Client
VNS Health
The future or care. The comfort of home.
A few years into the marketing relationship, Tronvig was tasked with helping the legacy home- and community-based health care organization VNS Health (formerly Visiting Nurse Service of New York) better align with the current industry, environment, and needs of those they serve.
“Tronvig partnered with us through a very thorough and thoughtful process, gently working to assure a successful outcome. They helped us set this transformation up for success and the enthusiastic organization-wide acceptance it has received. Theirs is a very special skill.”
Before
In 2018, the transformation in the health care industry was significant. VNSNY was functioning as an organization with one mission but with many names, making it difficult for people to understand the many health solutions they offered. There was an opportunity to expand the perception of the organization beyond nurses and beyond traditional home care. The original identity incorporated both names used for the organization—VNSNY and Visiting Nurse Service of New York—and there were opportunities to enhance the readability, scaling, and recall.
VNSNY also needed to increase unique visitors to their website among both consumers and health care providers by 15% and grow top-of-mind awareness, providing an understanding of offerings beyond nursing services.
After
Aiming to shift public perception to reflect the new forward-thinking version of the organization, while maintaining the 125-year-old legacy, Tronvig worked with a diverse internal team at VNSNY and partners including GreyBox Creative, Brand Active, and Expand the Room, to develop a new position, architecture, values, organizational name, and visual identity. The new brand position encompasses the full range of offerings, while a single name for the organization, VNS Health, unites those offerings in a simple way that can be easily understood by all stakeholders—employees, consumers, doctors, government agencies, and insurance companies. The branding process included alignment around a newly distilled set of core values and a completely restructured brand architecture, as well as an organizational voice that helped to empower people at all levels of the organization to live the values and the brand with pride. The brand project explicitly engaged both those inside the organization as well as the various audiences served.
In the words of the client: Using bright, bold colors paired with clean, modern typography, the new logo and brand identity create an emotional connection with those we serve. The icon conveys VNS Health’s continuum of care, while the balance and rotational symmetry of its many parts also reinforce the alignment and agility of our organization in fulfilling our mission and vision together.
“I’m particularly proud of how the Values have permeated every part of the organization … as well as the excitement we continue to see as we share the new brand identity with people.”
Discovery
Over the course of the three-year rebrand, our recommendations were rooted in extensive research, conducted with various partners listening to both internal stakeholders as well as citizens of New York City and surrounds. The research provided valuable insights and clarity around the new positioning, key messaging, logo, tagline, and visual identity system.
Brand Pyramid
An organizational Brand Pyramid was developed in workshops with representatives from all functional units and levels of the organization, from the front line to the CEO. It serves as the strategic foundation for the VNS Health rebrand. Here are some highlights.
1. What is VNS Health?
The nation’s leading home- and community-based nonprofit health care organization.
2. How does VNS Health deliver its benefits?
[Redacted]
3. Why?
We enable you to live your best life as you age in the comfort of your own home and community.
4. Core Values
- Empathy
- Agility
- Integrity
5. Brand Idea
[Redacted]
“What was so incredible was that the research we’ve done and the work that we’ve done together with Tronvig led to an incredibly solid and undeniable direction forward.”
Actions
Renaming
The organization effectively had two names: Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a trusted name but one describing only one of its now many offerings, and VNSNY, a hard-to-say acronym. The new name, VNS Health, represents the scope of the organizational offer to cover a much wider array of services while honoring the longstanding legacy of the organization and presenting more clearly who VNS Health is today: a dedicated, forward-thinking health care organization that supports the health of its patients, clients, health plan members, and their families in many different and interconnected ways.
Visual Identity
VNS Health wanted a new look to pair with their new name and to help it stand out in the crowded health care market. It needed to be closely aligned with the core values of Empathy, Integrity, and Agility, and operate convincingly in the context of the new organizational tagline: “The future or care. The comfort of home.”
Results
VNS Health’s new rebranded website developed by ETR was awarded the Silver Award for website campaign of the year by Modern Healthcare in their prestigious 2022 Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards.
Results also include enthusiastic organization-wide buy-in and project continuity over the course of three different CEOs, as well as universal embrace of the new narrative and Core Values among 10,000+ employees.
“Thank you for Tronvig’s profound contributions to this historic time at VNS Health! I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished and grateful to have had your partnership throughout the rebrand’s journey.”