Maintaining a Competitive Edge by Uncovering Unmet Community Needs

LIFT was approached to help design and guide Brookwood through a design-thinking exercise to help inform, articulate, and deploy a more human-centered marketing program. We aimed to understand deeply the community’s needs, beliefs, and motivations regarding Brookwood, what drove loyalty, and what risks existed to losing patients to a new hospital. We also endeavored to understand the cultural drivers present within the community that could be integrated into marketing messaging to encourage them to seek care at Brookwood rather than their competitors.

Our study focused on illuminating community beliefs and cultural drivers of behavior related to health and accessing health services. We understood that Brookwood’s community was complicated and that with the right insights into their beliefs, we could articulate a marketing strategy aligned with our client’s goals of maintaining deep trust within the community and protecting market share.

To provide the context needed to craft a marketing strategy that strengthened relationships within the community, LIFT conducted a comprehensive research initiative that combined market research, ethnographic research, and consumer perception analysis to develop a data-driven and deeply human-centered marketing strategy.

LIFT deployed a team of ethnographers to conduct community interviews and an in-depth ethnographic immersion to understand better their lives, beliefs, healthcare needs, levels of healthcare literacy, and social-emotional drivers of health behavior.

Brookwood could protect its market share by reinforcing its deep community roots and position as a trusted healthcare leader. By engaging key influencers and emphasizing relationships over transactions, Brookwood could sustain trust, strengthen its role as an indispensable healthcare partner, and maintain market share.

To effectively engage the community and drive meaningful healthcare interactions, we recommended a multi-channel approach, including traditional media, patient education, local events, and community partnerships. We recommended a test-and-refine strategy to optimize outreach based on audience responsiveness and KPIs. Key tactics included:

• Message and demonstrate that Brookwood is “one of them, not an outsider”
• Engage pre-existing influencers
• Invest in physician relationships because they are trusted, local sources
• Establish recurring meet-ups and events to be physically present in the community.
• Be visible and present at local festivals and sporting events
• Partner with local companies and employers more actively
• Embed navigators in the community
• Expand use of patient education resources

Finally, we recommended an ongoing ethnography to inform content strategy by coordinating informal social events, deploying authentic community-driven messaging, and fostering ongoing conversations. One community member emphasized, “Progress comes from improving healthcare together, not creating monopolies.”

This integrated approach enabled Brookwood to protect market share, grow service lines that treat intensive or critical care conditions, while maintaining primary and urgent care.