VIEWEROMSNOWMAS$VILIAGU (Comments On The Marketing Of Mental Health Services) by Tobl COLBERT al public) will buy it (deinstitutionalization)." It is also a sales orientation approach - - "We must get people (general public) to buy our product (deinstitutionalization)." A marketing approach would be far less arrogant and provide much more overall effectiveness. The marketing approach would be "Which product or service should we produce that will respond to the needs and wants of our consumers ?" Selling the positive features of a community mental health program when the point of identification is a questionable clinical, social, and financial experiment may be an exercise in futility.

THE FOUR P's Marketing traditionally has concerned itself with product, price, promotion, and place. Applying these variables to the mental health scene is somewhat frightening. The product is ill-defined - - some believe it is a meals-on-wheels program, others a crisis intervention service, and still others the use of lithium carbonate in managing bipolar disorders. The price is unknown but generally thought to lie somewhere between zero and one hundred somethings. It makes little difference; however, since no one will be refused service because of his or her ability or inability to pay for said service. Promoliopz lies on a continuation between tub-thumping and raw masochism. The place is everywhere as mental health services are provided in churches, schools, trailers, saloons, hospitals, clinics, residences, and detention centers. In brief, the marketing approach is definitely necessary, but - - to use marketing jargon - - there is a definite need to segmentalize. It is impossible to be all things to all people. ~ r r

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ADVERSITY - - THE MOTHER OF INVENTION If we are to meet the challenge of developing and maintaining viable mental health agencies, despite all of our shortcomings, the marketing tenets of imagery, advertising (paid communication, or if you pay for it, _ you control it), search and research, and pricing will have to be employed. Recognizing the necessity for moving in the marketing direction provides administrators and governoring bodies the opportunity to thoroughly analyze the various "task assignments" of their present management staff. Developing new revenue sources should be a major targeted responsibility of all mental health organizations inasmuch as continued dependence on unreliable tax-based funding makes planning difficult for the future, difficult if not impossible. GUILT BY ASSOCIATION You cannot market an unattractive product. W'hen state government defines the product - - at least this year's product, as deinstitutionalization - - spin-off or association problems will result at the local level. Nationally many state departments of mental health are using a production orientation approach, "If we (State) produce it (deinstitutionalization), the (gener-

Public attitudes toward many mental health programs lead to a tin-cup financial approach of taking what is doled out rather than assertively pursuing long-term creative solutions. This psychology of dependence limits the alternatives to be considered. The "but, we've always done it this way" mentality produces a portrait of public ne'er-do-well organizations devoted to worthy causes which lose money regularly, are led by bunglers, lose money monotonously, and whose very existence is dependent on public charity. The tincup syndrome is encouraged by the nonprofit sector inasmuch as it gives the impression that to be businesslike, to seek ways to generate funds internally, to diversify sources of income, and to adhere to a financial plan would be capitualation to a model incompatible with the pursuit of lofty personal and social goals. Oh brother! r

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MAKE MINE WENDY'S The Pikes Peak Mental Health Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado has developed the concept and methodologies of creative financing, including board ownership of a Wendy's franchise. Most pathways of public support, unfortunately, have "failsafe" mechanisms built into them which hamper initiative, flexibility, and creativity, i.e., here in Michigan community mental health boards cannot own real estate. Rather than deploring the state of the economy and decrying the constant political turbulence that drastically affects tax-based revenue, it would be more productive to investigate more innovative financial alternatives such as high-yield investment strategies, tax shelters, and tax sheltered investment opportunities.

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to serve an employed population, in addition to those individuals who are circumstantially unable to provide for their own care, they must be recognized as a central force in the maintenance and development of the community.

N O T ANOTHER AUDIT Audits are epidemic in the mental health field. In fact, there are enough financial and programmatic gumshoes employed by private sector health insurance providers, Medicaid, Medicare, and state departments of public health and mental health, to form a battalion of auditor generals. The one audit needed the most a market audit - - is never done. This is probably because of the fact that it is o~e we must do ourselves - - an audit which focuses on a systematic and thorough examination of the market position of our services. W h o are our customers? W h o and where is our competition? What are our current objectives? Individuals and organizations become apprehensive when they are "lost" or uncertain as to whether the objectives they are pursuing were initially formulated on an empirical basis. The mental health industry has found a unique solution for dealing with this anxiety. This "solution" is to do more of that which, " W e didn't know what we were doing in the first place," and expand on it. The principle underlying this remedy is that if we keep expanding we will eventually locate some nostrum that works for s o m e b o d y - somewhere - - someplace - - sometime.

TO MARKET OR N O T TO MARKET Seven fundamental and rely difficult questions must be addressed before a decision is made to embrace the marketing concept. The following seven questions are vital: What business are we in? Who is our customer? N What does the customer need and want? WhiCh markets are we interested in? What are our strengths? What are our weaknesses? - - What is our marketing strategy? We need to understand and implement a market approach. A dispassionate look at the present state of our affairs, however, might reveal that we would have difficulty marketing life lines to drowning sailors. -

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~r ~r ~r HO\V'S YOUR IMAGE? Revlon, Inc. proudly boasts "we make cosmetics we sell hope." Universal Studios, Inc. avows that "we make movies - - we sell entertainment." Mental Health, Inc. is perceived as selling "craziness" - - an unacceptable product. This should be changed to a perception of, " W e manufacture the solution of human problems - - we sell counsel." Consumers buy counsel at least they do from lawyers, investment types, bankers, physicians, accountants, and bridal consultants. Image is a word for many in the mental health field to avoid. It is considered to be Madison Avenue - implying that something undesirable is being foisted upon and blindly accepted by an unsuspecting public. On the contrary, image is a perfectly acceptable word; when applied to an organization; it simply means the public's spontaneous idea of that organization. There are no successful "companies" without a positive image. Did colliers, W. T. Grant, or the Edsel have a positive image ?

WAS T H A T THE DOCTOR OF THE PATIENT? Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) are an innovative alternative to traditional tax-based funding. Leaders in business and industry are increasingly interested in seeking professional services for their troubled employees when poor job performance points to the presence of behavioral and/or emotional problems. Such corporate giants as Bell Telephone and Atlantic Richfield have contracted with mental health service providers at a per capita fee of $12 to $18 for the provision of diagnostic and referral services. (One thousand employees times twelve dollars equals $12,000 annual revenue.) While some of these contracts involve community mental health centers, the majority have been written with private practitioners or private treatment centers. Why doesn't corporate management contract on a more frequent basis with local community mental health centers? The answer may be that the mental health fraternity is not very adaptive. Industry does not have time for many of our time-worn traditions: the intake process, the ceaseless filling out of forms, the confusion over diagnostic labels. The marketing director of a major company tells of going to a mental health center in order to negotiate an EAP and being shocked by what he described as the bizarre appearance of the staff whom he initially thought to be the patients. He walked out and cancelled the meeting which would have resulted in a primary service for the company's employees, increased corporate productivity, and a substantial source of revenue for the mental health center. If community mental health centers are going

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NEEDED: BROAD-GAUGED MANAGERS To achieve financial self-reliance the future oriented nonprofit mental health agency needs to be hybrid; a classic human service organization in purpose, and a successful business enterprise in mode of operation. Diversification of revenue directions, expanding markets, allocation of scarce resources, government relations, tax problems - - these and other "business skills and techniques as those employed by profitconcerns" must be handled with the same managerial making organizations. -44-