Why healthcare brands can’t stand still 

For decades, healthcare organizations could rely on clinical expertise and institutional reputation to ensure their relevance. If you had a large building or a secure spot on the shelf, a steady stream of lifelong business followed. Brand was mostly inconsequential – often limited to surface-level visuals like logos, signage and local marketing.
That logic no longer holds.

Today, healthcare companies are operating in a market where clinical excellence is necessary but insufficient. They are competing not just with other providers, but with digital-first, well-funded health and wellness startups that are expert at storytelling, retail marketing, and consumer acquisition. In this environment, refreshing your brand to reflect the reality of what makes you credible and distinctive is essential.

A new healthcare reality: credibility alone isn’t enough

A seismic reorientation of how, and where, care is delivered and paid for is already underway, creating pressure from several directions across providers, platforms, and multi-service healthcare businesses. And this isn’t limited to established healthcare organizations. Change is moving so quickly, across technology, policy, and care delivery, that even relatively young companies are finding their brand isn’t keeping pace with how the business has evolved.

First, for many legacy healthcare organizations, brand investment wasn’t a strategic priority. While their businesses performed well for years or decades, technology (some of it expensive) leapt forward and patient expectations evolved. But brands, often built 20 or 25 years ago, didn’t keep pace. The result is a growing disconnect between the quality of an organization’s products and services and how it shows up in the world.

Second, healthcare is now competing directly with digital-first challengers for attention and relevance. Companies like Midi, Hims & Hers, and Ro have built awareness not through traditional medical channels, but through Instagram, influencers, and polished DTC experiences – consumer-first and brand-led, operating with fewer legacy constraints, and focused on experience, pricing, and access. They reach audiences that traditional healthcare companies have historically struggled to engage, while operating with no legacy infrastructure, no physical footprint to maintain at scale, and significant venture backing, allowing them to move fast and market aggressively.

Third, healthcare organizations – many of them under pressure from PE owners to grow, diversify, or unlock new revenue streams – are expanding into new, diversified, and often cash-pay services. We’ve seen this with dermatologists vs. med spas and physical therapy clinics vs. digital-only apps. These services behave less like classic medicine and more like retail: sticker prices, daily promotions, and elevated experiences. In many cases, these businesses are entering arenas their brands, and marketing capabilities, were never designed to compete in, creating a clear capability gap.

Fourth, healthcare is being pulled between retail expectations and medical seriousness. Consumers expect ease, clarity, and digital access – but they still want rigor, credibility, and trust. Lean too far into retail language and you risk feeling flimsy. Stay too clinical and you risk feeling inaccessible or outdated. Navigating that tension has become a core strategic challenge, not just a messaging one.

Finally, incumbents face a fundamental disadvantage compared to startups: institutional friction. The weight of physical locations, regulatory complexity, legacy systems, and referral-based operating models creates real constraints. Additionally, the landscape in the past required capital investments and referral patterns that aren’t necessary for digital first entrants.
SimonMed found itself at the center of all of these pressures.

How to reposition to remain credible

As one of the largest diagnostic imaging providers in the U.S., SimonMed had built decades of clinical credibility and technological leadership. But its brand had fallen behind. Marketing was fragmented. The identity no longer reflected the sophistication of the business – particularly as SimonMed expanded into direct-to-consumer preventative and longevity services, competing head-to-head with venture-backed startups in a highly visible, consumer-driven space.
The strategic question wasn’t whether SimonMed should modernize its brand. It was how.

Rather than creating a separate sub-brand for cash-pay services, SimonMed chose to refresh the Masterbrand itself, carrying clinical authority and accessibility forward while modernizing expression across positioning, messaging, design, and digital experience. The intent was explicit: to level the playing field, bringing the credibility of a leading medical institution into a consumer-led, digitally savvy marketplace without diluting seriousness or trust.

The result is a brand built to operate in today’s healthcare reality, where organizations must now be masters of medicine, technology, and marketing at the same time.

Building brands for the future of healthcare

That requirement isn’t unique to SimonMed. As care becomes more consumer-directed, more digital, and more diversified, brand identity and expression have become strategic assets. They shape who gets considered, who gets trusted, and who gets chosen. Especially when new services, new audiences, and new business models are in play.

Refreshing your brand is no longer about aesthetics. It’s about whether your organization can expand, compete, and stay relevant as the healthcare landscape is being fundamentally reshaped.

To learn more, explore the SimonMed case study, or connect with us to discuss what your brand needs to achieve your business ambitions.