Consumerism Drives Healthcare Branding, Rebranding Efforts

As the healthcare industry moves away from a fee-for-service model, providers, payers, and vendors are assessing whether their brands are fit for the consumer-driven future and making changes.

Wellpoint's decision last week to revert to its Anthem brand reflects the growing importance of consumers in the healthcare marketplace, according to the Indianapolis-based insurance carrier and other healthcare industry executives.

"This is really the perfect time for us to rebrand," Doug W. Bennett Jr., public relations manager at Anthem, said in an interview last week. "Our research and experience show that consumers consider brand as they make their healthcare purchasing decisions, just like they do in other purchasing decisions."

WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and Anthem Inc. merged in 2004.

Bennett says the Anthem brand's strong name recognition with consumers played a critical role in the decision to drop the Wellpoint moniker. "In this environment, we think it's important that we present ourselves to the public by the name that they already know and trust, which is Anthem, the name by which the majority of our products are sold," he said.

"Linking our corporate name to our product name allows us to speak to consumers, investors and even associates with a single voice."

Dan Prince, president of Nashville-based Catalyst Healthcare Research, says branding is one of the bedrock elements for health plans seeking to boost engagement with consumers.

"I think the shift by Wellpoint to become 'Anthem' is a smart move," Prince said last week. "Health plans want and need to be viewed as more 'consumer-friendly,' especially as they will be selling more of their services directly to consumers. In another instance, United Healthcare choosing to market health insurance products under the AARP name shows the power of a brand that enjoys a positive reputation with the desired consumer audience – seniors. Otherwise, why would UHC do this? So, good branding matters."

UnitedHealthcare sells supplemental Medicare plans under the AARP brand name and pays a fee to AARP for use of its name.

Provider Branding
Prince says Health Catalyst Healthcare has worked with several hospitals and healthcare systems to help them include consumer engagement in their branding efforts. "Generally, CEOs and chief marketing officers want a brand that is 'consumer-friendly,' meaning that consumers relate positively to the name of the organization, that they get at least a hint of what the organization does or emphasizes, and they want a name that sets them apart from the competition."

He cites consumer influence in a brand project his company tackled in Florida. "We conducted the marketing research that led the brand previously called 'UF&Shands' to become 'University of Florida Health,' or 'UF Health' for short," he says. 

"The new name was perceived positively by consumers in both Jacksonville and Gainesville. The new name suggests that this is an academic center brand, and it says that this brand is 'health' oriented; all in a few words. The historic 'Shands' name was well-known in one market but not the other, so the word lives on as the name of the system's hospital in Gainesville, but it was dropped from the overall brand name."

In addition to appealing directly to consumers, healthcare providers must consider the views of all stakeholders from the communities they serve when changing brands, according to a pair of CEOs on opposite sides of the country.

Last year, community feedback was a key factor in branding decisions when Hoag Health and St. Joseph Health combined to form a healthcare delivery network in Southern California.

"When St. Joseph Health and Hoag announced that we were affiliating to form a new network of care in Southern California, we were faced with two options: One, call this new network of care an entirely new name, or two, adopt an identity that pays tribute to the legacy names of our well-respected health systems," said Richard Afable MD, CEO of the new combined enterprise, St. Joseph Hoag Health.

"We opted to present the community with a partnered identity that builds upon our highly respected legacy names. As you can imagine, there was significant internal discussion around this naming strategy, but the true determinant was what our community told us. They said that our two legacy names were trusted and well respected individually. Together, they believed this new name represented an organization that could deliver even more for local health care."

'A Disparate Array of Names'
David Rehm, president and CEO of Cape Cod-based HopeHealth, said healthcare organizations launching branding campaigns should apply balanced levels of effort in community outreach and "creative elements" of branding such as logo design. "We really thought through a plan to reach out to the community," he said.

HopeHealth's original parent organization, Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod was founded more than 30 years ago. Through a series of acquisitions, the organization's mission was transformed over time from hospice care to a wide range of services for patients suffering with chronic illness. "We had a disparate array of names," Rehm said. "We didn't have a brand that encompassed what we had become and what we wanted to be in the future."

While adopting the HopeHealth name was "a reflection of a strategic plan" to expand the organization's geographic reach and range of services, reaching out to the communities the organization served was critically important for the rebranding effort, he said.

"A series of small meetings" prior to launching the brand included face-to-face discussions with top donors. "We wanted them to know what the new brand reflected and didn't reflect," he said, "that was really important for our donors. The success we had [with the new brand] was greatly related to that effort."

'Transformational Period'
As the traditional fee-for-service model of healthcare service delivery is upended, branding is approaching the top of the agenda in boardrooms at every healthcare organization from coast-to-coast, St. Joseph Hoag Health's Afable says.

"This is such a transformational period for healthcare, I'd be surprised if almost all healthcare organizations aren't re-thinking their brands," he said. "Consumer decisions are more important than ever before. The challenge is that the brand has to realistically reflect the offerings of the product or service. The best brand in the world will fall flat if it doesn't deliver for consumers, physicians, community partners, employers and all the stakeholders healthcare touches."

Dawn Maroney, chief sales, marketing, and product officer at Irvine, CA-based Alignment Healthcare, says branding is a key factor in the company's recent acquisition of Citizens Choice Health Plan.

"Consumers in today's market want value with affordability, and they want their information fast," she says. "Branding helps companies become more current to the demands of the consumers and the opportunity to have more of a social and digital presence. Our branding will have a consistent theme to all mediums and it has a look that works locally, nationally, and regionally as we extend our population health model footprint across the United States."

The branding frenzy in healthcare has extended into the vendor community as well.

Last week, Jacksonville, FL-based Orange Health Solutions announced it had changed its name to Citra Health Solutions after the recent acquisition of MZI Healthcare. "We believe the business of healthcare should be simple and innovative. The new logo, name, and positioning statement communicate just that," said Kristi Stovall, vice president of marketing and brand management at the newly minted company.

She says the Citra brand reflects the "consumerizing" of healthcare. "We want a brand that is consumer-focused and simplified," Stovall said. "Healthcare from the consumer side should not be complicated."