The Challenge

HCA (Hospital Corporation of America – London

based hospitals) wanted to develop/ refresh its

employer brand. The first and obvious challenge

was dealing with an organisation whose corporate

brand (HCA) is probably less well known than some

of its ‘ingredient’ brands (e.g. The Harley Street

Clinic, the Portland Hospital and the Princess

Grace Hospital). The second was developing a

brand that was flexible enough to be used to

attract individuals from an array of different target

markets (health professionals, business

professionals and support staff).

The Solution

We commenced the exercise by reviewing a whole

host of published materials from the HCA group

and the hospitals (including such things as the

staff survey and corporate branding literature).

This helped us to get a strong sense of ‘where the

organisation is now’ in terms of its corporate brand

and how staff view the organisation as an

employer.

We next arranged 12 ‘brand archetype’ workshops

to help us fully explore the personality and

character of HCA and the individual hospitals.

By using archetypes everyone is given the same

reference frame and this gives all participants the

opportunity to really have their say about how

they view their employer. The workshops were also

used to gather information about values, benefits

and what makes the organisation an employer

of choice.

We also consulted with members of the senior

management team to get their views on their own

hospitals and the HCA group as a whole. In our

experience, without buy-in from the top team,

employer brands often fail because they are not

supported internally and therefore do not become

embedded in the organisation.

The Results

Based on the findings from our research we were

able to develop a detailed brand strategy that

established clarity over the brand identity, how it

should be communicated and how it should be

launched and managed. This was then shared with

our creative team who turned the strategy into

tangible creative outcomes.

Case Study – HCA Branding

Senior Roles

Generic HCA ad

Online banners and buttons

Induction Pack

Internal Communications