Authentic Health Care Marketing: Treating People with Empathy, Curiosity, and Respect
In health care, we lead with facts. But if someone rejects the facts, what is the right response?
// By Jane Weber Brubaker //
One thing liberals, conservatives, and independents have in common is, we don’t always agree with one another. When our wildly divergent worldviews collide, it can feel like such an existential threat that it seems our only choice is to part ways with friends — or even family members. Added to this, truth is no longer viewed as an objective fact, and trust in institutions, including health care institutions like hospitals, is declining.
That sharp dividing line between belief systems has consequences. It could mean the difference between life and death if people reject traditional health care solutions or refuse care because they don’t trust the entity that’s telling them they need it. In the current environment of cultural tribalism, how can health care organizations break down the barriers and rebuild trust in the communities they serve?
The co-authors of Authentic Healthcare Marketing, Brandon Edwards, CEO of Unlock Health, and Shannon Hooper, Unlock Health’s president and COO, believe the antidote to the toxicity is authenticity. Health care marketing, they state in their book, “requires a complex balancing act: living an authentic brand positioning that finds the common ground while understanding the vastly diverse belief systems enough to deliver personalization that connects fully to the individual.”
In our recent conversation, Edwards and Hooper shared their ideas for how marketers can break through the red state/blue state conundrum — and why they must.