Brand Differentiation

Advertising Showcase: VCU Health “UN” Brand Campaign

Kendra Gerlach, associate vice president of Strategy and Marketing for VCU Health

// By Susan Dubuque // By aligning the health care brand with the academic side of the university, VCU Health strengthens its unique position as an Academic Medical Center in a cluttered market. Learn how VCU Health developed a fresh, new brand — UN-like any other health system — and view the elements of the brand campaign.

Gen Z’s Wellness Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities for Health Care Brands

Amanda Williams is Parallel Path’s senior director

The tweens, teens, and 20-somethings who make up Gen Z have different health and wellness priorities than older generations. How can health care organizations meet them where they are? Here, we examine some challenges this generation faces, how it defines health and well-being, and how health care brands can resonate with it.

Most Wellness Brands Don’t Connect with Gen Z Women. What’s the Cure?

// By Amanda Williams // The tweens, teens, and 20-somethings who make up Gen Z have different health and wellness priorities than older generations. How can health care organizations meet them where they are? Here, we examine some challenges this generation faces, how it defines health and well-being, and how health care brands can resonate with it.

How Stories of Human Kindness Help One Hospital Reinforce Its Brand

Susan Griffin, director of public relations and communications, South Shore Health

// By Susan Dubuque // South Shore Hospital, part of South Shore Health, serves hundreds of thousands in the Greater Boston area. To differentiate itself, the marketing team crafted the brand positioning “Your Health, Our Passion, One Community,” reflecting the hospital’s commitment to offering exceptional services and fostering a community-centric healthcare approach.

Should You Spend Your Media Budget on Branding or Acquisition?

Jerry Hobbs, president and chief strategy officer at Prairie Dog

MultiCare’s CEO believes brand-building is the key to sustainable growth, and that it supports acquisition. It’s not either-or; it’s both-and.  // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Health care marketers are sometimes on the defensive when proposing budgets to their CEOs and CFOs, feeling the pressure to justify the expense and project the expected return on Read More

Health Care Brand Positioning: Going From Good to Great

Chrisie Scott, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Virtua Health

Health care brand positioning requires more than a clever tagline or slogan. It requires a strategy and rallying cry that inspires an organization and connects a community. It’s rare in marketing that you get to start from scratch on anything. Wherever you jump on the moving train, that’s your starting point, complete with legacy systems Read More

Virtua Health Has a Message for South Jersey: We Are “Here for Good”

Jane Weber Brubaker

Brand positioning is more than a clever tagline or slogan. It’s a strategy and rallying cry that inspires an organization and connects a community. // By Jane Weber Brubaker // It’s rare in marketing that you get to start from scratch on anything. Wherever you jump on the moving train, that’s your starting point, complete Read More

Creating a Strong, Unified Brand Across a Large Network

Providence logo

How do you connect the dots between a 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? Recently, Providence successfully navigated this situation and launched a new brand. Unifying the brand was among the initiatives Jigar Read More

Payviders Seek a Holistic Approach to Patient Well-Being

Wunderman Thompson

“In a health sector bombarded with labels such as InsurTech, HlthTech, FemTech, and AgeTech, it’s no surprise that confusion and mis-categorization run rampant,” says Lindsay Resnick, executive vice president of Wunderman Thompson Health. “And now there’s another category being promoted by consumer-centric health companies bringing a tightly integrated financial and clinical health care experience to Read More

52 Hospitals; 1,025 Clinics; 7 States — and One Unified Brand Architecture

Jigar Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, Providence

// 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 Read More

Resurgence of the Payvider

Lindsay Resnick

// By Lindsay R. Resnick // A consumer-centric swimlane unites payers and providers around shared objectives. In a health sector bombarded with labels such as InsurTech, HlthTech, FemTech, and AgeTech, it’s no surprise that confusion and mis-categorization run rampant. And now there’s another category being promoted by consumer-centric health companies bringing a tightly integrated financial Read More

Where Health Care Marketers Should Focus in 2021

Danny Fell, Optum

// By Danny Fell // Marketers can help their organizations thrive in an increasingly competitive environment by introducing creative “outside the box” approaches that will help accelerate change. Coming off an incredibly challenging 2020, health care marketers face a potentially rocky start to the new year. Positive factors, like revolutionary new COVID-19 vaccines, are coming Read More

New Technology Helps Target Health Disinformation at the Source

Sarah Brandt, executive vice president of partnerships at NewsGuard

As marketers, we spend time and resources to take full advantage of the internet. We want our content to show up at the top of the search results page. We want our brand to be trusted. We want our physicians to be the ones patients find and choose. But as we’ve seen over the past Read More

Effective Campaign Features Kids as Fighting Champions

Shira Pollard, PR & Marketing Manager, VCU Health System

“Nothing triggers an emotional reaction like watching someone trying to resist it. There’s a kids’ game in which the object is to stare at all the other kids and try to make one of them laugh while they resist. Trying not to laugh usually ended with an explosion of giggles all around,” notes veteran copywriter Read More

New York Proton Center’s Purpose-Driven Brand

Patrick Curry, marketing and communications consultant, New York Proton Center

// By Wendy Stark Healy // It’s easy for health care organizations to articulate what they do and how they do it. But they sometimes struggle to understand their brand purpose — their “why” — especially in connecting with patients. Purpose-driven organizations outperform competitors, increase market share, attract better talent, and do better overall, according Read More