Think of your practice and yourself as a ‘brand.’ What you do with that brand is in your hands. Your brand is about what others think about you, rather than what you think your brand is. It is about who you are and what you do and how the world perceives you.
But sometimes brands can get stale and are in desperate need of a refresh. Rebranding can breathe new life into a practice or skincare brand, but it needs a rationale and good planning to be successful. As a business evolves over time, customers come and go, and industries change in scope. Remaining stagnant or stuck in a time warp can be a limiting factor for long term success.
Why rebrand?
If your business model has changed, for example, you are morphing from a medical dermatology clinic to a purely aesthetics clinic, or you are adding new services like spa therapies, or you are bringing on a new associate. You may also be relaunching a new product or restructuring the existing facility and service offering that demands an overhaul.
Another viable reason is to differentiate your practice from the competition. If you are in a market where there are numerous practices, clinics or medspas with similar names, logos and branding, it may be time to take a different path to stand out from the crowd. Staying visible and relevant to your target audience in a market that is changing should always be among your top priorities.
If your practice needs to shed an unfavorable perception or has experienced some negative press, rebranding is certainly worthy of consideration. Take this opportunity to assess your strengths and weaknesses and come up with a step-by-step strategy to enhance the image of the practice to your target audience.
Rebranding can also be used as a way of retaining your core principles and reputation, but simply updating its look and feel for the current climate. Your brand’s reputation may be intact, but it may be in dire need of an image upgrade. Think about what your patients and clients really want. Analyze your top competitors. Enlist a mystery shopper to determine where some of the glitches may be in terms of customer service, waiting times, comfort and convenience. That also factors into how your brand is perceived in the community. A new logo and color scheme is not going to fix what is broken. You need to improve the inner workings of the practice before slapping a pretty label on it.
Rebranding your practice by adding a fresh tagline, logo and color scheme, may also necessitate redecorating the office, altering patient flow, and upgrading the staff and technology to be consistent. You need to stay true to your brand all the way through.
Before enlisting a pricey ‘branding’ agency, do your homework. Take an honest assessment of your brand. Ask your staff, talk to patients, and determine next steps. This important exercise has the potential to transform a cluttered and outdated brand experience into an effective marketing tool to drive growth and profits.
Talk to us about your practice brand and ask for a complementary Brand Checkup. Anne@wendylewisco.com
