When marketing healthcare brands, achieving top-of-mind awareness is good. Most preferred healthcare brand is even better. Most likely to return and to refer to others -- fantastic. But how about love for your healthcare brand? Read more »

Most hospital branding campaigns involve associates in the research or execution phase: interviewing or featuring the individuals who represent the hospital's brand. But hospital branding efforts rarely deliver those brand messages back to the associates, and we think that is a mistake. Read more »

A common meme in healthcare today is disruption. And there's a lot to be said for disrupting healthcare. A lot of healthcare is broken. Same goes for healthcare marketing, which lags behind other categories in engaging audiences. But looking for solutions often means starting with inspiration. I found inspiration for fixing healthcare marketing while eating at Chipotle. Read more »

Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report Where's your smart phone right now? Chances are good that it's within arm's reach. According to a Morgan Stanley study, 91% of smartphone owners keep their phones beside them 24 hours a day. (An interesting office poll: ask your colleagues how many sleep with their phones. The number who do will surprise you.) Read more »

One of our clients reminded us recently that healthcare is a two-sided coin of Life and Death. Unlike any other business category, healthcare marketing and branding requires engaging prospective patients who would rather avoid the conversation altogether. We are starting to see the trend of audiences becoming increasingly engaged in proactive healthcare lifestyles. Read more »

When you think of Harley-Davidson®, do you think of a premium woman's brand?Maybe you should.According to NBCU, which does an annual brand power index study, Harley tops the list of brands that are doing all the right things to connect with women.Harley's new "My Time to Ride" campaign documents women from across different lifestyles and life stages learning how to ride a motorcycle. The webisodes are instantly engaging and do what great Read more »

In my previous entry on taglines, I talked about the magic that a great tagline has to create an emotional connection with your audience. Weak taglines sound like positioning statements, which have a place, but not in an audience-facing branding effort. Words and phrases like "convenient," "close to home," "advanced," and "caring" don't belong in hospital taglines. The taglines we remember and love make an emotional connection. Read more »

Branding has been the hot topic with healthcare marketing executives for many years now, and rightfully so. After all, it is one of the most strategic marketing concepts developed in our lifetime. Read more »

What we want in gum is pretty simple. Good taste, fresh breath, convenient to purchase, not too expensive, and maybe a little fun. What we want in an organization that has the power to save our lives gets a little more complicated. Read more »