Raising Louisiana’s Health Esteem
Health system brands have been built the same way for 40 years, with a focus on self-promotion: If you get sick, we’re the absolute best to treat you and get you on the road to recovery. But if the past two-plus years have taught us anything, it’s that this approach may no longer be enough to carry us into the future.
// By John Marzano //
Welcome to a new age of “Post Health System Brands.” This is another way of saying that moving a brand beyond the product offered to deeper meaning is now expected by consumers as well as by the workforce and the communities where they live, work, and play.
Chris Bevolo, chief brand officer, Revive
“What we’ve seen across industries over the past few years holds true for health care,” says Chris Bevolo, chief brand officer at Revive. “Consumers are focused on ‘living moments,’ and brands that utilize these non-promotional elements to create lasting partnerships and personal relationships will build stronger brand personality and drive more and deeper connections with people.”
In May at the Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategies (HMPS) Summit in Salt Lake City, Catherine Harrell, chief marketing officer of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS) joined Bevolo and Christian Barnett, senior vice president of strategy at Revive, to tell the story of building a “post health system brand” that would impact almost half of Louisiana’s citizens, as well as Mississippi’s largest metropolitan area.
The resulting brand concept, “Health Esteem,” launched just prior to the pandemic. Here, we’ll share highlights of the journey — from positioning to program objectives, tactics, results, and lessons learned along the journey. Harrell also shares disruptive land mines — like leadership changes and a pandemic — that ultimately shut down the campaign.