Increased consolidations have led to the healthcare industry ranking No. 4 among the nation's top industries that experienced corporate identity changes in 1997, according to Anspach Grossman Enterprise (AGE), a New York-based corporate identity firm. Based on a survey of 1,625 publicly traded companies that changed names, healthcare was responsible for 165 of them.
| TOP 10 NAME CHANGES | ||
| Industry | 1997 | 1996 |
| Financial | 319 | 315 |
| Industrial | 272 | 263 |
| Communications | 261 | 258 |
| Healthcare | 165 | 142 |
| Energy | 130 | 142 |
| Technology | 67 | 63 |
| Food | 67 | 62 |
| Retail | 51 | 36 |
| Transportation | 24 | 33 |
| Miscellaneous | 269 | 200 |
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Source: Anspach Grossman Ent. |
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For hospitals and health plans, this trend which will continue to gain momentum, signals the need for marketers and PR pros to do a better job of communicating the newly merged organization's value to the community. "Very often [healthcare organizations] are tied up in communicating about the corporate merger process of creating a bigger network and better services without addressing why all of the change is necessary and how it will be of specific value to the community," says Jim Johnson, AGE's president.
Whether the healthcare organization changes its name totally or retains some of it, the community, employees, physicians, stakeholders and the media need to know how the new organization is defining itself within the context of quality and value. "When a company changes names, you've got everyone's attention. It's a great opportunity to talk about new value opportunities before the new marketing plan is rolled out," says Johnson.
What's In A Name?
For Ingham Regional Medical Center, formerly known as Michigan Capital Medical Center (MCMC), its merger activity was so fierce that the Lansing, Mich.-based hospital network poked fun at its multiple identities in a recent image campaign whimsically referred to as "Please...Call me by my first name." After its most recent merger last September with McLaren Health Care Corp., the hospital network had been known by at least three names: Ingham County Medical, MCMC and MC2.
Publicom, a PR firm also based in Lansing, was hired during the merger negotiations to help the hospital build a clearer identity.
In spite of hospital's active merger history in the last 10 years, the community knew it as Ingham, its first name, says Jim Wardlaw, who headed up Publicom's image campaign to get IRMC back to its roots. Using hospital employees as IRMC's image soldiers, Publicom launched a "First Name" campaign that involved employees sporting "Please... Call me by my first name" name tags and featuring them in advertising creative. This marketing tactic was used throughout IRMC's print and TV campaign launched last October.
So far, the campaign has boosted IRMC's recognition. According to the last tracking survey, 64% of the consumers surveyed in Lansing were aware of the name change.
Common Sense Prevails
On the health plan side, focus groups and market testing among consumer, providers, employees legislators and civic groups is critical to making the right name change. But marketing the new identity in various markets should rely on good old fashioned common sense.
When Anthem-Blue Cross & Blue Shield, based in Indianapolis, penned its national brand in 1995, it took a best-of-both-worlds branding approach after getting feedback from insurance regulators, employers, consumers and government program administrators. Anthem was known as being innovative, cutting edge, national and large which blended well with Blue Cross & Blue Shield's reputation of solid, traditional stability, says Don Stengele, ABCBS's director of corporate communication. Anthem has merged with three Blue Cross & Blue Shield health plans.
In spite of its national branding focus of "Get Well, Be Well, Stay Well," the health plan does not impose its corporate marketing tagline on effective regional marketing campaigns. When the HMO merged with the Blue plan in Connecticut last year, the local health kept its strong identity campaign intact. Using the positioining statement "Our plan is to keep you healthy," the campaign was only slightly altered to include the Anthem name in existing creative, one of Anthem's common sense marketing strategy, according to Stengele. (AGE, 212/753-4200; IRMC, 517/336-6917; Publicom, 517/487-3700; ABCBS, 317/488-6255)