For Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC, Jacque Boyd initiated a three-year marketing communications program toreinforce a sense of pride in this 150-year-old teaching hospital with such creative solutions as:
- The hospital’s first major fundraising dinner, which raised over $1 million and was covered on live TV
- Focus group studies with 11 hospital groups
- Award-winning radio and TV spots highlighting celebrity patients
- Image advertising in print media
- Brochures to support the ad campaigns
- A calendar highlighting the hospital’s unique history
- A university faculty/student promotion campaign
- A hospital HMO campaign
- A partnership with Washington’s pro basketball team
- A TQM (Total Quality Management) program to improve patient service.
By the third year HUH made measurable strides toward reaching its marketing goals:
- Increased usage of the hospital by employees and university personnel
- Positive patient responses
- Increased community visibility
- Increased physician referrals
- Increased employee enrollment in the hospital’s HMO
- Higher corporate donations.
