Crawfords Healthcare
Turning a House of Brands into a Branded House
It takes a team
Crawford Healthcare is a leading supplier of dermatology and woundcare products. Thanks to their unique understanding of nurses, the company was growing rapidly and gaining market share. But everything about their existing branding seemed at odds with their personal, friendly approach. They asked for help developing a strategy that would capture their brand essence and pave the way for further growth by aligning to their core values.
Interpret and Define
In a bid to ‘own’ the territories of exudate management and infection control within woundcare, healthcare companies often focus on attributes, such as lab results, absorption rates, mode of action and speed of kill. Whilst important to healthcare professionals, this isn’t always the best way to engage them.
Through our conversations with nurses, we learned that dressing selection was based on a multitude of factors, sometimes driven by cost, rather than clinical need. We saw an opportunity for Crawford to form closer partnerships with nurses and ‘sell to the wound in the room’ by showing their unique understanding of the everyday challenges nurses face and becoming a trusted partner in fluid management and infection control.
Imagine and Create
Crawford’s product portfolio falls into two distinct categories. In order to help them sell products based on the overall pathway, rather than individual brands, we recommended they lead on their unique technologies, OxySalts™ (Infection Control) and Exu-Safe™ (Exudate Management).
This was the first step in helping Crawford Healthcare become a branded house. We then dissected their brand values, and got to the heart of what motivates and differentiates them, to develop the internal brand proposition: It takes a team to prevent, heal or manage a wound and care for compromised skin.
This strategy informed the creative approach that would help Crawford Healthcare become seen as the company that supports nurses at every stage of the infection control or exudate management pathway.
Rise + Shine
We had to get everyone at Crawford Healthcare excited about their new direction before we could share it with healthcare professionals. We created an illustrated brand book outlining the company values which began with an explanation of the proposition: It takes a team to heal a wound or skin condition.
Branding
The existing logotype was subtly refreshed and we revisited the brand guidelines to make sure everyone involved in replicating the Crawford brand could be consistent in their approach.
Advertising
It was important to develop a brand campaign that really resonated with nurses. Our photography was shot in a fly-on-the-wall, gritty style to make it feel as real as possible and features actual situations, such as a district nurse trudging through a muddy field to get to her next patient.
Sales Aids/Detail Aids
We created a very simple and straightforward template to bring all the nurse literature in line with the new brand approach. Every piece now features sections on how the product works, clinical evidence, cost analysis, its position on the exudate or infection control pathway and ordering information.
Social Media
To run with the press, we launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #itsanurselife. This is designed to encourage nurses to share woundcare challenges with our online community and help Crawford form closer partnerships moving forward.
Crawford Healthcare achieved their ultimate goal, moving to number two in the marketplace and achieving buyout by global woundcare company, Acelity, in 2018.