Branding And Online Marketing: Egative Consequences Of Branding

Branding and Online Marketing
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Branding and Online Marketing
The idea of branding has for decades been associated with consumer goods. It is only recently that the idea has started being considered or embraced in healthcare organizations and so only a few articulated developed brands exist in healthcare. Healthcare organizations mainly focus on human-centered services but every part of a healthcare facility needs to convey a message of health and wellness to the community. In this way, in healthcare organizations the benefits of branding can be significant and great. This is because through branding, healthcare organizations can effectively assess the need of their clients/patients, develop efficiencies to meet those needs, and also communicate in a better way its capability to meet those needs (Dugel & Gupta, 2013). For this reason, it is important to examine under what circumstances do healthcare organizations need to use branding and determine if there is any negative consequences of this branding.
Healthcare organizations should use branding in order to tackle the threat of commoditization. According to Fellows (2013), it is not only the consumer goods that are commodities but also healthcare services and products are also becoming commodities. For example, today, healthcare organizations need more than just doctors to become successful instead they have to reach patients, payers, and also providers. The only way to reach these groups effectively is to brand so that they can provide consumers with a unique experience that cannot be replicated. For example, insurance providers do not just choose any healthcare organization but work with those that provide value for their money and services. When healthcare organizations use branding, they have an effective way of ensuring long-term competitive differentiation and keep them relevant in the market. Fellows (2013) notes that consumers do not just buy into an organization and its good or services, but rather they buy into the brand. In this way, if healthcare organizations wish to ensure they can reach consumers in this competitive climate, they need to brand.
Another circumstance where healthcare organizations should use branding is to help build trust. While branding is essential in all industries, it is especially crucial in healthcare because purchase decisions carry huge implications. Kaynak and Eksi (2013) claims that healthcare decisions and operations require a lot of trust and so branding is a way of enhancing this trust. This is because healthcare impacts directly its consumers’ lives such as patients. When a healthcare organization is a trusted brand, consumers would make decisions to come to that facility because they trust it. For example, for a patient to trust a doctor to implant a device into their body, the patient would have to trust that the device is safe. In most cases, when healthcare organizations use branding, they help consumers have confidence in the services being offered and so they will be inclined to transact with this facility. For example, research indicates that aspirin from Bayer is still purchased more often than other brands despite other brands having lower prices because people trust the Bayer brand (Fe...