Resources 

• Five long-term consumer behavior changes due to COVID-19
• The Joe Public Retreat 2022 

Takeaways 

The "untouchables" 

• Making room for new, high-ROI initiatives could mean retiring old practices that no longer make sense in today's changed (and continually changing) world. We call these old practices the "untouchables" because they're often repeated on behalf of leadership without a clear business case.
• We discussed three "untouchable" marketing initiatives, including open enrollment campaigns, disease of the month campaigns, and the U.S. News & World Report.

Modern brands are human brands 

• The way people interact with brands has changed, and health system marketers must be more creative and relevant in how they connect with their audiences.
• Staying creative and relevant means we have to become human brands, prioritizing honesty and authenticity while listening to our audiences at every opportunity.
• Patients' experience of your hospital or health system brand must match your brand promise – what your patients can expect from you at every step of their consumer journey.
• Today's consumers have more options, and those options often offer low-stakes trial periods, resulting in waning brand loyalty. To counter this trend, health brands must become human brands.

Thinking different, differently 

• Creativity means taking risks and ignoring unfounded doubts. But don't just be different to be different. Be different to resonate.
• Between COVID-19, social unrest, and election turmoil, events within the last year created stressors and ignited new fires. The result: changed behaviors.
• Multiculturalism is no longer a nice-to-have. It has to exist in the data we pull, the strategy we employ, and the creative we develop. It's not just about language.
• Can you still have a single brand slogan? Will a broad slogan resonate across audiences? What are the implications if that is the case? Hospital and health system marketers must consider these questions.