By Anny Beck, Brand Strategy & Healthcare Communications, Quaintise
Healthcare organizations have become increasingly sophisticated marketers. Health systems, physician groups, medical technology companies and other healthcare organizations have built internal teams with deep knowledge of their businesses and the markets they serve. Those teams understand their organizations in ways an outside partner cannot. They know the history behind the brand, the priorities of leadership, the realities of the competitive environment and the operational considerations that influence what can be accomplished.
There are times, however, when knowing an organization extremely well can make it harder to evaluate it from the outside.
This is particularly relevant in healthcare today because the market is evolving on several fronts at once. Consumers have more choices and greater access to information. New competitors continue to enter traditional healthcare markets. Technology is changing how people search for information, evaluate healthcare organizations, and access their care.
McKinsey's research on the evolving U.S. healthcare consumer found that many assumptions healthcare organizations have traditionally made about consumers no longer hold true. Its 2023 and 2024 consumer surveys found that people are taking a more active role in healthcare decisions and are seeking more information and new ways to engage with healthcare organizations.1
At the same time, healthcare organizations continue to operate under considerable financial and operational pressure. McKinsey reported that U.S. healthcare industry EBITDA as a share of national health expenditures declined by an estimated 150 basis points between 2019 and 2024, with payers and providers particularly affected. Providers have also continued to contend with labor shortages, inflationary pressures and constrained reimbursement growth.2
These changes have also redefined the role of marketing within healthcare organizations. Marketing decisions are increasingly connected to larger corporate priorities, including growth, differentiation and retaining patients and physicians. As a result, marketing teams are being asked to contribute well beyond communications and promotion.
At Quaintise, our work with healthcare organizations has provided a broad view of how internal teams and outside partners approach many of the same strategic challenges. While circumstances differ, we have consistently seen five areas where an outside perspective can strengthen strategy and help organizations identify opportunities they may not have considered.
1. Understanding How the Market Actually Sees the Organization
Healthcare organizations devote considerable effort to defining their brands. They develop positioning, messaging, visual identities, service-line strategies and communications intended to shape how patients, physicians, customers and communities understand them.
The difficulty is that the market does not experience a brand from inside the organization.
A patient may encounter a health system through an online search for a specialist. A physician may form an opinion through a referral relationship. An employer may know the organization through an occupational health program. A prospective employee may encounter it through recruiting. A healthcare company's customers may know a product well but have little understanding of the larger organization behind it.
Each audience builds its perception from a different set of experiences, and those perceptions do not always align with the way the organization describes itself.
Consider something as common as clinical excellence. A health system may have legitimate evidence that its clinical quality is exceptional, and that may be an important part of its identity. But if every major competitor in the market also leads with quality, expertise and compassionate care, those attributes may do little to explain why someone should choose one organization over another.
The same issue appears in other parts of healthcare. A physician practice may emphasize the credentials and expertise of its physicians, but patients may be primarily concerned with how quickly they can get an appointment. A medical technology company may focus its communications on technical features while its customers are trying to understand how the product will improve workflow, outcomes or economics. An organization may have developed an important new capability without recognizing that the market does not yet understand why it matters.
An external review can provide a useful comparison between the organization's intended positioning and what a patient, customer or other stakeholder is likely to see. That analysis may include competitive positioning, audience research, messaging, digital experience, reputation, search visibility and the consistency between what the brand promises and what the organization delivers.
Recent consumer research makes that comparison increasingly important. In McKinsey's 2025 Consumer Health Insights Survey, approximately one in three U.S. consumers said the healthcare industry performed below their expectations, while half said it was failing to meet society's needs. McKinsey argues that rebuilding confidence requires healthcare organizations to define their brands intentionally and then deliver products, services and experiences that fulfill those brand promises.3
An outside perspective can be valuable because it begins with fewer assumptions about what audiences already know. That makes it easier to identify where an organization's strengths are clear, where they are difficult to see and where the market may be forming a different impression than leadership intended.
2. Testing Assumptions Against a Changing Market
Every organization makes strategic decisions based on what it knows about its market. Over time, that knowledge becomes part of the institutional understanding of the business. Marketing teams know which audiences matter, which competitors are relevant, which services have growth potential, and which messages have historically performed well.
Much of that knowledge remains valuable for years. Some of it does not.
Healthcare markets can change considerably while an organization's assumptions remain relatively stable. A competitor may invest heavily in a service line it previously did not emphasize. Population growth may create demand in a different geographic area. Physician referral patterns may shift. New technology may change how a service is delivered.
McKinsey's recent research on the evolving U.S. healthcare consumer illustrates some of these changes. Its findings suggest that consumers are becoming more active participants in healthcare decisions and that organizations need to reconsider assumptions about convenience, information, engagement and decision-making that may have been reasonable in the past.
The strategic risk occurs when an assumption that was once accurate becomes the foundation for decisions without being tested again.
A hospital may continue investing heavily in awareness for a service line when awareness is no longer the primary barrier to growth. The actual problem may be access, referral leakage or an unclear point of differentiation.
A healthcare company may also continue explaining a product as it did when the category was new, even though customers now evaluate competing solutions on different criteria.
These are difficult issues to identify through marketing performance data alone because the existing strategy determines much of what is being measured.
Outside research can provide another reference point. Market analysis, competitive intelligence, stakeholder interviews and an independent review of existing strategy can help determine which assumptions remain well supported and which deserve reconsideration.
At Quaintise, we have found this particularly useful when organizations are preparing for change. New leadership, an acquisition, geographic expansion, a new service, a rebrand or a growth initiative creates a natural point to revisit what the organization believes about its market rather than automatically carrying those assumptions into the next phase.
3. Bringing Ideas and Experience from Beyond the Immediate Market
One of the practical limitations facing any internal team is that most of its experience is necessarily concentrated within one organization.
That depth is valuable. It is also different from the perspective developed by people who work across multiple organizations, markets and business situations.
An outside partner may see several organizations trying to solve similar growth problems at the same time. It may see how different markets are responding to consumer behavior, which positioning strategies are becoming commonplace, where competitors are increasing investment and which marketing approaches are producing different results. A health system trying to increase utilization of a specialty service may have something to learn from another market where consumers have more choices. A medical technology company trying to educate physicians about an unfamiliar product may benefit from approaches developed in another complex B2B category. A healthcare organization trying to build stronger relationships with employers may find useful ideas in industries that have spent years developing sophisticated account-based marketing programs.
There is also value in looking beyond healthcare.
Healthcare differs from other consumer industries in important ways, from clinical complexity and regulation to the personal consequences of healthcare decisions. Direct comparisons with retail or hospitality can therefore be inappropriate.
Consumers, however, do not leave their expectations behind when they enter the healthcare system.
Consumers become accustomed to finding information quickly, comparing alternatives, completing transactions digitally and moving easily between online and offline experiences. When healthcare does not provide similar clarity or convenience, they experience the difference even if healthcare itself is more complicated.
McKinsey's research found that healthcare consumers increasingly expect many of the same qualities they value elsewhere, including convenience, transparency and easier access to information and services.
Academic research also supports the value of this broader perspective. In an article published in BMC Health Services Research, James K. Elrod and John L. Fortenberry Jr. examined how Willis-Knighton Health System looked beyond traditional healthcare institutions for marketing ideas while pursuing expansion. They argue that healthcare organizations can become overly inward-looking, limiting exposure to externally derived innovations that may create opportunities for differentiation and competitive advantage.4
The lesson is not that healthcare organizations should imitate consumer brands or import tactics simply because they are successful elsewhere. The more useful approach is to examine why something works and determine whether the underlying idea has relevance in healthcare.
4. Adding Specialized Expertise and Capacity When the Organization Needs It
Healthcare marketing departments are responsible for a much broader range of capabilities than they were even a decade ago.
A single organization may need expertise in brand strategy, consumer research, service-line marketing, digital advertising, content, public relations, analytics, marketing technology and business development. Artificial intelligence is adding another layer while changing search, content development, personalization, analytics and marketing operations.
Maintaining deep expertise in every one of these areas internally would be difficult for most organizations and unnecessary for many. The need for specialized expertise also changes over time.
A health system considering a rebrand may temporarily require significant research and brand strategy capabilities. A physician group entering a new market may need competitive analysis, positioning and a launch strategy. A healthcare company introducing a new product may need additional public relations, content, digital marketing and sales support.
An outside partner can provide access to these capabilities when they are most valuable without requiring the organization to build a permanent internal structure around every possible future need.
External partnerships are already important to many marketing operating models. In McKinsey research among consumer and retail marketing leaders, 34 percent of CMOs said third-party partnerships were central to achieving their marketing agenda, yet only 43 percent managed those relationships as part of a strategic ecosystem.5
The greater opportunity is to use external resources selectively where their expertise and experience materially improve what the organization can accomplish.
Capacity is an important part of this equation as well.
Internal marketing departments have ongoing work that cannot stop when a major strategic initiative begins. Service lines still require support, digital platforms must be maintained, campaigns continue to run and new priorities emerge throughout the year.
Organizations can therefore have highly capable strategists internally and still struggle to devote sufficient time to the research and analysis a major initiative deserves.
An external team can create capacity for that work while keeping the internal team closely involved. Research, competitive analysis, stakeholder interviews and strategic options can be developed without requiring the marketing department to set aside its ongoing responsibilities.
This works best when the external team is integrated into the process rather than handed an assignment and sent away to develop an answer independently.
The internal team provides the organizational knowledge and practical context. Outside specialists provide additional resources and expertise. The resulting strategy benefits from both.
5. Connecting Marketing More Directly to Growth and Business Strategy
Perhaps the most important reason to introduce an outside perspective is also the one that has the least to do with outsourcing marketing work.
It is the opportunity to reconsider the problem before deciding on the marketing solution.
Marketing departments receive requests in the language of deliverables: a service line needs a campaign, leadership wants a new website, a business unit wants more social media, or an underperforming service needs advertising.
Those may all be appropriate solutions, but the request itself does not necessarily identify the underlying business problem.
A service line that appears to need more promotion may already have strong awareness. Its growth problem may be limited appointment availability, weak physician referrals, confusing positioning or a competitor with a more convenient offering.
A healthcare company asking for a new website may have a deeper problem with its value proposition. Rebuilding the site without addressing the positioning may simply present the same unclear story in a better design.
An outside perspective can be useful because the external team is not responsible for defending the existing marketing approach or organizational structure. It can examine the business objective and work backward toward the appropriate strategy.
This pressure is reflected in the 2025 CMO Survey, supported by Deloitte and conducted by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, which gathered insights from more than 250 marketing leaders. The survey found that 64 percent of CMOs chose proving marketing's value to the business as their top challenge. It also found that 62 percent said their biggest talent challenge was finding the right external people—three times the percentage focused on upskilling or repositioning internal teams.⁶
Before deciding how to market a service or increase spending, organizations need to understand what is actually preventing growth and where additional demand can realistically be converted into business.
An experienced outside partner can help examine those questions without beginning with a predetermined marketing deliverable.
In some cases, that analysis confirms the original direction; in others, it changes the assignment significantly. Either result creates a clearer connection between the investment and the outcome the organization is trying to achieve.
This is also where marketing can become more closely integrated with organizational strategy.
When marketing begins with questions about market opportunity, consumer behavior, competitive position, service-line growth and business objectives, it becomes more than a communications function. It becomes part of how the organization decides where and how it can grow.
Combining Internal Knowledge with Outside Perspective
The case for outside perspective should not be confused with an argument for moving marketing strategy outside the organization.
Healthcare organizations need strong internal marketing leadership. Outside partners need access to people who understand the organization's history, operations, culture, patients, physicians, business priorities and practical constraints. Without that knowledge, even sophisticated outside analysis can produce recommendations that are difficult to implement or poorly suited to the organization.
The more useful model combines the two.
Research on modern marketing operating models supports this integrated approach. McKinsey argues that marketing organizations increasingly need to function as ecosystems of internal and external capabilities coordinated around common objectives rather than managed as isolated vendors.7
This collaboration also allows an external partner to develop a deeper understanding of the organization over time while preserving the different perspective that made the relationship useful.
At Quaintise, our experience working with healthcare organizations for more than 15 years has shown that some of the most productive client relationships begin when the internal team already has considerable expertise. The value is not that an outside agency arrives with all the answers, but that organizational knowledge is combined with additional research, experience, capabilities and perspective to address a specific business opportunity.
That is why the choice of an outside partner matters.
The right partner should understand healthcare's complexities without assuming its traditional approaches are the only ones available. It should take time to understand the business, bring relevant experience from other organizations and markets, and recognize that strategies cannot simply be transferred from one organization to another.
Most importantly, it should connect strategy with execution. Analysis of a market opportunity has limited value if the organization cannot translate it into positioning, messaging, campaigns, digital experiences, physician engagement, business development or other actions required to pursue the opportunity.
Looking Beyond the Organization
Internal marketing teams can and should lead many initiatives without outside support. In other situations, a different perspective can materially improve the work.
Periods of growth and change are obvious examples. A new market, acquisition, leadership transition, major service-line initiative, rebrand or new product creates questions beyond routine marketing execution. Outside perspective can also help when growth has slowed, competitors are gaining ground, a brand no longer reflects the business, or substantial marketing activity is failing to produce expected results.
Healthcare organizations possess enormous institutional knowledge, and the strongest outside partners recognize that knowledge as the foundation of the work rather than something to replace.
What an outside perspective can add is a different view of the market, broader experience, specialized expertise when needed and the ability to examine familiar challenges without being constrained by the same history that produced them.
The objective is not to look outside because the answers are always somewhere else. It is to make sure that, when an organization makes an important decision about its brand, marketing or growth strategy, it has considered the opportunity from more than one point of view.
Sources:
1. McKinsey & Company. “Engaging the evolving US healthcare consumer and improving business performance.” March 7, 2025. Based on McKinsey Consumer Health Insights surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024 and the 2024 McKinsey Health Media Consumer Survey. View source
2. McKinsey & Company. “What to expect in US healthcare in 2025 and beyond.” January 10, 2025. View source
3. McKinsey & Company. “Healing consumer confidence through AI-powered, human-centered healthcare.” February 19, 2026. Findings from the 2025 McKinsey Consumer Health Insights Survey. View source
4. Elrod, James K., and John L. Fortenberry Jr. “Catalyzing marketing innovation and competitive advantage in the healthcare industry: the value of thinking like an outsider.” BMC Health Services Research 18, Suppl 3, 922 (2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12913-018-3682-9. PubMed record
5. McKinsey & Company. “Connecting for growth: A makeover for your marketing operating model.” Research reporting that 34% of CMOs considered third-party partnerships central to their marketing agenda and 43% managed them as part of a strategic ecosystem. View source
6. Deloitte. CMO Perspectives, 2025. Source data: The CMO Survey, Spring 2025. Reports that 64% of CMOs identified proving marketing's value to the business as their top challenge and 62% identified finding the right external people as their largest talent challenge. View report
7. McKinsey & Company. “Building a marketing organization that drives growth today.” Discusses modern marketing organizations as fluid ecosystems of internal and external partners and the need to determine which capabilities should be maintained internally versus sourced externally. View source