New Friends

Challenge

In the business of memory care facilities that accept Medicaid, the one’s that are profitable have occupancy rates tipping towards 100%. So, when a group of investors were presented with the opportunity to purchase two memory care properties, they jumped at the chance.

However, this savvy group of investors realized they would need to not only upgrade the facilities, but also build a brand they could make profitable and market with pride, permanently. Specifically, they wanted to expand New Friends as a national chain of memory care facilities that accept Medicaid, as well as track the performance of their marketing investments.

Enter E29…

Strategic Solution

E29 Marketing began this engagement by doing a deep-dive into the industry: the competition (large, small, established, emerging, private, and everything in between); the value of the players’ brand promises; and the way the market (residents and their friends/family, referrers, current and past employees, as well as investors) spoke about the brands.
We brought the analysis of this information to New Friends, and together through a series of surveys and workshops, defined what the New Friends brand would need to represent in order to achieve the goal of being a known/trusted/valued brand, nationally.

The culmination of this work was captured in the New Friends brand guideline, then this identity (the voice, visualization and value proposition) was put to the test within the New Friends Corporate, New Friends Florence, and New Friends Coos Bay marketing collateral, social media and websites (that E29 also developed for New Friends and launched in December of 2020).
A very light paid search campaign was put into both markets as well.
Additionally, E29 provided the New Friends management team with a simple way of tracking all marketing efforts, and the impact these efforts have on the bottom line.

Social

Print Materials

Website

Impact

Inquiries, occupancy and sentiment were the primary KPIs upon which the success of the new brand is still being gauged, but to date the data is inspiring.

• New Friends of Florence reached capacity (and a waiting list was started) within 4 months of the rebrand/marketing efforts beginning
• New Friends of Coos Bay had to slow its marketing efforts within the first 5 months since launch as resident recruitment is outpacing the facilities staffing abilities
• 96% of all inquires and qualified occupants (for both facilities) has come from paid search or the website
• Sentiment among employees/families of residents remains at a 9.5 out of 10