Branding Healthcare in the Age of Instant Information
Many healthcare providers have had little incentive to consider marketing programs. After all, people always need healthcare, and in the past, healthcare providers could rely on their patients to refer friends and family; their patients acted as an unoffi cial marketing team. The web, however, has changed what people expect from healthcare providers. Not only are people asking for more web-based services from physicians, but they are also changing the way they educate themselves. For example, 84% of all consumers now use the Web to fi nd health-related information1, not to mention the powerful tools available for researching physicians and practices. To keep pace with these changes, healthcare providers must reassess how they communicate and interact with their patients and prospects.
Enter Morris Creative Group, an 18-year-old marketing, advertising, and branding fi rm that specializes in healthcare marketing. Together with the physician, practice administrator, and other staff, the fi rm develops smart marketing strategies that enable a practice to respond to patients’ needs and turn them into advocates. Knowing one’s target audience makes all the difference. If women, fi fty years of age and older, make 80% of decisions regarding healthcare2, then healthcare providers should be intentional about branding themselves to appeal to this demographic. Using websites, social media, and traditional media, Morris helps its healthcare clients construct the right message to attract the right patients at the right time.
Morris Creative helps its clients understand what differentiates them from competitors. Identifying and articulating an organization’s UVP— Unique Value Proposition—not only strengthens that organization’s brand but also enables it to create a more authentic and powerful message.
Turning Patients into Fans
Chuck Morris, the Principal of Morris Creative, has witnessed how communicating these unique benefi ts can build trust with patients and deepen their loyalty. “When you make it clear why you are special and what your patients stand to gain by continuing to choose you, they gain confi dence in their decision. If you then fi nd creative ways to reward their loyalty, they want to sing your praises. They want to tell people about you. More than just a provider of services, you become a trusted ally, a friend.” Morris stresses the importance of developing a brand’s blueprint before trying to build a marketing strategy: “When we partner with a physician, hospital, or healthcare system, we start by asking lots of questions. As outsiders, we bring fresh eyes and ears to an organization, and we also have the expertise to isolate that organization’s brand DNA, its genetic blueprint. Once we discover who you are, what you do, and why you’re distinctive, we can map out where we are headed and how we will get there.”
Dial It In
Morris Creative takes a consultative and collaborative approach to marketing, advertising, and branding. Morris explains, “After a few discovery sessions with an organization’s stakeholders, we are confi dent that we can dial in an effective strategy and deliver impressive results.” The following represent some of the challenges that healthcare providers bring to Morris Creative:
- Gain market share by increasing awareness
- Boost revenue
- Increase patient volume to add new physicians and new offices
- Change patient mix by offering more elective procedures and in-house diagnostics
- Minimize the impact of managed care
- Offset lower reimbursements
A partnership with Morris Creative Group is a good investment for providers who want to adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace and prepare for future growth.
1 Burst Research, August 2007, burstmedia.com
2 Candace Quinn, “The Health Care Challenge: What Can Marketers Learn from Consumer Trends?” www.strategichealthcare.com
