Bill Klaproth (host): This is a special podcast produced on site at SHSMD Connections 2025 in Dallas as we talk with speakers and session leaders direct from the show floor. I'm Bill Klaproth. Today we are talking about one of the largest healthcare rebrands in recent history, Corwell Health, born of the merger of Spectrum Health and Beaumont.

Corwell Health is now Michigan's largest health system. And joining me are Angela Gusse, Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at Corwell Health, and Jon Levy, Senior Director of Client Engagement at Brand Active. Angela and Jon, welcome.

Angela Gusse: Hi, Bill. It's great to be here.

Jon Levy: Hi, Bill. Thanks for having us.

Host: You betcha. So let's jump into this. This is a big deal. A lot of things going on here. A massive rebrand. Angela, let me start with you. So rebranding a system of this size, 21 hospitals, 300 outpatient locations, and more than 65,000 team members. This is no small task. So where do you even begin with a project of that scale?

Angela Gusse: Well, we began by engaging Brand Active to help us do an assessment of everything that needed to be rebranded. They did interviews with lots of internal stakeholders to help us understand exactly what needed to be rebranded, a line item by line item, and then we outlined the steps that needed to be taken in order to make it happen.

We established the order of go. We built out seven phases for the implementation, and then we started executing.

Host: You make it sound so simple.

Jon Levy: Yeah, I was going to add to that you know you need to get your hands around the problem when you get into it, right. And really start to understand what you're dealing with. So that's where the interviews came into play, right. Getting a base understanding of everything that exists, and then playing with scenarios so we can roll out like this or we can roll out like that, that will drive your plan forward after you create those scenarios.

Host: So, as Angela said, Jon, and thank you for saying that. So you obviously partnered closely with Corwell Health on this transformation. Can you give us a little more into your approach to helping manage such a large and complex rebranding effort, and then how do you keep all the moving parts coordinated?

Jon Levy: The first step is to get integrated with the team. So, as we both mentioned now, those interviews, but really that's the first step in engaging the stakeholders and creating that relationship. And then from there, building out specific work groups or other modes of communicating with those stakeholders on a continuous basis and taking it step by step.

So starting large, starting broad, and getting more detailed as you go. Right? Okay, so we have 600 cars, great, 600 vehicles, what are they? What level of branding exists on them, right? So getting more narrow as you go to start to understand what needs to happen with them in the future.

Host: That's really interesting. And Angela, obviously you had to get buy-in from leadership on this. How did you engage team members at every level to help ensure the new brand was embraced internally?

Angela Gusse: Well, we started when we were trying to determine our brand name. When Spectrum Health and Beaumont announced their merger, for several months we were called BHSH System while we worked to identify a new name. And as we were going through that process, we solicited our team members and said, help us come up with a name. So anyone in the organization could throw a name in the hat for us to consider. And some of those names, some of those brand names made it through all the way to the final round before we identified the name Corwell Health. We obviously got alignment from leaders as we were building out the plan. When we were doing the scenario plans, we aligned with leadership on the one to move forward with. And then we had various levels of the organization involved in the execution. More senior leaders were involved in reviewing nomenclature, but when we went out to each site, each of those sites across the state, we had site leads that were identified and they were essentially our feet on the street for each of those sites.

And they received a rebranding implementation toolkit that included information about what we were going to do, where we needed their help, what were the key contacts if they had questions. And those were on a site by site basis. So depending on what we were doing, we worked with all sorts of people across the organization at every level.

Host: So it sounds like communication was key.

Angela Gusse: Absolutely.

Host: You really need to have this buttoned up.

Angela Gusse: You can't communicate enough. And you know, as we've thought back, as we've reflected on what worked and what didn't, I think there were times where we weren't communicating with the right people at the right level.

And that was an important learning for us, from a change management perspective to say, who should we have talked to if we had to do this over again? There are some communications I might have done at different levels of the organization because that is so key. And if you're not communicating at those levels, it can create a lot of frustration with your team members.

So sometimes we got it right, sometimes we didn't. We iterated a lot. When we saw something wasn't working, if we learned, through various channels that there were questions we weren't answering adequately, we would update our materials, so that we could make sure we were getting that information out.

So we learned as we went. We made changes as we went. There were things we did well and mistakes we made.

Host: Really interesting. So Jon, there's always the challenge of balancing creativity and compliance in healthcare. How did your team navigate the regulatory and operational hurdles that come

with a major rebrand like this?

Jon Levy: So the first was understanding the risk tolerance of the organization. The compliance regulations are a bit gray. It's not set in stone. So where is that risk tolerance for Corwell and then aligning a plan to that. Without understanding the risk tolerance, that existed for various reasons we had plan A that was going to take 24 months, after understanding it, we had to adjust and get it done in 15 months. To do that, we had to completely re-look at how we were going to use outside vendors, the number of outside vendors we were going to use, strategize how we align vendors to specific regions as they go live. So as their compliance needs come on board and really map that out in detail so that we can implement successfully and in a compliant way.

Host: I, I can't even imagine what you went through to organize all of this. It's really crazy when you think about all the compliance and regulatory things that we don't even think about. Right? Yeah. That are there that you've gotta think about.

Jon Levy: Yeah. So things like signage, right? Things like patient billing, things like marketing materials. Do they all have the Corwell Health name? Do they have the Beaumont Health name, the Spectrum Health name, because everything

that is patient facing in the way Corwell Health was looking at it; everything that's patient facing needs to reflect what's on the billing, the patient billing. So in this case, Epic was being transitioned. It was all going to go over to Corwell Health at certain dates, and so we needed to make the brand transition happen in line with that.

Host: Really interesting. So Angela, you were just saying we did a lot of listening, a lot of feedback, a lot of communication. Some things we did good, some things we had to change. What are some things that you've learned now that this is done post implementation? What's the feedback that you've gotten and what are some of the things you've learned?

Angela Gusse: I think it's an adjustment for the organization. We were bringing together three legacy health systems that weren't necessarily interested in being a part of Corwell Health. And so we had to help them understand the vision, help them see where we were going and what the benefit is of having one big health system across the state.

That took time. There's a lot of passion for where they had been and we needed to build passion for where we were going. It's not easy. But I think as we saw the results, as you started to see the brand awareness grow, as you started to see when you saw the billboards and market and the ads on TV, and then the name, you know, you got a jacket with your name on it, and then you started to see the signs going up.

Let me tell you, those signs are beautiful. When I saw my first sign in the market, it was pretty exciting. As you started to see the brand come to life, it meant a lot to the team to start to become one. But you have to be patient and give it time and keep talking and keep answering questions and give it some time to sit.

Host: I didn't even think about that aspect of some people not wanting to merge and then having to get over that hurdle.

Angela Gusse: Yeah, we had some convincing to do. You know, we have team members who've worked with their legacy system for 40 plus years, they had a lot of attachment to where they had been.

And so we tried to build in places where we could respect the legacy. So for example, with Beaumont, we included the name Beaumont in some of our hospital names. Our flagship in Royal Oak is now called William Beaumont University Hospital. And we felt that was an, an important way to maintain a connection with the past, while still thinking about where we were going for the future and blending those.

You have to find the places where you can compromise and where you really have to stick to your guns on the new branding.

Host: That seems like a really smart way to do it, to try to get that buy-in from people is to try to keep some of that legacy and history intact. That's really good. And Angela, I'm just thinking, any insights you'd share with other health systems preparing for a major brand transformation?

Angela Gusse: I think spending the time to really scope the project and understand the work that needs to be done is critical, as is finding ways to break that down into pieces. A rebranding of this size, we couldn't do all at once. I don't know that you could do any rebranding all at once, but with almost 400 sites of care across the state, there's no way we could do it all at once.

So thinking about those pieces and how to roll it out was really important. Building the process for how we communicate with our rebranding team, with our team members, and then being able to iterate. Brand Active was very much a partner to us, an extension of our team. They walked the sites just like I did.

They were in the meetings just like I was. And so having those partners who can help you identify where there are potential pitfalls, working through problems together, I think that's something that was also critical to our success.

Host: Yeah. And Jon, how about you? What, what did you learn? What did you encounter that you thought maybe you'd, I wouldn't learn, but, wow, I've discovered this. Yeah.

Jon Levy: Just before getting to that, I just want to add to, to what Angela said advice for a health system. I don't think you can start too early. So a lot of health systems and clients that we see outside of healthcare say oh, it's too early for us to engage you and start to understand the scope of what needs to happen.

And that's not necessarily the case whether Corwell Health became Corwell Health or whether it became a, b, c Health, whether it became super cool health. What's important is they were changing, right? So getting your hands around the scope of what that change is. Start to build a budget from the ground up and gain alignment among leadership and different stakeholders lets you hit the ground running when you are ready to decide what you're going to be doing with that brand.

Host: That's really cool. So then what about advice for marketing and communication teams planning a successful rebrand, things from like gaining executive approval to managing the day-to-day execution. What advice would you give for that?

Jon Levy: Yeah, it goes back to getting that early alignment. So building that detailed scope. Right. Having confidence in it instead of guesses, right? So doing the upfront research, understanding where your brand lives, which isn't available all at one place at the fingertips, we thought at a point for Corwell Health, there were 350 vehicles. We literally found 200 more, right? So, starting that work early to dig into it, so you can build a budget from the ground up. You can say what's in the budget. We've made decisions to do X, Y, and Z, and that's what comprises this so that executives can have faith that the budget is what it's going to be. It represents what they need and they can take that further up the change.

Host: Never too early to start.

Jon Levy: Yeah.

Host: Crazy to think about this. Well, this has really been interesting. I'd love to get some final thoughts from each of you on this. Anything else you'd like to add that we didn't cover at all? Angela, let's start with you.

Angela Gusse: I think you have to be willing to fail a little bit. You know, we made a lot of mistakes through the process. We've learned a lot. It's okay, if everything doesn't go perfectly, because it won't, and you can't beat yourself up too much.

You gotta work together to figure out how you get through it. Now, what are the solves when something doesn't go the way you intended? Again, getting back to flexibility, communication also critically important. You can't communicate too much with something like this of this size. So, in retrospect, I think it's impressive how much we accomplished.

Jon and I were talking earlier about uninformed optimism when you're getting started, you don't really know what you're getting into, and then you sort of get into this trough where it's like, holy cow, how are we ever going to get this done? And then you do it. And that's an incredible high.

So you just have to be patient and know that when you get there, it's going to feel pretty amazing to see what you've accomplished.

Host: I love that term. Uninformed optimism. That was me. That was such a great term.

Angela Gusse: Total deer in headlights when I started this thing, that's for sure.

Host: And I like how you said also, it's okay if everything doesn't go perfectly or as you, I plan it to go this way, and it's not going this way. It's tough to, to have it go everything as you see it in your mind. Right.

Angela Gusse: It'll never be perfect. And even today we find things where, oh, why is the name like this? That's not exactly right. And you know you're going to make mistakes because you're doing as best you can, as fast as you can, and you're never going to get it a hundred percent right.

But I would say we're pretty darn close. We did well.

Host: Wow. Amazing.

Jon Levy: As long as you have the processes in place to be able to evaluate that quickly. Absolutely. And the need to pivot quickly before you go too far down the wrong path. Absolutely. You'll be successful. Right. That's a great build.

Host: That's a really good point. And Jon, how about you? Final thoughts that you learned through this whole thing?

Jon Levy: Through all my rebranding and especially in healthcare, all my rebrand experience, execution requires a village. You know, there's so many different functions across the organization.

This touches every single one of them, right? In order to get this done, it's going to take at a scale of Corwell health size, hundreds of stakeholders involved, right? So setting up the processes in place and the project structure in place to be able to mobilize all those stakeholders, right? And also track what's going on and report back on it is of the utmost importance

Host: Execution. As you said before, there's hundreds of stakeholders here and execution requires a village. Yeah. Really good stuff.

Angela Gusse: We had a pretty great one. It was a good village.

Host: It sounds like it. It's just amazing.

Well, the good news is, I know we were only able to touch on it briefly here, but we wanted to bring this to everybody's attention. A recording of Angela and Jon's presentation will be available to members during the SHSMD Connections virtual conference. So again, so much more in their session details, things that we weren't able to go to on the podcast.

So you're going to learn a lot more from Angela and Jon as well. Jon and Angela, thank you so much.

Angela Gusse: Thanks, Bill.

Jon Levy: Thanks Bill.

Host: I appreciate you being here. Once again, that's Angela Gusse and Jon Levy. Again, a recording of their presentation will be available during the SHSMD Connections Virtual Conference.

And if you've found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels, and please hit subscribe so you get every episode chock full of great healthcare strategists, marketers, topics and solutions. And to access our full podcast library, visit shsmd.org/podcasts. This has been a production of Dr. Podcasting. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening. See ya.