HSA 505 Assignment 2, Case Study ‘Plaza Home Health Services’

Assignment

Read the case study titled “Revitalizing a Brand”, located in the online course shell. Use the Internet or Strayer databases to research the branding and communication strategies of one (1) health services organization that is similar to the health services organizations mentioned in the case study.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

Describe the current marketing communication, identity, and brand position of Plaza Home Health Services.
Conduct a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis associated with the current marketing communication, identity, and brand position of Plaza Home Health Services.
Assess the importance of benchmarking in Plaza Home Health Services’ development and implementation of an effective brand strategy (marketing communication, identity, and brand position).
Compare branding and communication strategies of a similar health services organization with that of Plaza Home Health Services. Determine whether or not Plaza Home Health Services should apply additional best practices into its current branding and communication strategies. Provide a rationale and support for your response.
Use at least five (5) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

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Revitalizing a Brand

SNAPSHOT

Institution:
Plaza Home Health Services, a recently established home health
agency

Location:
Georgetown (population 45,857), located in the West North
Central region of the United States

Characters:
Ms. Nancy Edwards, Co-Owner and Nurse
Ms. Jennifer Moore, Co-Owner and Nurse
(both of Plaza Home Health Services)

Context:
In this case, two entrepreneurs establish a home health agency
and quickly encounter overwhelming success, giving them the
opportunity to rethink some hastily made branding decisions.

Nancy Edwards and Jennifer Moore, co-owners of Plaza Home Health
Services, are celebrating their 1-year anniversary as healthcare entrepre-
neurs and, at this juncture, have decided to invest in some much needed
identity enhancements for their company. Specifically, the two entrepre-
neurs are seeking to elevate the status and stature of Plaza Home Health
Services by upgrading its associated brand image, bolstering corporate

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14 Ch a p t e r 3

identity and consumer recognition in an effort to position the firm for
continued success in coming years.

Plaza Home Health Services was established rather hurriedly 1 year ago
by Nancy and Jennifer. The two were employed as staff nurses at a medical
center in Georgetown, a city of 45,857 located in the West North Central
region of the United States, and saw an opportunity to capitalize on the
growing demand for home health services in the marketplace. In their
informal marketing research endeavors, Nancy and Jennifer witnessed un-
restrained enthusiasm for their proposed business, so much so that they
decided to fast-track its development and rollout.

Despite this rush to commercialization, Plaza Home Health Services’
results have been nothing less than stellar, with the company quickly
assuming the market leadership position amidst a pool of three very
established and highly competitive home health service providers in
Georgetown. Pleased with their good fortune, Nancy and Jennifer attri-
bute the success of their business to their commitment to deliver home
health service excellence in a comprehensive fashion, taking great pains to
exceed the expectations of customers and eclipse the service levels offered
by rivals in the market.

As home health agencies deliver services remotely, the two entrepre-
neurs had a thorough understanding that their caregivers must be top
quality, leading them to assemble a compensation and benefits package
that permitted them to recruit the most capable personnel in the market,
creating a key competitive advantage. Further, they ensured that Plaza
Home Health Services’ policies addressed every facet of business opera-
tion and service delivery. Providers, for example, followed strict protocols
on everything from grooming and attire to professional courtesy and pa-
tient care delivery.

Plaza Home Health Services is financially viable and, thanks to the
discipline of Nancy and Jennifer, has acquired significant cash reserves for
future growth. One year on, Plaza Home Health Services indeed presents
a very different financial picture than that witnessed when Nancy and
Jennifer initiated the venture. Like many small business entrepreneurs,
the two had only a small amount of personal savings to draw on as they
launched their company. Their rush to market, together with insufficient
cash reserves, forced Nancy and Jennifer to make some identity compro-
mises which they now seek to upgrade, enhance, and repair, courtesy of
the receipt of business success and proper funding.

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r e v i t a l i z i n g a B r a n d 15

The compromises in identity were numerous, but they each centered
around one thing—Plaza Home Health Services’ poorly conceived logo.
This, in turn, resulted in aesthetically displeasing and uninspiring busi-
ness cards, promotional brochures, and building signage, as each incor-
porated the establishment’s logo. Indeed, one could question whether
the agency even has a logo, as the only visualization is simply the text
“Plaza Home Health Services” in the bold, italic version of the Times
New Roman font. This simple brand display is used, in black, on both
Plaza Home Health Services’ office building and on its roadside signage.
It also is used in all of the company’s sales literature, with each piece be-
ing laser-printed with black toner. Even the company’s business cards are
laser-printed, using perforated sheets of paper which are then separated to
form individual cards.

All in all, the appearance of every branding element associated with
Plaza Home Health Services is very amateurish; a necessity at one time,
but no longer needed thanks to business success and resulting cash flow.
The time has finally come for Nancy and Jennifer to craft a plan to up-
grade the elements of identity associated with their company.

Meeting to discuss improvements, Nancy and Jennifer made the deci-
sion to first review a variety of branding considerations in the context
of the company’s current image and associated brand attributes. From
this discussion, the two entrepreneurs indicated high satisfaction with
the brand name of their operation and they agreed that no changes were
necessary, especially as this would create confusion among their custom-
ers who already had grown very familiar with the Plaza Home Health
Services brand name. They next turned their attention to the components
of the logo, including its text, symbols, and color or colors to be used.

As for the components of Plaza Home Health Services’ logo, Nancy
and Jennifer indicated a desire to incorporate both text and symbol
components to identify the company, as they believed that this served
to better attract attention and facilitate recognition. Given that their
current text design used one of the most common fonts, the two preferred
something that was a bit more exotic. In order to identify preferences,
Nancy and Jennifer looked through several font books and came to real-
ize a preference for sans serif as opposed to serif fonts. Making a short
list of possibilities, Nancy and Jennifer decided to delay their ultimate
selection, as they wanted to experiment with variations using a graphics
software package.

16 Ch a p t e r 3

As for the symbol, Nancy and Jennifer found this to be especially chal-
lenging, as the three competitors in the marketplace were already using
perhaps the most common medical symbols—the hospital cross, the
medical caduceus, and the pulse trace—leaving the two entrepreneurs at
a major loss for something relevant but also unique. After some debate,
though, Nancy and Jennifer decided that they easily could look to vari-
ants of these symbols. This would permit them to incorporate classic sym-
bolism into their logo, but do so in a manner that would enhance brand
identity, as the ultimate design would possess a unique creative treatment.
Having made good progress in this area, Nancy and Jennifer decided to
table their discussion on symbols pending a review of clip art catalogs to
examine symbol variants, although they also indicated that they would
be interested in adding nurse images to the list of symbol possibilities for
consideration.

As for the color or colors used by Plaza Home Health Services, Nancy
and Jennifer definitely were interested in leaving black behind, as they
have exclusively been using this by default, courtesy of their monochrome
laser printer. Of the three other home health operations in Georgetown,
Nancy and Jennifer were very aware that the colors of red, blue, and
green were already being used. To eliminate the possibility of confusion
in the marketplace, Nancy and Jennifer agreed that they should avoid
these colors or close variants, as they plan to use color to help differentiate
their home health operation from others. On their color short list, they
decided to include purple, gold, and orange, with both entrepreneurs
agreeing to give the ultimate selection some thought in coming days to
ensure that the selection proved fitting for the establishment. They also
agreed that Plaza Home Health Services should use a single color for
their logo, as multiple colors, at least in some cases, can increase the costs
of printing.

Nancy and Jennifer were pleased with their first steps toward improving
the brand identity of Plaza Home Health Services. In coming days, they
planned to further investigate their various text, image, and color options
and then work to sketch a design combining the items to form a rudimen-
tary logo. They then planned to submit this rough illustration to an area
graphic designer, who they would look to for the purpose of professional-
izing the image, perfecting the artwork for inclusion across the range of
Plaza Home Health Services’ various marketing communications.

r e v i t a l i z i n g a B r a n d 17

D I S C U S S I O N

1. For an entire year, Nancy and Jennifer marketed their home health
service using very primitive forms of identity. They were very for-
tunate that clients looked beyond the firm’s marketing communi-
cations in deciding to extend patronage. Place yourself in the role
of a potential client receiving business cards and brochures like
those distributed on behalf of Plaza Home Health Services. What
thoughts would go through your mind?

2. Nancy and Jennifer have made a wise decision to upgrade Plaza
Home Health Services’ elements of identity, with the establishment’s
business cards being slated, among other things, for improvement.
How might business cards be even more important for establish-
ments delivering offerings remotely, like home health agencies, than
for establishments delivering offerings at a central location?

3. Based on your own preferences regarding color and design, create a
mock-up of a business card for Plaza Home Health Services. Place
your own name and contact information in the business card. Your
business card must be sized in accordance with the designated stan-
dard for such in your area of the world (2″ 3 3.5″ in the United
States). While a hand-drawn sketch will suffice, a card designed
using graphics software is preferred.

4. Nancy and Jennifer plan to use Plaza Home Health Services’ re-
vised logo in a number of communicative devices, including a pro-
motional brochure. Aside from the logo itself, what other visual
elements would you include in such a brochure? Be sure to give
specifics regarding the various visual elements you would include,
as well as your justification for using them in Plaza Home Health
Services’ brochure.

5. Nancy and Jennifer have indicated that they plan to upgrade Plaza
Home Health Services’ building signage. Is this necessary for busi-
nesses that provide services that are delivered remotely (i.e., at the
customer’s location rather than corporate headquarters)? Why or
why not?

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