June 30th, 2008
Cleveland Clinic adds Weight Watchers to branding effort
Back when the Cleveland Clinic announced its tie-in with Google, I distinctly remember going over the branding opportunities this offered.
While Clinic spokesmen were self-effacing on the subject to me, in fact they have had a global branding strategy for some time. This has already shown benefits, and the clinic maintains its own TV presence.
Now, in addition to RealAge, the Cleveland Clinic has added a second wellness brand to its line-up — WeightWatchers.
So if I may offer a little advice to the branding people at the Clinic, please ditch that smarmy, overly-general tagline of “complete confidence.” It doesn’t say anything about what you do, and what makes you the only choice for, well, anything.
The Clinic is well-known for its cardiac work. It is working with two brands in wellness. The best branding programs always use what you do to show yourself as they only choice.
Complete confidence says nothing. This, on the other hand, says something:
The heart of good health.
If you’re going to be a big name brand, we need to know what the brand means to us. Take the center of that logo and make it red, a heart. Draw some lines out of it.
Get back to me. We’ll talk.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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