.jpg)
What 'Creative' Really Means in Healthcare Marketing... and Why It Matters.
- Michael Colling-Tuck
- Apr 28
- 4 min read
Introduction: Why Healthcare Needs to Rethink 'Creative'
In healthcare marketing, the word creative is thrown around.
A lot.
Agencies talk about "being more creative," clients are told to "inject more creativity," and yet few people stop to define what that really means.
Too often, creativity is mistaken for surface-level assets: expensive logos, flashy graphics, or bold branding campaigns.
In a sector where trust, ethics, and strategy must guide every move, this misunderstanding of creativity isn't just a missed opportunity - it's hindering the ability of brilliant healthcare innovations to advance healthcare.
True creativity in healthcare marketing doesn't start with graphic design. It begins with a strategic understanding of your market and audience and how you can meaningfully and safely stand out to your ideal customer.
Common Misinterpretations of Creativity in Healthcare
In my 20 years working across five continents in healthcare marketing, I've seen creativity frequently equated with:
Beautiful artwork and expensive design
Content disconnected from commercial goals
Vanity pieces that inadvertently threaten brand integrity
While visual identity matters, creativity divorced from strategic grounding risks misrepresenting a company's purpose, confusing the market, or damaging trust with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients.
Let's be clear... In healthcare, trust is everything.
Creativity that strays from strategic and ethical foundations can be a costly mistake.
True Creativity Is Strategic — Not Surface-Level
Creativity, in its purest form, is not what you produce. It's how you think. It's how you solve problems. It's how you access customers in ways others haven't considered.
Our Definition:
Creativity is strategically segmenting your market and finding inventive ways to access, demonstrate value to, and stand out to your ideal customer profile.
A Theoretical Example: Strategic Creativity in Action
Let's create a theoretical example to illustrate this approach in practice.
Imagine a medical device company with an innovative surgical navigation system. They've invested heavily in "creative" marketing - stunning visuals, slick brochures, and an award-winning website. Yet despite the beautiful materials, sales remain flat.
In this scenario, a strategic creative approach would look quite different.
The first step wouldn't be redesigning anything. Instead, it would involve:
Analysing sales data to identify which specialities show the strongest adoption (revealing, say, orthopaedic surgeons in mid-size hospitals)
Interviewing these surgeons to understand their specific challenges (perhaps reducing revision rates while managing increasing caseloads)
Mapping the whole decision-making unit around these surgeons (including OR directors concerned with efficiency metrics)
Only then would the creative work begin - not with flashy designs but with targeted content addressing each stakeholder's specific concerns.
For surgeons, case-based learning modules would demonstrate complication avoidance.
For procurement, ROI calculators would demonstrate throughput improvements.
For the C-Suite, a documented proposal tailored to how your company can help them achieve their key objective outlined in their annual report
That's strategic creativity at work.
The Strategic Foundation of Creativity: TAM, Segmentation, and Your ICP
True creative work begins far before a designer picks up a pen.
It starts with:
Understanding your Total Addressable Market (TAM)
Segmenting that market down into accessible, relevant groups
Identifying your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)—the companies and people most likely to find value in what you offer because you solve real, meaningful problems for them.
This isn't guesswork or waiting for inspiration.
It's methodical.
It's grounded.
It's strategic.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): The Heart of Healthcare Creativity
Finding your ICP isn't just about who might buy your product; it's about who truly needs it.
And here's the critical distinction I emphasise with every client:
When you solve an issue for someone, they thank you.
When you solve a problem for someone, they pay you.
Strategic healthcare marketing focuses on companies and personas where your product or service solves real problems. These customers will see your product or service value clearly and pay for it because you're not just nice to have, you're a necessary part of their success.
When you understand that, every creative decision becomes sharper, safer, and far more effective.
Mapping the Humans Behind the Logos
Once you know your ICP, the real creative work begins:
Define the personas within the organisation, their roles, challenges, goals, and fears.
Understand their barriers - What stands in the way of their success?
Recognise the symptoms - How do these problems appear in their daily work?
Position your solutions - How do you uniquely remove these barriers?
In our theoretical medical device example, we could identify that while the surgeon is the user, the procurement director is often the blocker. Their concern isn't clinical outcomes but resource utilisation. Creating materials that help surgeons address these economic concerns with their procurement directors/theatre managers could unlock previously stalled sales opportunities.
Creativity isn't crafting a colourful ad; it's crafting a message that speaks so directly to a persona's reality that it demands attention and builds trust.
Creativity Done Right: Strategic, Valuable, and Ethical
When you have a clear ICP and persona map, creativity thrives in three key dimensions:
Accessing Your Target Audience: Inventive ways to open conversations with the right people
Demonstrating Value: Messaging and content that feel personally relevant to each stakeholder
Standing Out: Making your brand memorable by being customer-centric, speaking to their challenges as opposed to features and benefits
Conclusion: Creativity Is Strategic Wisdom in Disguise
At its best, creativity in healthcare isn't about being wild - it's about being wise.
It's about understanding your audience better than anyone else, solving their real problems, and communicating your value in ways that resonate and build trust.
Because in healthcare, trust is earned. And real creativity is how you earn it.
When I look at the most successful healthcare marketing initiatives I've led over two decades, they've never been the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest designs. They've been the ones with the deepest understanding of the customer, the clearest articulation of value, and the most strategic approach to differentiation.
That's what creative really means in healthcare marketing. And that's why it matters. The Danger of 'Creativity for Creativity's Sake'?
Expensive noise. If you're a healthcare product manager or marketing leader, you'll love our Product Messaging Playbook. You can download that for free here:
No strings are attached; we don't even want your email address. If you like information like this, you'll love our weekly newsletter.
Comments