Situation
First established as a private hospital in 1919 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Regional Medical Center (RMC) has grown into a small, non-profit health system that includes a 286-bed acute care hospital, 23 primary and specialty care physician practices, over 100 physicians and 1,300 employees. RMC has deep roots in the community and is the largest employer in the County. Despite their longevity, RMC had faced multiple challenges including changes in leadership, a fragmented brand presence and declining reputation with consumers. However, with a new CEO and marketing leadership in place, they had begun to create an upward trajectory by resolving operational issues and improving internal morale. As part of the momentum, they also tweaked their brand identity and were now ready to tackle other branding challenges facing the organization.
Challenge
Cooper-Smith was brought in to elevate RMC’s brand presence across all service line marketing, as well as enhance and manage their social media presence on Facebook. In order to be successful, we had to take a deeper look at the brand work that had been started by the previous team. While the strategy was sound, there was no plan for activation. A Discovery session and brand audit were conducted by our team to identify the most immediate concerns. It was clear that an improved brand standards guide, patient personas, brand voice/message map and social media content strategy were needed to address the following issues.
- Lack of creative synergy across service lines
- No consistent brand voice
- Visual presence does not reflect patient base (60% AA)
- Facebook had become a place for angry patients to vent
Develop a brand unification strategy and activation plan that can be implemented throughout traditional, digital and social platforms
Strategy
With the support of RMC marketing leadership, we conducted a brand audit and went to work on developing patient personas to help guide marketing decisions, reinforce a “patients first” approach and facilitate a deeper understanding of patients’ needs, wants and communication channels. A less sterile, more personal brand voice was also created while still reinforcing key clinical differentiators. RMC’s partnership with Duke radiation oncology, new robotic surgery capabilities and accomplished general and orthopedic surgeons were highlighted in the messaging. And there was an enhanced focus on patient benefit and experience.
This same approach was implemented to re-tool RMC’s Facebook presence. A content strategy, branded template and enhanced imagery for posts resulted in a swift transformation that was positively embraced by internal and external audiences. The agency also provided valuable guidance for responding to negative messages or comments from Facebook followers.
In addition to creating an enhanced message platform and brand voice, Cooper-Smith’s creative team created design templates for brochures, flyers and print materials that included specifications for typography, photography treatment, content placement etc. These were developed for use by RMC’s internal graphic designer to ensure creative synergy while saving costs on external resources. Our goal as an agency is always to help the client be successful. As a small health system trying to do big things, it was imperative for Cooper-Smith to find efficient solutions to enhance RMC’s marketing in a sustainable way.
Results
While no formal research has been conducted to measure brand success, RMC marketers report that internal feedback from clinical staff, employees and hospital board has been very positive. In addition, RMC has experienced greatly improved engagement on Facebook. In a six-month period after implementing the new brand strategy, RMC Facebook engagement stats rose to 0.57%. (FB’s average engagement per post is 0.18%). Equally important is that negative feedback from followers has diminished.