There’s no question that the healthcare industry faces a distinct set of challenges when it comes to branding. A crowded space with delicate emotional realities to navigate, healthcare requires branding that strikes a careful balance between promoting services, building trust, and empathizing with patients’ emotional needs. That’s not easy.  

As it turns out, we’re pretty okay at not-easy things over here at Mad Genius, and we thought we would share a few ideas. 

Healthcare Branding is Uniquely Difficult Because It’s a Product People Are Actually Trying to Avoid

Healthcare isn’t like other industries. When the stakes for potential consumers are life and death, the branding calculus needs to change. Specifically, branding in this arena faces three hurdles any healthcare provider must overcome to create the brand identification they want: 

Averse Consumer Association

Dealing with sickness, disease, and death, healthcare is a service industry the average consumer prefers not to think about. This is a predicament. How do you develop brand loyalty with an audience that chooses not to think about your brand at all? 

Infrequent Consumer Engagement

The average consumer doesn’t regularly use healthcare services. This means the kind of brand identification they might develop with other goods and services through frequent use is less likely with healthcare. You’ve got to stand out fast.

Limited Service Differentiation

When consumers do need to rely on healthcare services, there’s little in the way of services providers can offer that differentiates them from the competition. Why, for instance, drive ten miles farther to get an MRI when the same service is offered right around the corner? What’s your differentiator? In a saturated market of competitors, competent doctors and sophisticated technologies are commonplace and unimpressive. 

Differentiate by Leaning Into Emotion

The answer to each difficulty can be found in consumer emotion. If fear, uncertainty, and vulnerability are the dominant emotions consumers experience when thinking about healthcare (and they are), the healthcare provider who can align other, more positive emotions with their brand will be the one to differentiate itself from the pack. In other words, successful healthcare branding will nurture a sense of safety, comfort, hope, and support. But how? 

Harnessing Empathy

Empathy is a core element of successful healthcare branding. Understanding patient experiences, concerns, and needs can create a lasting emotional connection. Tailoring brand messages to show genuine concern for patients’ well-being can create a sense of loyalty and encourage positive word-of-mouth referrals. Go beyond traditional logos and slogans and instead highlight patient-centric care with patient stories and testimonials. It’s the story of a lonely widow who found a new friend in her nurse, or the staff member who comforted a frightened child while her parents were in surgery that will resonate with audiences and inspire positive associations with your brand.

Need to see an example of this in action? Check out the Memorial Health System website we built after we worked with them on their rebranding.

Emphasize Amenities and Experiences Instead of Rankings and Technologies

When the quality of medical care and the availability of medical technologies are mostly equal, it’s everything else a healthcare provider offers that makes the difference. How friendly is the staff? How good is the food? How soft are the sheets? How natural is the lighting? How does it smell? How easy is it to navigate the hallways and find the right room? The branding that highlights these things will be the branding that helps mitigate consumers’ deeply ingrained aversion to healthcare facilities and make room for positive brand associations.

If you’d like to see a bit of a healthcare brand story in action, take a look at the Singing River Health System lookbook we put together after working with them on their brand lift.

The Mad Genius Approach to Healthcare Branding

At Mad Genius, we understand that an arms race of rankings and technologies between healthcare providers fails to address the things audiences actually care about. Helping providers redirect their focus to real differentiators, we encourage them to take stock of the emotional needs of patients and the ways their facilities and staff meet those needs. 

With these differentiators established, we help healthcare brands artfully tell stories that highlight the comfortable, caring home away from home they provide for their patients. As we said at the beginning, this isn’t easy. But it’s what we do, and we do it well.

If you’d like to talk to one of our identity geniuses about branding, or rebranding, your healthcare organization, just click on the calendar below to schedule a time that works best for you.