Page 252 - Design for Six Sigma for Service (Six SIGMA Operational Methods)

Brand Development and Brand Strategy 221

Table 8.6 Product-Brand Coordination of a Hospital

Brand Position Product (Patient Treatments) Attributes
Premier hospital • Excellence in all performance metrics
• Staffed with first-class doctors, administrators, and nurses
• Excellent infrastructure, first-class equipment
• Modern appearance, spotless, well organized

Attentive team • Reduction of patients’ waiting time to industry’s best
• Reduction of unneeded paperwork, and tests
• Clearly explained treatment plan, hospital protocols,
discharge procedures
• Quick feedback to patients’ requests

Caring • Reduction of patients’ waiting time to industry’s best
• Caring nurses
• Prompt response to all patients’ care issues
• Excellent in-patient facility
Expert • Competent doctors
• State-of-the-art medical equipment and first-class
technical support
Highest-level of • Reduction of treatment errors and diagnostic errors
professional care to a minimum
• Reduction of unneeded treatment to a minimum

The following are the key issues in ensuring product-brand coordination:
1. The brand development team should include product development
people.
2. Key product development professionals should learn the basics in
brand development and management.
3. Brand positioning and product development should go hand in hand.

Communications and Marketing Strategy
Marketing determines what in the brand’s positioning will be commu-
nicated and how it will be communicated to the marketplace (Levine 2003).
There are numerous vehicles for communicating the brand to the mar-
ketplace, and these include
• Advertising
• Internet
• Public relations