Why is Medical Branding So Complicated?
Medical branding is the toughest branding of any kind. Why? Well from our perspective there are four main reasons:
1. A World of Clashes.
Every medical brand “glues together” three worlds that naturally tend to pull away from each other:
A. The first of these worlds are the doctors, researchers and caregivers. This world is all about attention to details. It is these details that Doctor seek, it is these details that will ultimately save lives. Each medical case is a world of details. Each Doctor spends years dissecting, analyzing endless amount of details to provide the care they do today.
B. The second world a medical brand needs to “glue” is the patients. This world comprises of individuals who are vulnerable, who depend on others for their well-being. This world is full of concerns, hope, weaknesses and emotions and are in need of reliance.
C. The third world a medical brand needs to glue with is the “industry”. How is this medical brand in comparison with the industry’s standard? How will it affect the industry? What changes will it bring? Is the industry ready for such a change? Is this really a change?
These three worlds are the three axis’s a medical brand needs to attend to with tremendous sensitivity and care.
2. Trust
A medical brand needs to establish a “triple trust” foundation. Triple trust, meaning the brand needs to be trusted by Doctors who use it, the industry who needs to comply with the strictest of regulations and the patients themselves. Why the patients? Well because the world has changed. In the old days, prior to Dr. Google, whatever your Doctor says goes. Today, with the constant flow and accessibility to information, even in the medical world, patients have become consumers and therefore will seek a trustworthy brand. Whether a technology, a hospital or treatment, patients will consume their medical procedures just as they do with Netflix.
3. Compliance & Authority
The medical world needs to adhere to the toughest and strictest regulations. A medical brand needs to respect these boundaries and yet be innovative and appealing to all three worlds above. The challenge here is how to provide a user-friendly, demystifying definition of the product/treatment/procedure/hospital etc. that is new, exciting yet authoritative and compliant with regulations.
4. Miracle Workers Are Bad Marketers
Apologies to all Doctors, researchers and miracle workers out there who save lives every single day. Marketing is just not part of your DNA. This adds yet another aspect to creating a strong medical brand. Creating a common, acceptable language with all relevant experts that is precise enough to abandon many of the details as described above, and compress a lifelong expertise into short conceptual messages is tough! It’s even painful, but it gets across well. It spreads the word around, positions the brand as a leader and provides value to all.
There are of course many other challenges to creating a strong, viable medical brand, which I will touch on in my upcoming articles. For now, I have to admit, there’s nothing like a good medical branding challenge to get my team at TitanBrandWise and I up and about.
For medical branding case studies visit us at: https://www.titan.co.il/health-tech.html
