When Is A Brand More Than A Name The Basics of Branding

By Leslie Gardner

Building and appropriately managing a brand and brand identity is important for every size company, business or practice. At one time, it was easy to build a brand, but today the consumer or patient is better informed, has a variety of options and is barraged by many messages from many mediums. As a result, building a brand goes beyond marketing communications and is heavily dependent upon the relationship that your patient has with you and your organization, as well as the quality of services and products that you provide. This relationship must be consistent and maximized at every touchpoint or interaction. The success of your practice will depend upon this. This course provides an overview of branding and details a framework for you to build strong brand identity and, therefore, a more sustainable and profitable practice.

WHAT IS A BRAND?
A brand is much more than a name or a logo. It identifies the products and/or services of one seller or practitioner, and clearly differentiates them in a meaningful way from the competition. A brand is a set of differentiating promises, which link a business or practice to its customers or patients. It is a set of expectations and associations that are developed as a result of experience; the enduring impression and sum total of every experience and interaction that a customer or patient has with the business or practice.

If you own a practice, the brand identity that you develop is a reflection of you and your organization. In essence, it is your reputation. The patient care; quality, availability and knowledge of product; and perceived service are all a part of the brand identity. The entire patient experience, from the first time a patient or potential patient interacts with someone in your office on the phone, to the experience during the office visit, to the follow-up that happens after the visit, are all factors that impact the brand identity. Strong brands have a well-defined brand identity and create a consistent and relevant experience for their customers or patients at every touchpoint.

WHY BUILD A BRAND?
If something is not a brand, then it is probably a commodity and dependent upon price. And if price is the sole or primary way in which you compete or differentiate yourself, then you are probably on a downward spiral. A brand, on the other hand, enables you to build value or equity over time, both for the practice and the patient. It differentiates you from your competition and allows you to build enduring patient preferences, confidence and long-term loyalty, which should translate to a more profitable practice. A brand is an asset when trying to attract and retain the best employees because a strong brand fosters internal pride. Finally, a brand is a financial asset. It has monetary value.

WHAT IS BRAND IDENTITY?

A brand is much like a person. It has a unique identity with a distinctive personality and a set of values that guide behavior. The brand identity helps to establish a relationship between the brand, in this case the business or practice, and the customer or patient. It represents a promise from the organization and a unique set of benefits that provide a value to the patient and drives their provider and purchase decisions. Much like a person, the brand identity is multifaceted and often manifests itself in four ways: as a product (your services and products, the quality of care, the value you bring to the patient); as an organization (their attributes); as a person (brand personality); and as a symbol (the visual imagery in the logo, marketing materials, etc). While not every brand is built on all of these perspectives, each perspective should be considered and the appropriate ones combined to create a differentiated brand.

Almost always, the brand as product is important because patients often use this as a way to determine which practice they will patronize. The brand as organization takes into account the culture, qualities and values of the organization; the organization is a critical element that reinforces your brand and provides the foundation for the patient experience. They may provide your point-of-difference versus your competition by having exceptional patient focus or trustworthiness. The brand as person builds on the product attributes and is how the brand comes across. Is it friendly, reserved, casual, trustworthy? Often a patient will identify with a practice that has a particular personality because there is a comfort level and some consistency between the brand and the patient. Finally, brand as symbol involves any visual imagery that is created for the brand and immediately becomes recognizable and linked to the brand (for example, a Ray-Ban script). A strong symbol can be important but it is not necessary and many strong brands do not have one. However, while a symbol may not exist, there is always a look and a feel to all the marketing materials that identifies them as coming from one practice.

HOW DO YOU CREATE A BRAND?
The objective is to create a brand that is meaningful to your patients, that maximizes your strengths and avoids your weaknesses, and is different from your competition. The first step in creating a brand is to create a positioning for your practice. No business, practice or person is good at everything. Therefore, it is necessary to define the way in which you compete in the marketplace and want patients to think about the practice, now and in the future. This takes the form of a positioning statement.

A simple positioning statement is one sentence, which describes how you want your target audience to think about you. While this sentence is not something that is sent to your patients, it forms the basis of and provides guidance for all the strategies and tactics that you will employ to support and grow your practice. There are usually three parts to the statement: the target audience, the frame of reference and the point of difference.

• The Target Audience Those who are considered primary patients. They can be defined in a variety of ways: demographically, by behavior, by product usage, attitudes or in other ways. They are your best prospects and patients. For example, perhaps you specialize in low vision, or sports vision, or maybe you have a large pediatric practice. Maybe you have an affluent professional patient base that wants only the highest quality products, regardless of price. You probably have other patients as well, but the target audience constitutes your primary patient base. Those you actively seek and market to. Carefully consider who you are targeting and the benefits that you can provide to them because all of your interactions and communications will need to support their needs.
• The Frame of Reference The segment in which you compete. This includes all the reasonable options that the target audience has to satisfy their needs. For example, are you competing primarily against other independent ECPs or optical chains, or do you compete against both independent ECPs and optical chains? This is important because you need to understand what options the target audience is considering and how you stack up against those options. You may have chains in your area, but assess if your target audience is interested in their products and services or are they more interested in other independent ECPs. Every practice has a different set of competition.
• Point-of-Difference The meaningful patient end benefits, which are key to your branding. These are how you differentiate yourself from your competition to your target audience. They need to be sufficiently broad to deliver a meaningful benefit to the target audience but not so broad that they are meaningless.

Sometimes, positioning statements omit the Frame of Reference in the statement and embellish the point of difference, but a basic positioning statement will take the following form:

To (or For) ________________________________________________,
                                              (Target Marget)

Brand X is the __________________ that ______________________.
                             (Frame of reference)               (Point of difference)

The positioning statement is based on how you are perceived today and takes into consideration where you want to be in the future. Therefore, there is frequently an aspirational element to the statement. Because your positioning has an aspirational element, it may take time for your brand to fully evolve and achieve its full positioning. However, the positioning that you develop must be one that is achievable given the resources, capabilities and priorities of the practice. A positioning that cannot be supported will only serve to hurt the practice.

To create your positioning, you need to identify your patients, who are your target audience; understand your competition, which provides the frame of reference; and your practice, including the organization, which is how you derive your point of difference and is your brand. It is also important to define your values, which are derived from those that already exist; are different from your competitors; are relevant to customers/patients/employees; and reflect where you want the practice or business to be in the future. With your positioning as a foundation, you can then more fully develop the brand identity by providing consistent patient experiences and clear marketing materials that support your positioning. It will also enable patients to make better decisions about why your practice is right for them.

Step Back and Assess Your Practice Answer the following questions and create a worksheet for action.

Begin with an honest self-analysis of your practice, including the service, what type of patients you target, the organization, the products and whether they match the brand identity defined, the patients perceptions, the values, strengths and weaknesses. Ask questions such as:

• What is our current brand identity or image with patients and suppliers?
• What are our strengths and weaknesses? Why do they exist? What are the benefits or downsides to the patients? For example, think about the organization, patient care, product assortment, patient retention and new patient referrals. What is the organization good at and what can we do better?
• What types of patients do we mostly have? Are there groups for which we provide a better service and product?
• How are we different from our competition? For example, do you have better patient care and service than your competitors, or do you specialize in a particular demographic group, or do you carry a different product line and recommend different lenses and frames than they do?
• Do we maximize customer care at every touchpoint with the patient? Does everyone in the organization (know how to) enhance each patients experience? Is the experience consistent from one patient to another and for each patient at every touchpoint?
• What values do we hold dearest in the practice and how might they be different from our competitors and important to our patients?
• Do we know how our patients perceive our practice including the service, patient care and products? Have we provided a patient satisfaction survey?
• Do we know if any of our new patients were formerly patients of any of our competitors? How did they come to our practice referrals from current patients, recommendation of another doctor, Yellow Pages, insurance listing, etc.?
• How do we want to be perceived in the future and what is realistic given the resources, capabilities and priorities of the practice?

DEVELOP AN ASSESSMENT OF YOUR COMPETITORS
A competitor analysis asks many of the same questions as a self-assessment. It looks at your key competitors positioning, strengths and weaknesses, and assesses in what direction they might be moving in the future. It is often useful to group your competitors into clusters where each cluster has several competitors with similar positioning and strategies. Ask questions such as:

• What is the current brand identity or image of our key competitors?
• Are there any particular strengths or vulnerabilities?
• How are they different than our practice in ways that are meaningful? Do they carry the same products or use products differently than we do?
• Do any of the clusters represent potential positioning and branding options for our practice, and if so, how and why?
• Have there been any recent changes in the brand images of any of the key competitors or competitive groups and are there any signs that there will be changes in the future?

UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR PATIENTS ARE SEEKING, BOTH IN SERVICE AND PRODUCTS
The objective of this analysis is to understand what benefits your target audience or your primary patient base are seeking, and what will motivate them to become or continue to be your patients. Key areas of investigation might include motivations, trends and unmet needs. Be sure to understand general consumer and demographic trends as well as those particular to your target so that you can obtain a more complete picture. After you have completed the analysis, narrow down the list of benefits and motivations to those few that are most critical to your target audience so that you can have a clear understanding of what services and products you need to offer. Be sure to ask questions such as:

• What particular services and products do our patients seek? Do they want particular frame brands or do they know any lens brands?
• Are we clearly defining our target audience, our patient base?
• Are there any discernible trends?
• How do we maximize the service and product experiences, as well as meet the needs of our target audience?
• Do we have a system in place to generate feedback from patients and do we act on comments?
• Is there a target audience that we have not fully gone after but for which we have the right services, resources, products, etc.?

DEFINE YOUR BRAND VALUES TO HELP DEFINE YOUR BRAND IDENTITY

As a person, there are values that are central to who you are. These values are ones that do not change; they are the ones that are most important in your life, how you conduct all of your activities and relationships, what you stand for. They may include values such as integrity, honesty, or maybe sincerity or trustworthiness. Your practice, as well, should have a clear set of values that will translate to the way every person in the organization interacts with patients and to all of the marketing materials and programs.

LETS REVIEW THE PROCESS
First, create a cohesive brand positioning statement that is based on an analysis of your practice, your competition and your target audience or patient base. This statement will explain who you are, how you are different than your competition and provide a benefit promise to the target audience. It will form the basis for your brand identity and all strategies and tactics that support your brand.

Next, more fully identify and develop your brand identity, which just like a person, is multifaceted and can have several perspectives. Be sure to evaluate and understand your brand identity as a product, as an organization, perhaps as a person and finally as a symbol or its imagery. Be sure to understand what values are core to the practice because these affect all patient interactions and all marketing materials and programs.

FIVE KEYS TO DEVELOPING A STRONG BRAND

1.Clearly and properly position your brand: Strong brands occupy a clear, distinct place in patients minds. Be sure that you identify and communicate how you are different than the competition in easily recognizable and meaningful ways. Create points of parity with your competition in areas where they try to create an advantage and points of difference in other areas, being mindful that they are meaningful to your patients.

2.Deliver the benefits that your patients truly want: Keep top-of-mind the benefits that your target audience desires. Patients choose one practice over another because of both tangible and intangible factors that create an appealing whole.

3.Ensure that the organization delivers on the brand promise: Promote understanding and buy-in among all employees at all levels in all positions. Each employee must understand what the brand stands for. Educate them on the importance of the brand and help them to develop a clear understanding of the brand identity. Ensure that everyone in the organization understands that every action helps to either build or weaken the brand. Design the optimal patient experience so that everyone knows what the gold standard should be.

4.Be consistent but stay relevant: Provide consistent experiences and messages. To fully support and strengthen your brand and its identity, make sure that all the communications reinforce each other and are consistent with the customer/patient experience. However, while you need to be consistent, do not overlook trends or other important changes in competition, patients or the marketplace that signal that you need to modify your positioning and tactics to stay relevant.

5.Stay alive in the minds of your patients: Use a mix of activities to maintain brand awareness with your patients. Implement both push and pull marketing programs that reinforce your identity and keep you top-of-mind with your patients. Remember that some of the most important opportunities to build a brand and stay top of mind with your patients happen after the office visit.

CONCLUSION
Today, the consumer or patient is better informed, has a variety of options and is bombarded by many messages from many mediums. Building and appropriately managing a brand and brand equity is a priority for any size company, business or practice, in any industry and in any market. As a result, building a brand goes beyond marketing communications and is heavily dependent upon the relationship that your patient has with you and your organization, as well as the quality of services and products that you provide. Maximize the relationship at every touchpoint or interaction. The success of your practice will depend upon this.