The Consumer Centricity Gap in Home Health— And What CPG Can Teach Us

I wasn't looking for healthcare. Healthcare found me.

After 20 years leading brand strategy and market expansion across Africa, the Middle East, and North America, I found myself at a crossroads. I was genuinely searching for more meaning in my work, for a place where strategy could serve something bigger than market share. Healthcare appeared not as a plan, but as a calling.

And the more I looked at it, specifically at home health, the more I recognized something both exciting and sobering: this is an industry with extraordinary human purpose and enormous strategic potential, still waiting to fully embrace the consumer-centric thinking that transforms good companies into great ones.

I'm not writing this to criticize. Many hospital systems, health networks, and forward-thinking care organizations are already ahead of the curve, building genuinely patient-centered models with sophisticated marketing strategies and real consumer intelligence. The pioneers exist and they are impressive.

But in the home health segment specifically, the gap between where the industry is and where it could be remains significant. And I believe closing that gap starts with a question most home health agencies rarely ask:

"Who is really our patient?"

Everything Starts with the Consumer

In consumer-packaged goods, that question is not optional. It is the foundation of everything.

What does she need? What does she fear? What are her aspirations? What pain point keeps her up at night? What does a good day look like in her life?

Every strategy, every campaign, every product innovation flows from the answers. The consumer is not a target, she is the starting point, the compass, and the ultimate judge of everything we do.

This principle is not intuitive. It is disciplined. And the data confirms its power: McKinsey research shows that consumer-focused healthcare strategies can drive more than twice the revenue growth compared to organizations not prioritizing the patient experience. (McKinsey, "Consumers Rule: Driving Healthcare Growth with a Consumer-Led Strategy," April 2024)

What becomes undeniably clear once you're inside the home health industry is that this discipline truly understanding the human being you serve is still more aspiration than practice for many agencies.

Most know their services. Their compliance requirements. Their billing codes. But the deeper consumer knowledge, the emotional landscape of a patient navigating vulnerability, the cultural context shaping what "good care" means, the family dynamics behind every admission, that intelligence is rarely built systematically.

A Different Kind of Complexity

I want to be honest about something that humbled me quickly when I entered this space.

Home health is not CPG with a stethoscope.

The regulatory environment alone is a world apart. HIPAA compliance, AHCA licensing requirements, Medicare certification standards, OASIS assessments, state-specific scope of practice rules, these are not marketing constraints. They are serious, consequential frameworks designed to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

That regulatory reality shapes everything, how you communicate, how you document, how you hire, how you market, and how you build trust. Any brand strategist entering healthcare without deep respect for that complexity will fail quickly.

What I bring from CPG is not a replacement for clinical and regulatory rigor. It's a complement to it. Because within those constraints, and sometimes because of them, the opportunity to build genuine, trust-based relationships with patients and families is extraordinary.

The Passive Recipient Problem

In CPG, we would never treat our consumer as a passive recipient of our product.

We study her. We listen to her. We design around her. We build loyalty, community, and brand narratives crafted to make her feel seen, valued, and understood.

And yet, in home health, patients often find themselves in exactly that position: passive recipients of a service they didn't choose, delivered by people they don't know, through a system they don't fully understand.

The data reveals a paradox: while 91% of home care clients report satisfaction with their caregivers (Market.us, 2025), the industry has yet to translate that individual satisfaction into deliberate, strategic brand experiences. Satisfaction and loyalty are not the same thing. In CPG, we learned that distinction the hard way.

McKinsey is direct: "Consumers expect to be treated as individuals with specific needs, not as problems to be solved." (McKinsey, "The Next Frontier of Healthcare Delivery," 2022)

In home health, that shift from patient-as-case to patient-as-person remains largely aspirational for many operators. And the business case for closing that gap is compelling: patient-centric models produce patients who are five to six times more likely to use additional services from the same provider, 28% less likely to switch, and generate 36% fewer unnecessary visits. (McKinsey Provider Customer Experience Survey, 2021)

In CPG terms, that's brand loyalty. Retention. Lifetime customer value.

What Dove Taught Me About Dignity

The brand that has inspired me most throughout my career is Dove.

On the surface, Dove sells soap. A commodity product in a crowded category with little inherent differentiation. But in 2004, Dove asked a question nobody else in their industry was asking:

"How does our consumer actually feel about herself?"

Commissioned research validated by Harvard University and the London School of Economics revealed that only 2% of women globally described themselves as beautiful. Instead of ignoring that finding, Dove built their entire brand around it.

The Real Beauty campaign reached more than 35 million girls and women across 140 countries, drove a decade of consecutive sales growth, and ultimately made Dove Unilever's biggest brand. (Harvard Business School Case Study: "Dove and Real Beauty: Building a Brand with Purpose," Kramer, Sidibe & Veda) Purchase intent among consumers aware of the campaign increased by 10–25%. (HBR Podcast: "Dove: Maintaining a Brand with Purpose," December 2020)

What made it work was not the creative. It was the conviction that their consumer's dignity was non-negotiable.

Now apply that question to home health:

"How does our patient actually feel about receiving care?"

What does dignity look like for an 80-year-old woman who has been fiercely independent her entire life and now needs help with basic daily activities? What does trust look like for a family member thousands of miles away, navigating that reality from a distance?

Those are not clinical questions. They are brand questions. And they have the power to transform home health from a service transaction into a relationship built on genuine human dignity.

Three CPG Principles Every Home Health Operator Should Apply

1. Build a Consumer Profile, Not Just an Admission Form. Deep consumer research journey mapping, pain point analysis, cultural context should inform everything from caregiver matching to communication style. Clinical needs are the baseline. Emotional and cultural intelligence is the differentiator.

2. Design the Experience, Not Just the Service. Every patient touchpoint is a brand moment: the first phone call, the intake process, the caregiver introduction, the family update communication. In CPG, these moments are designed deliberately. In home health, they are too often left to chance.

3. Measure What Matters to the Patient, Not Just to the Regulator. HHCAHPS scores matter. Compliance metrics matter. But the agencies that will win long-term are also asking: "Would our patients recommend us to someone they love?" and "Do our patients feel genuinely seen?" Those are the brand equity questions of home health and they are just as important as the clinical ones.

A Challenge For Every Home Health Operator Reading This

The next time you're in a strategy session or a quiet moment of reflection about your agency, ask yourself:

❶ Can I describe my ideal patient the way a great brand manager describes their consumer — not just demographics, but her fears, her daily reality, what a good day looks like for her at home?

❷ Does my patient feel like a valued person or a passive recipient? Would she use those words to describe her experience?

❸ If Dove were a home health agency, what would it do differently than you?

The answers might be uncomfortable. They might also be the beginning of something extraordinary.

The home health industry touches people at their most vulnerable and most human. It deserves the same strategic rigor, the same consumer intelligence, and the same intentional brand thinking that the best consumer companies apply every single day.

That gap is real. The good news?

It is absolutely closeable.

Marie-Madeleine Moukam is the CEO of SunNest HomeHealth Services, a licensed home health agency serving Pasco and Pinellas Counties in Greater Tampa Bay, Florida. She is also the Founder and Chief Strategist of Market Minds Intl, a boutique consultancy helping purpose-driven brands and home health operators grow with cultural intelligence and strategic clarity. If this article resonated connect with her on LinkedIn or visit marketminds-intl.com

Sources: · McKinsey & Company, "Consumers Rule: Driving Healthcare Growth with a Consumer-Led Strategy," April 2024 · McKinsey & Company, "The Next Frontier of Healthcare Delivery," May 2022 · McKinsey Provider Customer Experience Survey, 2021 · Harvard Business School Case Study: "Dove and Real Beauty: Building a Brand with Purpose," Kramer, Sidibe & Veda · Harvard Business Review Podcast: "Dove: Maintaining a Brand with Purpose," December 2020 · Fortune Business Insights / Grand View Research, Home Health Market Report, 2025 · Market.us Home Care Client Satisfaction Data, 2025