Your Brands are your #1 Most Valuable Asset
In the COVID-19 world, revenue and profit margins are down and competition is fierce. Now is time to identify and leverage more value from the the #1 financial asset on your books: your brand.
A hospital’s brand is not merely its name, but an indicator of source that differentiates its service lines, products, marketing, and people from those of its competitors.
If you want to build your healthcare system’s brand, you need to first identify and protect all of the components that make it so valuable. It all starts with identifying brand assets that are often overlooked, not identified, and not protected. Once done, then a system should be put in place to register these brand assets with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. Copyright Office.
Done right, health branding can result in lower customer acquisition costs, increased consumer loyalty, and improved margins. But if healthcare organizations fail to clear brand names, protect copyrightable subject matter, or do not implement HIPAA marketing and related compliance training, their brand equity could quickly suffer from injury to brand reputation. This is in addition to monetary judgments and attorney’s fees that could result from unaddressed marketing risks.
Here are some things to remember about why you should focus on your healthcare brand protection and monetization efforts:
Health brands represent valuable goodwill. Your health brand is an intangible asset. In the healthcare context, a brand includes health system and facility names, service line campaign names, slogans, and logos. It also includes marketing copy, images, and proprietary research, products and services. A healthy brand is the result of cumulative goodwill cultivated at great cost and expense to an organization.
Health brands can be damaged. Healthcare brands, like other brands, are not immune to injury to reputation. In the health marketing context, this often is the result of failure to follow HIPAA marketing rules, trademark and copyright clearance, or making unsubstantiated advertising claims. Damage to a health brand is not just about attorney’s fees and monetary damages; it is about potential injury to your reputation.
Brand Health is your responsibility. The health of your brand is the responsibility of all members of the healthcare organization; including their outside agencies, and everyone who has contact or who influences an organization’s customers and communities. Brand is the unified theory of everything; the context of how your organization acts and communicates with the general consuming public and your community.
The greatest thing of value on your healthcare systems’ balance sheet it your BRAND.