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The 5 D's of Brand Strategy Creation

Guest post by: Candace Quinn

Article Overview: Whether you are creating a brand strategy for a multi-facility healthcare integrated delivery system, or a stand alone hospital, or even a single service line, the 5 D's in the creation of that strategy can guide you through the process. With help fo a brand consultant, a good market researcher, and the right ad agency, you can put a winning strategy together to distinguish you from your competition, add value to your customers, and motivate and guide your employees and physicians.

The 5 D's of Brand Strategy Creation

Whether you are creating a brand strategy for a multi-facility healthcare integrated delivery system, or a stand alone hospital, or even a single service line, the 5 D's in the creation of that strategy can guide you through the process. With help fo a brand consultant, a good market researcher, and the right ad agency, you can put a winning strategy together to distinguish you from your competition, add value to your customers, and motivate and guide your employees and physicians.

BRAND STRATEGY: DISCOVERY PHASE

All healthcare organizations have a brand...that set of deliverable expectations that are linked with the organization, commonly, consistently observed, and delivered...but that does not make it a strategy. Many brands simply exist; delivering changing brand promises, confusing messages, and falling generally in the category of indistinct, without significant value, irrelevant, or out of sync with the organizational aspirations. The first step in forming a winning brand strategy is to discover what can be known about the brand as it is today, and the potential for the brand going forward in your target market.

During the discovery phase of the brand position, the organization must look at all measures of the brand's performance in the market, understand the aspirations for the brand by the leadership (board, administrative, and clinical), and discover the brand's potential in the minds of the consumer as it competes in its unique target markets. This phase is intended to bring to light the following:

1) Those areas of strength and weakness regarding the current performance of the brand. We learn this by:

a) Consumer awareness, attitudes, and utilization surveys (AAU's...quantitative research)

b) Market share reports (by service line)

c) In-Depth Interviews with leadership (board, administrative, and clinical)

d) Patient , Employee and Physician satisfaction/loyalty surveys, by service line

e) Qualitative research among current/recent patients

2) Those aspiration for the brand that support the long-term organizational goals

a) Strategic plan review for brand contribution (growth, people, quality, community, service)

b) Interviews with leadership (1.c)

3) Those brand attributes that add value to the brand's position among its target market

a) Quantitative research of target market(s)

b) Qualitative research among current/recent patients

c) Comprehensive review of competitors performance and position (Physician Interviews, market intel, etc.)

4) An understanding of the brand positions currently held by the competition in the target markets

a) Comprehensive review of competitors performance and position

b) Quantitative research of target market

c) AAU studies

The drivers for the timeline include the process steps needed internally to conduct the n-depth interviews of leadership. Typically, this can take as long as 24-40 hours of interview time alone, 1-2 weeks of scheduling, and another week or more to consolidate the input. The review of the existing secondary data is not usually an encumbrance to the time element, but where data does not exist, and primary research is required, the time line for this phase can grow quickly.

Patient focus groups can take 1-2 weeks to schedule, and typically 2-3 can be conducted per day by a trained facilitator. Typically, hospitals offer participants free parking or transportation assistance, a meal, cash or equivalent gift cars of $50-100, and a "hospital" item, like a mug, tote bag, first aid kit, etc. The patients should be grouped with some degree of commonality, such as similar points of service (OP, IP, ED) and/or same unit or service line (ortho, cardiac, neuro, etc.). This "shared" experience frequently allows the conversation to get to specific attributes that reflect relevant areas of focus.

Physician and employee focus groups, similarly, require 1-2 weeks of planning and scheduling and take a similar amount of time to conduct. Again, hospitals "thank" these participants with a meal, cash or gift equivalent (if employed, there is a value that does not require withholding...your HR department can be helpful here), hospital logo items, and the opportunity to participate during paid work time. With volunteer physicians, you may reward them for work under Stark as long as the reward for the work is reasonable...a $50-100 gift for one and ½ hours is typical.

The Quantitative survey (including the AAU) can take 4-12 weeks to conduct, depending upon the following parameters:

1. Survey design - 1-3 weeks, dependent upon the level of organizational process required at your hospital

2. Survey implementation - 2-10 weeks

i) Target market size (local, regional, national)

ii) Sample size

iii) Methodology

(1) Mail-not recommended typically

(2) Telephone

(3) Online

3. Findings tabulation and report generation 2-4 weeks

At the completion of this phase, you should know the following:

-The current "brand" and it's consistency in the hearts and minds of your multiple audiences

-What is desired, valued, and compelling to the target audience

-What is doable, motivational, and aligned with your organization, your employees, and your physicians

-What brand position is held by the competition, and how effective those positions are in the target market

 

BRAND STRATEGY: DESIGN PHASE

Enlightened by the findings in the discovery phase, the design phase work involves designing a meaningful brand position (s) to test within the organization to validate fit with the same. Successful brands are relevant, valued, believable, recognizable, and compelling to not only the target market, but also to the organization, staff and physicians.

Key elements in this phase involve equally considering what to include as well as what to exclude. This may seem simple enough, yet there are many "potholes" to avoid...specifically:

1) "Let's add the kitchen sink" - this is the tendency to take every position possible and combine it into a single position. The problem that results-no position. You have really done nothing to create a situation that truly distinguishes you in the market.

2) Just pick one-any one---no process. Successful brand development needs to be an integrated, facilitated, and inclusive process, requiring participation by patients, target market, employees, and your medical staff. Agree to a process in advance, and stick to it.

Many organizations hold the focus group session detailed in the discovery phase during this phase, incorporating "non-=patient" groups representing the targeted future market to better understand the expectations that come with the brand positions articulated as valued/compelling in the Quantitative study.

Also, during this phase, if you did not start the process with one, it is recommended that you form and convene a "Brand Team" to work through the internal brand build. Typically, organizations include the following types (roles) on the team:

1) The marketing team as staff, with the department leadership as full member/chair

2) A brand strategy consultant as guide and facilitator

3) Senior leadership, both administrative and clinical (CEO, COO, CMO, CNO, HR, Key service line leadership, other key medical staff leaders)

4) 1-2 Board representatives if this is appropriate in your organization

5) The Account representative/manager from your ad agency if you have one

The Brand Team can be convened up front or upon the commencement of this phase. In either case, a kick-off meeting with education in mind is highly recommended. The brand strategy consultant in partnership with the Chief Marketing leader co-present an educational session intended to define terms, explain what brand strategy is and is not, and clearly articulate the process and products that are intended through your process. Critical to this is clearly articulating the role of this brand team in your process.

It is important to share with the Brand team all of the findings of the discovery phase to gain consensus on those brand positions that have possibilities for the organization. Taking these 3-4 positions into testing will really be the focus of this design phase.

Throughout the design phase, the brand team's role is to digest the focus group findings and ultimately select he optimal position.

Another key aspect of the design phase is to assess the "GAP" between the brand positions tested and the organization's reality. A sweet spot happens when the brand position is deemed very strong and the "GAP" is small or non-existent. Typically, however, there is an experience "GAP". Critical to moving on to the development phase is identifying and gaining leadership's support for not only the marketing elements of the "GAP" (i.e., what can be fixed by Marketing/Communications alone) but also the operational elements of the "GAP" (i.e., service, quality, performance issues, etc.). This is where the Brand Team's ownership is crucial.

Factors affecting the time element in this phase include-focus groups (see discovery phase for details), Brand Team consensus building, and detailing the "GAP" analysis (3-6 weeks).

You will have at the conclusion of this phase the desired organizational brand position, the "GAP" analysis for both the marketing elements of the brand strategy as well as the operational "experience" elements that will be required as a part of the brand strategy. You will also have identified if you brand architecture issues (what you call elements of the brand, how you portray them visually, etc.).

BRAND STRATEGY: DEVELOPMENT PHASE



Armed with a Brand position that you have found to be valued, desirable, and compelling to the target markets, as well as deemed doable, aspirational, and appropriate for your organization to deliver, you are in a position to develop your Activation plan. Activation plans must include not only the Marketing communications plans (for both internal and external audiences) but also the experience design plan. For the latter, this may mean changing the way things are done, or hard wiring the things you are doing...getting to that brand promise delivery consistency that successful brands do well. Many organizations today are turning to experts to assist them with this work. Organizations like The Studer Group^TM, Disney Institute, Starizon, Baptist Hospital and others offer organizations prescriptions and processes to deliberately create and deliver consistent experiences that support a strong brand position. It other cases, the experience piece may only mean "tweaking" a service/unit/department to fix or close the "GAP", with our without the help of an outside expert. Clearly the nature and scope of the organizational experience "GAP" will drive the complexity, expense, and time needed for this phase.

For the former, here is where the inclusion of both a Brand Strategy consultant and your ad agency representative on the Brand Team is helpful. Working with HR and the Marketing communications team, this group can create the internal communication plan (a critical first step....no successful brand exists that cannot be articulated by those delivering it!). This plan must incorporate the background work in understandable terms as the backdrop for the employee/physician appreciation and ultimate ownership of the position, as well as visual and narrative around the position itself, including an understanding of the words selected, their behavioral implications, and other key strategies and operational implications. For example, if your brand position includes being the market leader in technology and innovation, how will that be realized? What will the organization do and not do to make that happen?

Depending upon the "GAP", the internal plan may have multiple phases---those in support of establishing the "GAP", those in support of closing the "GAP", and those in support of the external plan launch.

The external plan, similarly, is driven by the size and nature of the "GAP". If the "GAP" is less about operations and more about image or awareness, then the phases of the external plan may include first building a foundation then articulating the promise. If the "GAP" is significantly operational, the external plan should include a strategic response to positioning short term (during the deployment phase) and long term (the marketing communication brand display phase).

This development phase is driven largely by the "GAP's" size and nature. During this phase, the selection of an experience design partner and/or agency partner (if one did not exist) will add 8-12 weeks to the 8-12 week work process...in essence doubling the time needed.

Outcomes of this phase include the activation plans detailed above, development of the Brand Story to share with internal audiences, definition of behavioral elements related to the Brand, and incorporation of the same into job descriptions and performance evaluations, resolution of any brand architecture issues (naming, graphics, etc.) and a broad engagement of the management level of the organization in the activation work.

BRAND STRATEGY: DEPLOYMENT PHASE

Armed with the Brand Activation plan, it is time to take action. The emphasis here is on the design and implementation of those action steps required to close the "GAP". If your brand requires minimal or no operational or experience changes, the deployment phase is minimal, and largely driven by the Mar/Com team. Work begins inside...while the agency may be working on the promotional elements that will display your brand to the world (or at least to your immediate market place), the Mar/Com team and internal communications experts need to be launching the brand promise, telling the brand story, and generally allowing the employees and physicians to hear about it and see it first.

The Brand story simply tells the history of the discovery, design and development phase of the brand strategy exercise. It shares the meaning behind the words, the expectations as articulated by the future customers and the value the promise represents in establishing a strong, relevant, compelling brand position. The timing of this internal launch should allow for assurance that each employee has had the chance to understand the purpose, understand his or her role in realizing the brand, and garner enthusiasm for the opportunity the Brand Strategy represents. Many organizations hold events, screenings, "Brand Fairs" and generally allow employees and physicians to see it first. If job descriptions have changed, or performance expectations have been altered, it is during this phase that those reviews happen with managers with the Brand strategy as the backdrop.

The wider the Brand experience "GAP", the longer the deployment takes. If an experience consultant/partner is engaged, deployment includes the time needed to substantially adjust the delivery experience to reflect the brand promise. Some organizations attack this incrementally (by unit, department, or service line) and others dive in across the organization. If approached organizationally, the deployment may take as long as 24 months.

As mentioned above, typically, organizations have pockets or areas that have the brand position operationalized and are in part why this particular brand position resonated with the leadership. While the rest of the organization hard wires these brand behaviors, the deployment of a service line specific launch of the brand can lead the external piece to begin impacting awareness and image. However, it is critical that you do this if the service is profitable, important to advancing the long-term strategy of the organization, and if the internal communications has clearly articulated the "why" behind the launch.

At the end of this phase, the organization should be in a position to begin the final phase, Display.

 

BRAND STRATEGY: DISPLAY PHASE

Some of you reading this article will say, "But this is where my Board member wants me to start...get that ad agency working on the brand campaign!" The display phase is the culmination of months of deliberate work to identify and deliver a Brand Strategy that will be compelling to the target market, motivational to employees, and relevant in a world where access to care is wide-spread and consumers face choices for their care. At this stage in the campaign, it is critical that you work with your agency to clearly articulate the Brand Strategy, the lessons learned throughout its development, and hold the agency creative on task to deliver the messages consistently and on point with that thoughtful brand position.

Graphics, tag lines, copy points, and imagery are designed, tested, and deployed during this phase. Design and testing can commence during the deployment phase as rarely changes in direction occur from that point forward. Testing the execution among groups of potential patients is key to assuring yourself and your Brand team that the messages and imagery have captured the brand strategy effectively.

In conclusion, be sure to continuously test your external efforts against the brand strategy, and measure the performance of your organization against the brand standards. Annual targets for patient, employee and physician loyalty; annual market share targets; annual AAU targets for awareness, attitudes, and utilization should be set and measured; and as you look across the profitable service lines critical to the success of your organization, be sure you periodically speak with those at the front line delivering on the brand promise.

In an era of Health reform, where access, choice, and coverage are expanded significantly, a strong brand position will place you in a position of market leadership and open doors to market expansion, vertically and horizontally.

If you need help finding the Brand Strategy to move your healthcare organization forward, contact Candace Quinn. See if your organization needs a BrandCheck.

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Article Tags: brand consultant, brand positioning, brand strategy, healthcare branding, integrated delivery system, market researcher, strategy creation



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