Lessons from the Field – Why Clarifying the Hospital Brand Promise is Mission Critical

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Since 2016, much has been written and experimented with regarding the three marketing buckets to patients: engagement, experience, and choice. Much of what we wrote was applicable for the times, but the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic changed everything.

Everything from how care is delivered and accessed to patient paying a more significant role in accessing care through telemedicine and other innovations, hospitals are forced to become more patient-focused and responsive then they may have been in the recent past.   

Society is now beginning to emerge from the pandemic, returning to some semblance of normalcy, so marketing should not be focused on freshened up pre-pandemic messaging. The hospital should concentrate on communicating the hospital brand promise for today's changing healthcare market.

Understand that with the new healthcare reality, engagement, and experience of the patient, initial steps with searchable prices for consumerism and brand promise are all linked.

While these three topics can be considered separately, they are not unrelated to the strategic discussion.  Engagement, experience, and brand promise are three sides of the same triangle integratedto the point that action in one change the other two.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

What is your brand promise?

Now one can say that it's a relatively easy question to answer. In some providers, it may very well be, while in others, not so much.  That is not a shot at anyone, just a reality of the marketplace. Hospitals are highly undifferentiated and bordering on commodity status. When hospital care becomes a commodity in patients' minds, it is not about what you do any longer; it's all about the price you charge.

And that, my friends, is why the hospital brand promise is so critical now in health care.

Living in a large metropolitan market with nearly 100 hospitals, I have the opportunity to see a lot of hospital advertising. And frankly, I have no idea what any of the brand's promises are. I don't know what their brand position is. I can't tell what their brand pillars are.  And to top it off, I don't even know what they do well.

What I do know about most hospital's brand promise is nothing much except for the following.

What I do know is that they all care deeply about me.  They all have everything I would ever need. The area providers rank somewhere in a third-party quality award, and some are in multiple awards. The hospitals all have great-looking buildings, wireless internet, private rooms and big HDTVs and technology, and 100s of physicians' providing the best quality care at the hospital. At the same time, they do the same with your competitors.

Questions.

Phrasing it differently, what is your brand promise? How is your brand promise different from all the other hospitals? What is your brand promise to the patient? Is it that you care all about me? Saying "we care" in some fashion may very well be an oxymoron moment for the patients? I have always thought caring about me was already occurring. Are you saying it's not?

Doesn't one think that a better brand promise for a provider would be "the trusted hospital to meet your healthcare needs?" This type of brand promise requires a dramatic cultural and organizational change in the hospital.

Today, what is needed today is for the hospital to clarify its brand promise internally and then in the market.

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Take a step back and examine these three things. 

1.       What is the hospital brand promise?   What is the unwavering commitment to the healthcare patient?

2.       What are the brand pillars?  How does the hospital deliver on the brand promise? 

3.       What is the brand hospital personality?  What is the way the hospital acts to deliver on its brand pillars?

These are three questions for an undifferentiated market that are not easy to answer. But in answering these three questions and subparts,one will be able to execute tacticallyrelevant marketing strategies and messages that have a meaning, impact, and drive growth.  

After all, if the hospital doesn't know the brand promise, how can one expect the patient and market to know? And judging from the lack of brand differentiation among hospitals, nobody knows.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives. An influencer in healthcare marketing strategy, communications, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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The opinions expressed are my own.