Reputation is everything in business. It’s even more important for hospital marketing because a hospital’s reputation is its most important asset.
Without a strong reputation, your hospital’s patient intake will suffer. After all, people don’t want to entrust their health to a hospital that has a poor reputation. (more…)
Becker’s Hospital Review published an article providing 42 tips for building and promoting a hospital brand as offered by Dr. Rhoda Weiss, a healthcare consultant, editor of Marketing Health Services Magazine and a professor of healthcare marketing at UCLA. Her suggestions are methods for creating relationships in order to build a brand.
Many of them your hospital may already be doing. Some may not apply to your situation. Some are operational and some are marketing. But it is a list with basic, very good suggestions.
Peruse the list. You may get some ideas that will help you build your hospital brand.
Companies in the midst of crisis and declining brand value have shown that a brand cannot only be brought back to life but can also thrive again. 
Karen Post is the author of Brand Turnaround, a popular book about brands that have gone bad but have made a resurgence and returned to glory. In the book she provides case studies on such brands as Ford, JetBlue, the Red Cross, Xerox, Dominos, Robert Downey, Jr, Michael Vick and Martha Stewart.
Every brand faces a crisis during its lifetime. Usually several. Practically every brand has some tough times. This is certainly true of healthcare brands too. Sometimes factors totally out of our control cause it. And sometimes it just lack of leadership or vision. But it happens.
Drawing upon lessons learned from the over 75 brands she’s studied, Post offers seven “Game Changers” which she has found to be important to resurrecting a tarnished brand.
1. Take responsibility
When things go badly for a brand, denial only makes matters worse. The brand must own up to it. Admit it and take responsibility.
2. Never Give Up
Most brands are worth fighting for. They have flourished for a reason and to give up would be a mistake. You must fight for the brand and for the brand’s resurgence. It’s not easy but it’s worth the fight.
3. Lead Strong
After taking responsibility it’s important to have strong leadership. From those who believe in the brand, those who care for the brand and who want to bring the brand back to life and vitality. The work is not accomplished by the timid. It must be done from a strong vision and purpose.
4. Stay Relevant
As long as you have relevance you have a chance. That means listening to consumers and hearing what they say. And making sure the brand is relevant to their desires and needs.
5. Keep Improving
The road to recovery is never easy or quick. It requires a long concerted effort. And it means pushing for improvement. Improvement from staff and employees, processes, products, services, communications and throughout the organization.
6. Build Equity
Brand equity is a valuable commodity. And as you attempt to turn a brand around you must build band equity. You must make sure the brand has value and customer loyalty again.
7. Own Your Distinction
Every viable brand has a mark or characteristic of distinction. A distinction that gives meaning to the brand. Being a commodity or doing it just like everyone one or being only as good as everyone else will not resurrect a brand. Only by creating a true consumer-oriented distinction can you revive and sustain a brand.
Healthcare brands are vulnerable to crises, mishaps, bad publicity unanticipated negative situations. Every brand will face them from time to time. And how we handle them and deal with them will determine the life and vitality of the brand for the future.
Online advertising has proven to be effective as a direct response medium but not so much for brand building. 
More eyeballs are turning to the web. No one can argue that. And they are spending more time looking at the web. So does it make sense to follow those numbers and try to build a brand with internet advertising? Probably not. Online advertising is great at direct response. We all look at the web to find where to buy something or where a business is located or how to contact a business. That’s why the yellow pages are now on the web and is replacing the printed book. But is it effective building a brand?
Alan Pearlstein, president of Cross Pixel Media wrote in Ad Age that the “internet sucks as a branding medium.” And he makes some compelling arguments. He argues that brand building is an emotional endeavor. The desire for every brand is to build an emotional connection with the consumer. Television does that very effectively. Print can do it. But not internet advertising. Because online advertising is limited in size and format, it’s not effective at brand building. He argues that no advertising medium has proven to be effective at both direct response and branding. And online is no exception.
It’s important as healthcare marketers, to understand that each advertising medium has their own strengths. TV creates an emotional impact, magazines provide the environment for stunning images and print provide the opportunity for long copy and storytelling. Direct mail is great at direct response.
So what are the strengths of online advertising? It is great at building name recognition. It has a low cost for exposure. It reaches a very wide audience. It’s great for supplementing a campaign with reach and frequency within a target audience. But branding is not one of its strengths. Online advertising, limited in size, not very engaging and usually within a cluttered environment is not strong for brand building. It is complimentary to more emotional and engaging mediums.
Your hospital’s brand is defined by the patient’s experience as well as others. And it’s being determined all day, every day. 
Branding has finally hit the radar for hospitals and healthcare organizations. The industry’s marketing efforts are maturing to the point that marketers and senior management are beginning to realize how important their brand is. And rightfully so. The battle for the consumers’ minds and future market share will be determined by our brand perception.
But for many marketers, branding is about logos and typefaces, corporate identity standards and taglines. Good branding encompasses these things but it’s so much more. It ‘s really more about the consumer’s experience. What does your brand communicate each day to those who come in contact with it?
And it’s not just the patient’s experience that determines the brand. It’s also the patient’s family and friends and what their experiences are like. And employees and how they experience the brand. And suppliers and vendors. The community at large. It’s the totality of all the touch points. By everyone.
We are seeing many hospitals updating logos and altering the visual look of their communications. We see them changing positioning lines. And giving facelifts to their facilities. All of which is good. Very good in fact. But if that is all that’s changing, it’s only cosmetic and only skin deep.
These changes help position a brand but the most important thing is the experience it delivers. What is the experience like? It has to do with parking, cleanliness, friendliness courtesy, wait times, competence, customer service, caring, attitudes and everything else that affects a person’s experience.
It’s great that hospital marketers and senior management are turning their attention to their brand. But hopefully it’s more than just aesthetics. Hopefully the emphasis is on the total experience delivered by the hospital. That’s what will really determine your brand in the minds and hearts of consumers.
It’s not so much about building relationships with brands; it’s about using brands to build relationships.
All the talk these days is about relationships. Relationships are king. It’s the coin of the realm. Everything is all about building relationships. But the interesting thing is that relationships are often discussed in the context of technology, social media, Web 2.0, apps, metrics, analytics, demo-psycho-socio-geographics, social networking, blogs and a thousand other buzz words. But when I step back it’s all so odd. All of those terms are so very impersonal.
We talk about building a relationship with a brand, a product, a service. Yes I do it too. Everyday. But have we forgotten that real relationships are human? Can I truly have a relationship with my toothpaste, my jeans, my iPod, my microwaveable food, my gym, my computer, my car ? Well yes I can have a relationship with all of those things, in a sense. But not a real relationship.
Real relationships are human. It’s the touch of someone you love. It’s holding a child or grandchild close and squeezing hard. It’s enjoying a family trip. It’s working together with coworkers to achieve a common goal. It’s striving together with others for something noble and right. It’s being with friends talking and laughing and just hanging out. It’s crying with someone you care about who’s hurting. It’s shedding tears when someone dear is no longer here. It’s sharing life with someone. It’s always a uniquely human experience.
This is not to discount all the wonderful new technologies, techniques, methods and knowledge that help us communicate. But none of these can be a substitute for real relationships. And we must not forget it. We are so busy talking about and “building“ relationship in so many artificial ways but sometimes we forget that relationships are human. They involve the body, mind and soul. They include the heart and emotions, which cannot be explained or adequately described.
Doesn’t it make more sense to instead of trying to build relationships using a brand or product, or service, or institution; we talk about how those things can help build true relationships…with other humans? Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Relationships are indeed king. But real relationships are about human relationships. We don’t need to get lost in faux relationships but rather use technology and communication tools to communicate how our brand or service or product can help create and build and sustain and improve real relationships. The kind that is human. The kind that can’t be reduced to analytics and research. The kind that really matter. The kind that makes life truly worth living.
Cost should not be the primary factor in making decisions about resources to employ for your brand. Quality, ability and experience are much more important.
We are in a recession. There are pressures on budgets. The edict from the C-Suites is to cut costs and save money. The pressure is to get more with less. That has forced many marketers to look for bargains. The criteria for making decisions has become cost. And the result could be a weaker brand and loss of brand equity.
Too often decisions are being made based on cost. Bid services out to get the best price. Decide to go with lesser talent because it’s cheaper. Take shortcuts. Go with lower quality. All of these are shortsighted. They consider only the short-term.
Great advertising requires great talent. Great creative minds create great brands. Creativity, talent and experience are the keys to successful work. And those qualities do not come cheaply. Sure you can buy talent for less. Sure you can save money, but is it going to take your brand where it needs to go? Will it maintain the brand perception and brand quality at necessary levels?
Creativity is not a commodity. It is not something to be bought based on price. All creativity is not equal and cannot be judged on cost alone.
As a marketer, your brand is your most precious possession. It deserves the best. It deserves outstanding creative, top-level talent and quality experience. If you purchase inferior talent as a way to save money but it weakens and tarnishes the brand, what is the real cost?
In these tough times many are putting their brand in peril by basing decisions on price without regard to how it will affect the brand. It can certainly save you money but it could also cause you to weaken or worse – lose your brand position.
The value of a company is not just in revenues and bottom line numbers, but in the status of the brand.
The online retail giant, Amazon, agreed to purchase Zappos for just under a billion dollars. Why would the giant pay so much for a shoe retailer? Pete Blackshaw, Executive VP of Neilson Online Digital Strategic Services, pointed out in an article in Advertising Age that the value of Zappos was driven by customer service and employee advocacy. Amazon, who knows quite a bit about customer service, was willing to pay quite a price for a company that excelled in the details of customer service and who empowered their employees to always put the customer first.
True, hospitals are not often positioning themselves to fetch a huge sales price in the open market. But the value of a hospital is determined by its brand equity. Everyday consumers are making a decision whether a hospital is worth his/her time and resources. And they are making that decision on what kind of service they receive. They are determining if your brand is worth it or not.
Blackshaw says Zappos is obsessed over a different set of numbers. They are consumed with providing outstanding customer service. They seek feedback at every level. They want to know what the consumer experience is and fix anything that prevents the customer from having a perfect customer service experience.
How many hospitals are tenacious about customer service? How many hospitals explore, examine and experiment with the details of their interactions with the consumer? Too many hospitals, I’m afraid, really don’t want to know the truth in the details. Too many hospitals are satisfied to provide adequate, but not outstanding, service. Yes, it is painstaking – it’s hard work. But it certainly paid off handsomely for Zappos. And it will pay off for those hospitals that get dirty in the details and are committed to providing outstanding patient experiences.
“Zappos, Powered By Service.” What hospital could dare use a branding line like that?
The brand is more important than the endorser.
In recent months, we’ve seen the passing of several high profile celebrity endorsers. With it, perhaps an era of celebrity endorsement is passing too. Within just a few days prolific and long time product endorser, Ed McMahon, the beautiful and sexy starlet, Farrah Fawcett and the king of pop, Michael Jackson passed away. Even Karl Malden left home without it. And even though more of a pitchman than an endorser, Billy Mays also died. Instead of pitching products because he was famous, Mays became famous because of his product pitching.
Each of these leave behind memories of on camera time endorsing and pitching an array of products. Who benefited the most? The celebrity or the product? It’s hard to say. The research is conflicted.
Some studies indicate the right match between celebrity and product can be effective. Other research indicates the celebrity is remembered but not the brand. Several studies have indicated that a strong majority of consumers state that celebrities do not influence their purchasing decisions. But we know consumers don’t always tell or even know the truth when responding to surveys.
Hospitals have sometimes used celebrities to promote their brand. Pat Summerall, former NFL payer and broadcaster, has a separate business that aggressively seeks hospitals to pay a rather large sum of money for him to endorse a hospital.
Whether you think celebrity endorsements are effective or not, one thing is true – it all goes back to how strong the brand is. A celebrity can endorse a hospital or healthcare service but if the brand does not deliver satisfactorily to the customer, then money and effort is wasted. A celebrity cannot make a bad brand good. Neither can a celebrity make consumers like an inferior brand.
Maybe in some cases a celebrity can bring attention to a product, but most importantly the brand experience must be positive and deliver. There is no substitute for a brand that delivers. If your brand doesn’t deliver, a celebrity can’t overcome the weakness.
We have lost some very famous and memorable product endorsers recently. But there are other celebrities busy pitching all manner of products, including hospitals. What matters is whether your brand delivers a positive patient experience that will build credibility and loyalty. If it does, then the brand becomes the true celebrity.
Your hospital’s brand is being created everyday. It’s being determined most of all by patient experiences.
Tom Peters, the management guru, recently spoke to the American Hospital Association’s Annual Leadership Forum and basically called the industry out. He recently had an experience in the Emergency Department of a well-known hospital, after his wife injured her ankle. The experience was not a good one. Unfortunately, it was probably much like the experiences of other patients at hospitals everyday across the country.
It’s interesting Peters’ comments were not focused on whether his wife’s ankle was given the proper diagnosis and treatment. Rather his comments were focused on their experience and how the service was so poor. Hospitals often think the thing that matters most is the treatment and medical outcome. It’s easy to assume that, since it’s involves one’s health.
But more and more it’s about the patient experience.
A hospital can be exactly “on” with the correct diagnosis and treatment and deliver great outcome. But if the experience of how the patient is treated and the environment in which the treatment is received is not positive – the hospital’s brand suffers. It’s no longer only about the medical aspects, it’s about the total experience.
Yes, hospitals have paid lip service to quality service, but not that many hospitals deliver it. And if the hospital doesn’t deliver on service, no amount of advertising or marketing can build a great brand.
For a long time, hospitals have made all kinds of excuses about what hinders or prohibits great service, but Peters pointed out some examples of hospitals, although only a few, who’s service outcomes are known to be outstanding. And of course his point is that all hospitals have the same requirements, restrictions and constraints, so if one hospital can deliver great service than all of them can. Peter also emphasized that quality service and positive patient experience are mostly within the discretion of the hospital. And that will be true regardless of what “Obamacare” turns out to be.
It is indeed a consumer-driven economy and hospital brands are being enhanced or terribly downgraded everyday based not necessarily on medical outcomes but more on the quality of service provided.
The day his wife hurt her ankle, Peters was in “search of excellence.” But he didn’t find it. Unfortunately, that’s a much too common occurrence in many hospitals