Building a Brand in Healthcare's Most Competitive AI Market

Brand has become the B-word in our industry. It’s almost viewed as a dirty word in certain C-Suites and marketing leaders bring it up at their peril.

But let's face it, without a strong brand, your sales are going nowhere. And this is especially the case in healthcare technology, where buyers have favorites and start a 13+ month buyer journey with a shortlist in mind.

In this episode, I sit down again with my friend and healthtech marketing leader, Lea Chatham, to unpack what it takes to create and build a strong brand.

We discuss what it really takes to build a brand in the white-hot ambient AI/clinical scribe space. We start with the reality that large buying groups are overwhelmed with noise, and increasingly turn to a few trusted sources to quietly shortlist the top two or three vendors before they ever talk to sales. If you’re not consistently showing up with credibility in those channels, you may never even make the long list, let alone the shortlist.

Lea and I then dive into the specific brand challenges she’s taken on at Heidi Health. Heidi began as a bottom-up, product-led, physician-led company with a very “sign up free and try it” feel. Lea walks through how they’ve repositioned Heidi to a broader “AI care partner” that can sit beside any clinician across organizations of all sizes, while still staying obsessed with physician experience and adoption.
We also explore the broader competitive landscape in ambient AI. Lea describes two main camps: solutions tightly embedded in the EHR, and “untethered” scribes where integration is the last step rather than the first.

From there we zoom out into brand strategy and execution. We talk about the constant push to create “branded demand,” where every brand investment also drives pipeline, and every demand gen motion reinforces the brand. Lea explains that you can’t build a serious brand in this market purely organically. You have to spend selectively, like picking a few big bets (like going big with CHIME, co-authoring an award submission with marquee enterprise customers, or key analyst relationships) that can create outsized visibility and credibility quickly while your broader organic engine spins up.

Key Topics Covered:
(00:00) Setting the Stage: Ambient AI “Land Grab” & Buying Groups
(03:10) Heidi as the “New Kid” & the Enterprise Brand Barrier
(06:20) Measuring Brand Without a Six-Figure Budget
(10:20) Mapping the Ambient AI Landscape & Heidi’s Positioning
(16:20) Global Brand, Local Markets: From Scribe to “AI Care Partner”
(19:30) Tailoring Messaging for Personas, ICPs & Regions
(25:10) Brand Consistency, Naming, and Product Architecture
(30:10) Building the Heidi Brand in the US: Tactics & “Branded Demand”
(35:40) Adapting SEO for the AI & Prompt Era
(38:00) Final Advice: Strategic Spend & Big Bets (CHIME Case Study)

If you are interested in discussing this or any other topic, let's have a chat. Reach out to me directly to schedule a no-obligation discussion. This isn't a sales call, but rather an opportunity to talk through your questions and challenges.
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Follow Lea on LinkedIn:   / leachatham  

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Thank you to our presenting sponsors, HIMSS, a leader in advancing health equity, digital innovation, and data-driven care through technology, policy, and community collaboration (https://www.himss.org/). And also HealthcareNOW, 24/7 expert shows, interviews, and podcasts, powering healthcare leaders with innovation, policy, and strategy insights. (http://www.healthcarenowradio.com/)