. Strategy

    Four UPDATED Marketing Resolutions for 2021

    In January 2016, I wrote a blog titled “Four Marketing Resolutions for 2016.” I cited research identifying that “people who write down their specific resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t make specific resolutions.”[1] So I made my marketing resolutions public: Contribute to the growth and success of […]

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  4. Research

    Five important college enrollment messages to send to high school students’ parents—right now!

    By David Brond, Elizabeth Cohen and Linda McAleer Multiple articles have been written about the important role parents play in their child’s college decision. Most higher education marketers and enrollment professionals agree that a parent’s powerful influence in guiding high school students throughout the college application and admission process is often unmatched by any other […]

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  5. Healthcare

    The Importance of Market Research in Times of Uncertainty

    Amid the current coronavirus situation, some organizations may be tempted to implement a “wait and see” approach to marcom. However, now is not the time to cut branding or market research efforts. For healthcare organizations there is an obvious need to focus short-term priorities on the Coronavirus pandemic and its day-to-day impact on human and […]

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  6. Healthcare

    Digital Marketing: So Many Lessons Learned

    While many healthcare providers have been late adopters of digital marketing (as compared to other industries), it is fair to say that, as of 2018 it is now a cornerstone of most healthcare marketing programs. And that prominence comes from success and lessons learned—some good, some not so good—about both general and digital marketing. Just […]

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  7. Healthcare

    Dashboards: More than Keeping Score

    Marketing dashboards are an essential deliverable for any marketing team. Senior leaders want to know what they are getting for their investment in marketing, and how marketing will advance their strategic plan. And for marketers, it is important to document how effective you were in achieving your stated goals. So, where to begin? In this […]

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  8. Strategy

    Building and Maintaining Great Agency Relationships

    Over the past four-plus decades, AB&C has worked with some of the most premier healthcare systems across this country—large and small—and we greatly value those relationships. But great agency-client relationships just don’t happen; they take true commitment by both parties to be successful. And over the years, we have learned what makes a great working […]

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  9. Observations

    What Makes a Successful CMO?

    In my experience as a hospital chief marketing officer (CMO) and in working at AB&C with healthcare CMOs, I’ve found a number of attributes that serve a person well in this role. On Innovation Enterprise, which provides leading-edge ideas and information on a variety of key business channels, Rose Johnstone identifies a number of these […]

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  10. Healthcare

    Dashboards: If You Can Move It, You Can Measure It

    Healthcare organizations have always struggled with measuring return on marketing investment (ROMI), mostly because of multiple systems of data collection that don’t speak to one another. But with the advent of new “tools,” that challenge is getting easier — if you have the building blocks in place. Here are some examples of how leading organizations […]

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  11. Strategy

    How to Socialize Your Brand

    If you followed a systematic approach to build a new brand (or refreshed an existing one), you started with discovery research. You then developed a brand mantra to inform how your brand would be articulated to internal audiences and the outside world. Finally, you created or refined the outward expressions, such as the name, mark […]

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  12. Strategy

    The Essence of a Brand Mantra

    As branding experts, we have developed our own vocabulary for what we do and how we help organizations define and present themselves to consumers. We use terminology like “brand architecture,” “platform,” “positioning,” “promise,” “proof point,” “personality,” “identity” and “tag line” to describe how we create, communicate and control the attributes of a brand. An important […]

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  13. Observations

    The Art of an Adequate Thank-You

    The holidays always elicit a flashback to the one thing that wasn’t so “joyous” for me as a kid: the thank-you notes. Many of us had parents who made us write to everyone who gave us presents—and not just during the holidays either. For us kids, it was a chore. In retrospect, I now see […]

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  14. Strategy

    Achieving Success Along the Customer Journey

    Ever since there’s been the practice of marketing communications, there’s been a concept inseparable from it: the customer journey. If you understood your target audience and could communicate effectively at each stage of their purchasing journey, you’d do OK in the marcom profession. Historically, that journey was the equivalent of a Sunday drive. The customer […]

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  15. Observations

    Do You Know Your Net Promoter Score?

    One of the most important drivers of business for any organization — of any size — is referrals from satisfied customers. Meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations creates a long-term relationship and loyalty, which leads to referrals. And loyalty can pay off — loyal customers are worth up to 10 times their initial purchase value. Measuring satisfaction to […]

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  16. Strategy

    Marketing’s Role in Connecting Organizations with Customers

    “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” This directive was identified by management consultant, educator and author Peter F. Drucker, whose writings contributed to the practical foundation of the modern business corporation. Today, marketing plays an ever-increasing role in creating and growing businesses and brands by connecting organizations with current and […]

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  17. Strategy

    5 Steps to Turn Your Employees into Business-Building Ambassadors

    Whether your organization is large or small, it can benefit from greater awareness, more leads and higher sales by unleashing the power of your employees to serve as business-building brand ambassadors. Your employees have their own network of friends and potential referrals with whom they can share your brand and marketing messages and stories. Employees […]

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  18. Strategy

    The Importance of Storytelling

    The 2016 Olympics are now history and for a short time this summer we were witness to amazing athletic feats demonstrating perseverance, competitiveness, national pride, raw talent, strength, agility, beauty and grace. Always a marketer, I will remember these Olympics for the athletic achievements of the individuals and teams that competed, and their stories, both […]

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  19. Strategy

    The Spatial Science of Marketing Segmentation

    During my undergraduate years as a geography and economics major, a professor shared his belief that everything in the world can be related to geography, because geography is the spatial science focused on where things are and why they occur there. Geographers seek to answer questions related to location, place, spatial pattern and interaction when […]

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  20. Strategy

    What Inspires You and Your Business?

    Inspiration is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” Motivation, stimulation and encouragement are powerful forces for human beings. Together they lead to inspiration, which spurs creativity, inventiveness and brilliance. In my opinion, inspiration can motivate individuals to […]

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  21. Strategy

    Why Content Marketing Is a Good Tactic for Healthcare Marketers

    By David Brond and Samantha Oscar Content marketing—the business process focused on creating and distributing relevant and valuable information to attract and engage target audiences with the objective of driving action—is one of today’s business-growth strategies getting a lot of attention from marketers in many organizations, including those in healthcare. And with good reason. According […]

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  22. Strategy

    Marketing Is Alive and Well

    June 1 marks the 119th anniversary of Mark Twain’s well-known quote: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” It seems an appropriate time then to report that any rumor suggesting that marketing is dead (and branding is meaningless) is also an exaggeration. Last month, SSRS, a full-service market and survey research firm (www.ssrs.com), completed […]

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  23. Strategy

    How to Build Your Personal Brand

    “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” —Tom Peters The term “personal branding” was first coined in 1997 by leading business-management thinker Tom Peters. A personal brand is formed by an individual’s professional reputation […]

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  24. Research

    Using Research to Guide Branding Efforts

    Congratulations. Your organization’s leaders have decided to establish a new positioning statement, brand platform, externally facing mission statement and even a new slogan. And they want you to come up with concepts and copy to get the message out. Now what? Before you jump in head first, put together a work plan to collect marketplace […]

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  25. Strategy

    The Benefits of Co-branding

    Let’s say you run a successful organization, and you’re asked to co-brand your business with another business. There are several good reasons for doing this, and a few things to consider to ensure you do it right. Co-branding makes sense when the two brands can promote a unified message to achieve the following goals: Responding […]

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  26. Observations

    The Benefits of Selecting an Agency of Record

    In the end, designating an advertising Agency of Record (AOR) for your organization should be a decision based on the strategic, long-term marketing and communication needs of your stakeholders in your marketplace. I know what you’re thinking. My conclusion may sound biased, since I am employed by a full-service ad agency, I can also offer […]

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  27. Observations

    4 Marketing Resolutions for 2016

    The New Year gives us a clean slate and an opportunity to make resolutions to improve our lives. Typical goals and resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, improving finances, getting a new job or procrastinating less. Which, I’m sure we’ll all fully accomplish this year. Yeah, right. According to recent research published in the University […]

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  28. Strategy

    Organizing media buying efforts after reorganization

    Reorganization. If your organization is going through it, you’re also going to have to deal with reorganizing a very important marketing function: media buying. You have three approaches to choose from, each with merits and disadvantages: centralized, decentralized or a hybrid. With the centralized approach, you consolidate all media buying for each division and service […]

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  29. Strategy

    Employment Branding = Consumer Branding

    Almost 400 people took the Business and Labor Resources Employment Branding Survey this past June. The results highlight the importance of marketing and human resources professionals working together to build and maintain an employment brand. Slightly more than one quarter (26.6%) of survey respondents said their organization has an employment brand program—i.e., “a program directed […]

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  30. Strategy

    How Long Does It Take to Establish a Brand that Works?

    In my career I have built, enhanced and even created numerous brands for multiple organizations in healthcare, higher education, and other industries. And people always ask me, “How long does it take to establish a brand?” My answer: five years. In the first phase, you’ll develop your brand. This requires qualitative and quantitative marketplace, stakeholder […]

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