Hospital Branding

We recently attended an American Marketing Association brand leadership breakfast, featuring  Rodrigo Sierra , CMO & SVP of the American Medical Association. In addition to providing insights on leading his organization in a challenging marketplace, he discussed the evolution of the organization’s brand – brands they have shed, and how they want their brand to be perceived in the future. When a marketer gives a presentation there should be a dose of cleverness. When describing brand types they have moved away from, he did not disappoint, and offered: “Brandpa” – a grand old brand – tired and in need of some renewed vigor. “Brandelabra” – a multi-pronged brand strategy where each remains siloed, shines equally, but tends to fizzle out over time. We couldn't stop ourselves from expanding on his examples and thinking what we’d call many of the brands we see as we look at healthcare systems and associations.  Some common brand strategies th...

Maybe it's the Olympics, or maybe it's that time of year when new campaigns are being launched and will be judged as precisely as ice dancing.  In either event, the topic of measuring brand success is near and dear to every marketer and the discussion of metrics should be at the starting gate rather than the finish line .  After all, that's why we go through the discipline of establishing quantifiable goals, developing targeted strategies, and generating tactics to achieve desired actions. Remember DAGMAR?  For those who don't, it was an old advertising agency acronym for "Defining Advertising Goals Measuring Advertising Results."   As a student, I remember thinking DAGMAR was some scowling scholar who was always peering over my shoulder reminding me that this was a business of results, not only big creative ideas. Results...oh how times have changed.  Decades ago, marketers would celebrate in the hallways when bi-annual market research showed percentage...

Happy New Year!  As is always the case in hospital branding, 2014 is sure to be filled with many adventures and marketing challenges.  But, based on new studies about social trends, best-selling lifestyle books, and well-read business publications, it will also be a year with less.    Perhaps in contrast to the past few years, where the focus has been on more - technology, choices, services, information, and so on - the arrow is pointing toward "less" in 2014 as consumers attempt to simplify and streamline their lives. Here are a few key areas of trending in 2014 where the focus will be on less, but will offer more opportunities for healthcare marketers. Immersive Experiences - The new JWT study identifies this topic as its number one trend.   Brands will envelope us with a full and immersive experience like hot brand Sonos does with its wireless speaker systems.  On a recent trip to Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA, I took a tour of th...

You have a new name, an exciting new brand platform, and a breakthrough idea for an ad campaign.  You're ready for launch!  Then budgeting reality hits and now you feel like a NASA astronaut stuck on the launch pad, grounded by a weather delay or mechanical issue.  Dollars spent on the up-front planning phase have greatly reduced what's available on the back-end.  Or, senior leadership has determined that operational issues need to be in place prior to launch and these costs are coming out of your budget. With countless branding initiatives taking place among hospitals throughout the U.S., balancing budget issues with effective brand launch plans might have you seeing stars, and not from light years away. A new brand strategy is more than just the promotional component.  It's actually a 5-step process that includes developmental, operational, inspirational, promotional, and cultural elements - all competing for marketing launch dollars.  So, given l...

While there were some great takeaways from the crowded exhibit hall, including Chicago’s hometown popcorn and popular business books, the SHSMD Connections conference also provided tasty takeaways to apply to the hospital branding field.  Here’s ten that made our list: Accelerate and the need for speed – Hospital branding has traditionally been pegged as a six to nine month planning process, resulting in a two to three year strategy.  Several of the education sessions and case studies discussed the need to be more nimble, aggressive and faster to the marketplace.  Competitive activity and changing political landscapes were cited as key drivers of the need for speed, but most agreed it is important to remain strategic and have a well thought out plan.   Just do it faster and get there quicker . Create more energy – Maybe a direct result of the need for speed was the reference that today’s hospital marketers need to create more energy in their bran...

For years, marketers involved in the branding of healthcare organizations have been frustrated about their role in delivering on customer service.  In essence, delivering on the brand promise.  Unlike traditional consumer goods and services, where the customer transaction can be standardized - think hot burgers and personal shoppers - healthcare organizations have multiple layers of customer interactions which fall on the ability of individuals, not processes, to deliver.  Additionally, healthcare consumers are not necessarily customers by choice.  There are some exceptions to this, but for the most part it's not where and how people want to spend their time. As a result of this inability to control the delivery of customer service across the total enterprise, hospitals have looked for other brand platforms that can be more consistent.  Technology, clinical breakthroughs, quality rankings, and national accreditations are examples of common hospital bran...

You know the symptoms:  your ears hurt when your hospital's branding team talks about digital marketing, your throat is sore when speaking to your media planner about re-marketing, your body aches when you click on your web page and see little continuity between it and your off-line communications.  All classic signs of Digitalitis - that nagging, uncomfortable, and sickly feeling that you're not fully embracing the role of digital marketing and it's causing bloating to your marketing budget and efforts. After recently attending a couple national hospital marketing conferences, I have learned that Digitalitis is more prevalent than expected.  Roundtable meetings and several discussions with leading brand thinkers in the hospital space reinforced that this condition is occurring even in the most sophisticated of healthcare organizations. Why the outbreak? Senior marketing professionals have grown up in an era of traditional, off-line media.  Where bra...