Archive for Graphic Design

Capiche Conversations: Interview with Janet Troy, Executive Director, Ashland Community Health Foundation

Interview with Janet Troy, Executive Director, Ashland Community Health Foundation, conducted by Vicki Purslow, Capiche Research Analyst and Co-founder of Majoring In.

Founded in 1977, the Foundation was established to provide a way for community members to support the work of Ashland Community Hospital. Over the past 46 years, the generosity of its donors has had an incredible impact on the variety and quality of health care services available in the community.

In 2021, the Ashland Community Health Foundation’s board of directors approved the expansion of its mission. Now, the Foundation supports community health and wellness initiatives in Ashland, Talent, and Phoenix.


ACHF Team

ACHF Team: Kathleen Mackris, Nicole Gutrich, Janet Troy, Stephanie Roland

Q: Between 1977 and 2021, the Foundation supported some innovative projects and programs at the Ashland Community Hospital. What are some of the projects that stand out most in your memory?

Janet: Through the generosity of our family of donors, we were able to touch every corner of the hospital. We were very involved in the renovation of the Emergency Department and the Family Birth Center, as well as the creation of the Chapel and Comfort Care Room. Our funding of equipment purchases allowed the hospital to have the state-of-the-art technology it needed to best serve our community. Our Foundation has supported the School Nurse Program for decades, ensuring that nurses are available when students need their care and support.

Q: I know your team was excited when the Foundation’s board of directors approved the expansion of its mission. Working with consultant Cynthia Scherr, of Scherr Management Consulting, you created a new strategic plan. What are some of the highlights of the new strategy?

Janet: Our new strategic plan guided our transition from a traditional hospital foundation to a community foundation focused on supporting health and wellness needs in Ashland, Talent, and Phoenix. One of the most significant changes made as a result of our expanded mission has been an increased focus on our grantmaking and scholarship programs. We are now awarding grants to a more diverse group of local non-profits committed to building healthier communities. We have also broadened our scholarship program to support both nursing and allied health students interested in careers in the Rogue Valley. At the same time, we have the ability to offer our donors additional opportunities to make a meaningful impact in the community through their contributions to the foundation.

ACHF Board

ACHF Board of Directors

Q: Wow – that really broadens the focus of the Foundation! How wonderful to be able to reach further into the communities of Ashland, Talent, and Phoenix to help support community-based projects! What are some of the projects that you have funded?

Janet: We focus our grantmaking on projects that create or expand health and wellness services in Ashland, Talent, and Phoenix. We tend to define health and wellness broadly, so we fund a wider range of projects designed to promote health in many settings. We value collaboration and partnerships and most of the projects we have supported involve organizations working together to create solutions. Our first round of community grants in 2022 supported La Clinica, Mercy Flights, OHRA, Rogue Valley Farm to School, Rogue Valley Mentoring, Talent Maker City, and the United Way of Jackson County.

Q: So far in 2023, ACHF has granted close to $510,000 to support health and wellness initiatives and scholarships. Please tell me more about the projects and programs you funded.

Janet: This year, we awarded grants totaling $258,000 to 11 nonprofit organizations through our community grant process. These organizations are involved in innovative partnerships that provide medical and behavioral health services, promote prevention and inclusion, support nutrition and early literacy, and more. Addressing the shortage of health care professionals is an important goal of our Foundation, and our scholarship program continues to grow each year. We have awarded almost $192,000 to 43 local students attending nursing and allied health programs through September this year. We also continue to grant funds to Asante Ashland Community Hospital and have awarded more than $60,000 to support their school nurses and lab and engineering departments.

Q: Your nursing scholarships have been a hallmark of the Foundation for years and remain central to your mission. Tell me more about your nursing scholarship program.

Janet: The William G. and Ruth T. Evans Endowed Nursing Scholarship was established in 2002 by Ruth Evans. Mrs. Evans was a retired nurse and her husband, Bill, was a retired family physician. The scholarship was created to honor Bill after his death and help address the nursing shortage in the Rogue Valley. Since its creation, more than $1.2 million in scholarships have been awarded to over 300 local students attending nursing programs at OHSU Ashland Campus at SOU and RCC.

Q: Although the Foundation continues to support its original mission, it makes sense that an expanded strategic focus would lead to renaming the Foundation and creating a new brand. You hired Capiche Consulting to help guide you through this process and continued to work with Chris Cook, Capiche’s principal, during its implementation. Who was involved with the rebranding, and what did it consist of?

Janet: The decision to expand our mission led to our consideration of a new look and feel for our Foundation, in addition to the introduction of a new name that is a better representation of who we are today. It was not a decision that our board of directors and staff arrived at easily but we are pleased with the changes we made as we embarked on this new journey. The process that Chris guided us through was thoughtful and strategic. We learned so much about the importance of creating a brand that reflected our new identity and the pieces that are part of the brand puzzle. Developing our positioning statement, brand promise, key messaging, and more was very educational and insightful.

Website on Devices

Photo by Ruby Slipper

Q: What was the next step after landing on the brand messaging tool?

Janet: There is more involved in the development of a new brand than I ever imagined. It required us to take a fresh look at our website, newsletter, signage, and even our stationery. We debated about colors, fonts, and a new logo. It was a fascinating process, and I’m very happy with the outcome.

Q: You continued to work with Chris after developing your new brand. What else did Chris help you with during that time?

Janet: Chris was very helpful in teaching us how to spread the word about our work. Initially, she helped us develop a communication plan and assisted us by writing newsletter articles and press releases. She helped us develop a media strategy and contacts so we could share our story in the most effective way. Most importantly, she gave us the tools we needed to manage this activity independently.  For me, that is one of the best gifts a consultant can give an organization.

Janet Troy

Janet Troy

Q: Looking back, what was the value in working with Capiche to complete your name change and rebranding?

Janet: We are well-versed in the field of philanthropy but not experts in brand development. Chris shared her expertise at a time when we were preparing to embrace an exciting new strategic direction that would shape our future for years to come. Her knowledge and professionalism were a real plus as we navigated unknown territory.

Q: How can people interested in community health partner with the Foundation?

Janet: There are so many ways that interested individuals and businesses can partner with us to build a healthier community. Our Patrons Campaign and Lights for Life are long-standing community traditions for giving. We accept gifts of all sizes and shapes, including donations of stock and vehicles. Some of our supporters prefer to give once or twice a year, while others prefer to set up monthly donations. Many community members have also included us in their estate plans. We now offer donors new ways to start their own named funds or endowments, and our expanded mission provides more opportunities to make a difference in our community. I encourage folks to visit our website (achfoundation.org) or contact our office (541-482-0367) to learn more about work.

ACHF Offices

ACHF Office

SERVICES CAPICHE HAS PROVIDED FOR THE ASHLAND COMMUNITY HEALTH FOUNDATION
  • Rebranding/Name Change
  • Brand Toolkit Development (Key Messages, Graphic Standards, and Style Guide)
  • Liaison with Graphic Designer and Web Developer
  • Marketing Communication Strategy
  • Media Relations, PR, and Newsletter Writing
  • Team Training
Chris shared her expertise at a time when we were preparing to embrace an exciting new strategic direction that would shape our future for years to come. —Janet Troy Share on X

Yes, It’s BiG—a BiG Fail! 5 Ways to Avoid a Colossal Campaign Clunker

At the end of each year, many publications “celebrate” the worst marketing campaigns of the year. Less than 40 days into the new year, and there was already a regrettable fail that hit my mailbox. Earlier this month, I published this to my Capiche.wine blog. While I was at the Oregon Wine Symposium last week, several of my readers remarked that they’d been appalled by this example of a marketing fail—so much so that I decided to share the story on this site as well. Here ya go!

The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium has moved from downtown Sacramento to Cal Expo—the state’s fairgrounds. This was a great decision as it centralizes the entire three-day event. “It’s Going to Be BiG” was a good marketing theme. The location change will give 14,000 wine industry members the opportunity to network and visit the 700+ industry suppliers without having to travel throughout the downtown.

BiG Unified Wine and Grape Symposium Wine Spectator Cover

“It’s Going to Be BiG” is a PR nightmare! Because of the way the circular is folded, there is the appearance of a massive breast, complete with an areola, with the tiniest squirrel positioned in front of what looks like a nipple. The acorn is about 16 times larger than the squirrel, hence the “BiG”—except conference organizers (and worse yet, their graphic design team) didn’t look at the circular in its folded format, or so they say.

We called both sponsors of the event—the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) and the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG). One organization was understanding and concerned. The other was more defensive.

Ideally, your organization and the marketing team and graphic artist will look at every ad as it will be delivered. We were told this didn’t occur. Seasoned marketing professionals know to do this. We would like to believe there was never the intent to produce an offensive ad, but this was a colossal fail. And the defensive response from one organizer compounded the problem.

Five ways to avoid a colossal clunker:

  1. Consider your audience—will the messaging resonate with them (or, in this case, disgust them)?
  2. Be sensitive to cultural references and stereotypes (e.g., H&M).
  3. Review timing so as not to cause confusion with unrelated activities that may be added with your campaign (e.g., Milwaukee Bucks).
  4. Involve others in your organization in the review process—different perspectives can reveal problems before it’s too late.
  5. Test content in all formats—online mobile, tablet, and desktop; printed flyers (folded and not), print ads, and so on.

How to recover:

So, what do you do if you have a colossal failure? Get out in front of it. Pull it off the web, out of the publications, off the walls. Issue a public apology and move on with a more appropriate campaign. Ironically, this “bad” attention gives your organization a chance to self-correct and look “good” in the public’s eye. And they’ll pay more attention to the new campaign as a result. But don’t use this as a PR tactic—it’s better to have a strong campaign to begin with, and that should be every marketer’s goal.

Note: This post was originally published at our sister site, Capiche.wine.
What do you do if you have a colossal failure? Get out in front of it. Share on X

11 Ways to Bring Your Web Presence to the Next Level

First impressions can create a lifelong ambassador or a disappointed grumbler—and those impressions can spread exponentially for the positive or negative, depending on the customer’s experience. Whether it’s your label design or website, this is your chance to woo prospective patrons. Before that can even happen, though, they must be able to find you online.

Here are 11 ways to bring your web presence to the next level so you’re not only reaching a wider audience but ensuring those who find you have an enjoyable, memorable experience.

  1. Be unique. If your website doesn’t currently align with your branding (or your branding itself needs honing), it may be harming rather than helping your online presence. You don’t want your website to look like another cookie-cutter template users forget as soon as they bounce but rather a reflection of your unique culture and graphic identity. Ideally, it will wed aesthetically striking design with seamless functionality to create a gratifying user experience that inspires visitors to explore—and come back.
  2. Make it mobile-friendly. The number of people accessing websites via mobile devices increased 222% from 2013 to 2018, and that upward trend is only growing. If your website is not responsive (adapts according to screen dimensions), users on mobile devices will have trouble navigating it—and, worse, Google will penalize your site in its search engine rankings.
  3. Lock it down. Google recently announced that Chrome will start blocking insecure elements on sites with mixed content, beginning with a disconcerting warning to visitors about insecure content in an upcoming Chrome release with full blocking of insecure elements (e.g., images, scripts, stylesheets, or pages) by January or February. That means sites with http elements instead of https (secure/SSL) may appear broken or be altogether inaccessible to people using Google Chrome as their browser. Try viewing your website in Chrome and take a look at the url bar—if there is a lock next to the url on all your pages and posts, you’re good to go. An information icon (circle with an ‘i’ inside) indicates mixed content, whereas that same symbol followed by “Not Secure” warns all of the content on that page is insecure.
  4. Streamline images. Google has been placing growing emphasis on the speed of page loads in its search engine algorithm, and that has become heavily weighted in recent years, especially in the context of mobile devices. One of the ways to accomplish a significant speed boost without compromising image quality is to convert images to the new WebP image format recently introduced by Google.
  5. Track conversions. Ever wonder how traffic flows through your site, where it comes from, and whether these referrals result in valuable actions? You may be paying for a directory service or advertisements but have no idea whether those investments are worthwhile. Setting up conversion funnels and tracking will help you make decisions that garner the best bang for your buck.
  6. Scope out the competition. An SEO expert can conduct a competitor analysis to identify challenges, tease out unique opportunities, and recommend how to make your website rise above the rest. A one-time investment in in-depth SEO research and analysis can pay huge dividends when it comes to crafting and implementing an effective online marketing strategy.
  7. Make it accessible. Getting an ADA compliance audit can help you determine whether your website is accessible to those with disabilities—a concern that has escalated with the rise of ADA lawsuits, including winery websites. This is one of those situations where an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure as it potentially saves thousands in lawsuit costs.
  8. Build buzz. There’s no denying the power of social media, and harnessing that power is crucial to the success of every business these days. If you’re not regularly posting to Facebook and Instagram (and to a lesser extent, Twitter), you’re missing an opportunity to broaden your fan base, encourage engagement, and create faithful followers who happily spread the word about your business.
  9. Reach out. Whether it’s a Facebook post, Instagram story, or Google ad, geotargeted ad campaigns can zero in on the precise demographics best-suited to your products or services, making your brand visible to thousands who may otherwise be unaware of your company.
  10. Keep in touch. Your mailing list is one of your most precious assets. These are folks who have already expressed interest in your business and want to keep up with the latest news. By providing valuable dynamic content through regular blog posts and sharing that content via e-newsletter campaigns, you reward existing customers with pertinent information and draw new users to your website through compelling blog topics. Philip vanDusen’s Brand•Muse and Keto Savage’s 7-Set Sunday are two exceptional examples of engaging, authentic, valuable e-newsletters that follow consistent patterns so you can always jump to your favorite sections—or read top to bottom to savor every morsel.
  11. Control your Google presence. Do you have a Google My Business page, and if so, is it up-to-date? When you do a Google search, the relevant Google My Business page is displayed in the righthand sidebar. It provides a synopsis of the business/service provider, contact info, relevant images, and a link to your website. Setting up a Yelp page is also essential for those with brick-and-mortar establishments. Both Google business and Yelp pages inspire greater confidence and contribute to a professional, unified online presence.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Don’t panic—Capiche can help you with all of the above services and more through our affiliate Michaels & Michaels Creative, LLC. We can create a custom plan tailored to your particular needs and budget. Don’t hesitate to email Michaels & Michaels Creative and ask for the Capiche discount of $200 on combo packages featuring four or more services. We look forward to helping you bring your web presence to the next level!

Note: This post was originally published at our sister site, Capiche.wine.
First impressions can create a lifelong ambassador or a disappointed grumbler, and those impressions can spread exponentially. Share on X