KLEINsight

Brand Strength can be thought of as “Pulling” the brand through the distribution channels while Market Strength can be thought of as “Pushing” the brand through the distribution channels.  What is meant by Push/Pull?

• Pull: A strong brand creates interest in itself through its marketing and communication and experience efforts that make people want to use it (again).  Joel English, EVP at BVK a healthcare ad agency in Milwaukee, calls it “brand craving.”  Essentially, with this strategy, consumers “pull” the brand through the distribution channel with their interest or satisfaction.  This is accomplished by creating a strong brand position and experience (i.e., brand strength).
• Push: Consumer attraction to a hospital can be undermined if the service or facility is not readily available or some other hurdle gets in the way of interest and actual behavior (i.e., there is some market barrier).  For example, without a strong physician relationship, physicians can undermine a brand in which consumers are interested; not being in key insurer networks can cause people to go elsewhere; and having locations inconvenient to people also can cause them to go elsewhere (i.e., lack of market strength).  This is a major reason why overall preference doesn’t always lead to utilization share.

When developing a brand strategy, both Push/Pull elements must be addressed.  Not addressing both is like a body builder exercising only one arm.

While preference and utilization questions have been around for a long time, measuring the impact of market barriers has been underutilized.  When preference does not lead to utilization share, it may simply be a matter of “life getting in the way.”  The best intentions of any organization can be mitigated when barriers emerge at the time of hospital choice.  Your hospital can create strong brand demand among consumers, but when a patient goes to their physician and says, “Doctor Smith, I would like to go to Hospital A” and Doctor Smith replies, “I think you would be better off at Hospital B because…”  most often that patient still says, “Ok, you’re the doctor.”

Klein & Partners has developed a series of questions that address the impact market barriers can have on preference.  For the hospital that is most preferred (among non-patients), we ask:

Q: If you wanted to go to {hospital}, are there any factors such as inconvenient location, health insurance restrictions, physician not admitting there, scheduling hassles, or anything else you can think of, that could hinder you in using this hospital?

If Yes… Q: What would you say is the single biggest barrier to using {hospital}?

The figure below illustrates how these market barriers can have an impact on people’s preference.  For example, Hospital B has a much larger market share than Hospital A even though Hospital B’s overall preference among non-patients is much lower.  Notice that barriers to use for Hospital A are much larger… contributing to a lower share.  Of course, lack of market barriers (i.e., market strength) can positively influence share even without much preference.  Here, Hospital C has the largest utilization share in this market yet its overall preference (among non-patients) is the lowest of all competitors.  Having almost no market barriers (e.g., in our example it is the most conveniently located) creates market strength which can overcome weaker brand strength.  However, over time, competitors can combat market strength and overcome it.  Successful brands create both market and brand strength.