Mary Meeker, National Director at Villi, sat down to chat about the company’s 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: Villi is a platform and movement connecting families to trusted, compassionate Companions in their communities. Villi is easy-to-use, providing hands-off assistance 7 days a week with light housekeeping, meal preparation, pet care, transportation, good company and more. As part of the 35-year-old Maxim Healthcare Services family, Villi’s mission is to help clients and their families with the little things, so they can focus on enjoying life’s bigger moments. Learn more about Villi at http://www.myvilli.com.
There are approximately 450,000+ home care offices across the U.S., each trying to stand out and offer high-quality care to those in need. With the demand for care growing and shortages of caregiver talent, brands truly need to stand out and be different. This doesn’t just apply to thinking about direct competitors (like other agencies), or even senior living—the stickiest competitor could be the status quo—family members doing their best with a loved one at home.
“Being in the market for a little over two years, we really wanted to carve a new position in the market that differentiates us from traditional companion service providers. So the rebranding from Maxim At Home to Villi reflects the company's evolution and our commitment to providing a personalized, community-based support model. And this is really aimed at enhancing the user experience with a more accessible and heartfelt approach,” Meeker shared.
In home care, positioning can take a few different forms. It could mean affordability. It could also mean dementia care or Alzheimer’s care focuses. Or, it could mean providing access to specific types of caregivers, like college students, older adults, or veterans, for example. There are also other models of home care, for example, like caregiver registries that match 1099 caregivers with families in need of care (or the more familiar W2 model).
“We completed our rebrand in partnership with Genesis out of Denver, Colorado, working alongside our internal marketing team. When it came to the research component, that was done collaboratively between a comprehensive exploration of the market to evaluate the competitive landscape, qualitative research, value positioning, strategic direction, and creative exploration. If there's research and preparation, we did it. So, you know, there was a lot that went into this rebrand.”
“We went through lots of names, but I must say, the new name was really inspired by the phrase ‘it takes a village.’ Here, we say ‘it takes a villi.’ It emphasizes the importance of community support and delivering these services. It reflects our mission to provide compassionate, personalized services that help individuals not only live independently, but confidently in their home,” Meeker added.
As opposed to going along with the same home care narrative, the Villi team positioned themselves as an “age tech platform which actually allows our clients to see all of those companions,” Meeker shared.
“Before the free interview, our clients can easily log online to our free platform and see all the companions in their area. It has a picture, a profile, their narrative, their experience, background, availability, and more. We really wanted to break down one barrier so you know who's going to be knocking on the door.” This new model and new way of thinking that separates Villi from the standard way of operating, giving caregivers and clients more autonomy and dignity of choice.
“We shifted from a purely service-oriented identity with Maxim at home to one rooted in more of an emotional connection and lifestyle alignment with Villi. Now, we emphasize the human side of home services with an aim to build trust. This resonates more deeply with clients through a warm, relatable brand voice and visual identity, and this emotional positioning allows us to stand out in what we feel is a crowded market. By offering more than just home services, we're focusing on peace of mind to keep your loved one, you know, independent in the home, living confidently,” she added.
Here is a before and after of their website.
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This shift in messaging and positioning puts the brand in a whole new light that feels more personal and home-like—especially when you look at the H1. Going from “compassionate companion care” to “A little help at home or around town from your village-on-demand.” The latter clearly shows a command of their target audience and where they’re at in the journey.
When you look at the home care landscape, you’ll see a number of common primary colors:
Villi’s green and yellow set them apart in terms of logo and brand identity.
“Villi looks like a completely different brand than the one that we had before. The intention was to be completely different and to set ourselves apart from that, so we moved to this, what we call Villi green and Villi yellow. We do consider those two colors very important to the brand,” Meeker added. “The green reflects elements of nurturing and vitality, while yellow evokes joyfulness and energy. We wanted to intentionally implement those colors in our logo.”
Beyond that, their logo makes creative use of a wordmark, featuring the Inter font. The I’s are transposed a bit to mimic the appearance of people, marked by a sun to tittle the I.
Many home care brands use a home, hand(s), or heart as their logo, and it can often feel overdone. This simplified wordmark makes it stand out, paired alongside an easy-to-read Montserrat font for body copy.
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Current Logo |
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“The unexpected placement of the dot in the I becomes a playful, sunny mnemonic device to suggest that Villi is a bright spot in someone's day. You can see when our clients actually log in or do anything. There's a sun that kind of pops up as that bright spot,” Meeker added.
Beyond the logo, Villi also re-evaluated their imagery style: “We shifted from cartoon-style graphics to authentic, emotionally resonant photography that reflects real-life interactions and connections,” shared their Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Experience, Megan Morrissey. Combined with the “introduction of a modern, clean design with a soothing color palette that creates a welcoming and trustworthy atmosphere, we were able to create a new, cohesive appearance that authentically showed up for our audience in a meaningful way,” she added.
There is nothing like learning through doing. Meeker shares her team’s tips for guiding a successful rebrand:
Rebranding isn’t just a marketing exercise. It touches every department. From improving the client or talent experience to financial projections, a rebrand will touch just about every employee—in one way or another.
To truly cement the success of a rebrand, though, be sure to start from the inside out. Staying true to Villi’s (formerly Maxim at Home’s) mission and values made decision-making a much easier process. This isn’t to say that it was without challenges, but it made what can be an ambiguous process much easier.
To learn more about Villi, check out their website: https://www.myvilli.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.