A Brand New World

Jeffrey Nemetz, for HealthLeaders News, November 7, 2007

Down the drain it goes. Recent years have seen big bucks spent--literally hundreds of millions of dollars--by the more than 5,000 provider organizations on marketing and branding initiatives. This profuse spending has resulted in only isolated examples of successful branding efforts with measurable and clear outcomes.

Why all the trouble with such little success?

Conversations about brand and responsibility for its strategic direction have typically rested in the wrong hands within the provider enterprise. Instead of being a marketer's tool, the brand of your organization must be placed squarely atop of the CEO's agenda. All the way to the top: Chief. Executive. Officer.

A provider CEO should be asking:

• Is brand a frequent topic on my agenda?
  
• Is brand even considered when addressing major business issues, such as capital investments and new service offerings?
  
• How am I holding my enterprise and senior management accountable for efforts related to the brand?
  
• How am I measuring the impact that my enterprise's efforts have on the brand?

The provider sector is naturally inclined to measure activities in search of outcomes. They track inpatient volume, patient stays, and hospital-acquired infection rates, to name a few. The same level of accountability and measurement for branding initiatives can only occur when driven by executive leadership. And as provider CEOs begin to place and embrace brand from the top of the organization, only then can your brand transform the enterprise in a measurable way. To what end? A new paradigm where brand plays the fundamental role in every business decision from finance to service lines, from HR to technology.

Another paradigm shift? In fact, yes. When brand is embraced and owned by the CEO first and foremost, it has the capacity to differentiate your organization by aligning every single business activity and decision with the brand strategy. The result is a completely new type of outcome: a platform from which your enterprise can tell its unique story as truly inimitable and completely, unlike the maze of commodity hospitals that operate in your marketplace.

This metamorphosis is daunting, but doable. It is intimidating, but imperative. It is bold and brave and it must be done. No matter if you lead a community hospital operating in an urban environment, or a medical center seeking to attract patients regionally, or a specialty hospital with a national presence, the shift must be achieved.

Two enterprises in particular have exemplified this transformation in a prominent way (in the interest of full disclosure, both are clients of my firm). Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has built a patient experience from end-to-end that is both remarkable and memorable. Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles brings an architectural wonder to the provider sector with its hospital of the future. Like Disney and its theme parks, these organizations have taken no details for granted. They are distinctive in design, in the environment, in the experience, and to the cities in which they are situated.

A model transformation
Northwestern Memorial Hospital completed a transformation that remains a model of brand driven from the executive level. CEO Gary Mecklenburg and his team have created a unique medical campus that turned a legacy brand with legacy systems into a best-in-class institution that will continue to feel state-of-the-art decades after its grand opening. It has created a footprint in Chicago that has become the foundation for its local community, which continues to grow and feed off of the medical campus. This initiative has drawn in patients both nationally and internationally, increasing the prominent position Chicago plays in the global healthcare marketplace. The Northwestern Memorial brand resonates throughout the physical space, the employees, and the patient experience that has been created.

Upon arrival at Northwestern Memorial, it is clear that every detail was strategically addressed in creating a brand experience like no other. The four-lane pick-up/drop-off strikes you as more Vegas than varicose. Walking into the cafeteria stops you in your tracks, because both the food and atmosphere are appetizing.

When it comes to results, Northwestern Memorial has demonstrated its capacity for quality a long list of awards for best quality, top doctors, innovative technology-the list goes on and on. The same level of attention and strategic brand application is being incorporated into the highly-anticipated Prentice Women Hospital, slated to open later this month.

A masterpiece in the making
With the completion of the new Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center this summer, a true architectural masterpiece has been accomplished that is unlike anything else in the country. This museum-like facility, designed by a world-renowned architect, I.M. Pei, will undoubtedly draw in patients and the general public alike. It adds depth to the landscape of Los Angeles, and fundamentally proves that a thoughtful, even profound, environment must support clinical services in order to create a total patient healing experience.

This massive initiative of building a total replacement hospital exemplifies UCLA's vision of focusing on the future in creating a healing center that will serve generations to come. With this vision in mind, the UCLA Medical Center brand has crept into every level of detail in the new facility. Advanced technology and capacity to add new technology will keep the enterprise on the leading edge of medical and patient technological capabilities. Endless green spaces and natural light effectively uses every inch to promote a sense of calm and health. And the central electrical systems in each patient room creates a flexible environment that allows the staff to serve a diverse and ever-changing set of patient needs now and into the future.

A class of their own
The sum of these efforts by Northwestern Memorial and UCLA is nothing short of a new generation of medical facility. In taking a bold vision and bringing it to life, Northwestern Memorial and UCLA have created brands that are elite and exclusive. They are in a class of their own.

While not every provider has half a billion dollars to communicate its unique story through a replacement hospital, every organization does have the capacity to shift the paradigm and seek out opportunities to infuse brand across the organization. These business activities can impact both physical (e.g. building, environment, etc.) and emotional (e.g. foundations, fundraising, etc.).

Once you accept a system-wide approach to brand, you have the capability to address a broad range of organizational, operational, and communications issues. Consider the following as they both impact and are driven by your brand:

• How do we attract new physician leadership?
  
• How does our enterprise train, onboard and retain new employees?
  
• How do the services we offer define the type of enterprise we seek to be?
  
• How do our patients interact with us from the very first point of contact all through discharge and follow-up?
  
• What does our technology suggest about our capacity for innovation?
  
• How do we create a physical environment that exudes the personality of our enterprise?
  
• How are we developing relationships with our patients and the community at-large?
  
• Where are there opportunities to extend our philanthropic efforts to be aligned our brand?

Let this article be the jolt that pushes your organization to make the shift. After all, we're living in a brave new world that requires a brand new conversation.

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Jeffrey Nemetz is firm Principal at HBG {Healthcare Branding Group}, where he leads strategic branding efforts for hospitals, systems, and an entire industry of healthcare organizations that are looking to change the health of the world, one brand at a time. He can be reached at jnemetz@hbginc.biz.