Another Brand Campaign For GE, Another Waste Of Money

GE (GE) has an odd habit of creating names for the initiatives taken on by its largest divisions or company-wide themes that show the conglomerate’s plans for global growth. One of the latest of these was GE’s “Ecomagination” campaign, designed to promote the company’s commitment to help solve the world’s “environmental challenges while driving profitable growth for GE.” It is hard to imagine why the programs are important to GE’s shareholders, customers, or the broader population. GE could simply go about its business and make the most money it can on projects that help the “greening” of businesses around the world. There is actually no broad initiative in this. It is public relations at its worst–explaining a series of efforts that are only conjoined by an effort to make them seem so.

GE’s latest foray into pumping the public and customers up about its company wide plans is called Healthymagination, which is meant to show GE’s commitment to healthcare around the world. According to The New York Times, GE will spend $80 million on promoting its healthcare plans using an odd name that no one will understand or remember. An executive at GE’s ad agency told the newspaper that the conglomerate’s efforts in the sector are about “better healthcare for more people”–an initiative that hardly matters to shareholders or even people who are ill. “Better healthcare for more people” is, or should be, the primary goal of the healthcare industry. To turn that effort into a slogan is crass.

There is no reason for anyone to better understand how and why GE operates its healthcare business as it does. It should be a universal assumption that GE, like any other well-operated company, will do its best to create cutting-edge and safe products, sell them at competitive prices, and make itself money.

Healthymagination means nothing at all, really. It is GE’s stab at a claim that it is a good citizen in a world where companies mean only to profit from their products. But, like every other company in the healthcare business, it should knows that it is the best business practice to help the medical community and leave the bragging about it to others.

Douglas A. McIntyre