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Home > Resources > eNews > Aug 1999 Part2 |
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The Managed Care Insider eNews Volume One Number 2 August 1999 PART TWO of TWO Welcome to The Managed Care Insider eNews. You are receiving this because you have subscribed; the eNews is never sent unsolicited. Subscribe/unsubscribe information can be found at the end of this eNews. The Managed Care Insider eNews is published, copyrighted, and owned by the Scheur Management Group, Inc. (SMG), http://www.scheur.com and is distributed monthly, free to subscribers. If you wish to forward this edition, you may do so only if the edition is forwarded in its entirety. No reproduction of any part of this publication is permitted without the express permission of the publishers. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE POWER OF PRODUCT BRANDING The term "branding" has come to be the new catch word for product development in health care. "Branding" means nothing more than explaining to your external audiences/customers what your product/service is and why it is different/better than that of your competitors. The challenge for managed care as a "brand" is two-fold: (1) managed care as a concept is not perceived fondly in the marketplace as a general rule, despite enrollment gains; and (2) branding a product identity is difficult when the organizations that comprise the industry are of recent vintage. You can create your own identity, but it requires differentiation and significant exposure, which translates into dollars. For provider organizations, there is a tremendous opportunity to differentiate their participation in managed care from that of traditional health care programs. Based on their clinical superiority and perceived integrity, provider entities have the best tools to stay above the cost battle. The public still believes in doctors at a level far beyond their actual status because we need to believe in them. Additionally, the concentration on the business side of health care has preconditioned consumers to want to believe in something that is different and sets a higher standard for care and service. Enter the provider sponsored network. There are basically five stages to strategically and successfully branding any product: product development/differentiation, visibility, awareness, acceptance/identification, and sale. Here's what these terms mean: 1. Product Development/Differentiation. Management, with appropriate supporting expertise, must define what it is about their organization, its composition, its quality, and its service that appeals to or will "sell" to the three sets of customers that must be satisfied: employer/purchaser (business/government), consumer, and participating/non-participating physicians and health care facilities. If your product is a low-cost, flexible health plan with a limited network, then from this definition comes the approach you would use to turn that brand from a concept into "everyone's choice" for health care in the community. To develop a product, you need to know your core competencies in terms of services and other differentiating factors, and how well these match up with what your customers feel about you and want to buy from you. 2. Visibility. A brand cannot be accepted unless it is visible and its essence is communicated. This takes a planned market entry through promotion and advertising. Initiating the promotion of the brand also fuels its support internally within the organization. Visibility can take some time to establish, especially for a new organization. Its name, goals, and differentiating characteristics must be conveyed in a coordinated and focused strategic introduction to the marketplace. 3. Awareness. People don't become aware of a product or service the first day or month it enters the market. Recognition comes with exposure. This is where many managed care organizations make a mistake by refraining from being perceived as being different, and accepting the safer "me too, we're new" course of exposure. If there is ever a place where negative differentiation works as a starting point for getting an audience's attention, this is it. You cannot sell a product long term simply by attacking competitors, but you cannot build the awareness of the product at the conscious level that will then allow follow-up with the positive attributes of what you are promoting and selling. 4. Acceptance/Identification. The next stage in moving toward the goal of having a successful product is the consumer's belief that there is value in what you have to offer. If you have differentiated your network because of having doctors in it that don't belong to other managed care organizations, then people will be ready to consider whether the product meets their needs. This is the point in the branding cycle where the differences between provider owned and managed health care must be focused. "Putting care before cost" is a theme that over time will become accepted and identified with if people are tired of what they have customarily received from Wall-Street-driven managed care companies. 5. Sale. Once these requirements have all been met, you have a brand that is appealing to prospective customers and that will help keep retention and loyalty of your existing ones. This cycle is a guide, not a religion, and the time period for its implementation can range, by necessity, from a few short months to several years. Health care purchasing is still an emotional decision. Repetition, clarity of message, perceived differentiated value, and results gained over time will be the measure of success. 6. Perception is reality. What people perceive about a product's value, quality, and short-comings is more important than the actual comparative performance of the product itself. When launching a new concept or idea, your first obligation is to get the audience's attention, however you have to do that. That is why negative disparagement comparison as an initial market strategy works, but the overall core value of the product being sold must then be based on a positive message defining value. Motto: you can shoot at a competitor once to wound him, but then you have to take him or her out on your merits and their short-comings. Creation of a brand identity is not cheap, nor is it quick. It takes reinforcement over a relatively long period of time. If you want results, expect to need to saturate the market for a while to the point where the product's superlatives will speak for themselves and carry the branding along even further. Market and product strategy are not consensus driven, especially from those people who aren't really involved in it except as critics of other people's work. If you are unsure of how well something will work, obviously you need data from surveys and focus groups. But anecdotal data from a key group of executives or fearful board members just doesn't cut it. A marketing and product differentiation strategy works for a given time period, and then has to be updated to deal with new competitive realities in the marketplace. Wheaties may still be the "Breakfast of Champions," but the definition of a champion may have to change. Example: for a long time, women athletes weren't on Wheaties boxes. Invest in your brand identity. If you're proud enough to develop it, you should be proud enough to sell it. What is that identity? What is the core essence of your value? Have the guts to find out. Go talk with people. Do focus groups and listen to the feedback. Talk to your disenrolling customers. Ask them, "What didn't you like? Was it appointments? Was it providers? Was it changing providers? Was it lack of continuity of care? Was it the things that we promised that we didn't follow through on?" There are certain brands that are synonymous with quality in this country, and you need to be at the top of that list. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SITES AND SOUNDS ON THE INTERNET Branding Information presented as a reference for subscribers. SMG takes no ownership of the presented web-sites. Story: E-Branding Is More Important Than Ecommerce. Here's Why ; Date: 15 Jun 1999. http://www4.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2821.html Webpedia: Successful Branding: What Most 'Reference' Sites Don't Tell You The key to successful Web branding is explained in this succinct article by Peter Cooper. Date: 15 Jun 1999. http://www.webpedia.com/webpedia/tutorials/411/1/ Advertising Age reviews CMP conference on effectiveness of online branding. http://adage.com/interactive/articles/19980504/article2.html The Alliance For Healthcare Strategy And Marketing - brings quality education, information and networking to today's healthcare strategy and marketing professionals. http://www.alliancehlth.org/ Healthcare advertising agencies recommended by healthcare colleagues for quality and depth of experience. http://www.kranzconnection.com/ad.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------- End of PART TWO of TWO, The Managed Care Insider eNews, Volume One, Number 2. Scheur Management Group is a nationally recognized change agent for the health care industry. We provide hands-on operations management and consulting services that improve your business and promote best practices in managed care. We deliver market-driven, customized solutions to clients in all segments of the health care industry. Contributors to this edition are Barry Scheur and Ruth Aaron. Editor and Research by Judith Jaffe. Production Coordinator is The Gracefield Group at http://www.gracefield.com/gg/index.html TO SUBSCRIBE: visit http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html or send e-mail to insider@scheur.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject and name, email, company, title, and country in the message. TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email message to insider@scheur.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject. Or visit our eNews page at http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html for archives and subscriber information. 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