Lessons Learned from a Health Care Rebrand

At the recent Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD) Conference in San Diego, Don Stanziano, System Vice President for Marketing at Scripps Health, presented the following valuable lessons he and his colleagues learned during the health care rebrand process for Scripps Health.

Lessons Learned from SHSMD Conference

Invest in research:

If at all possible, conduct upfront research―even if budgets are tight. It’s best to understand where you are in the market, as well as where you stand within your organization, before you move forward on a rebrand.

Prepare for politics:

Any time you change a logo or change a name there will be questions and concerns. Prepare yourself with a strategy outline, anticipate who or what departments will be the most challenging, and create allies early on who can influence the doubters. Additionally, framing the changes through the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me!) lens works very well in addressing pushback.

Engage broadly:

Include frontline staff, management, and executives on internal assessments. Different insights are critical to a successful rebrand; it requires engaging everyone from the bottom up to the top down in order to gain consensus across your organization.

Use a partner:

Bring in someone so you don’t have to do it on your own. There is a very deliberate process when rebranding and having a partner to guide you is invaluable. In addition, it gets you out of your head―you are blind to what a partner will see. Also, partners are seen as objective, not influenced by internal politics or dynamics.

It takes time:

This isn’t something that happens overnight and it cannot be a side project on the corner of your desk. You must commit to and dedicate the time and effort it takes to do a rebrand and do it well, otherwise your efforts will be wasted.

Build a core team:

You need resources and support to move a project this important forward―the marketing department, representatives from the broader organization, and external partners should all be part of your core team.

Following these tips on your branding journey can help you avoid pitfalls, save time and money, and, most importantly, help you arrive at an effective branding solution that is aligned to your organizational strategy and embraced by all.

For more information on health care branding visit our website.

 Kim Hofland is Monigle’s Senior Marketing Director and one of our health care branding experts.

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