Plan-it Marketing

Challenge: Elevate the image of Emerson beyond a traditional community hospital, motivate patients to consider Emerson, and attract the best physicians.

Objective: Develop a positioning platform that builds a unified brand across the hospital's core practice areas to serve as the cornerstone of Emerson's marketing and communications efforts.

Method: Qualitative exploratory work was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of internal (physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators) and external target audiences' mindsets toward health care and hospitals and, specifically, attitudes toward Emerson and competitors in key service areas. Specialty areas explored included ER, OB/GYN, Cancer, Cardiology, and outpatient services.

Results: Insights have been instrumental over the years in the development of umbrella brand communications that also allow for core specialties to be highlighted. As a follow-up, Plan-it conducted multiple waves of quantitative tracking, to help Emerson and its advertising agency measure the impact of the hospital's branding efforts on key target audiences' attitudes toward Emerson over time.