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JSSA
Making it clear, making it consistent
Organizations that have been around for a long time are obviously doing something right. But very often, economic and social challenges require them to evolve in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. When this happens, as every marketing director knows, they must spread the word.
JSSA (Jewish Social Services Agency) has been serving people across the Washington metropolitan area for more than a century. Each year, more than 25,000 people receive assistance through its wide range of counseling, educational, employment, hospice, nursing care and social services. But during its long history, confusion developed regarding the nature, scope and delivery of these much-needed services. Instead of being known as a provider of high-quality fee-based services, JSSA was considered as a free last resort due to the misconception of low-quality services. Increased competition among social service providers for paying clients as well as donor funds made it clear that they needed a new marketing model.
Their fee-for-service business needed to be more robust to meet the organization’s fiscal objectives and remain relevant in the market for social services.
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The BSD solution
Realizing that even the major stakeholders of JSSA were not aligned around consistent messages, Beth Singer Design recommended and facilitated the meeting of a Messaging Committee comprised of senior management, department heads and other opinion leaders within the organization.
A dynamic group process ensued, and three key messages emerged:
- JSSA is the Washington metropolitan area’s outstanding source of high-quality services
- JSSA offers a full range of services
- JSSA offers services to ALL people, regardless of their religion
BSD also presented research on social service agencies across the nation and analyzed both overt and subtle messages relating to quality and clarity of services. We correlated the agencies with the least amount of verbal and visual clutter, the warmest and simplest design elements, and taglines that defined the services with the most effective business models.
The messaging committee further reasoned that for people in need of social services, an uncomplicated, welcoming approach is best, combined with an unambiguous description of services.
BSD created a new positioning line: “JSSA. For the best in child, family and aging services.” Deceptively simple, the succinct line communicates quality and scope of services. To distill the message further and suggest JSSA have top-of-mind presence for all stakeholders, but especially referral sources, the call to action became: “Think JSSA!”
Breakthrough strategy
BSD’s research further revealed that the key to the agency’s greatest potential for expanding its client base was not in marketing to potential clients, but instead, in reaching out to those who would refer their clients—i.e., doctors, nurse practitioners, psychologists, etc. This message strategy was a major component of the program, which included a flagship brochure for referrers, and others who indentified the clients’ need to “Think JSSA!” A revelation, this strategy was a significant breakthrough for JSSA.
To target individuals in need, stories of flourishing clients and corresponding genial photos were developed as an additional way into JSSA’s offerings for individual service-specific brochures and a dynamic new website.
The message strategy also included a brand launch program to help employees and other JSSA stakeholders become its “brand ambassadors.” Overall, the program included four brochures, presentation folder, stationery and website. We also provided templates for donor newsletters, direct mailers, e-blasts, program guides and flyers, as well as a bank of photos to support the visual brand, empowering the client to manage these communications vehicles in house.
Today, JSSA has the confidence that its message strategy is as strong and focused as the services it delivers. As a result and most satisfying of all, more people than ever before are now hearing about JSSA and utilizing the quality services it has to offer.