Positioning Powerful Brands

Positioning brands that elicit strong emotions is something Smith-Dahmer Associates specializes in. But in a recent project for Hospice at Home, we saw emotional connections with a brand taken to a new level. In the words of Angela Malik, a researcher at Smith-Dahmer,

“I was fighting back tears in a lot of the interviews I did. It’s amazing the role Hospice has played at such a critical time in so many people’s lives.”

The reality is, Hospice deals with death. So it’s no wonder that the brand comes with baggage. According to a Hospice employee,

“People are afraid of the word Hospice because when they hear it, it’s like they’re ready to die.”

Understandably, these perceptions often make people reluctant to bring Hospice in.

Interestingly though, in listening to peoples’ associations with the brand, a stark contrast emerged between those who had called on Hospice before and those who had not. Among those who had worked with Hospice, the brand was associated with compassion and nurturing and offering much needed relief. Multiple individuals referred to Hospice workers as “angels on earth.” It was those who had not worked with Hospice who simply associated the brand with death and dying. The notion of caring and adding to the quality of life was overshadowed.

The challenge, then, was transferring the emotions and perceptions shared by those who have used Hospice to the general public. Listening to a diverse cross section of the community and working closely with Hospice’s marketing team, we helped revamp Hospice communications. The result was a new brand position, logo and tagline that battles misconceptions and captures the extent of the services Hospice at Home offers.