402: How CommonSpirit Health delivers on an emotional brand promise with Mark Viden, SVP of Brand

01/17/24 • 28 min

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.

Looking for more?

Visit our website for links to resources mentioned in this episode and ways to connect with the guest!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Looking for more?

Visit our website for links to resources mentioned in this episode and ways to connect with the guest!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

401: Movado Group is Building Brand Loyalty with New Generations, with President and SVP of E-Commerce Margot Grinberg

Margot started her career as an analyst at Barclays Investment Bank. She wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to do at that time, but she did know having a good financial base would help her no matter what path she chose. She has always had a passion for retail, and in 2014, she joined the family business as a merchandising analyst at Movado Group. Eventually, she moved into sales, then business development, and most recently, she spent 4.5 years as the Vice President of E-Commerce, Digital Marketing and Marketplaces. All of these roles helped develop her understanding of the category and company and prepared her for her current role as president of the Movado brand and senior vice president of e-commerce. Today, she is responsible for the day-to-day management of the brand as well as the development and execution of long- and short-term growth strategies. In addition to managing Movado marketing and merchandising, Margot maintains responsibility for e-commerce sales for Movado, MCS, Olivia Burton, and Amazon North America.

Movado Group is a watch and jewelry company made up of brands they own and also brands they license. Movado, their namesake brand, was founded in 1881 in Switzerland by a 19-year-old entrepreneur. Movado Group was founded by Margot's grandfather, Gedalio Grinberg, and is currently run by her father, Efraim Grinberg, the chairman and CEO. Margot tells us her family connection gives her the passion and inspiration she channels back into the company.

In this episode, Alan and Margot discuss her professional path, her passion for pasta, and the legacy of Movado Group. They talk about her transition from investment banking into the “family business," the market for accessories, and where e-commerce is going. Margot tells us the retail environment is a challenge, and not just for accessories but across the board. To overcome these challenges, Margot and her team have taken a step back to think about how they can build on their longstanding good reputation and credibility in the industry to bring their brand promise to the next generation of consumers and build long-term relationships with them. One way they are doing that is with campaigns like “connecting the dots,” where they looked at everything that has defined Movado over the years, how they have evolved, and how they show up today to figure out how to communicate their brand promise most effectively.

In this episode, you'll learn:

The history of Movado and the family business
Movado's new “connecting the dots” campaign
How Margot and her team are building brand loyalty

Key Highlights:

[01:50] Margot’s pasta obsession
[03:15] Movado’s history
[05:05] Working her way up through the ranks
[07:50] Lessons from investment banking
[08:50] Taking on the “family business"
[10:40] The marketplace for accessories
[11:40] Reaching customers
[13:00] Owning where they have been and where they are going
[13:55] “Connecting the dots”
[15:20] Challenges of launching a new campaign
[16:00] CSR at Movado
[18:12] To be a young, successful female executive
[20:40] Losing her mother at 9 shapes who she is today.
[22:20] Flexible, adaptable, and open to change
[23:30] How do you build brand loyalty?
[25:00] Balancing using measurement and instincts
[25:55] Marketing lessons from travel
[27:00] How do you think about longevity in your company?

Looking for more?

Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

403: Leveraging “Jake from State Farm” and Prioritizing Contextual Relevancy with Alyson Griffin, Head of Marketing at State Farm

Alyson Griffin is back! She is a musician, mother, and marketing leader born and raised in Silicon Valley with over 25 years of experience leading marketing, branding, and thought leadership teams. Alyson originally planned on being a pharmacist, but she eventually realized it wasn't the right fit for her. As soon as she walked into her first advertising class, the rest was history. She eventually got her degree in communications and started at a PR agency right after graduation. She went client side with HP in 2000, where she worked her way up to VP of Marketing, then served as VP of Global Marketing at Intel Corporation until 2019. She left to do consulting when the pandemic hit, but it wasn't long before Alyson got a perfectly timed call from State Farm. Alyson joined the team as Head of Marketing in 2021, where she has been tasked with revolutionizing the 100-year-old brand.

In this episode, Alan and Alyson discuss her non-traditional path from pharmacy school to technology to insurance, and of course, we talk about Jake! State Farm has seven iconic brand assets, the most famous and well-cultivated being Jake from State Farm. Alyson tells us the story behind the iconic Jake character, the strategy behind it now, and how he is helping the brand resonate with Gen Z. After realizing that they had the older audience well secured, State Farm began to focus on expanding to the younger generation and investing in future demand generation. They have several diverse partnerships and spokespeople, from Disney to NBA 2K to Jimmy Fallon, that help the brand connect with the public and, specifically, young people. Like most insurance companies, State Farm leverages humor in these marketing efforts, but what sets them apart is maintaining contextual relevance and strategically utilizing their assets, like Patrick Mahomes, to reach the audience he is most relevant with, people watching Monday Night Football. Alyson also tells us why sports play such a large role in the marketing strategy and how her team is working with large media partners to cobrand and integrate naturally into entertainment content.

In this episode, you'll learn:

The story behind Jake from State Farm, why he is so unique, and how they are leveraging the asset to reach Gen Z
How they are creating future demand through strategic partnerships and doubling down with gamers
Why State Farm prioritized maintaining a large presence in sports

Key Highlights: