In an effort to clarify the rebranding Shriners Hospitals for Children The Public Relations Department of Shriners International sent out the following email today ( June 4, 2020) to the membership:
Dear Nobles,Our great Fraternity has seen many changes in our nearly 150-year history, from world wars to the rise of industry and technology. Our great Philanthropy, Shriners Hospitals for Children® finds itself in today’s ever-changing landscape of health care. True to our aim of serving more kids in more places, last year we saw more children than ever before, but the majority did not receive in-patient care. As a result of the changing care patterns in pediatric health care, five of our facilities no longer offer inpatient services, although the care they provide is still transformative in the lives of these children and their families. We anticipate even m ore joining that number in the near future. As a result, many states’ regulatory bodies will no longer allow us to use our corporate name, Shriners Hospitals for Children, to describe the care we provide in an outpatient setting.Shriners Hospitals for Children has traditionally had a very strong “master brand” strategy with all of our facilities holding the same name. Recent evolutions in health care have changed that. Our five outpatient facilities each have different names such as Shriners for Children Medical Center™ — Pasadena, or The Erie Shriners Medical Center. The goal of any brand is to create consistency to increase brand equity. The recent announcement of our new brand, Shriners Children’s™, is a step toward unifying all of our locations, regardless of the means of providing care, under one brand. This is not a name change, but a change in our brand strategy to meet the constantly evolving world of health care.From a fraternal perspective, the branding is going from four words to two words, and the branding simply focuses on who is providing care and who is being served. For nearly 100 years, our mission has been to work consistently to build a health care brand synonymous with outstanding medial expertise and the most amazing care anywhere. Due to this reputation, we are able to shorten our brand, something consumers prefer in today’s digital age.There has also been some concern raised over how the name will function with its possessive ending. The brand will be used as a master brand with a more specific label following. For example one of our research initiatives in Genomics, could become Shriners Children’s Genomic Institute. This branding convention is heavily utilized within pediatric healthcare, and well known to consumers as it is currently used by the majority of top pediatric brands.We all take a great deal of pride in the world’s greatest philanthropy that bears our name, and that, will never change. Shriners have helped provide life changing medical treatment to more than 1.4 million children, regardless of the family’s ability to pay. We all want to see even more children served than ever before. We believe this new brand will help guide us into a future that promises more opportunities to change even more lives.Yours in the faith,