Your hospital system brand is a powerful, often underused tool. Indeed, the concept of “brand” is often misunderstood and undervalued. A brand is more than merely a logo, advertising campaign, or tagline. Viewed in total and used strategically, a hospital system’s brand is one of its most powerful strategic assets you have for generating better returns and driving value.
How brand drives value for a hospital system
Our research shows that brand reputation in healthcare can add 25-30% to business value. How? Your brand brings the hospital system strategic plan to life and engages stakeholders in your vision. It guides the decision-making processes. It influences patients to select your hospital system over others, it attracts physicians, nurses and staff to want to work for your organization, and it inspires donors and volunteers to contribute to your cause. Without your current reputation, think how much worse your organization’s financial situation would be. And conversely, if you could harness your brand, think how much more value could be added to your hospital system.
Here is a closer look at what a brand can do across your most important constituencies: patients, employees, as well as partners, donors, and policy makers.
The hospital system brand for patients
Your brand is shorthand for trust. Patients making healthcare decisions cannot directly evaluate clinical quality, safety, reliability, compassion, and outcomes. Instead, they rely on a hospital system’s reputation, embodied by the brand, to guide choices.
You create your brand through the experience you promise to deliver and then carry through to actually deliver. The name, logo, and messaging reflect and convey this experience. Start with a solid brand positioning that defines what your hospital brand stands for, how it is different, and why patients can believe in you. Use the strategy to create brand experiences across every place a patient interacts with your institution. Every customer interaction touchpoint should clearly and consistently convey your brand positioning:
- Website and digital experience (layout, navigation, content style)
- Customer service (tone of voice, speed, empathy)
- Product experience (design, usability, packaging)
- Events and spaces (lighting, music, layout, signage)
- Internal culture (how employees live the brand values)
Done right, your hospital system brand will go to work in driving patient choices in a crowded marketplace, fostering loyalty, and promoting word-of-mouth. Build in a feedback process that goes beyond NPS so that you can fix weak spots and continually strengthen your brand to build value.
The hospital system brand for employees
A strong brand is vital for attracting the best doctors, nurses, administrators, and facilities workers. The market for employees is just as competitive as the market for patients. An employer brand gives you a competitive edge in recruiting top talent and keeping them. As hospital systems merge and acquire one another, there is a great risk that what was once a cohesive internal culture becomes diluted and fragmented.
The employee experience drives your reputation as a place to work, can effectively engage employees and build pride. Your hospital system brand for employees:
- Represents the values and mission of the organization
- Works as a rallying point that strengthens culture and morale
- Appeals to top physicians, nurses, and other professionals seeking an employer aligned with their values and aspirations
- Drives retention of employees who feel they are part of a respected, values-driven brand
- Creates a shared identity and purpose, helping employees see their daily work as part of something bigger
The hospital system brand for partners, donors, and policymakers
Your institution works in a larger ecosystem of audiences that goes beyond patients and employees. You are also working with insurers, research partners, suppliers, donors, and policymakers.
An effective brand makes working together easier. A strong reputation that aligns with partner values strengthens your negotiating power, smooths processes and establishes alignment that builds the trust that underpins standard setting, data sharing, efficiency, cost management, and even collaborative innovation.
Clinical research can be an important source of revenue. A strong brand can drive clinical trial partnerships and support winning grants. When the outcome is intellectual property and commercialization opportunities, brand value increases exponentially.
Donors are more likely to give to organizations with strong reputations for stewardship and impact. Conveying what your brand contributes in terms of a preferred patient experience and patient choice, employee recruiting and retention, solid partner relationships, and profitable clinical research, establishes a brand that donors are motivated to support.
Among policymakers and regulators, your hospital system brand enhances the credibility of your institution. You will be in a better position for shaping health policy, advocating for resources, and influencing public health initiatives.
Building brand value
Think of your hospital system brand as more than just a name, logo, and ad campaign. By using it as a strategic asset and managing and measuring it to maximize its power, you generate tangible value for your organization, and more importantly, create additional benefits and deliver even higher quality to patients, families, providers and communities. In today’s challenging environment, this is just what hospital systems need.