52 Hospitals; 1,025 Clinics; 7 States — and One Unified Brand Architecture
// By Jane Weber Brubaker //
Providence’s family of organizations embarked on a multi-year brand journey — right before the pandemic. Despite the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, the system launched a strong new brand that is energizing its 125,000 caregivers and the communities they serve.
We’ve heard the familiar adage: All health care is local. But sometimes that familiar, local name hides a connection with a powerhouse parent organization that provides strength, support, and scope to the cherished community hospital. How do you connect the dots between the health system, hospital, and its other programs and services throughout the community, and ensure consumers know they will continue receiving the same high-quality, personalized care throughout the network? Here’s how Providence successfully navigated this situation and launched a new brand.
Jigar Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Providence
Unifying the brand was among the initiatives Jigar Shah took on when he joined Providence in 2018 as chief marketing officer. His assignment: define, propose, and lead a multi-year, enterprise-wide branding effort.
“From a chief marketing officer perspective, you always hope the product and services you’re putting the brand behind are authentic, strong, and have true connection with the community,” he says.
His faith in the Providence “product” was confirmed as the stories came rolling in. One in particular captures the essence of care the brand needed to express: A homeless man came to the ER at Providence St. Joseph Hospital Orange in California. “As he was getting discharged, the staff noticed he didn’t have shoes on,” Shah says. “The man wore size 13 shoes, and the hospital didn’t have that size in the lost and found. An emergency department caregiver who also wore that size heard about it. Without thinking twice, he took his shoes off and gave them to the patient.”
Shah and the brand team sought to capture the quality of that human-to-human connection in a brand. “I told my team, this is the burden we carry, because this kind of deep love for the community and the manifestation of that love happens every day in our hospitals, outpatient services, clinics, home health, and many care locations,” he says.