Everybody is buying somebody. Or somebody is getting sold.
So it goes with the latest flurry of activity with hospital Mergers and Acquisitions.
With all the Mergers and Acquisitions out there, odds are — your hospital might go through one in the future or may be going through one right now.
With a M&A, you might find yourself saddled with a bunch of urgent care centers. Or immediate care clinics. Or walk-in clinics. Or convenient care clinics. Whatever you want to call them, the list of possible names goes on and on.
All these names can be confusing for your brand, especially when you’re dealing with an M&A. Since an urgent care clinic can be called and labeled so many different things, your job is to figure out how to simplify the naming process.
Here’s how:
Pick a retail name when developing the Urgent Care Centers name
“Retail health” is one of the hottest trends in hospital marketing right now. That’s when a hospital tends to think more like a Nordstrom or Starbucks, in terms of servicing and reaching target demographics.
For example, MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, WA named its urgent care clinic Indigo Urgent Care, with its own logo and branding. Henry Ford Health System, MI, did something similar when it named its urgent care clinic, QuickCare Clinic.
If your hospital is going through an M&A with a former competitor or outside partner, there might be a more neutral, retail-type name that fits your urgent care centers.
Make sure you’ve got a solid PR and marketing strategy
Urgent care situations happen infrequently. But you want patients to think of you first, when a medical situation pops up. Whatever you decide to name your facility, you want to make sure there’s a strong brand identity behind it. That means drumming up awareness through paid advertising, Google search and social media channels.
The name you pick is essential to your brand’s integrity. You want to make sure you allocate the right dollar amount to back it up.
Get the right partner
Even if you’re not doing an M&A, you might pick an outside partner to team up with to build your urgent care facility. A partnership for urgent care facilities can help lessen the cost and provide easier access into the market, especially if the partner is already well-established.
Click here to learn more about Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy and learn how to simplify the Urgent Care naming process.