Congruency Model And Its Application Study In Hospital Brand Communication

Brand now is becoming one of the most important strategies of hospital management with more and more open health service market and fierce competition. Since China entering WTO, foreign hospitals are staring at domestic health service market, and would have a decisive impact on the competition structure. Meanwhile, brand, which is the symbolization of each hospital strength is representing its important status. Suppose there are two hospitals, one is obviously owning brand equity, and the other is lacking of any brand equity, which is offered to choose by one patient, surely the patient would choose the first hospital. From the marketing angle, brand equity is a kind of acceptance toward hospital brand communication. So, hospital itself is only the owner of service product and its brand , while the brand perceiving and acceptanceis finally belonging to the patient.Service product of hospital needs publicity, and hospital brand also demands publicizing. In the age full of information, communication media is representing a multi-way, different kinds of media is targeting different customers and covering zone. It is difficult for hospitals to choose among several kinds of media, like TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertisement, bus advertisement and so on.. A few hospitals have already made use of public medial to have a direct communication with patients to form their preference, and finally reaching the purchasing object. Besides, department of public relations and marketing have been set up to establish favorable hospital brand image. However, process of brand communication is usually too dependent on the public media, and sometimes is out of planning. Effective communication mix should be seriously considered. Patient is the target of hospital brand communication, who is the final one to estimate the communication impact;On the other hand, purpose of communication is to win the acceptance of patients and choose the hospital, that is to say, to form positive image of hospital and finally choose the hospital to cure.Chapter one is the introduction. Firstly the author introduces the importance and status quo of hospital brand, and then narrates the background and its significance of the research.Chapter two is the review of related literature. Mainly review theories of three parts concluding brand, brand equity and brand communication. In detail, the author expounds the particular feature when combined with hospital. Finally, the author is trying to summarize the status quo of hospital brand communication.Chapter three is the construction of the model and the example analysis. Based on the study of the related literature, the author proposed the framework and content of the congruency model in hospital brand communication from the view of the patient, at the same time, the author offers two hypothesizes based on the model. Finally, the author also introduces the successful example of American hospital brand communication as the reference of domestic hospital brand communication.Chapter four is the example research and analysis. According to the interview of the Qingpu Hospital and the questionnaire of patients of Qingpu Hospital, the author makes a detailed analysis of the original data by SPSS tool. In general, the particular relationship between different brand communication ways and different brand equity is expounded to offer some factual support for the suggestion of hospital brand communication.Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations. Summarize the dissertation, evaluate the model and put forward theinnovation and recommendations.