Strengthening Pediatric Care Relationships: Key Insights to Secure Growth in a Competitive Market

Because of this, the pediatric health system needed to understand and compare consumer awareness, usage, and advocacy for their system vs. their top competitors. They also wanted to know how perceptions of their primary and specialty pediatric care compared across different demographic segments. Insight into these areas would help them maintain and grow their market positioning, particularly when it came to the primary pediatric care space.

They were particularly focused on these key questions:

• What are the awareness and consideration levels for our system (vs. competitor systems) among different demographic groups?
• What drives parents’ decisions when choosing pediatric care providers?
• How well-known are our system’s satellite locations beyond the main hospital complex?
• How can we differentiate ourselves from other providers that serve both adults and children?

The Solution

To address these questions, we designed a brand health tracking plan that would give this health system a comprehensive understanding of their position in the market and help them strategize for future growth.

After working closely with the system’s internal brand teams, we identified the following metrics to measure:

• Total brand awareness
• Brand consideration
• Drivers of pediatric primary care provider choice
• Satisfaction with primary care providers
• Likelihood to switch providers
• Advertising recall

Our brand health tracking study design considered critical factors such as gender, age, reaching complex target demographics, and the distinctions between current and future parents. We remained closely engaged throughout the fielding process, ensuring we met the necessary quotas and sub quotas for each demographic and geographic segment. The data was weighted against historical county proportions to maintain consistency and accuracy across the brand health study’s multi-year timeline.

In our analysis, we cross-referenced the data collected with market trends and industry benchmarks to provide the system with a 360-degree view of their brand health and competitive comparisons. This gave the health system the insights needed to enhance their positioning within the minds of parents and prospective parents.

The Wins

The results of our brand health study revealed several key insights that this pediatric health system could act on to solidify their market position:

• Understanding Current and Future Parents: We identified the top factors influencing pediatric care provider selection among parents, giving the system a clearer understanding of what drives decision-making. This knowledge equipped their marketing team with key insights to target specific audience segments. Additionally, we explored awareness and consideration levels among non-parents, revealing an opportunity to strengthen key brand messaging points across digital channels. These adjustments could help the system make significant inroads and expand their market share in the competitive primary care space.
• Virtual Care Trends: Virtual care has become an expected convenience feature in healthcare delivery, with a quickly growing number of appointments conducted virtually. Our research found that, to remain competitive, this health system must refine and expand their virtual care offerings and demonstrate that their technology can meet and exceed consumer expectations. Our insights helped them allocate resources to virtual care initiatives accordingly.
• Brand Consideration and Provider Switching: While the system maintained a significant lead in primary pediatric care consideration, we found that a specific demographic was more likely to switch primary care providers away from competitors. This insight highlighted an opportunity for the system to tailor their messaging to this demographic.
• Enhancing Visibility of Satellite Locations: For this system, we found that many parents were unaware of multiple care locations outside of the main hospital. Increasing communication efforts through targeted digital campaigns and raising the visibility of these satellite locations could reduce the assumption that care must be sought at the main hospital campus. In turn, this would help ensure more parents choose the system for routine care closer to home.

We collaborated with the system’s marketing and brand teams to share these results and offer more tailored recommendations during in-person presentations, where we provided clear, specific next steps for continued growth and strategic market positioning.

As a result of this partnership, this leading pediatric health system is now better equipped to promote its satellite locations, expand its virtual care services, and continue positioning itself as the top primary and specialty pediatric care provider in the region.