Branding and Signage in Urgent Care

The other day, a simple glance on a drive by an urgent care center made it clear that the center had not consulted with anyone with urgent care banding or sign expertise.  The center probably avoided paying a consultant for fear it would cost too much, but one can be almost certain that the center will lose hundreds-of-thousands of dollars due to their multiple mistakes in signage and branding.  An expert consultant would have completely paid for himself or herself  by allowing a center to avoid many mistakes.

Just a drive by the urgent care center made it clear that they had made the following mistakes:

1. Logo: illegal  (Banned in all 50 states.)
2. Branding: ambiguous
3. Signage: obscured
4. Name: illegal (Banned in Illinois, Maryland, etc.)

A few pictures will allow you to see their mistakes up close an personal.

Can you see this urgent care sign? Hint, it's behind the "for sale" sign.

 

Their sign is tucked in behind the landlord's over-sized "for sale" sign.  The sign is almost invisible to all cars driving by from this direction..  How much does this cost them?  They will see hundreds of less patients in the upcoming months, due to the fact that their sign is essentially invisible.  In addition, whatever the sign cost was a complete waste, because a sign that is not seen, is a sign that is worthless.  What is the lesson?  You need to have an expert in urgent care real estate review your lease before you sign it.  No lease should allow a landlord to block the view of a tenant's sign.

Urgent Care Sign: Why is this sign illegal?

Besides the fact that it is invisible, what else is wrong with their sign?  First, the state where they operate has a law, forbidding the use of the term “urgent” in any marketing.  What is the penalty for violating this law?  The fine is $1,000 per day of violation of this law.

Take a look at their logo—a slanted red cross. That's another mistake. The red cross, red crescent and red crystal emblems are designated as visible symbols of the protection afforded to war victims under the Geneva Conventions. These symbols stand for the neutrality of those who bear such victims of war.  No entity that is not caring for or transporting war victims is permitted to use these symbols.  Cost to change all signs and marketing materials will easily exceed $10,000.

Urgent Care Brand Confusion

Now let's look at the storefront of the clinic.  Again, we see the the illegal red cross in the logo.  Now we can finally read the name of the clinic, “Dr’s Immediate Care.”  Why not put this on the street sign?  A brand requires repetition and must focus on consistency. The more people see your name and logo, the more likely that they will remember your logo and corporate name.  Even worse, we are still confused.  Is this company name “Doctors Immediate Care, Inc (see logo),” “Dr’s Immediate Care,” or “Urgent Family Medical Care.”

What is wrong with any of these names.  Any specialist consultant in urgent care can warn you that the US Patent and Trademark Office is very unlikely to issue a trademark for any of these names for two reasons:

• They might be considered as simply descriptive.
• The same names are already in use by many other urgent care centers

This center’s many signage and branding mistakes are likely to cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income due to poor visibility, poor name recognition and additional legal expenses. 

So what is the take-home lesson here?  We would recommend that before you spend everything that you have on an urgent care startup, you need to spend network with plenty of other urgent care professionals.  You might consider attending a conference put on by the Urgent Care Association of America. It seems like a good idea to invest in hiring a specialist consultant in urgent care startups.  If this consultant is truly expert in urgent care startups, that consultant should pay for himself of herself.  Beware, when it comes to hiring a consultant, there are plenty of so-called experts that have little or no experience in successful urgent care startups.  Be sure that your so-called expert has personally been involved in multiple successful startups, has lost of urgent care (not generic healthcare) experience, is not just hiding behind a graphically-pleasing website, and most importantly check their references (preferably urgent care operators that now have at least 2-3 years of experience).  The most experienced consultant in in startup urgent care consulting is NMN Consulting.