Rebranding Helps Sharpen Marketing Strategy

Healthcare organizations that go through a rebranding process learn a number of things quickly. Perhaps the most valuable lesson is that rebranding clearly identifies the organization's vision and mission.

Putting a fine point on the term "marketing" can help a hospital define its strategy and vision. Too often, and for too long, the term has been a catch-all for branding, public relations, communication, advertising, and outreach. Those individual activities are part of the functions of marketing, but the terms are not interchangeable, and organizations that go through a rebranding effort quickly find out the definitions of each.

For example, Greenville Health System (GHS), a nonprofit, integrated network of hospitals and physicians in South Carolina, launched its new brand and logo this past March after months of working on defining its marketing goals.

Before taking the step to formalizing a marketing strategy, GHS had to find out who it was, according to its employees, patients, and community.

GHS was once known as Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, which according to Sally Foister, director of marketing services, was confusing because the system isn't part of any university. As GHS continued to grow and acquire physician practices, so did the system's inventory of logos (at least 30 different logos at one count!).

But having multiple logos for one hospital or health system isn't unusual, especially if an organization is growing rapidly, like GHS did, or if corporate communications are left unchecked. That was the case at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. It rebranded in 2012, and in the process found 50 different logos in use. The reasons for having various logos are different, but the effect was the same at both Children's and GHS: a watered-down brand identity.

Foister says research in GHS's service area showed its market share was decreasing. The data also echoed what Foister was hearing internally and from the community.

"National Research Corp data showed that consumers didn't know who was part of us and who wasn't," she says. "Our brand was so fragmented."

An organization does not have to go through a rebranding process to understand the differences between marketing, advertising, and public relations, but being able to step back and take a broad view of where an organization wants to go helps put those terms in their correct context.

"When we deep dive into the differences, it really is an "ah ha" from most people because even marketing folks don't always get the concept of branding as an all encompassing strategy, and tend to think of it tactically in the form of an identity, tagline, name, etc.," says Rob Rosenberg, president of Springboard Brand and Strategy.

Using a firm that focuses specifically on branding can help an organization narrow its goals more quickly. GHS used BrandEquity for its rebranding process, but Children's Hospital Los Angeles did its branding work in-house.

The main idea, no matter which path is taken, is to be able to identify the system's vision and mission, or "promise," as Rosenberg puts it.

"Advertising and branding are strategies that companies employ to help achieve marketing goals," he says. "Branding, or the act of branding, includes not just the basic elements/tactics such as naming, identity, look, [and] feel … but also the fulfillment of a brand promise."

For GHS, Foister says its goals are three-fold, "to be seen as a leader, innovator, and model of change" based on individual interviews done with business leaders, academic partners, and leaders in the community GHS serves.

The qualitative research found that GHS is best situated to position itself as helping patients navigate a complicated healthcare system, Foister says. Those efforts would surely be hampered with a complicated and confusing brand identity.

And, she says the new brand and logo is simple and fresh, and long overdue. Anecdotally, she's heard positive feedback from her community on the new image. Another survey on awareness, which will likely be conducted within the next year, will show quantitatively if the new brand is catching on, too.