Why brands matter

Addiction treatment marketing is heavily focused on leads. How many people did you meet at a conference? How many calls is our Web site generating? How many referrals do business development professionals generate every month?

Often lost within this constant focus on “heads in beds” is the power of a treatment center’s brand. Executives dismiss branding as a "costly" exercise, focusing on just "leads," as if these concepts are somehow separate.

At last month’s Admissions and Marketing Symposium in Delray Beach, Florida, opening keynoter Andy Dischmann reminded attendees that brands foster emotional connections with customers, referral sources, consumers, and communities. Brands have power and build expectations, and strong brands carry their emotional connection throughout the entire consumer experience.

As an example, Dischmann asked the audience members who had an Apple product what they remember about the packaging in which they received their iPhone or iPad. Most recalled it was white, and of high quality. Unwrapping that device is exciting, made more powerful through the high quality of the box itself. In contrast, I wonder if Android owners readily recall what the box their phones came in looked like.

Of course, addiction treatment is not about gizmos in boxes, but Dischmann’s comments still ring true. A solid brand is so much more than a logo and a color palette. A brand is a marketing tool and a lived experience. It’s a passion that needs to be conveyed by everyone working for an organization, from the driver, to the front-line clinician, night tech, and medical director. It's a philosophy that needs to be carried through marketing brochures, the color of the paint on the walls, and the way someone answers the phone. You can generate all the leads you want, but if you don't have a solid brand behind that effort, ready to shepherd a family and consumer through the brand's desired experience, the lead-generation efforts will ultimately be unsuccessful.

To test your own brand’s depth in your organization, ask yourself and colleagues what four adjectives best describe your company. Dischmann says everyone in an organization with a healthy brand will be able to answer that question quickly and with the same answers. If you’re like me, the answers were not immediately forthcoming from me or my co-workers.

Marketers often share with me that their executives don’t understand the importance of branding, but perhaps that’s because branding has often been positioned as a static, non-ROI-generating, graphic-design-focused exercise. Yet branding can and will generate ROI, if implemented strategically and methodically. Brands that are nurtured and promoted do breed loyalty, trust and, in the case of referrals, return business.

Dischmann’s presentation reinvigorated my passion and interest in building a strong brand. I would encourage all marketers to consider undertaking similar efforts, as having a strongly shared brand that inspires loyalty and trust certainly will make anyone’s company stronger and ultimately more profitable. 

And when everyone is sharing a brand experience, on the same page and living and breathing the mission, with common identifiers such as logos and images serving as visual cues, going to work everyday is simply so much more rewarding.