You Are the Brand!
BALTIMORE--On Friday morning at PT 2009, three speakers collaborated to present "You Are the Brand: Learn It. Live It!" That brand, first introduced by APTA at the 2009 Combined Sections Meeting in February, is "Move Forward. Physical Therapy Brings Motion to Life." Now that the brand has been established, the goal is to ensure it is embraced by physical therapy professionals nationwide and thereafter disseminated to fellow healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers. Tannus Quatre, PT, MBA, principal of Vantage Clinical Solutions in Bend, OR, began the presentation.
"What is a brand?" he asked the audience. "It is a promise. It defines expectations. A good brand can be hard to create because it takes a long time to build trust. Brands can also be influenced and are not fully controlled."
Emilio J. Rouco, director of public relations and marketing, later took the podium to discuss the intensive research conducted by APTA to determine how physical therapy professionals are viewed by healthcare consumers and fellow healthcare professionals.
"The good news is that PT professionals are held in high esteem and the relevance of physical therapy is growing. But there is also some blurriness in the differentiation between physical therapy and other healthcare professions on the part of the general public."
In addition to making it clearer to healthcare consumers exactly what physical therapy is, the APTA is seeking through its brand campaign to occupy a greater "mindshare" among the general public, noted Jennifer Rondon, associate director of public relations.
To find out more about this intriguing look into the future of physical therapy, keep an eye out for an upcoming issue of ADVANCE!