046 | The Genuine Power of a HealthTech Brand with Bethany Hale of Cedar | Studio CMO - a podcast by Golden Spiral, Shaping Technology Marketing

The Episode in 60 Seconds

How do you build a company that always puts the customer first? Sarah Acton, VP of Sales and Marketing for Athos, has done so by building a synergistic organization that shares customer stories, digs into customer needs, and listens to each other. On this episode of Studio CMO, Sarah discusses:

• How to Listen to Your Customer and Each Other
• How to Build Internal Synergy for the Benefit of the Customer
• How to Cultivate a Company's Culture and Values
• Tips for Hiring the Best HealthTech Talent
• What it Takes to be a Good Client for an Agency

About Our Guest

Bethany Hale is the Head of Marketing at Cedar, a data-driven patient payment and engagement platform. She brings 15+years of experience across marketing strategy, brand development, content and performance marketing, and customer experience design to this role.  Prior to joining Cedar, Bethany spent 7 years at IBM, most recently as a product manager on the healthcare team where she created an AI-enhanced, pre-configured marketing automation platform, in partnership with Adobe, that enables healthcare & life sciences marketers to drive improved healthcare consumer experiences, increased revenue and more effective marketing campaigns. Bethany is a creative storyteller and thought leader who has worked with other notable brands including American Express, Samsung Electronics, Hertz, Pfizer, Microsoft, and Chevron. She has an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University.

Cedar closed a round of funding worth $200-million on March 9th. 

Cedar was mentioned as one of the fastest-growing HealthTech companies in 2020, second only to Amazon. Find out more in this report from KLAS and this study co-sponsored by Forrester and Cedar. Hear the story at 25:40.

Show Notes

"It always confounds me the fact that my daughter, who's six years old, can figure out how to find her favorite show on Netflix, by herself. Yet I, with an MBA and someone who works in healthcare, still can't decipher my own medical bills. That's the real gap in that consumer experience. People expect to understand how to pay a bill. That's what we're trying to accomplish at Cedar." —Bethany Hale

Why to Carefully Consider Brand

Brand is important for:

• your company
• talking to potential clients and buyers
• recruiting potential talent
• communicating with the community at large
• establishing yourself as a thought leader

Coming out to the market, you want to know who you are first, what your position is, and why you're different. —Bethany Hale

Bethany Hale wrote this article about the story behind Cedar's rebranding.

Golden Spiral's VP of Design, Luke Farkas, breaks down how to build a Brand's Visual Identity System in this article.

Keys to a HealthTech Company Gaining New Business

• Can you prove that you can do the work?
• Can you demonstrate your success with a health system like your prospect's?
• How do you work with and/or integrate with the key electronic medical record providers?
• How do you integrate with other leading healthcare systems?
• Do you understand the patient populations you've worked with in the past and of the prospect's?

Good brands are consistent, differentiated, and clear. — Bethany Hale

How Brand Helps HealthTech Companies Recruit Talent

You will not be able to meet your financial goals nor touch the number of lives you desire without the right talent.

• Does your brand demonstrate your diversity in all ways?
• Does your brand reflect the patient population of the US?
• Can potential employees understand your vision, values, and mission?
• Do your recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding practices communicate how your company works and how you meet your goals?

Cedar's Recruiting Portal Listen to Studio CMO host John Farkas discuss the importance of brand for recruiting the right talent at 20:43 and following.

Your Prospect's Experience Matters to Your Brand

Cedar's mindset is: "You can't miss this!" Curating a VIP event over a virtual platform is challenging because naturally occurring conversations that happen at a live event don't happen—without intention—online.

• Cedar is thoughtful about its online events:
• How do we inspire conversation?
• How do we gain engagement?
• How do we include the right people?
• How do we build communities?
• How do we create a "white glove" experience?
• How do we cut through the clutter?

Ashton Kutcher is an investor in Cedar. Read about a recent "white glove" event he hosted.

Virtual Events Can Be Stronger than Live Events. An article from Golden Spiral

Chelsea Clinton's presentation

Paul Ryan's presentation

Telling Your Brand Story

"When you're telling a clear story that sets above the rest, that's going to create a confidence. That's going to create something that people are not accustomed to seeing in the space. Because what they're accustomed to is very confusing, multidimensional messages that are hard to make your way through. And if you can hold something up and say, 'Clearly, here's our value. Here's what we look like. Here's what you can expect when you relate with us. If you can set some of that forward in a way that is clear and comforting, it inspires movement. —John Farkas

Brand building: First, build trust with your stakeholders, then build relationships, then provide value. — Bethany Hale

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