Branding for Awareness Vs. Branding for Liking
As a hospital, you have a limited opportunity to announce your services. The world today is awfully cluttered with messages. Hundreds of people are trying to draw your attention towards them every day. Newspapers, billboards, radio, TV, internet and everything else that you can imagine is being used to spread the message.
People on the other hand are over saturated with messages. They would rather change the channel than watch or listen to a message. As a healthcare service provider your message is competing with hundreds of other communications.
I must add, that hospitals are not good at delivering there side of the story. That is why, more often than not the messages get lost in the crowd.
Most of the hospitals create public communications to make people aware of their existence. The aim is to let people know that they exist with x,y and z services. That is the end of it. Then it is the onus of the target audience to make up their minds and utilize the services of the hospital.
Here is point – Making them aware is not equal to making them like you. It is an incomplete job when you put up a board saying Master Health Check up on a traffic signal with your hospital’s name written on it. Ok, I got it that your hospital does Master Health Checks, but so what? There are numerous other hospitals in town that do the same. Why should they come to you? Is there is reason why they should prefer you over others?
Another example is the countless boards that I see all over the country stating the name of the hospital and its location with services. Again, it is half the job done. Why would someone come to you and not to your competitor just by reading the board? Interesting, isn’t it?
I call it ripening the fruit for someone else. A big hospital once showed me a few catchy visuals to promote their latest services. The visuals were good. The logic of their latest techniques was ok too. But at least two competitors were also having the same equipment and were doing the same advanced procedures. So, there was a probability that unless the hospital created a liking for itself in its visuals compared to the competition, people will get interested in the procedures and will end up getting it done from some other place.
That is why I have always maintained, that being favourably distinct saves you from being extinct. How to create messages that create preference for your brand over others is an ocean of a topic. So I will not be taking it up here.
As of now, I leave you with the insight – Unless you create a liking and thus desire for yourself, you may just be ripening the fruit for someone else. — Regards, Vivek Shukla Healthcare Marketing Consultant +91-9816086868 www.vivekshukla.com HEALTHY PROFITS. STEADY GROWTH
Vivek Shukla
Healthcare Marketing Consultant
+91-9816086868
www.vivekshukla.com
