Weak times = brand opportunities
After 51 pages of doom and gloom on the current economic crisis, the latest issue of BusinessWeek (September 29, 2008) gives us its “Best Global Brands” article. After covering what is perhaps the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, what is the article’s advice for building a top brand? Keep spending:
“Every time a recession threatens, executives glare at the balance sheet and wonder aloud about one particular expense: brand building…Then there are the other guys – companies that refuse to let tough times distract them from their long-term brand-building efforts. Sometimes they see a recession as the perfect moment to get a leg up on a weakened rival…Some of the most successful brand campaigns of the past six decades began during economically challenged years.”
And on and on and on. We talk a lot about the need for hospitals and health systems to be come brand-driven organizations. I can’t think of a better litmus test than this to determine if your organization fits the definition of brand-driven: in tough financial times, is your leadership still firmly behind brand-building (assuming, of course, they were in the first place)? Or is branding the first head on the chopping block?
Here’s hoping some of you can answer yes to the former, but my guess would be that most would have to agree with the latter.
Ironic, really, that so many healthcare organizations let their marketers go during tough financial times. At a time when the market most desperately needs to know that YOU should be their provider of choice, those responsible for getting the word out are handed their pink slips.