Park&Co Debuts Business Cards With A New Twist

The business card is one of the most boring or interesting or silly or downright weird things you might ever get from a person. A small piece of thick paper or lightweight card stock, it says something about a company and possibly about the person. A business card can even lead to a jealous murderous rage. Well, at least in a Brett Easton Ellis novel it can.

What would make someone do anything more with that business card than just file it away or toss it in the nearest wastebasket? The simple answer is make it eye popping. Blind the person you’re giving it to with a dazzling display of visual daring do, or something like that. The card though, can be just as effective and memorable by asking you to do with it something that you’ve never done.

We recently decided at Park&Co that it was time for a new look, and to merge several ideas in one very simple, elegant little card.

This card, as you can see, is modest in its print execution, with two colors and an inviting sans-serif font. Free of distraction, you’re provided the necessary information about the individual giving it to you. The card also has some curious text in the upper right hand corner. Web and print are married by the request that the holder visit Google and search that very unique phrase. Go ahead and give it a try. This one is “The Fastest White Man Alive” Won’t forget about that too soon, will you?

You visit the page and learn a little more about the card’s issuer. With a story unique to that person, you find something about who he or she is and what makes him or her great at the job. We tried to create a business card that melds media in a creative way and leaves an impression on the person who receives it. Maybe we’re off the mark though. We could’ve just gone to this guy.

Most local TV ads are made with no money, no concept, no production values, and no shortage of obnoxious yelling. And in case you didn’t catch the phone or address of that car dealer, accident attorney or mattress warehouse the first time, don’t you worry, Vern, you’re gonna get it again…and again…and again.

With a dash of fun and creativity, it’s easy for a local commercial to soar mightily above this din, and I recently came across one from central Alabama that hit me like a fence post to the jaw. It was made by Rhett and Link, two guys who started I Love Local Commercials and are touring the country producing free spots for local businesses they take a shine to. Who knew honesty could be so effective. Or so funny.

That number again is 256-737-0438.

Natural evolution is the ultimate form of innovation. If you pay attention, nature can teach all businesses how to thrive, no matter how nasty the economic environment.

Earlier this year, we were privileged to help rebrand Clinica Adelante; a community clinic that was founded to serve the health care needs of farm workers in Maricopa County, AZ 30 years ago.

In that time, their business environment has changed dramatically. Immigration laws and urban sprawl have significantly impacted their patient population. State and federal funding is harder to secure, especially with patient count in decline. And competition from private practices is growing as subdivisions replace farms.

Yet even with all of these impacts, Clinica Adelante remains true to it’s mission:

“Adelante Healthcare continually seeks to improve the health of our communities by providing quality, comprehensive primary health care within each patient’s ability to pay.”

However, in order to continue to serve the underserved, Clinica Adelante needed to evolve, and innovate quickly, to attract privately-insured patients. In January we took their leadership through a branding program. We discussed their nine convenient locations, top-notch doctors, electronic health records initiative, etc.. These are all great features, and yet none of them are brand differentiators. So we dug deeper.

The key to their new brand is in celebrating the organization’s heritage of growing from the land, while making it relevant for the next 30 years. But being relevant wasn’t enough. Clinica Adelante challenged themselves to be leaders. We started by updating its name and organizational persona to reflect its new brand position: “Sustainable Healthcare.”

The original logo depicts the organization's heritage, while the new brand celebrates its relevance today.

Sustainable Healthcare

The “Sustainable Healthcare” platform isn’t just about going “green.” The brand position has three equally significant legs.

1. Sustaining the health of the individual patient: Sustaining individual health includes all of the above features, offering multi-disciplinary services, and becoming an online and offline resource for healthier lifestyles through diet, fitness and green living.
2. Sustaining the availability of health care for all: True to its mission, Adelante Healthcare will continue to serve the needs of all patients – regardless of their ability to pay – through central locations, convenient hours and a multi-cultural staff.
3. Sustaining the environmental health of the communities they serve: Adelante will become a leader in green clinic operations, educate on living healthier lifestyles, and promote environmental sustainability.

Another way to view Adelante’s position is: “Healthcare that is bigger than you are.” That’s a ubiquitous “you,” meaning that when anyone associates with Adelante as a privately insured patient, they are healing more than just themselves. They are helping others benefit from high quality healthcare, while also contributing to a community that strives to make the home, neighborhood, and planet a healthier place.

Adelante's new Sustainable Healthcare website

Operationally, becoming a model of sustainable healthcare is an ambitious goal. It doesn’t happen overnight. The goal is to have a definitive plan in place with measurable outcomes. Adelante is relying on organizations like the Teleosis Institute, Practice Greenhealth, and CleanMed for best practices in sustainable operations. They have also hired a new sustainability professional to enact change throughout the entire organization for waste reduction and recycling, energy efficiency, organic cleaning and maintenance, and green building materials for expansion and renovations. Adelante recently moved into its first LEED certifiied clinic in Buckey, AZ, with more to come.

Avein Saaty-Tafoya, MBA, HCM, is CEO of Adelante Healthcare. She said one of the challenges in their evolution was defining what “Sustainable healthcare” means.

“Our greatest obstacle was clarity. There were many assumptions about our new brand given the new focus on sustainability, as well as all the activity outside our industry in the green movement. Park&Co helped make this brand identity relatable and easy to understand.”

Here’s what Avein had to say about the opportunities the new brand position presents.

“It honors our mission, which is grounded in continuing the provision of health services whether a patient is insured or loses their coverage. It touts our business model, which as a non-profit community based collaborative must drive revenue and cover expenses, while at the same time increase efficiency and contain costs. We are exceeding expectations when it comes to quality and financial metrics. We are becoming a state and national model because of innovative programs like our collaboration with the Farmers Market Association at our centers. This partnership helps our patients gain access to affordable and healthful organic produce. Simple initiatives like this one have made a positive impact on our staff, patients, and the communities we serve.”

By helping Adelante healthcare share its mission of sustainability with a broader audience, we helped it secure its own sustainability as a business and a brand. We’re proud to be part of their innovative evolution to thrive in the next three decades and beyond.

I recently returned from a whirlwind trip following U2 on the West Coast swing of their latest tour. The trip took me to three different cities in the span of a week where I saw the show from a variety of different perspectives and vantage points. The last stop was in Pasadena at the famed Rose Bowl.

As many of you probably know that Rose Bowl show was noteworthy for a few reasons. First, 100,000 people occupied the stadium making it one of the largest concert events in the history of California. Also, U2 used the performance to record their latest concert DVD and they streamed the concert live via YouTube. The statistics that followed the live broadcast were staggering. Ten million streams from 188 countries across the world made this the largest streaming event in YouTube’s history.

A friend who knew I would be attending the Rose Bowl concert sent me the following email before the show, “Aren’t you a sucker? Now, I can have the same experience free while still laying on my sofa.” In a sense he has a point. Thanks to social media he saw the same show, but he hardly had the same experience. Not even close. And this is as big a commentary on the effectiveness of social media vs. in-person Word of Mouth as there ever was.

What I experienced in the span of a week led to countless stories and memories that I’ll cherish and share for a lifetime. It was by definition the ultimate Word of Mouth experience. He didn’t experience the camaraderie that comes with spending an entire day in the General Admission line and the subsequent loss of humanity in the stampede that follows when the gates finally open. He didn’t experience haggling and begging our way back to the Vegas strip among 20,000 other stranded cab seekers. And of course, he didn’t experience the magic that is a live U2 event.

He may have been comfortable and it certainly was free to watch the Rose Bowl show on his laptop. But as I was there smashed between fans from London on my left, Hawaii on my right and Canada to my back, I was part of something bigger. I was part of something 100,000 strong in fact. A community of passionate people that if only for three hours of our lives were connected to each other. Social media is great. It has the ability to extend real life situations, but make no mistake, it will never replace those situations and experiences.

My friend may have sung along to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” from the comfort of his own couch, but I sang the same song at the top of my lungs with 100,000 others. And as I glanced around and the band fell silent it was clear that we shared something too. An overwhelming moment that only those within those walls can truly remember. I will never forget the looks on the faces of the people surrounding me. Those looks can never be defined by any social media application. Once again, U2 taught me a lesson, and once again, I’m better for it.