Hadland Care Group
Hadland Care Group was successful, but to stay that way and realise its potential it needed a wholesale rebrand.
Background
Hadland Care Group began in 1990 when Cheryl Hadland responded to a lack of childcare facilities for her children by opening her first Tops Day Nursery in Poole. There are now nine more across Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire, making it the largest nursery group in the south of England. In 1998, the business started providing training for care staff, and 2008 sees the opening of its second residential care home specialising in care for people with dementia. The group has 350 staff and a turnover of £4.5m.
Problem
Tops Day Nurseries has grown fast in recent years, now looking after around 1,200 children per day. Its success is built on flexibility. Tops centres won customers by opening outside the normal 8am to 5pm hours to suit parents’ different work patterns, and by offering innovative charging arrangements broken down to the quarter-hour rather than the half-day.
But Cheryl Hadland realised the business’s identity was out of step with the increasingly competitive and regulated care sector. ‘We had a very old logo designed 18 years ago by me and a printer. Even I knew it needed a redesign because the business is much more professional now than it used to be. I asked the printer to do it, but the result didn’t really have anything going for it and we wouldn’t have improved our position by using it.
‘It’s a hard market. Eighteen years ago I could fill all my nursery places using a Yellow Pages ad, but not anymore.’
Hadland had already sought the advice of Business Link to boost profitability, and when she went back two years later, advisor Beryl Griffiths recommended Designing Demand, introducing her to Design Associate Kathryn Hughes.
The problems were clear, says Hughes: ‘The existing identity covered all three parts of the business, which were actually quite different. Also, the brand was being used inconsistently across the group – managers were producing materials with different fonts and layouts - so even if you only came into contact with one part of the group, you would get a very inconsistent experience through the brand.
‘Most importantly, the business plans to grow rapidly, especially in residential care homes, and without a proper identity they would find that hard. A logo representing an old-fashioned Victorian toy would not compete as a visual identity.’
Response
Designing Demand’s Generate service provided more than Cheryl Hadland expected: ‘I thought it would just be about the logo, but it turned out to be much more. I had thought about design, but only in a very amateur way. I didn’t know nearly enough about it.
‘Working on the design brief with Kathryn, we looked at how the business perceived itself and what its voice was. This has brought a big change from the childlike “play” feeling we had before to an identity that’s brought out more of our professionalism. We were also encouraged to be proud of what we’re doing. I’ve never bragged about it, but Kathryn noticed that our staff felt a lot of pride in the business.’
The pair created an ‘open’ design brief, says Hadland, to review naming and identity for all the elements of the business except Tops Day Nurseries, because of its strong market position. ‘The training business was too associated with the nurseries, which put other nurseries off using us to train staff because they saw us as the competition. We’d never been able to think of anything but “Tops” for the care homes, but it wasn’t right for that type of business,’ says Hadland.
Winchester-based design agency Bond & Coyne was appointed from a shortlist of three prepared by Kathryn Hughes. ‘They were dynamic and inspirational and came up with ideas that were really unexpected,’ says Hadland. ‘For instance, they saw our managers were selling nursery places to parents in an environment just like a typical office. So we’ve decluttered and redecorated every office, as well as the entrances to the buildings to Bond & Coyne’s specifications.’ The premises’ ‘kerbside appeal’ has been boosted by new signage. ‘Parents have said how professional it makes us look,’ says Hadland, and the impression is reinforced by new staff uniforms, which have made staff feel ‘much more valued than they did before’.
Impact
The group and its three parts now have their own identities – Aspire Training and Reside Care Homes alongside a rebranded Tops Day Nurseries. A redesigned website by the group’s existing web designers Parenta, stationery, brochures, signage and brand guidelines for staff and suppliers complete the £100,000 project. One unexpected benefit has been a boost to administrative efficiency. ‘Clearer branding has created clearer areas of accountability for income streams, which the FD says is already visible in the group accounts,’ says Kathryn Hughes.
Although the design work, backed by radio and press advertising, has had immediate results, bringing in customers as each nursery relaunches during 2008, it is too early to measure the long-term benefits. But, says Hughes: ‘The project has built a strong platform for the business to grow with confidence.’
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