New brand messaging at the centre of Bupa’s CX focus in 2018

The shift to Bupa as a health and care provider, rather than a simple insurer, is a step closer with the launch of its new messaging direction, ‘Life is a gift. Take care of it’.

Bupa Australia chief marketing and customer officer, Jane Power, told CMO the new messaging launched this month is not a campaign, it’s a company-wide focus.

“Bupa is really honing down on what makes us unique, and what both our people and our customers want from us. We see the messaging as the creation of this care platform. It’s not a short-term campaign, we’re building a long-term platform,” she said.  

Over the last six months, Bupa has moved to agency partners, AJF Partnership and Mindshare, and been working on how to best optimise marketing and be relevant to customers, Power said. Alongside this, the company deployed Adobe’s Marketing Cloud platform over the past 12 months.

“We now have a huge personalisation strategy underway. We’ve got the communications platform right and the strategic platform right, so it’s now about how we communicate with customers in a highly tailored, personalised, and relevant way,” Power said.

‘Life is a gift. Take care of it’ will be used to tell stories across all parts of Bupa’s business. The storyline will gradually unfold over the course of the year as Bupa engages with different audiences for various health services and health programs.

The CX-driven messaging focus complements Bupa’s content hub, the Blue Room, launched last year, and is being driven by the overall ambition to see Bupa become the health destination of all Australians.

“We are very aware we are heading into an enormously challenging period from a health insurance perspective, and people are struggling with choices over how to spend their money,” Power said.

“Over the last two-and-a-half years, we’ve repositioned ourselves away from being known as a health insurer, to becoming known as a health and care provider.

“For customers, it’s becoming less about the ‘what’. We’re in a world of disruption and commoditisation, and customers are not choosing anymore based on the ‘what’, which is why we’ve seen such as massive shift towards experiences.

“We think this care platform, and the communication around it, brings that to the fore. We are very much a purpose-led organisation, and care is our difference. At the centre of that is our people; we’re very passionate about the care that we bring to our residents, to our people who work for us, and our customers every day.”  

Ultimately, Power said the messaging, communications and operation of Bupa is about authenticity.

“Care is something we aim to deliver every single day in our clinics, in our stores, and in our homes,” she continued. “Customers remember the people and the experience they had engaging with those people.

“It’s about authenticity and living truth across the entire business, rather than pushing a message. Our customers judge us on their experiences every single day across the entire breadth of our offerings.”

It’s also why Bupa measures Net Promoter Score and voice of customer, Power said. “The bottom line with care it is not about being nice, it is absolutely about actions.”

Powers claimed early feedback on social around ‘Life is a gift. Take care of it’ has been very positive.

“That’s both the gift and the challenge of social—it’s pretty raw and authentic,” she said.  “We all need those little reminders of what’s important. We all get wrapped up in busy-ness, and we need to stop and pause and realise we’ve got so much to be grateful for.

“That’s why I love working at Bupa – we are authentically passionate about what we do, we have a very united purpose. That how this all came about, it really started with the people and what resonates with our people.

“If you get it right with your people, you’re a fair way down the road to winning the hearts and minds of customers.”

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