WoW Woman in Wearable Tech I Tanita Sandhu, Global Head of Branding and Corporate Marketing at Zepp Health
Tanita Sandhu is the Global Head of Branding and Corporate Marketing with Zepp Health, (NYSE: ZEPP).
Zepp Health (NYSE:ZEPP), a global smart wearable and health technology leader, empowers users to live their healthiest lives by optimizing their health, fitness, and wellness journeys through its brands, Amazfit, Zepp Clarity, and Zepp Aura. Powered by its proprietary Zepp Digital Health Management Platform, which includes the Zepp OS, AI chips, biometric sensors, and data algorithms, it delivers cloud-based 24/7 actionable insights and guidance to help users attain their wellness goals. The company has applied its AI expertise to emerging industrial medical imaging technologies and delivers data analytics services for population health.
To date, Zepp Health has shipped over 200 million units and its products are available in 90+ countries. Founded in 2013, Zepp Health has offices across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions.
Tanita has over 20 years of strategic business and branding leadership positions across the US, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and is a published writer and speaker on branding topics.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I have over 25 years of global strategic brand and marketing management experience within the corporate and healthcare technology space. I am currently the Global Head of Brand and Corporate Marketing with Zepp Health, a leading smart wearable health technology company, based out of Cupertino, California.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
Throughout my career, I have enjoyed being part of helping brands transform beyond profit and using marketing opportunities to create meaningful connections between a consumer and a product. The healthcare industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, and the market is projected to reach US$58.23b this year and the number of users is expected to amount to 1.57bn users by 2027 (Source: Statista).
I have always been interested in technology and the power of using it to better our world. As such, it was easy to enter the healthcare industry, given my previous background in marketing technology brands.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
I would say that it took 10 years plus to get to the level I am right now. The main obstacle I would say has been the role gender plays when it comes to moving up the corporate ladder as it has been and still continues to be a male-dominated environment when it comes to C-level positions. So while there is more women workforce in the healthcare industry, the senior roles are occupied by more males than women.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
I would say being able to transform brands to be more humane, going beyond profit, and creating meaningful experiences for our customers so they appreciate the value a brand brings.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
Zepp Health is growing its wearable business and extending it to offer a truly integrated wellness platform. With over 42m+ active smartwatch users, I am working with our business units to solidify our overall brand offer to launch a hearable solution and an AI-powered sleep composition solution to help people sleep better.
Nearly 2.5 billion are projected to have some degree of impaired hearing by 2050, according to WHO and hearing loss is affecting not only older people but younger people who are used to a digital lifestyle. We will be launching the Zepp Clarity hearing solution in the coming months.
Another area of healthcare is within the sleep health space. Over 62% of adults worldwide report inadequate sleep with over 70 million adults experiencing recurring sleep issues in the U.S. Zepp Aura is a generative AI sleep and relaxation platform that seamlessly connects with our smartwatches. This comprehensive sleep health platform is designed to enhance users’ rest, focus, and sleep experience with personalized sleep coaching, sleep quality analysis, and AI-generated sleep music compositions and sleep stories, which are adjustable in real-time based on the users’ heart rate to constantly optimize conditions for the best night sleep.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
#WomenInTech is hugely important to me personally and professionally as our wearable technology is advancing to offer women wellness integrated into our smartwatches. Zepp Healh’s Amazfit smartwatches help women wearers predict and track their monthly cycle. By applying large language models (LLM) and Generative AI technology to our smart wearables, we are empowering our users to make informed decisions to achieve their wellness goals intelligently. For example, one of the features available on our smartwatches is Zepp Coach an AI-powered coaching algorithm that provides tailored guidance to help users train and recover more effectively and it can also generate a personalized training plan. Because Zepp Coach can monitor fatigue and fitness levels, this feature is especially helpful for women who are on their cycle to adjust their training level to help avoid overtraining and reduce the risk of injury or exhaustion.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Some key trend I see is using the power of AI to develop more personalized and digitalized healthcare solutions, and this will give more power and control to the user to better manage their health and quality of life with timely advice.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
It is important to be passionate not just about your function but also about the industry as a whole and how you can bring value by advocating for solutions that better our world.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
The first would be Elizabeth Blackwell, as she was the first woman in America to receive a medical degree and paved the way for women to enter the healthcare field. The second would be Kristen Valdes, founder and CEO of b.well Connected Health, a lifelong advocate for delivering healthcare solutions to underserved individuals. And the third would be Jo Aggarwal, co-founder of Wysa, an AI-powered mental health start-up that uses an ‘emotionally sensitive AI bot’ to treat patients.
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This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.