A differentiated strategy requires doing more with less

These are times when allocating the time and resources to rebranding might make sense for overall organizational goals:

• During a merger or acquisition
• When the organizational vision evolves
• If there are significant changes in competitive and/or consumer dynamics

In the absence of these drivers, there’s a lot you can do to refresh and re-energize your brand without the time and expense of rebranding efforts. To stay ahead, like progressive brands, and achieve more with less, here are a few often-overlooked levers to optimize your brand.

Start with your internal audience

A motivated employee base is a cost-effective way to create an army of evangelists for your brand. More than 145,000 healthcare providers left the field in 2021 and 2022 with many citing stress, anxiety, depression, and exhaustion as reasons for their departure. Three years later, attracting and retaining top talent remains a significant challenge for healthcare providers nationwide.

When choosing an employer, or choosing to stay with one, clinicians assess the organization’s mission, values, and commitment to employee health. A strong employer brand can help you effectively convey to current and prospective employees that your organizational goals and culture align with theirs. This alignment helps boost employee engagement, which directly affects the patient experience.

Becker’s Hospital Review reported that 42% of people leaving negative reviews cited “quality of care” as the reason they did so. But “quality of care” may not reflect clinical health outcomes. Unlock Consumer Compass^TM data shows that 71% of people define “quality” in healthcare as the way they felt while receiving care.

Here’s an example of how a strong employer value proposition (EVP) helped one client achieve their recruiting and retention goals. Despite being recognized by Forbes as a “Best in State” employer, Nebraska Medicine was losing more staff than it attracted. Marketing and human resources teamed up to develop an EVP that sparked a 15% improvement in voluntary turnover. Focusing on building a strong workforce, Nebraska Medicine was able to translate its investment in employees into organizational growth. Frank Lococo, VP of Marketing and Communications, told Strategic Health Care Marketing, “What we produced is not a campaign. It is a movement that creates fundamental changes in who we are and how we operate — based on the voice of our colleagues.”

Govern your brand

Some brands are so well-established that their logos are immediately recognizable without their names. Hospitals and health systems are more likely to be known by their name than their logo, but that’s a brand victory too. The Mayo Clinic has built such a successful brand that it’s a case study at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Mayo Clinic has had more than 100 years to get to where it is today, so let’s focus on what you can do in the short term. Here are some key things to commit to:

• Codify your brand. Develop a unified brand system that establishes the core visual and verbal elements. Create clear brand guidelines to ensure consistent expression across all channels. Make sure these guidelines are posted in a place that’s readily accessible to all internal users.
• Train employees. Establish a robust training program to ensure all employees understand and can represent and apply the brand accurately. Enhance your training for power users to address the deeper education they’ll need to successfully apply your brand. Include appropriate levels of brand training as part of the new employee onboarding process.
• Conduct regular audits. Implement a review process to regularly assess how teams are using the brand. Solicit examples of assets from across the organizations and multiple service lines. Evaluate what’s working and what’s not, evolve and update your guidelines and training programs accordingly.

Learn and evolve in real time

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the kind of care patients need, and how that care is delivered, can change quickly. From a brand perspective, imagery shifted to show people in masks or receiving care via telehealth. Messaging evolved to include references to social distancing, self-care, and combatting isolation.

Quick, strategic adjustments to current trends, audience needs, and market shifts help your brand stay relevant. By embracing flexibility and continuous improvement, brands can engage with their audience in meaningful ways, ensuring their messaging, visuals, and overall presence resonate in the moment while paving the way for future growth.

Here are some cost-effective ways to gather feedback from internal and external audiences.

• Consumer focus groups are an economical way to find out whether the patient experience is a good reflection of your brand promise.
• A/B testing is a great way to explore what aspects of your messaging are resonating with consumers.
• Annual employee engagement surveys can help assess the relevancy and resonance of the brand from an internal perspective.
• Open channels of communication with front line staff can give you clues as to what is working and what isn’t long before it becomes a bigger issue.

Key takeaways

1. Rebranding makes sense during a merger or acquisition, if your overall vision is evolving, and when competitive or market dynamics are changing. But it requires a significant investment in time and resources.
2. Research shows that a differentiated strategy, not budget, is the key to success. You can refresh and revitalize your brand with some cost-effective strategies.
   • Motivate your employee base: consider creating a new EVP.
   • Govern your brand: train new and existing employees to use it effectively.
   • Learn and evolve in real time: assess what’s working and what’s not, adapt and update as needed.