ReBrand ReView: AccentCare

Tony Kudner, former Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at AccentCare, sat down to chat about the company’s latest rebrand. Stick around for a teardown and peek behind the curtain to see how this brand refresh went from concept to go-live. 

About the company: AccentCare is a nationwide leader and trusted guide in post-acute health care covering a broad continuum of services from personal, non-medical care to home health, palliative care, hospice, and care management. Our innovative care models and strategic relationships with major health systems, physician groups, insurers, and value-based providers give us a full understanding of how to deliver the best possible experience for patients and their families. Because of these distinct advantages, we can relentlessly reimagine and advance the standards of care in our communities. Headquartered in Dallas, our 30,000 compassionate professionals across the nation deliver on the promise of exceptional care in more than 250 locations, collectively serving more than 200,000 individuals across 32 states, and the District of Columbia. Visit us at www.accentcare.com

Before the rebrand

AccentCare, a leading provider of integrated home-based care, was approaching its 23rd anniversary, following the acquisition of Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care. A lot had happened in the brand’s history, including the pandemic, creating an opportunity to update its appearance and values. 

“AccentCare went from being a regional provider to becoming one of the top four or five home-based care companies in the US. They had grown a lot through M&A over the years,” shared Kudner. Beyond that, “There were nine different regional names at that point, with nine or 10 joint ventures on top of all of that. It was getting hard to manage all of that and be able to maintain a cohesive strategy across the board,” he added. 

A screenshot covering the brands and affiliates that wrapped up into what AccentCare is today.

Instead of thinking about it solely from making the client or patient experience more streamlined, AccentCare took this as an opportunity to also reengage and align their workforce across their family of brands. 

Former CEO Steve Rodgers shared, “It’s about who we want to be as an organization and about aligning our people around that. And it’s about how we face the marketplace,” as reported in Home Healthcare News.

How the brand transformed

Evolving a brand of this size and scale is quite a feat. Despite the size and the brand’s equity and history, they chose a completely new direction with their rebrand. 

“We overhauled it, soup to nuts. We worked with a partner, Revive (now part of BPD). We wouldn't have been able to do it without them,” Kudner shared. “On the brand strategy side, we were coming together as two marketing teams (as Seasons and Accent). This collaboration helped us to figure out how to put those two teams together, work on the same systems, and align on project management philosophies.”

In terms of process and preparation, there was a lot to be done. “We did a ton of research, both quantitative and qualitative. We conducted surveys of over a thousand caregivers and professionals (like physicians), as well as competitive analyses of other major players and their brand positioning,” Kudner shared. 

“One key insight that stood out to me from the research was that tax status matters less to consumers than you think it does,” Kudner added.

“We also went through a pretty rigorous process of figuring out what our position was going to be, which informed things like the visuals, the fonts, the logo, and the like,” Kudner shared. “For reference, the combined organizations had over 200 locations across all four time zones and lines of service.”

Beyond Revive, AccentCare also brought in a company called BrandActive. “They were invaluable. Their project management knowledge, their understanding of how to scope various costs for brand implementation, how to account for things, knowing what to write off, and knowing the best way to categorize items as capital expenses versus operating expenses was invaluable,” Kudner added. 

From start to finish, the transformation took the team roughly six months. They came out of the gate shortly after New Year’s Day in 2022 with a refreshed identity, with “[t]he goal: to help gain traction in a fragmented market and better define its organizational mission,” as reported in Home Healthcare News.

How the brand transformed: verbal identity

“We looked at other, larger comparable brands, but we wanted to come out of the gate with a fully-baked brand presence. Many of the brands out there were just color palettes and logos,” Kudner shared. “We came out of this rebrand with a unifying positioning statement focused a lot around this idea of reimagining what care in the home could be together with partners, whether that was patients and families, referral source partners, and payers, that was kind of the bold direction that AccentCare felt that they could take.” 

A screenshot of the AccentCare brand guidelines, showcasing their purpose, vision, and values.

This wasn’t just a marketing talking point; it was tangible. “We have a platform now, where we can walk alongside people for three core lines of service for the last 36 months of their life, up to five years,” Kudner added. “The brand wanted to establish itself as a home-based continuum provider. We're not here to provide a discrete set of services. The goal is to integrate them all and make it a seamless continuum. That was going to take thinking outside the box, being bold, and really ruffling feathers with the status quo. That was the thesis that we used to make many of our brand decisions on.”

Here is one example of how the new AccentCare is approaching social media on LinkedIn.

One important aspect of the integrated approach to care that AccentCare used, is that it added depth to their brand personality. It’s not just an archetype, it’s a brand truth that they live out, day in and day out. 

A screenshot of AccentCare’s brand guidelines that showcases their brand personality.

For comparison between the new and old brand, here are screenshots of the above-the-fold section on the old AccentCare site compared to the current version. 

The copy from the old brand lacks originality, in the sense that it could be copied and pasted on another brand and it might stick. The new copy, on the other hand, uniquely ties into AccentCare’s new positioning statement. 

How the brand transformed: visual identity

One of the hard pieces of a rebrand to reconcile can often be, how much tensile strength does a brand have—and how much change should it be designed to withstand? 

Sometimes, a rebrand is centered around a new logo. For others, it can be a complete, intentional overhaul. Here are the before and after logos.

“We really were given carte blanche to move in a new direction. The AccentCare and affiliate-like colors and fonts used a maroon and navy palette. The logo was a heart and two people embracing. The Seasons palette and other brands got pulled in as well. The Seasons logo was a dove within a box holding a branch in its mouth. With the two different brands coming together, we wanted to take the opportunity to modernize the brand house altogether.”

AccentCare’s old colors, maroon and navy, are common colors used in healthcare brand palettes, which may lead to blending in too well (as opposed to standing out). The new AccentCare palette reflects its new vision and refreshed appearance, especially when placed beside other, large brands. 

Despite how different the AccentCare website looks, there are also some recognizable elements, like the navigation menu, and calls to action. 

“We were also encouraged to go in new directions and account for the implications of signage, scrub choices, and other logistics. This involved installing new signage at 200 locations and creating new sets of mission, vision, and values to display on the walls. We wrapped a whole fleet of cars with the new brand. It was a clean break from the previous brand(s), and leadership really supported that,” Kudner added. 

“Despite the new direction of the brand, honoring our past was a part of the process; it was critical for change management. We held brand-by-brand internal memorial services with each division of the company, where we shared memories and highlighted aspects of each part that we were proud of (as part of the whole).” Kudner shared. “We grieved; we celebrated. Our chaplains and bereavement teams led these efforts, and they were poignant and allowed staff space to celebrate. It paved the way for getting excited about a unified future.”

Partners can make a rebrand possible.

Sometimes brands are tasked to execute on a rebrand completely using internal resources, and it works out perfectly. For others, finding the right vendors and partners can make all the difference, especially for a rebrand of this size and scale. 

“I don't think we would have done as good of a job without external partners.  But basing the rebrand in qualitative and quantitative research across a number of dimensions leads to a brand that better serves the needs of all of your internal and external stakeholders,” Kudner shared. 

“It allows you to build a brand around something more than gut feeling and that's important. It's gotta last a while, it's gotta be durable, and it's gotta be appropriately ambitious—those sorts of things. Trying to do that kind of on a wing and a prayer with internal resources and without the external perspectives would be very challenging, especially for most home-based care companies,” he added. 

“From a practical standpoint, having a project management firm that does nothing but this, they were invaluable. It's at that scale or even smaller. If you're a single line of service or a regional provider, having outside help is worth every penny. It pays for itself in that impression you make in the market 10 times over.”

Find your brand’s new house.

Taking a clean break from a brand’s history can give your team an opportunity to think boldly and dig deep into consumer (all audiences) research to give your rebrand a unique edge.

Borrow a page out of AccentCare’s book by partnering with the right resources as you need them, and taking the time to do the right research—that’ll lead you to the right decisions quicker (with less politics). 

To learn more about AccentCare check out their website: https://www.accentcare.com/ 

Interested in seeing how a marketing partner can help you bring your healthcare company’s rebrand or brand vision to life? Get in touch with Jenn today.