Branding for your B2B healthcare organization has never been more important than right now. Like many other industries, the healthcare sector has been undergoing a complete makeover focused on innovation and digital services. This has created a lot of opportunity with many new businesses coming into the marketplace. In this saturated market, these new players have many B2B partners to choose from. Your branding will quickly determine whether they give you a second look or not. The same is true for your existing clients. Your brand now has to work a lot harder to make your organization stand out. So the question becomes about Branding and why it matters for B2B healthcare?
B2B clients are emotional
It’s true. A study conducted by Google and Motista found that 50% of the B2B clients surveyed are emotionally connected to their vendors [i]. B2B clients feel a lot of risk when evaluating a deal or a purchase. When it comes to making the decision, they tend to fall back on how they feel or perceive the vendor. So many times, how they feel about the brand and not the overall deal value determines whether the deal goes through.
Start here: perception
When it comes to branding, it’s all about perception. Your name, logo, motto, trademark, mission statement, and design are all great, but it’s the feeling people have behind those things that drive your brand. How are you perceived? And it’s not just your clients’ perception, but also your business partners, vendors, and employees. Perception will normally be a reflection of reality.
Take a look in the mirror
To discover the overall perception, there’s no substitute for getting direct feedback. This can be done through thoughtful and thorough interviews and surveys with clients, vendors, business partners, and employees. Give their voice a platform and listen to it. Ask the difficult questions and be ready for brutal honesty. Look not only for the pain points and the frustration but also the satisfaction and “wow” moments. Take the results and honestly evaluate where your brand is at. Does the perception reflect the strong brand you want? Or are their opportunities? Most likely you will find several of the latter. Use this as a road map to rehabilitate your brand and get it where you want it.
Focus on Values
Shine a light on your values and vision. The same thing that inspires trust, confidence, and respect in a person will do the same for your organization. Your company has a unique story and so do your employees. Draw on that and connect it with your vision and guiding principles. Of course, if you previously found opportunities in this space from soliciting feedback, be sure to work hard to fix those things. This is one very important area where showing is so much better than telling. Being authentic, sincere, and honest will go a long way to repairing damage to your brand.
Why are you better?
It’s a fair question and one your clients are asking. What makes you stand out? Why do you deserve their business? Do you offer an exceptional customer experience? Is your product or service quality superior to your competitors? Do you have a high concentration of expertise or experience? Is your approach unique? Do you focus on innovation or research? All of these can be great ways to highlight how you stand out from the competition.
Put people first
Whatever it is your company does in healthcare well, make sure it is clear that you put people first. It should go without saying that healthcare is all about people. From patients and clients to vendors and employees, the perception should always be that your company cares about people and will always consider them first even with hard decisions. This value should resonate through everything else.
What’s next?
At ArchKATect, we are healthcare branding experts and we want to help. We’ve briefly covered the essential steps to healthcare branding, but there is so much more including positioning, identity, digital presence, and content. Healthcare branding is continuing to change and evolve, and even more so during the pandemic. Is your brand where you want it to be? How is it perceived now? Does that match up with where you need to be compared to your competitors? This is where we shine. Let us help you answer these questions and design a detailed plan to maintain, repair, or even rebrand your brand. Reach out to us today for your customized consultation.
References AND RESOURCES
- Think with Google. (n.d.). From Promotion to Emotion: Connecting B2B Customers to Brands. [online] Available at: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/promotion-emotion-b2b/.
