A Prescription for Success: Why a Faith-Based Health System’s Campaign Welcomes Women with All Their Flaws
// By Lisa D. Ellis //
As one of the largest Catholic health systems in the Midwest, Franciscan Alliance recently decided to reach into its religious roots in an attempt to make a deeper connection with females in the local market and build up the women’s services line.
The result is a unique marketing campaign for the health system’s women’s services that strives to accept people “as God made them,” explains Julia Mastropaolo, Partner and Health Care Director of Brogan and Partners, which is the agency that worked with the health system to create a campaign dubbed “Perfectly Human.” As the name implies, this campaign moves away from trying to pressure people to meet an idealized version of themselves and, instead, welcomes them into the system with all of their flaws.
Standing Out from the Pack
With 14 hospitals spread throughout Indiana and Illinois, Franciscan Alliance serves a geographic area with a population of 3.7 million people, providing more than 2.9 million outpatient visits and more more than 100,000 inpatient discharges every year. The system also employs more than 20,000 employees and operates a number of nationally recognized Centers of Health Care Excellence.
“We’re in a highly competitive environment. There are seven other major hospitals in northern Indiana alone, and lately we are seeing encroachment from some of the major metropolitan hospitals in Chicago, particularly in the service lines of oncology, cardiac, and orthopedics,” explains Joe Dejanovic, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the northern Indiana division of hospitals for Franciscan Alliance. As a result, the marketing department is always seeking new, and interesting, ways to distinguish it from other health care providers in the area and to make a lasting impression with women, who make most of the health care decisions for their families.