Building a Brand in a Crowded Market: One Large System’s Success Story

So let’s say you’re out to build a hospital system’s brand. And let’s also say you’re in one of the biggest markets (Dallas-Fort Worth) in one of the biggest states (Texas), competing against some of the biggest regional names in health care.

While you’ve got a $2.7 million budget to work with, exclusive of direct marketing, your situation is something of a balancing act. You’ve got to spend it in a way that assists 49 different hospitals that belong to your system, with a total of more than 5,000 licensed beds systemwide, and multiple specialties that want to advertise. And what’s more, a media tracking company reports that one of your competitors is outspending you two-and-a-half to one.

Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But Baylor Scott & White Health has more than risen to the challenge.

According to research done in the north Texas area by the National Research Corporation, Baylor Scott & White beat its five big-name competitors most of the time on six different critical measurements in 2014, even though the competing hospital systems have considerable clout in their own right. Those systems are: Texas Health Resources, Hospital Corporation of America, Methodist Health System, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Tenet Healthcare.

Baylor Scott & White scored highest on top-of-mind awareness with 66 percent, compared to 50 percent for the next-highest-scoring competitor, and a low of 9 percent for the least. It also led all but one of the hospitals in its score for “image.”

It had the highest overall share for brand preference. It beat every system except one when it came to share of inpatients measured by their last visits. Although each of the hospitals rates high on patient loyalty (variations are within a few points), Baylor Scott & White was beaten marginally by only one competitor and tied by another of the five.

Finally, on the NRC Brand Equity Index, Baylor, with a 65, beat all five of its competitors, whose own brand equity scores ranged from 61 to 31.

Whether you’re a small local health care system or one of the biggest in your market, you can learn a lot from Baylor Scott & White’s success.

Our resident advertising guru, Peter Hochstein, takes a close look at the various Baylor Scott & White advertising campaigns that are helping to drive these impressive numbers—as well as two key principles for other health care marketers looking to emulate this kind of success.

Read the full article now: How to Build a Health Care Brand with Multiple Ad Agencies, Multiple Specialty Campaigns—and in the Face of Multiple Competitors. (Hint: It’s Complicated.)

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President