The Story
Illuminating the Brand
Re-establishing a culture of mentorship with experienced nurses providing guidance and support was key to conquering the nursing shortage and improving patient care.
In an effort to address the need for online learning within its organization, Tenet Health Systems acquired e-Vitro, a healthcare-focused online learning content developer. Shortly after the acquisition, Tenet merged e-Vitro with a small group of business developers, researchers and educators to form an independent company named DigitalMed. The content produced by the new company relied on Subject Matter Experts for fresh, proprietary content and state-of-the-art instructional design. Despite the fact that DigitalMed possessed unique insight to the needs of the healthcare industry, a strong philosophy of online learning, and the highest production quality in the industry, Tenet had difficulty viewing DigitalMed as an independent company and struggled to understand the essence of its offering. The result was a weakly defined brand, an unclear mission, a limited target audience, and an inadequate understanding of the company’s differentiation.
The Obstacle:
DigitalMed was at a critical crossroads in the development of its brand. During its two years of existence, there was dissention among the legacy company stakeholders, the new entity had difficulty settling on its true mission and priorities, and it went through multiple iterations.
This communicated a confusing and unstable message to the marketplace. To move forward with a solid, cohesive and consistent brand it was paramount that DigitalMed fully understood its current brand status and forge a new path for the future.
“At DigitalMed we had a perfect storm of challenges. We were growing very quickly and racing to deliver both medically accurate content and the platform to distribute that content. The company’s acquisition had helped us speed up production, but that resulted in conflicting priorities from different parts of the organization. The Basis Group worked with us to craft a unified voice that we all were excited about and one that created real opportunity in the marketplace.”
Sean Ortiz
Sr. Designer | Allume
The Approach:
TBG’s legacy brand audit revealed that DigitalMed had a strong reputation in the online learning community. But this perception was primarily based on content that had limited distribution. The company had a strong culture, was staffed with experienced professionals across every discipline, and had a deep understanding of the healthcare vertical. But it suffered from leadership turn over, Tenet’s tarnished reputation with nurses, and skepticism about the effectiveness of online vs. classroom learning. Unfavorable partnership agreements, a complex competitive landscape, and the high cost of implementation were also impeding their success.
Looking at the industry, TBG discovered increasing demands on healthcare workers, falling wages, and a critical shortage of nurses that led to lower educational standards by employers. What is more, a decreasing number of nurses who viewed their job as a career rather than a paycheck was translating to lower quality of care across the industry. The bottom line was that healthcare institutions were losing money and qualified professionals,
but they were not providing adequate incentives to stop the trend. Educational opportunities were not available, encouraged or rewarded. DigitalMed needed to define a culture of learning and mentorship within the healthcare system and provide easy, cost-effective ways for healthcare professionals to pursue continuing education and earn valuable higher-level nursing degrees.
DigitalMed needed a way to encourage and enable LPNs with 1 year of college training to pursue a 4-year registered nursing degree while still working.
The Solution:
Leveraging the insights gained from the legacy brand audit, marketplace research, and competitive landscape analysis, TBG suggested that the company be renamed Allume—combining the ideas of inclusivity and illumination. These concepts became the foundation of the new brand. To give Allume the strength and flexibility to evolve, TBG positioned Allume as a company that integrated cutting-edge learning theory, learning products and learning platforms that impact both individuals and enterprises. The concept highlighted the idea that by elevating the individual you elevate the organization.
With this new focus, Allume became a healthcare-focused learning company that creates integrated learning solutions that help improve healthcare organizations by creating opportunities for individuals grow professionally. These solutions enable the individual to identify specific learning needs, fulfill long-term career advancement goals, and participate in learning communities that transform the culture of the organization and help it succeed.
