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How to communicate with your Aged Care audience

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When it comes to the wellbeing of a loved one, people need to see that providers care about their residents, not only clinically, but also emotionally, intellectually and even spiritually. In Aged Care, communication is all about trust, credibility and connection. Here are some key points of advice to help providers communicate with potential customers in a deeper, more meaningful way:

1. Keep it human

Loved ones want to see quality of life, independence, happiness and laughter, with residents doing the things that make them happy. They want to see pictures and heartfelt messages, and don’t care as much about numbers, facts and figures when picking an Aged Care home. Your branding should focus on the individuals in your community, so you should avoid using language that reduces the humanity of care. For example, it’s makes a big difference to refer to residential care as a home, not a facility or institution. A home is a place people feel comfortable and in charge of their lifestyle, while a facility sounds cold and clinical. When it comes to communication, showing your human side is key.

2. Demonstrate your values

Your future residents are looking for certain values, like love, trust, respect and inclusion as part of their decision to choose you as their Aged Care provider. But it’s not enough just to merely give these concepts a passing mention on your website, social media and brochures; you need to truly demonstrate them. The key to demonstrating your values is to show not tell: for example, providing plenty of pictures your values in practice and regularly communications via social media, and ongoing newsletters. By keeping residents’ loved ones in the loop, you can demonstrate that you follow through on your values.

3. Cover their pain points

The decision to move into aged care can be an agonising struggle for many seniors and their loved ones. Often, the decision is accompanied by feelings of guilt, concerns over money, and confusion over extra services. It’s imperative that you understand the pain points at the heart of your customer’s decision-making process and that you do what you can to offer a solution. By making life easier for residents and their loved ones during such a crucial time in their lives, your Aged Care community will become the top choice.

4. Positive messaging

Positive messaging is crucial to communicating with an Aged Care audience, especially surrounding certain key areas. For example, loved ones and residents like to see positive messaging around community, 24-hour clinical care, exceptional comfort and great food. They also love to be reminded that they’re worth it and that they deserve to be treated to a luxurious experience. By offering positive messaging around these areas, you’re likely to trigger stronger feelings and attract more interest in your Aged Care community.

5. Consistency

Sending out a newsletter or doing a quick post to social media here and there is not going to cut it in 2019, as more and more people engage with brands over online channels. You need to be consistent and have an ongoing communications plan if you wish to see results from your marketing efforts. Aged Care brands that are consistent, and have a well-established social media presence, tend to have stronger and more engaged communities, and community is the heart of success in the Aged Care industry.

The team at Merryn Bourne Creative are Aged Care specialists. We solve business problems, providing organisations with the right approach to engage audiences and deliver the bottom-line results they’re looking for. Whether you need to review your current marketing or start afresh, we will write and implement the strategy to increase your brand reputation, market attractiveness and the overall velocity of your sales. For more information, contact us today.

Fish Tank Creative team

Welcome to the creative studio!

Fish Tank Creative team

In 2017, our team expanded, widening our talent pool and growing our fish tank larger than it’s ever been. We’ve made huge strides in our industry, driving brands forward, connecting with target audiences and adding value to many organisations.

Swim on in and get to know our team…

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Merryn Bourne, CEO & Founder

Merryn started Fish Tank Creative almost ten years ago in 2008, out of her creative industry experience in both design and marketing. With her passion for design, charming and upbeat personality, Merryn wears a hundred different hats in this company, balancing her role as CEO with creative strategy, accounts, HR, business sales and even dabbling in design. Plus, she somehow still has plenty of time to spend with her beautiful, young family.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
Natural progression. I knew I wanted to be an art director while studying 2D/3D art and social science at school. This was then confirmed by my work experience with George Paterson bates in Year 10 and later Bryce Courternay. My time at University taught me how to take artistic and creative ideas and make them commercially viable. From there, my experience in the real world, working in lifestyle advertising and corporate marketing for 20 years taught me other valuable lessons, like the fact that image is everything the skill of taking customers wants and needs and creating a solution.

What’s your favourite part of the job?
Meeting people, and showing them how the solution works to fix their problem.

What are your hobbies?
Relaxing on the beach, being with my family and laughing with my besties.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
The angel fish, all embellished and sparkly.

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Lyn Taylor, Studio Manager

The most recent addition to the Fish Tank Team, Lyn is buzzing with helpful management strategies and insightful ways to improve our processes. She has seventeen years’ experience in the creative industries and is also a well-known photographer in Sydney’s fashion and music scenes.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
I started in project management in the creative industry – I thought it would be a perfect combination of creative and strategy.

What’s your favourite part of the job?
Thinking of new ways to assist the FTC team and getting to know our clients.

What are your hobbies?
Photography, playing, guitar and hanging out with my family.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
A puffer fish, haha.
Mardi Lowe. design lead, pre press mastermind and lord of all things WordPress

Mardi Lowe, Digital Design Lead

Mardi combines the distinctive worlds of web development and design with a unique passion and talent for both. She’s an instrumental member of the Fish Tank team, having blessed our Chippendale studio with her cheery, friendly energy and joyful presence for three and a half years.

How did you land up in the line of work you’re in?
I knew from a young age I wanted to be in the creative industry. My first job straight out of school was a Prepress and Graphic Arts apprenticeship, which taught me the design fundamentals of print. From there, I moved from print into the design world. 

What’s your favourite part of the job?
For a long time, I’ve wanted to use my design skills for something that could help the world, even in a small way. Working in aged care has been the most rewarding for me at Fish Tank Creative. I feel good knowing our ideas have been used to help families and elderly people.

What are your hobbies?
Scuba diving, yoga, fitness and reading.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
A parrot fish. They’re just so bright and colourful!

Juliet Forsyth, Designer, illustrator and lover of birds

Juliet Forsyth, Designer & Creative Services Manager

Juliet’s background in fine art gives her graphic design work a unique edge. In the two years she’s been with Fish Tank Creative, we’re yet to see her without a sketchpad in her bag or doodles in her meeting notes. But her talents extend beyond art – she’s got a good instinct for marketing and her mind always is full of creative, out of the box ideas.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
I started out studying art, which slid into time-based art which slid into animation which slid into digital media which slid into design …It was a slippery slope.

 What’s your favourite part of the job?
Whenever we get a new project that allows us to be super creative and make something beautiful.

 What are your hobbies?
Drawing, dungeons and dragons and bush walking.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
A Bristlenose Catfish, obviously.

 Kira Friedman Writer of copy and content aka the Beyonce of writing 

Kira Friedman, Copywriter

Word obsessed and a bit of a book nerd, Kira just returned from six months studying literature in Edinburgh, Scotland. She loves making complex ideas sound simple, striving to help brands’ unique personalities shine through.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
I’ve always been interested in the art of writing, but I’ve recently discovered the art of branding. There’s something very satisfying about listening to a client and helping them build their marketing goals.  

What’s your favourite part of the job?
Getting to write cool articles like this one…

What are your hobbies?
Travelling, cooking and reading.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
A Neon Tetra, they’re tiny and look just like a regular fish, but that glowing strip always catches your eye.

 Farhan Saeed, Web developer

Farhan Saeed, Web Developer

Farhan moved to Australia just one and a half years ago from Pakistan and is now doing his Masters in IT. He’s a web development and coding whizz, constantly impressing us with his coding skills and keeping us up to date with the latest in the tech world.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
It was my love for technology. I started off as a freelance writer, and was not very good at it. A few months into freelancing, I started my computer science degree and saw how much I could do with what I learn in class. Then I just kept learning new things to keep up with the changing needs of clients, which was both challenging and enjoyable. Time just flew from there.

What’s your favourite part of the job?
I can work from anywhere.

What are your hobbies?
Cricket, music, movies and TV shows.

If you were a fish, which would you be?
I don’t know… I don’t even know what type of fish we have in our office tank.

Yery Yoon, Marketing intern

Yery Yoon, Marketing Intern

A qualified optometrist, budding artist and talented photographer, Yery is a bright and friendly member of the Fish Tank Team. She’s fluent in Korean, loves fashion and is always keen to extend her marketing skills. In fact, she’s headed back to school next year to pursue her passion, Media Productions.

How did you get into the line of work you’re in?
(as a marketing intern): I was working at a small independent optometry practice where we had to all participate in a bit of everything to run a business and it sparked an interest in marketing. It lead me to actively paying attention to the way brands tried to win my attention as a consumer.

What’s your favourite part of the job?
Understanding what people may be interested in and engaging with them to entertain or inform them of their needs.

What are your hobbies?
Drawing, reading, taking photos, binge watching tv series

If you were a fish, which would you be?
The Finding Nemo fish because it’s cute to look at.

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Cleo and Otto, Studio Mascots

Tasked with the important role of swimming about all day and night, Cleo and Otto are 24/7 studio security guards, supervising the team and making sure nothing un-fishy is going on.

Looking to build your branding and communication strategy in the New Year? The Merryn Bourne Creative team can develop your marketing strategy and design you a brand image that perfectly aligns with your organisation. For an obligation-free chat, contact Merryn on 02 8399 2223.

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Our tech branding takeaways

brand- our tech branding takeaways-fish-tank-creativeTechnology companies all want to be the next big thing. Their products often seek to meet needs that consumers don’t yet know they have. But a great idea is only the starting place: to stand out from the competition, they also have to show they’re competent and capable of running a sustainable business.

A brand is a brand is a brand. And then, there are technology brands.

While other industries face new competitors, technology companies face disruptors – companies that completely alter the competitive landscape – game changers. It’s a matter of survival. Technology companies that embrace their brand will elevate their value in the market and better position themselves for long-term success.

In a fast-changing industry full of fiercely competitive players, reliability is key. So it’s no wonder that blue—which appears in 61% of logos from the top technology companies— is chosen as a staple color. What is compatible with cool blue? Clean white. It appears in over 40% of industry-leading logos.

Google, Facebook & microsoft brand logos

Google, Facebook & Microsoft brand logos

Technology is all about innovation but, when it comes to colours, entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid to think outside the blue and white box.

 

NCIS Group brand Logo 2017

NCIS Group brand logo 2017

  • Modern
  • Masculine
  • Innovative
  • Different
  • Cutting edge
  • Freshness
  • Refreshment
  • Nature
  • Growth

Green is a dynamic, sustainable colour. NCIS wanted to be seen as different. It wanted to stand out from the other tech companies. We chose this colour for NCIS’ logo because it’s seen as modern and innovative, whilst also conveying sophistication and business acumen.

NCIS wanted it’s brand personality trait to be unique, bold and different from all the other tech company logos. And, their logo design has had a huge effect on how consumers have viewed their brand.

Different colours can say different things about your brand, and will appeal to different customers. So where should you start? Let’s break it down:

  1. Determine your brand’s personality.
  2. Explore colour psychology
  3. Analyse your competition

We can help you dig in to the data and psychology behind logo colour choices, and discover how colour is crucial to your customers, their choices, and ultimately your business.

It’s time you use colour to position your brand for success.

 

The Coffee Experience

The Coffee Experience

Merryn Bourne Creative recently worked with Velocity from Airport Retail Enterprises to develop a marketing strategy for the signature drink round in the recent championships at The Coffee Experience.

We created a beautiful brand for the Macadamia Moment along with a promotional tent card to deliver the message that the deconstructed beverage could made just how you like it!

Here a few snaps from the day!

The Coffee Experience

Source: Prime Creative Media

The Coffee Experience Macadamia Moment

The Coffee Experience

Source: Prime Creative Media

The Coffee Experience

Source: Prime Creative Media

The Coffee Experience Macadamia Moment

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AEH website lead generation

Recently Merryn Bourne Creative partnered with AEH Property Group to make some website changes to help increase the sites conversation rate. Our solution included adding an email capture form at the top of every sidebar. Having this new lead generation element positioned above the fold means users are more likely to notice and act on the call to action before having to perform a scroll action.

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