Hospitals Should Focus on Branding One Key Message

The following was written by Jenn Riggle, CRT/tanaka associate vice president in the agency’s Health Practice. It was published in the July 8, 2010 online issue of Hospital Impact. Jenn is a regular blog contributer to Hospital Impact, as well as to CRT/tanaka’s company blog, the Buzz Bin.

By Jenn Riggle

Hospitals can’t be all things to all people.

But hospital marketers often forget this fact. The end result: Your hospital’s marketing message is muddy–and forgettable.

Instead of focusing on the one thing that makes the hospital unique, hospital marketers try to promote all of their services and their message ends up becoming: “XYZ Hospital has a number of great clinical programs and scored high on quality measures.” While this may be true, it’s hard for people to wrap their arms around it because it doesn’t speak to the care they need. Besides, quality care isn’t a differentiator; it’s an expectation.

The challenge to clearly brand your hospital is compounded by the fact that we live in a hyper-informed world, where people are constantly bombarded by marketing messages from companies trying to sell them everything from toilet paper to sports cars. If your marketing message isn’t clear and concise, it will get lost in all of the noise.

People will only remember one, maybe two, things about your organization. So it’s important that they remember the one thing that differentiates your hospital from the competition. If you go back to branding basics, it’s all about the brand promise, an idea that a company “owns” in the minds of consumers. However, this message needs to be simple and believable. If the message is too complicated or tries to do too many things, your brand is weakened.

Strong brands are powerful and compelling. People know what they stand for. It’s easy to recall a brand if it’s simple and direct.

So while your hospital may have a number of great clinical programs, it’s better to focus on one key service line, such as cardiac, orthopedics, cancer, or maternity/women’s services, and let it serve as a halo and provide credibility for your other services. By effectively building the reputation of one clinical program, you’re establishing a brand message in the minds of consumers.

Consumers will remember your hospital as the heart hospital; the hospital that performs the most knee or hip replacements; the hospital that provides the most advanced cancer care; or the place where everyone goes to have their babies. The key is to make sure that you have “permission” to make one of these claims. If you can’t back them up, no one will believe you, no matter how many times you say it.

And by owning one of these clinical areas, it helps build people’s faith in your hospital. For example, consumers will remember your hospital provides the best cardiac care in the region, so when they are seeking medical care, they’ll think to themselves, “If XYZ Hospital has one of the best cardiac programs in the region, I can trust them to take care of me when I have a health problem.”

While it’s important that your hospital establish a name for excelling in one clinical area, this doesn’t mean you don’t market your other services. You should market these programs to targeted groups–and keep a primary focus on promoting your key service line.

To reach different target audiences, use different media. For example, seniors (ages 65 and over) still get the majority of their news from traditional media, so it makes sense to concentrate your advertising about your cardiac and orthopedics program on newspapers ads, TV, and billboards. However, if you’re trying to reach young parents (ages 25 to 40) to promote your maternity services, social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogs make more sense.

Focus on one key service. It can be the first step in building your hospital’s reputation for excellence–which, in turn, will benefit all your service lines.