Hospira
Advance with Us

Challenge

After years of introducing product upgrades without retiring earlier versions, Hospira’s portfolio had become overpopulated with unprofitable products. If they were to continue developing new products, they would need to streamline their inventory and eliminate redundancies in their offering—an action that had a high likelihood of upsetting their customers.

Six years after its launch, the Hospira brand still meant little to nothing to customers and had almost no equity. So while many companies in a similar situation could fall back on the strength of their brand to communicate tough decisions, Hospira was not in that position. Their brand was simply not up to the task.

To further complicate matters, Hospira had done a poor job of taking credit for the many ways they delivered value to customers. A perfect example of this was the fact that virtually no one knew that Hospira’s larger goals, e.g., affordable generic alternatives, more efficient and safer solutions, etc., aligned extremely well with those at the center of the national healthcare agenda.

Hospira needed help communicating this news to their customers. More importantly, it needed to be framed as an investment in future innovation.

Solution

To ensure customers knew Hospira was changing for all the right reasons, I anchored the campaign in a communication system capable of quickly explaining the logic behind any decision or action in a decidedly confident tone. While the headlines unapologetically communicated Hospira’s determination to move healthcare forward, strong, aspirational imagery set the stage for the tagline’s resounding invitation to “Advance with Us.” By design, this system doubled as an expression of Hospira’s approach to problem solving and reinforced many of the same practices at the heart of “The Human Perspective” campaign I created the previous year.

To minimize any negative associations customers may have with the discontinuation of products, the campaign featured communications that addressed the “bad news” of product eliminations while simultaneously highlighting the many ways Hospira helps hospitals realize savings.

My role: Strategy, Creative Direction, Design, Copywriting

The central element of the corporate campaign was the communication architecture I developed and fleshed out with my copywriting partner. The intent was to establish an approach for Hospira’s process: an expression of how they function as a company and the tool through which to communicate the logic behind every decision Hospira makes and solution they create. By consistently visualizing it on every communication, it reassures customers that Hospira’s decisions are well-thought-out and grounded in a process. It also serves as a reminder to customers that Hospira never stops searching for solutions.

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