Marketing Today with Alan Hart

Mark Viden is a wine lover with an English degree who never expected to end up in healthcare but always had an interest in marketing and advertising. After graduating from college, working client-side, managing a small marketing team, and moving to San Francisco, Mark had the opportunity to join Dignity Health, part of CommonSpirit Health, where he stayed for 18 years. In 2019, he was hired as Senior Vice President of Brand for CommonSpirit Health, where he now drives brand development, advertising, and digital strategies that promote growth, awareness, and consumer preference across the organization.

CommonSpirit Health is a healthcare company you probably have never heard of, but with a house of brands serving over 20 million patients in 23 states, they are the 7th largest healthcare organization in the country. CommonSpirit Health was created in 2019 when two legacy healthcare systems merged. Since then, they have acquired other organizations and developed partnerships with renowned research institutions. Mark tells us his job is to connect all of these consumer-facing brands through a single brand promise, “Hello Humankindness," which communicates the organization’s approach to care through kindness and connection. He is currently leading the platform’s national expansion by showcasing touching moments and ensuring patients, physicians, and employees are intrinsically aware of an unyielding commitment to humanity.

In this episode, Alan and Mark discuss the “Hello humankindness” brand platform, how it came about, and how it comes to life across people, practices, and communications. Mark reminds us that people enter healthcare because they have a calling, a passion, and a purpose. No one wants to think about healthcare until they need it, so CommonSpirit Health's strategy is to stay present in the subconscious, so when you do need them, they come to mind first. By focusing on the emotional connections, Mark and his team are sowing the seeds of values alignment, awareness, and trust to create category differentiation. After patents are in the door, their experience is top of mind. They have to feel like the promise that they have been served up is coming to life through the interactions and the visual cues they see.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How “Hello humankindness” encourages connection and improves health outcomes
• How to deliver on the brand promise through in-person patient experience
• How to create category differentiation by keeping alignment of values, awareness, and trust top of mind
• Use cases associated with making Gen Ai more empathetic

Key Highlights:

• [02:00] Forget Napa, we’re going to Anderson Valley.
• [03:30] How an English major got into marketing healthcare
• [06:00] The 7th largest healthcare company you’ve probably never heard of
• [07:10] “Hello humankindness”
• [11:00] Human connection impacts health outcomes.
• [12:30] How the humankindness sausage is made
• [15:00] Found footage and real connections
• [15:55] The role emotion and connection play in a patient's selection of care
• [18:10] Technology in human connection
• [22:50] Working for and with smart, creative people
• [23:40] Advice to his younger self
• [24:05] Understanding and defining GenAI
• [24:35] Music is an important component of advertising.
• [27:05] The answer really is Gen Ai.

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