Hospital Branding: The Q Word Lives On
In a quest to discover which attributes consumers attach to their favorite brands, Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy recently conducted a survey among 200 U.S households. The findings, soon to be published in an e-Book, "Heartbeat Brands and What Makes Them Tick," cover a variety of topics and will shed many insights on brand strategies. As a sneak peak, one key finding of the study reinforces what Ford and Zenith understood decades ago: "Quality is Job 1" and "Quality goes in before the name goes on." Back in the day, these famous brands owned the "Q" word and it did wonders for their sales and lasted a generation in advertising life years (about 10:1 in human years). Other automobile and television manufacturers staked out different brand claims and let Ford and Zenith run with the quality strategy. Hospitals also use the Q word in their branding and marketing strategies, too freely and frighteningly often. One problem with...