How to Successfully Rebrand Your Practice

There are just as many reasons to rebrand a practice as there are ways to do it.  Jason Borody explains that, when done correctly, rebranding can build excitement both within your practice and within the healthcare market.

Rebranding is a strategy that can revitalise your practice and improve patient relationships. Timely rebranding is not designed to improve your practice, but rather to have a positive impact on your current and prospective patients. When done correctly, rebranding can build excitement both within your practice and within the healthcare market you serve.

Why Should You Rebrand Your Practice?

There are four main reasons why a practice should consider a rebrand. If you can see the opportunity to improve your relationship with your patients and the healthcare market in any of these areas, it may be time to seriously consider rebranding.

1.    Gain an Edge on the Competition: The economic climate changes, almost as quickly as the weather. Rebranding is one way to reflect the current market situation and gain a competitive advantage. When you revise your brand and your public message you revitalise your market and increase your sales performance.

2.    Accelerate Growth: A rebrand cuts through the advertising clutter and attracts attention to your products and organisation. People naturally pay attention to new messages and advertising they haven’t seen or heard before. Rebranding helps you increase the impact of your practice’s message and promote sales growth. You can also take advantage of a rebrand to reduce your operational costs and create efficiencies in your processes. The result is increased profitability.

3.    Expand Your Market: As your practice grows, your brand must often be adjusted to reflect an expanding market presence and higher level of sophistication. When you rebrand, you naturally expand your market by positioning yourself to attract attention in a larger field.

4.    Showcase Innovation: Rebranding is a natural way to showcase innovation within your practice. A carefully designed brand will capture the imagination of the public and position your practice as an innovative leader in the healthcare market.

Rebranding Done Well

A successful rebrand is more than a new logo or a revitalised ad campaign. It starts with a compelling vision developed by senior leadership and communicated throughout the organisation. This vision then flows into your marketing message and eventually out to your existing and potential patients.

Rebranding starts at the top, engaging leadership from the beginning. The entire management team and board of directors must understand and embrace the new message. It’s helpful to find a phrase your team can rally around and a way to make it visual and memorable. The senior management, starting with the CEO, must drive the revised brand promise.

Enlist the help of Human Resources; let them work with your marketing team to roll out the new message to the troops in a way that is interesting, engaging and fun.

The process takes 6-18 months when done well (dependent on size and complexity). Communicate your new brand and those new key messages to your staff repeatedly during this time. Team lunches, competitions, and team building events are crucial to long-term acceptance of the brand. Even things like coffee mugs, signs, or desk toppers can keep the new brand image top of mind during the transition.

Work closely with your sales team as you develop and launch the new brand. Engage them early and let them help you determine product positioning and fine-tune your brand message. The sales staff are able to identify patient needs and industry trends – useful information during the brand repositioning process.

Measure and track your employee’s engagement with the rebrand and use that information to determine if your strategies are working or if adjustments are needed.

Rebranding success is built on your internal team. If they believe in your brand and enthusiastically respond to it, your patients will react positively as well. Enthusiasm is infectious and rebranding success depends on it.

Vividus specialise in developing branding that is distinctive and memorable for the healthcare industry. To develop a branding strategy that will attract patients and build reputation, call 07 3482 4262 or visit www.vividus.com.au.