The basic premise behind all marketing and communication strategies is to set customer expectations and then encourage participation or sales volumes high enough to warrant the effort in the first place. The proper name can make the communication clearer, or it can make it more confusing.
Jet Marketing’s niche is certainly rural healthcare. We love this space and value rural healthcare. Healthcare isn’t easy for anyone involved, but in rural communities, the value is extra high, and we enjoy implementing strategies that educate and inform the community about the services available to them close to home.
The concept of having a relevant name applies to all industries and businesses. The proper name can really help tell your story, and as your story evolves, so might your name.
Health Systems
When the name of a hospital no longer reflects all the non-hospital services that are offered — it could be time for a name change or name refresh. While change is hard, effective, and efficient marketing is costly. Having the right name that clearly speaks to what you do can make the investment in marketing more impactful.
The trend for hospitals is to consolidate all their facility and service offerings under one system-wide name. It doesn’t change the legal name, just the DBA. We have many examples of how this is a very effective naming strategy. The hospital doesn’t change its name, the clinic(s) doesn’t change its name, but the name of the organization does business under a new umbrella that covers it all.
Rebranding can also be a staff motivational reboot, providing a new anchor that everyone in the organization can rally behind and not feel left out because they work off-site or in a neighboring community.
Buildings
Like the organization’s name, building names or service lines need to be clear as well. If you use the word “center,” it’s implied that you have a one-stop shop. It implies that you have a dedicated building to whatever the services line is. A Cancer Center should have all aspects of cancer care in one patient-centered focused building or area.
If you have an “institute”, you imply that you have education and research. If you have a “hospital” — then you are implying that you don’t have anything else other than a full-service, in-patient hospital for the most serious conditions.
Events
Pre-pandemic, hospitals of all sizes hosted events. One that comes to mind is the classic “Health Fair.” Whether they offered blood draws the day of the event or in the weeks prior, the expectation was that you could get a low-cost series of blood tests, and then on the day of the “Health Fair”, you would pick up those results, meet with a provider, get some well-branded swag, visit with other helpful and educational community health resources, etc.
Should we still call a “Health Fair” a “Health Fair” when there is no event? I don’t have the answer, yet, but we need to set the new expectation. Could it be our “Discounted Labs Month” or “Check in on Your Labs Week”?
Things change — we must be brave enough to rethink what we name ourselves, our buildings, and our events. We need to set the expectation correctly and then live up to those expectations.
When considering a name change or update of any kind, make sure you see it through your audience’s perspective and even engage them. Perhaps it’s an old concept to ask your customers what they think or to ask your front-line staff what questions they get asked over and over . . . . . . but maybe what is old is still relevant.
Jackie O’Hara, Boss Lady
Jackie loves getting to know a company personally during the process of crafting or updating its brand. Always looking for unique ideas, she finds the most simple and honest ideas are often the most effective.
