We Opened Some Eyes (I Hope) at Open Minds!

Earlier this month in New Orleans I presented, along with long-time client, Jonathan Lee, CEO of Signature Health, a case study of his brand in front of more than 100 Behavioral Health professionals from all over the country. We spoke about the importance of, especially in a changing industry, positioning a brand for growth. It’s not a subject this group thinks about very much. I wasn’t nervous at all… yeah right.

I think our presentation opened some eyes. It’s hard to deny when you see a healthy brand with a strong position showing significant growth. Behavioral Health professionals are pretty much anti-denial anyway.

Thank goodness for Jonathan Lee. He’s an accomplished, entertaining speaker. And he’s a true champion of his brand and its positioning. He made me feel comfortable during our presentation, and he added a big dose of credibility for an audience who, at best, doesn’t think about branding and, at worst, thinks branding is a bad word.

dRC also occupied a primo booth space (by where they set out the food) so that we could engage with the many Behavioral Heath professionals in attendance. Our booth was themed Healthy – Healthy everything – we passed out Good Green nutrition bars (a big hit) and we raffled off a FitBit. Healthy, healthy, healthy.

For designRoom Creative, the Open Minds adventure marked the end of a long process of narrowing our focus for the behavioral health industry on branding and re-branding. With all the changes in the way Behavioral Health care is delivered, they need our help. Or as Monica Oss from Open minds has said,  Innovate, Adapt, Succeed: Strategy In A Shifting (Seismic) Landscape. How to create strategy in a landscape experiencing seismic shifts. A number of factors (economic, political, and technological) are remaking the health and human service value chain. For an in depth look at those changing roles, check out The Shifting Health & Human Service Value Chain – The Strategic Earthquake and Earthquake Proof Your Strategy. And as the roles of health plans, care management organizations, product makers and service providers are shifting –  competitive advantages and economic business models are affected.

My team says that we help clients to find their way – discover who they really are and where they want to go. Then we turn that into a healthy identity and positioning for long-term success. Since everyone is different, there is no single solution. We design to fit.

How do you grow the way you want to? That’s what we can help this industry with. I think we opened a lot of eyes to that.

I loved the people that attended the OPEN MINDS conference. Many of them were kind enough to come up to me and tell me they liked my talk. Very good people, doing really courageous things, working hard to take care of their payers, their clients and continuing to grow. I’m grateful designRoom Creative could be present and be part of such a wonderful experience.

Kelly