What is Ethical Branding

Reputations of hospitals were traditionally built on the successful treatment of patients, but today advertising and promotions are used by hospitals as they brand themselves. Patients have become customers, and they are enticed by packaged rates and freebies. Hospitals are operating like airlines, advertising their special offers, package rates, and comfortable services. This approach begs the question: Is a hospital a brand like Gucci, which few can afford, or does it have a larger purpose in society? This chapter argues for hospitals to serve society. Their real branding must come from how they serve patients and not from advertising. The chapter draws on the success of the Aravind Eye Hospital and Narayana Hrudayalaya in India, which have adopted a Walmart approach to reduce costs of complex medical procedures, serving the larger society. Such hospitals represent highly successful branding that draws from an ethical rather than a marketing approach that arises from a genuine desire to fulfill human needs rather than frills and fancies that marketing practitioners are familiar with.