75896
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/8/2019 75896
1/3
Birth and Growth of the Mayo Clinic Brand
The Mayo Clinic is the first and probably the largest integrated medical practice in the world.More than 2,500 physicians and scientists and 40,000 allied health staff work at the Mayo Clinic,
which has sites in Rochester, MN, Jacksonville, FL, and Scottsdale/Phoenix, AZ. All locations
included, the Mayo Clinic provides healthcare services to more than half a million people eachyear.
The Mayo Clinic started as a story of an extraordinary family (Dr. William Worrall Mayo, andhis two sons, Dr. William J. Mayo and Dr. Charles H. Mayo) in Rochester, MN, a small town on
the edge of America's Great Plains, and it continues nearly a century and a half later to create
more stories about its dedication to providing excellent healthcare to every patient every day.Through the heartfelt patient stories shared with family and friends, the Mayo Clinic has earned areputation for excellence. Without a deliberate business intention to do so, the Mayo Clinic has
emerged as a world-renowned brand. In recent years this reputation the brand has been
recognized to be an invaluable asset that must be managed, both for protection and long-termgrowth and relevance.
From Preserving Reputation to Managing the Brand
The Mayo Clinic brand was developed by doctors who simply provided healthcare services, with
neither a marketing department nor brand managers. In fact, due to conservative traditions
regarding healthcare services in its earlier days, mentioning the name of the clinic in the media
was considered commercial advertising. The focus was on protecting the family name andreputation, not on building the brand.
Ninety years later, following a long hiatus, brand management started with the creation of abrand team in 1997. In the beginning, there was no consistent brand management other than
brand assessment. However, studies revealed that the Mayo Clinic brand had substantial brand
equity. The 2003 Consumer Brand Monitor Study showcased the power of the Mayo Clinicbrand. Specifically, when 1,000 U.S. households were surveyed about their unaided brand
preferences for a serious medical condition requiring highly specialized care, 18.6% of the
respondents named the Mayo Clinic as their first choice, and another 8% mentioned the Mayo
Clinic as one they would additionally consider. Furthermore, it was found that over one-third of
the people in the U.S. personally knew someone who had received medical treatment from theMayo Clinic.
As such, the Mayo Clinic has become a leading medical practice; more importantly, the Mayo
Clinic brand has become strong, favorable, and memorable, as evidenced by top-of-the-mind
brand choices and brand preferences.
Coaching the Champion Brand: Offense and DefenseKent Seltman, Director of Marketing, Mayo Clinic
https://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/Page6166.aspxhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/http://www.mayoclinic.com/https://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/Page6166.aspx -
8/8/2019 75896
2/3
2
The Mayo Clinic is a service brand, and its reputation is based mainly on the experiences created
in every interaction between customers and employees. As such, the Mayo Clinic brand requires
both defensive and offensive actions in order to be protected.
Coaching Defense
Internal defense
Internal defense is directed to branding within the institution in order to prevent gradual erosion
and trivialization of the brand and brand equity. In particular, when inside people value their
independence and act in their own interest and not the institutions, appropriate internal defenseis necessary. Such a defense may include assuring that each lab does not develop its own
logoand coordinating the behaviors of licensed partners. This will help preserve a unified brand
identity. In sum, internal issues require counsel and persuasion, and when necessary, decisive
actions.
External defenseExternal defense, against both nave and aggressive players, may be easier than internal defense.In fact, these actions tend to fall into the legal domain. For example, the use of the name
Mayo, implicitly or explicitly, by unauthorized and unrelated third-parties, necessitatesexternal defense. External issues require systematic environmental scans, timely responses and
legal enforcement.
Coaching Offense
For coaching offense, four themes can be considered: 1) creating services worth talking about; 2)
brand hygiene; 3) intelligent brand extensions; 4) brand-building strategies.
Services worth talking about
Again, since the Mayo Clinic brand is an altruistic, not-for-profit service brand, based on
customers experiences, it is critical to produce satisfied patients in order for them to spreadpositive word-of-mouth about the Mayo Clinic. In fact, 95% of participants in a survey
responded that they said good things about the Mayo Clinic after their visits, and 90% of them
recommended the Mayo Clinic. Due to its intangible and labor-intensive nature, the mostimportant offensive strategy is providing services worth talking about.
Brand hygiene cleaning up messes
A brand needs to be consistent and must have only one clear name. In fact, the Mayo Clinic had
some brand identity issues, not only because of its structural complexity (it was composed of
several hospitals, each using its own name), but also because of different name preferences
among different groups. As a result, sometimes the power brand Mayo Clinic was notidentified. After tidying up, the Mayo Clinic as a whole now has its own lean and clean name,
which is, of course, the Mayo Clinic.
Intelligent brand extensionsAs a way of leveraging brand equity and further strengthening the brand, brand extensions were
also considered for the Mayo Clinic brand. As new product categories, the Mayo Clinic selected
-
8/8/2019 75896
3/3
3
technological transfer (such as the Mayo Clinic MRI Hand Coil) and health information which
includes books (such as theMayo Clinic Family Health Book), newsletters, and commercial
websites. From these successes and some suboptimal extensions, the Mayo Clinic has learned
that a powerful service brand can be extended to a few complementary and carefully chosenproducts.
Brand building strategies: Long-term positioning
For the future of the Mayo Clinic brand, development of relevant and viable new programs
should be considered from the perspective of long-term positioning. Each brand has a life cyclein which it moves from embryonic to emerging and on to established. To prevent the Mayo
Clinic brand from entering a mature stage, or even becoming known as a decaying brand, long-
term positioning must always be considered and new strategies adopted to invigorate the brand.
Conclusion
Based on the information gained by the experiences of the Mayo Clinic brand, the followinglessons can be drawn:
Internal branding issues require counsel and persuasion, and when necessary, decisiveaction inside the institution.
External branding issues require systematic environmental scans, timely responses,and legal enforcement.
Brand loyalists, both internal and external, feel empowered to defend the brand atleast for this altruistic brand. Building on a base of brand loyalists will help a brand
attain a sterling reputation.
The most important offensive strategy for a service brand is to provide services worthtalking about.
Good offense requires lean, clean brands. Without a coherent and unified brandmessage, a brands reputation can lose power. A powerful service brand can be extended to and enhanced by a few complementary
products after careful consideration and research.
Summary prepared by Hakkyun Kim, doctoral candidate, and Ji Kyung Park, doctoral student,Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
Presented at the Institute for Research in Marketings Carlson on Branding
May 19-20, 2006
Institute for Research in MarketingCarlson School of ManagementUniversity of Minnesota
321 Nineteenth Avenue South, Suite 3-150
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0438(612) 624-5055, fax (612) 624-8804
carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitute
http://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitute/hkimhttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitute/jikyungparkhttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitutehttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitutehttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitutehttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitutehttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitute/jikyungparkhttp://carlsonschool.umn.edu/marketinginstitute/hkim