The overwhelming majority of healthcare companies that create franchises—or branded portfolios of products and/or services—do so as an afterthought. That is, they launch a few product brands, run into conflicts about how to represent those products to customers, and then layer over the products with a portfolio approach that (more […] keep reading
Freedom from choice: the comfort of the herd in the age of the digital brand
Since the turn of the millennium, there have been thousands of books and articles assessing how the ways brands are built and marketed in the Internet age have changed. The most common thesis is that one should throw out all the old rules because digital marketing has completely changed the […] keep reading
Critic, heal thyself: remedies and the zealots who would keep you from them
A recent Op/Ed piece in The New York Times by John La Puma, an internist and author (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/opinion/dont-ask-your-doctor-about-low-t.html?ref=todayspaper) is entitled: Don’t ask your doctor about Low T. For those of you who don’t know, Low T is shorthand branding for testosterone levels ≤350 nanograms/deciliter of blood serum. Low testosterone is […] keep reading
Do over! When does it make sense to rebrand?
Last year, The New York Times Magazine reported on a survey of swing voters that asked a very interesting question: what do you associate with the words Democrat and Republican? This is a branding 101 question, designed to elicit top-of-mind values for the respective party brands. The results are seen […] keep reading
Do you speak Logo? Top five best practices for discussing logos
Everyone in marketing (and many more who are not) is comfortable discussing promotional tactics such as ads, online activities and TV commercials. We are exposed to these media every day, and there are columnists who critique and help us build our promotional literacy. Not so for discussions about logo selection. […] keep reading
Playing tennis without a net: how promotional concepts achieve little when they ignore branding
Over the past many years, my healthcare clients have been hesitant at times to put forth a robustly branded campaign out of concern for alienating the promotional vendors who are responsible for implementing the branding guidelines when developing tactics. To be more clear, the concern is that a well-branded tactic […] keep reading
The Heathcare Bump: adding a white-coat endorsement to your brand
Imagine people in a doctor’s office, asking questions like: What brand of sunglasses should I wear? What shoes should I buy for my newborn? Which brand of green tea has the most health benefits? Is there a brand of makeup that’s better for my skin? The fact of the matter […] keep reading
At a loss for words: why don’t healthcare brands use tag lines?
If you were marketing a brand, would you not use a color palette? Would you not select a type font in which your messaging would appear? Of course not. You would be robbing the brand of some essential assets it needs to get recognized and esteemed by your customers—not to […] keep reading
Change for change’s sake: putting ego above the brand
Having loaded the newest operating system onto my iPhone 5, I—as many others—couldn’t help but notice all the changes. Did it make the phone faster? No. Did it make the phone more customer friendly? A big NO. Did it make it “easier” to do certain functions? Debatable. So what do […] keep reading
Five ways healthcare branding differs from consumer goods branding
I often find myself in competition for healthcare assignments against some very fine consumer branding companies. However, while such stellar agencies excel with clients like American Express, Virgin Airlines and Chanel, they are ill-equipped to call themselves experts in healthcare branding. Here’s why. 1. Healthcare customers do not celebrate the […] keep reading