Increasing Bottom-Line Results Through Purpose-Driven Marketing

The healthcare industry continues to flood the marketplace with messages of shorter ER wait times, technological advances, advanced

treatments and new access points. While some of these approaches are still effective today, healthcare marketers may be missing a major opportunity to dramatically improve the bottom-line results of their organization if they don't practice purpose-driven marketing.

JB: Purpose-Driven Marketing, a concept developed by marketing thought-leader Simon Sinek, advocates that instead of simply focusing on the products and services your health system delivers to the market (e.g., cardiovascular, urgent care, pediatrics), your organization's Purpose (what you believe) should be the focal point of your communications.

Simply, Purpose-Driven Marketers believe that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do what you do.

JB: This philosophy cannot be easily dismissed: Purpose-Driven organizations are, in general, the companies we all admire. Think Apple. Tesla. Unilever. PepsiCo. But does this admiration translate to financial performance? Unequivocally, yes.

Purpose-Driven organizations consistently outperform the stock market by a wide margin. For example, a 10-year growth study of 50,000 brands reveals that the 50 highest-performing businesses are the ones driven by brand ideals.

Imagine the power of a marketing program that can drive culture, improve employee engagement, create advocacy in your markets and drive service line volumes. Of course, Purpose-Driven Marketing isn't a replacement for service line promotions. It serves as the umbrella for these

initiatives. For example, you may buy Apple because you relate to the brand's world view (“We believe in challenging the status quo.”), but it's also important for Apple to promote its new iPad or iPhone.

JB: “But we're not Apple…we run a healthcare system. Will this work for us?” Purpose-Driven Marketing will work for any organization with a Purpose. And, if you're reading this, that includes your healthcare system.

Think about it: You are in the business of saving lives and restoring health for men, women and children of all ages. Of all industries, healthcare is perhaps the most natural candidate for Purpose-Driven Marketing. And, here's the best part: You don't have to go back to night school or attend a fancy seminar to get started.

JB: Go online and watch Simon Sinek's video on developing your organization's Purpose. If you like what you hear, hire a company to work with your organization to fully build out your health system's Why, How, What model. Then develop a plan to activate your Purpose throughout your ecosystem. This should inform everything from hiring practices to training programs and even capital investments. Once

you are comfortable that the Purpose has taken hold within your walls, you are ready to share it with the world through your marketing. This will take some time but, rest assured, the journey is well worth it. Even our most skeptical clients have become believers!

A pioneer in hospital marketing, Brown Parker & DeMarinis works with healthcare systems to unlock the power of their Purpose inside and outside their organizations.