Brand-Building: Why it's Critical for Modern HCPs

The $50 billion misunderstanding.

Healthcare tech companies will spend over $50 billion on marketing this year — $25B in the US alone. Most of it will fail to move the needle.

Why? Because they're confusing two fundamentally different investments:

Branding: The architectural blueprint—your positioning, visual identity, messaging framework. It's the capital expenditure that establishes your market presence. Think of it as building the hospital.

Brand-building: The ongoing activation—campaigns, experiences, content that accumulates trust over time. It's the operational investment that creates preference and accelerates pipeline velocity. Think of it as running the hospital.

Here's what happens when healthcare companies get this wrong:

They either dump money into rebranding exercises every 18 months (all blueprint, no building), or they blast generic demand-gen campaigns without any distinctive foundation (all tactics, no strategy). Both approaches fail because modern HCPs have developed sophisticated filters against undifferentiated marketing.

The Trust Equation: How GE HealthCare revolutionized cardiac diagnosis

When cardiovascular disease kills someone every 36 seconds, you don't launch a product—you launch a movement. That's exactly what we did with GE HealthCare's Vscan Air SL handheld ultrasound.

Starting with an uncomfortable truth.

Women's heart disease symptoms are dismissed 50% more often than men's. Diagnosis delays kill. We didn't bury this in clinical jargon. We made it the centerpiece of our campaign strategy.

Engineering belief, not just awareness.

We introduced the new Vscan Air — a portable ultrasound device that allows doctors to make diagnosis at the point of care — at the European Society of Cardiology convention.

We established credibility by speaking truth, not shouting speeds and feeds. That truth? Well, what happens when diagnoses are delayed while people wait for an ultrasound appointment? One of two things:

With that in mind, the power of Vscan became obvious. It lets you know. now.

The promise of "Know. Now." greeted HCPs from the moment they got off the plane to outdoor ads approaching the convention center to a powerful video at their conference booth. We used one of the most acute problems in cardiac care — the misdiagnoses of women's cardiac issues — to highlight the urgency and emotional nature of delays with lines like "Is it heart disease or heartburn?" And we amplified all of this globally with a concerted digital and publicity campaign.

By focusing on building the Vscan brand around a message of speed, certainty, and patient-centered care, Traction helped GE HealthCare make the Vscan Air SL launch not just a product debut, but a meaningful shift in the fight against heart disease.

Honesty about aging: How Herewith disrupted senior care marketing

Most healthcare brands play it safe. Focus groups. Committee approvals. Vanilla messaging. Herewith took a different path.

The insight that changed everything.

Adult children searching for senior care solutions don't want sunshine and stock photos. They're exhausted, guilty, and desperate for honest guidance. What's more, our research revealed that the need for in-home senior care was almost always precipitated by an inciting event — and when that event happened, those caregiving children never knew where to begin.

Herewith is a start-up. Their budgets were not massive, so we needed to make an impression with every impression we bought. Our campaign acknowledged this reality with two words: "Old happens."

Precision empathy at scale.

We combined emotional authenticity with AI-driven personalization:

The quarter that proved the model.

First-time marketing investment. One quarter. Acquisition goals exceeded by 47%.

Why? Because we didn't market at people—we met them in their moment of need with radical honesty and practical solutions.

The Healthcare Tech Brand-Building Playbook

Ready to break through? Here's your strategic framework:

1. Identify your "clinical truth moment."

Every breakthrough healthcare brand anchors to an uncomfortable reality:

Talk to HCPs. Find yours. Own it completely.

2. Build your specialist ecosystem.

Stop broadcasting. Start building communities:

3. Deploy AI for relevance, not reach.

Modern HCP engagement requires intelligence:

4. Create signature experiences.

Move beyond traditional tactics:

5. Measure momentum, not just MQLs.

Track indicators of brand velocity:

Healthcare technology marketing: How AI is reshaping patient care

We're entering an era where AI will reshape patient care fundamentally. But the companies that win won't be those with the best algorithms—they'll be those who build brands that healthcare professionals trust implicitly.

This requires abandoning the safety of feature-function marketing. It means confronting uncomfortable truths about healthcare delivery. It demands investing in long-term brand equity while delivering short-term pipeline impact.

The healthcare technology companies thriving today—like GE HealthCare and Herewith—understand this balance. They're not just vendors in the healthcare ecosystem. They're vital partners in the mission to improve patient outcomes.

Your Next Move

If your healthcare technology marketing feels stuck in the vendor trap—if HCPs aren't responding to your outreach—it's time for a different approach.

Stop asking "How do we generate more leads?" Start asking "How do we earn the right to their attention?"

The answer isn't more automation, more personalization, or more content. It's brand-building that respects the complexity of modern healthcare while acknowledging the humanity of the professionals who deliver it.

Ready to break through? Let's discuss how brand-building can transform your healthcare technology company from vendor to vital partner. Because when trust and relevance meet clinical excellence, extraordinary growth follows.

Adam Kleinberg is CEO of Traction, the AI-powered marketing accelerator that helps healthcare technology and insurance companies build brands that matter. With proven success helping companies like GE HealthCare, Herewith, and other healthcare innovators break through to modern HCPs, Traction combines deep healthcare expertise with cutting-edge brand-building strategies.