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Showing posts from 2021

Hospital and Healthcare Branding: What's in a name?

Hospital Branding: Why a name change isn’t “just a name change.” Naming is a key element of a brand strategy along with an identity, tagline, and architecture.  Creating a new name involves many hours of deliberations, word combinations, napkin renderings, pillow talks, research studies and brainstorm meetings.  However, the result is (hopefully) a strong brand name that perfectly reflects the new organization and its desired market position. So, after all the painstaking work that goes into a naming strategy, why are some companies quick to qualify, or downplay it,  as “just a name change.”  It’s almost as if they’re apologizing to their customers about changing the name. Wrong!  If you’ve gone through the decision-making and strategic process to change your name with key goals in mind, then   own   it and promote all the changes associated with it.  Your customers want to know the “why” behind your name strategy and what’s in it for them. Whether you’ve merged, changed your business

Hospital Branding: Move aside customer acquisition and retention, it’s time to focus on customer reactivation

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Regardless of the business or industry you’re in, strategic marketing plans have long referenced initiatives for both customer acquisition and retention.  Strategies and tactics are focused on either gaining new customers or keeping them. The pandemic has caused (among many other things) an entirely new customer focus that has been receiving a lot of attention among marketing departments;   reactivation .  Simply put, reaching and motivating existing customers to once again   use   your services.  For any business that is not solely online, this is a critical objective that has significant impact on revenue and growth. The concept of customer reactivation includes other key differences than those of its acquisition and retention counterparts: Competition Customer reactivation brings on a whole new level of competition that has nothing to do with your competitors.  Basically,   you’re not competing against other businesses or organizations   – you’re competing against your customer’s de

Healthcare Marketing and Hospital Branding: 5 Ideas on Moving Your Brand Forward

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What a year it’s been!  The devastation associated with the pandemic has touched all of us and I hope this finds you in a healthier and more positive space. Thankfully, vaccinations are being rapidly dispersed, and the world appears to be on its way back (save for the good old’ “hot spots”).  I won’t say “back to normal,” because – frankly – we don’t know what that is yet, but what will your brand look like going forward? When it comes to your brand, the same thinking applies, and questions abound.   How are you planning to move forward?  “What does your brand look like?”  “How will you portray customers, with or without masks?”  “When will you go full throttle?” Therefore, brand planners in all industries are actively game-planning the return of their brands and we have already begun to see shifts in their advertising away from the “together” message back and toward the competitive spin.  No more kumbaya! Here’s our thinking on some of these key questions: How are you planning to move