2015: The Year of the Small Senior Living Provider
Excerpt: Senior living is an industry that knows the value of scale. But contrary to popular belief, smaller organizations have an advantage – now more than ever – over the mammoth hundred-community providers that seem to dominate the market and the media, industry experts say.
“They may not be able to spend as much on their marketing efforts but what they’re saying can be even more powerful, because there’s a lot of truth in what they can offer,” says Jennifer Ruyle, chief branding officer at Bild & Company, which provides full service marketing and sales consulting in the senior housing industry.
While Bild & Co. works with providers of all sizes, Ruyle is currently working with some smaller clients who are creating marketing campaigns centered around their independence and family ownership.
“We’re helping those smaller providers discover and understand their unique positioning in the marketplace,” she says. “We help them uncover their core story and that’s the platform that helps us create all of their marketing.”
In one example, Ruyle worked with a client who was born and raised in the Midwest and started a family owned senior housing business. To highlight the smaller provider’s attributes, she helped come up with the tagline, “Where You Belong,” to compete with some of the larger providers that were expanding into the state.
Playing up the strengths of being a small provider — whether it is local ownership, high staff retention or individualization — can help operators stand out as big providers continue creeping into their markets.
And now is the time to market these messages.
“Smaller providers can really make a difference if they make a little investment in their image and their brand, because it will pay off in the long run,” Ruyle says.
Original story by Emily Study, Senior Housing News.
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