Branding Retirement Communities by Brad VanAuken, BrandForward, Inc. July 2008
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Retirement communities have been springing up across the U.S. for the past two decades. According to the National Care Planning Council, “The NIC National Supply Estimate of Seniors Housing & Care Properties enumerated a total of 46,131 seniors housing properties with supportive services in the U.S. with a capacity to hold more than 3.4 million seniors as of 1999-2000. Of these 46,131 properties (3,411,891 beds), 50% were assisted living communities, 34% were nursing facilities, 7% were in dependant living communities, 4% were continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), and 5% offered a combination of property types. Seniors apartments (that is, seniors housing properties without supportive services) were estimated at 11,726 properties and 821,173 units.”

A continuing care retirement community (CCRC) is a housing community that provides different levels of care based on what each resident needs over time. This is sometimes called "life care" and can range from independent living in an apartment to assisted living to full-time care in a nursing home. Residents move from one setting to another based on their needs but continue to live as part of the community. (Medicare definition of a CCRC.)

Retirement communities offer products and services ranging from houses, town homes, apartments, condominiums, fitness centers, swimming pools, bowling alleys, golf courses, fishing ponds, hiking paths and restaurants to financial advisors, barber shops, beauty salons, transportation services, shopping excursions, concerts, movies, physical therapy and hospice services. They also offer aging in place (or home care) services such as yard care services, cleaning services, private duty nurses, traveling libraries and meals on wheels.

These communities vary quite widely regarding major services offered (independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing, etc.), payment plans/options (entrance fee/monthly payments, rental, equity/ownership, etc.), amenities offered and number of units. Some (usually older communities) are organized more institutionally, while others (usually newer communities) are organized more residentially or socially. Some communities focus more on “active living,” while others more on assisted living. Some have a special focus on the development of body, mind and spirit.

From my experience, these are some of the branding issues most often encountered by retirement communities:

1. How to establish relevant differentiation
2. Whether a religiously oriented name (Luther, Wesley, Calvin, John Knox, St. John’s, St. Joseph’s, St. Andrews, Jewish Home, etc.) is inclusive and meaningful enough to appeal to new audiences
3. Questions or concerns about specific name components, such as “senior,” “elder,” and “retirement”
4. Brand architecture
1. This gets quite complicated for retirement communities that have grown through mergers and acquisitions and others with multiple properties/sites with multiple names
2. There are often questions about naming the independent living, assisted living and skilled care facilities and how those names would relate to the name of the organization overall
3. Off campus service branding can also be complicated, especially if one retirement community’s home care or hospice service is used by another community or if multiple communities share a home care or hospice service
1. This includes the naming of satellite centers and other off campus facilities
4. Should on campus amenities such as restaurants and fitness centers be named?
5. Should individual apartment or town home complexes bear their own names?
6. How does one accommodate donor named amenities and spaces?
7. How does one reconcile commonly used names with the legal names?
8. Creating brand architecture and naming conventions that provide clear, consistent and flexible direction for any conceivable type of future growth
5. Whether to grow by expanding into new geographic areas or by targeting new customer segments in the same geographic area
6. How to make the brand appeal to a younger senior segment (55-70), especially before the death of a spouse or a debilitating medical crisis occurs
7. How to position the brand as both an active lifestyle community and a place that can accommodate a worsening medical condition
8. How to reinforce the brand’s promise at each point of customer contact
1. Especially, how to reinforce the brand’s promise (and the purchase decision itself) immediately after the purchase
9. How to “brand” the campus so the brand is apparent throughout the campus
10. How to integrate the brand identity into a campus way finding system
11. Creating an iconic brand identity element that can unify all of the separately named entities
12. How does one cost effectively build brand awareness throughout the community? (there are several ways to do this)
13. How to rally all of the retirement community employees around the new brand promise so that they become active brand champions

Retirement communities have a unique set of branding issues that require a careful focus on brand positioning, brand strategy, brand architecture, brand identity and customer touch point design. This can be informed by gaining insight (through research) of current residents and of prospective residents and their adult children influencers.

I wish you great success in branding your retirement community.

Brad VanAuken is president and founder of BrandForward, Inc., a full-service brand management consultancy with clients throughout the world. Previously, Brad was the vice president of marketing for Element K, a leading e-learning company and director of brand management and marketing for Hallmark Cards, Inc. During his tenure as Hallmark’s chief brand advocate, Hallmark received the Brand Management of the Year award. Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on brand management and marketing, Brad is a much sought after speaker and writer. He wrote the books The Brand Management Checklist and Brand Aid. His free online brand management and marketing newsletter is read by thousands of marketers throughout the world. Brad has a BS degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Email: vanauken@brandforward.com
Company Profile: BrandForward, Inc.
Company URL: http://www.brandforward.com

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