May 20, 2016
Last month, Aria attended the third annual Health IT Marketing and PR Conference in Atlanta. At the show, our longtime client, Rick Weissinger, VP of corporate marketing, at Craneware, gave an interesting presentation on best practices for tackling a company rebrand. We connected with Rick after the show to dig a bit deeper into what a rebrand really is, and why Craneware, a company well-known for championing revenue integrity, chose to give its brand a face-lift. Check out our Q&A with Rick below to learn more about his experience and insights:
Q: Let’s break it down for our readers, how would you describe a ‘brand?’
A: Many associate the term ‘brand’ with a new logo or refreshed web design, but it is so much more than that. A brand encompasses the expectations and experiences associated with a product or service. You want customers to feel engaged with the brand on a few different levels, which we describe as FPE.
Q: What is FPE?
A: Functional, Practical and Emotional. Simply put, this means that customers need to understand the basic function of the product or service, how it practically solves a problem in a market, and finally, customers need to connect emotionally with the brand.
Q: During your presentation, you talked a lot about how there must be a need for a rebrand versus a want. How do you distinguish between the two?
A: There are a number of factors that contribute to the need for a rebrand. It can vary based on the type of market you are in, but in our case, we identified a huge need in the industry and saw an opportunity to showcase how our solutions help provider organizations address the change from fee-for-service to reimbursement tied to cost and quality.
Q: What advice can you give to other companies looking to rebrand?
A: Make a plan. Get leadership buy-in by evaluating the potential rebrand from all angles, and provide enough research to support how the rebrand will help propel the company’s vision forward. Once you have the thumbs-up, make sure there is ample accountability every step of the way. A brand isn’t going to change itself, so you need to have your team understand what is needed on their end in order to make it happen.
Q: With this rebrand, Craneware launched the value cycle initiative. Can you explain what it is, and why it was essential to the rebrand?
A: The value cycle describes the full life cycle of optimizing every opportunity to achieve the best outcome for the best cost. The healthcare market in the fee-for-service era called for the revenue cycle, but with the monumental shift towards fee-for-value, we knew a new approach was essential for successful financial management. By evolving our messaging and services to reflect the market needs, Craneware helps healthcare providers drive the value cycle through the discovery, conversion and optimization of their assets.
Q: Finally, what does this updated brand mean for Craneware moving forward?
A: Now that we have our brand established, we are working towards integrating the value cycle messaging into the market. We want healthcare professionals to associate the value cycle with Craneware, and we are well on our way to making that a reality. With the help of Aria, we’ve had the value cycle covered in publications such as Executive Insight and Electronic Health Reporter.
Want to hear more great tips from our awesome clients? Stay tuned, we will have more client Q&A’s on the blog soon. Looking to get your brand out there? Hint hint, PR is the way to go. Connect with us to learn how we can help, here.
