Challenge: Partners Continuing Care and Spaulding Rehabilitation Network had acquired various community/satellite rehabilitation facilities and home care networks from across the Greater Boston area, including the North Shore, South Shore and Cape Cod. Many were still operating under separate names/identities and some were long standing brands in their communities.

Objective: Plan-it worked closely with Partners and its agency Forge Worldwide to develop an optimal, umbrella marketing strategy across locations/services, including positioning and naming.

Solution: Comprehensive two-phased Qualitative and Quantitative studies included all critical constituencies: case managers, patient liaisons, rehabilitation staff and clinicians, home care and rehabilitation patients and competitive patients. Key issues explored included understanding the equity of the varied local identities, attitudes toward the Partners and Spaulding brands and reactions to various positioning and naming strategies.

Result: Based on our work, Partners renamed its home care services Partners HealthCare at Home (now Mass General Brigham Home Care), and all Partners rehabilitation facilities took the Spaulding name, to leverage the strong heritage of rehabilitation excellence associated with Spaulding. Additionally, an umbrella positioning strategy was developed, to encompass all continuing care services.