Brand strategy — put your home care agency on the psychiatrist’s couch

Grow your brand through self-discovery

Here’s a question that you probably thought applied only to humans: Does your home care agency have an identity crisis?

What do I mean?

Are you aware of your company’s competitive strengths? Why your clients choose you? What they say about you after you’ve left the room?

Your agency can move toward that magic square on the board — a kind of self-actualization, if you will — with brand strategy.

Yes, it’s kind of like putting your home care agency on the psychiatrist’s couch.

Step aside, Sigmund. Brand strategy is a way to look deeply into what your company does, why it does it, and how to craft what you discover into a plan to make your business more successful. Its purpose is to get all stakeholders – prospects, clients, and employees — to buy into all that you do for clients.

Brand strategy also involves a way to carry your message forward to others so that others will buy into it.

Brand strategy is simply a way to promote what your home care agency is all about. What words, images and ideas will do this well?

A new definition of brand

But we must first ask ourselves the question, “What is a brand?”

When you talk about a brand, most people think of a logo, like that of Nike or Coca-Cola.

But a brand is much more than that.

A brand is the impression, or opinion, that a consumer has about your service or company. In the words of branding expert Marty Neumeier, a brand is what the consumer says it is — not what you say it is.

A company might put out a logo, brochures, a website, and provide other communications touchpoints, and provide a good service, but in the end it’s what the client thinks about you. The brand exists in his or her mind. That’s where it’s important, since it’s the client who buys from you.

Spot the difference between these leopards

Ever work one of those puzzles, “Spot the difference between these two leopards”?

All home care agencies look the same on the internet. You’ve got to stand out.

The first thing about branding is that it involves differentiating yourself from other businesses in your category. This is what positioning is all about. Positioning is how your service is perceived as being different from your competitors.

So, when it comes to home care, what can you say that is unique about your agency that is better than others? It could be that you are family-owned and are able to give better personal attention to your clients. Or that your caregivers are trained to handle special types of clients.

In the marketing world, this is often called a unique selling proposition, or USP. Why should clients choose you over other home care agencies? There must be something that puts you over the shoulders of others.

Today’s home care client, often the adult child of an aging parent, is confronted with a plethora of home care websites. Each website is only one of many touchpoints of how a brand is perceived. The client may also have seen a brochure or talked to one of the company’s caregivers that they met socially.

The problem is that the home care agencies seem to offer the same vanilla flavor of service — they all say they offer compassionate and quality care delivered by well-trained caregivers. But if your service is the same — or is perceived the same, how will you get business?

Rebranding

Sometimes all it takes is a new paint job. That’s called rebranding.

Marty Neumeier, mentioned before, explains how, when he changed the labelling of Apple’s software boxes that were sold on shelves, was told that his changes were followed by a 40% increase in sales across 15 products. All that, and without changing the product. “Do you know how much money that is?” the executive said to him.

Start your brand strategy

Do you need to rebrand your home care agency, or create a winning brand from the beginning? We at Savvy Senior Marketing can do this for you. Here are the steps.

• Discovery Meeting. We talk to you about what your company and goals are all about.
• Writing the Creative Brief. A short summary of the unique selling proposition, style, and personality of the company.
• Client signs off on the Creative Brief
• We analyze your competition
• We create logos, tag lines, brochures, etc.

These are only a few tasks we can do for you.

Brand strategy works best when the home care company has been in operation for at least several years. It has been successful, but it wants to grow. Or it wants to expand its client base to make revenue more reliable and consistent.

Make an appointment with Savvy Senior Marketing today for thirty minutes to see if your home care agency could benefit from our brand strategy service.

Why not use this marketing method to bring in more clients and customers? Get in touch with us at Savvy Senior Marketing by making an appointment for a free 20-minute phone consult, or by sending us an email.