Thriving vs. Fixing: Balance is key in healthcare branding
When talking brand experience in healthcare there are always two competing elements: Preventative “Health” vs. Accute “Care”. Kaiser Permanente’s successful “Thrive” campaign focuses on the importance of helping their customers and patients maintain healthy vibrant lives. The multi-pronged branding effort has become a successful viral campaign on YouTube and has helped raise awareness for the 35-hospital organization. More locally, BJC has recently launched a grass-roots branding campaign that latches on the healthcare reform initiative, labeled “Making Medicine Better”. Both campaigns are equally viable and point out the unique challenges for healthcare marketers in today’s environment. Depending on their level of need (recently diagnosed cancer patient vs. consumer looking for health education and convenient access), the Patient/Customer experience expectations can vary a great deal. Healthcare organizations need to balance the “thriving” and “fixing” messages based on their target audience. However, one thing is for sure: Branding claims compared to the actual customer experience will be “outed” by the Patient/Customer faster than ever. It’s a brave new world in health branding where customer engagement can showcase customer enragement if quality, coordinated, personal care is not delivered.
