Sun River Health

In late 2017, BrandingBusiness began working with HRHCare (Hudson River Health Care), a Federally Qualified Health Care organization (FQHC), to serve medically underserved areas and populations across the Hudson Valley and Long Island in New York State. Established in the early 1970s by four African American women in Peekskill, HRHCare came together to address the lack of affordable, quality health care in their community.

In early 2018, HRHCare was in the process of completing a merger with another FQHC serving New York City, Brightpoint Health, and needed a strategy to announce the merger, rebrand the organization, and position it for success across an expanded geographic area covering more than 15 million people. The opportunity was truly transformational: to create a new healthcare leader with the reach and service breadth to offer affordable, quality care to low- and middle-class people at a time of skyrocketing healthcare costs.

BrandingBusiness first established a Brand Council, a cross-functional team of executives from both organizations. The council was involved throughout the entire merger announcement and rebranding process to ensure constant strategic alignment and enable effective decision-making about the brand and future of the organization.

An extensive cultural assessment was then deployed to analyze sentiments about the merger and identify similarities and points of difference between HRHCare and Brightpoint Health that could inform the communications strategy and enable an effective integration process. As seen below, the organizations saw themselves very similarly.

A messaging strategy and various support materials were developed to position the merger announcement to employees, patients, and the market at large. The strategy emphasized the common roots, values, and commitment of the merging organizations and their enhanced ability to together substantially increase healthcare access, services, and quality for underserved urban and rural communities.

Following the merger announcement, our attention turned to renaming the new organization: Sun River Health was born.

The two words, “sun’ and “river”, pay homage to the heritage and successes of the two legacy organizations, Hudson River Health Care and Brightpoint Health. Throughout history, the sun and water have been symbols of life and vitality. Much like life needs sun and water to thrive, Sun River Health is essential for people to take care of their health and live a life full of possibilities. – This can be treated as come kind of callout associated with the name above.

The cornerstone of the new brand strategy was encapsulated by a new brand driver:

Informed by extensive quantitative and qualitative market research, the brand driver expresses the foundational principle and heart of the organization: the belief that healthcare is not a privilege for a few who can afford it but a human right for all, regardless of one’s ability to pay or insurance status. The strategy is meant to create a powerful affinity with the organization’s core purpose and to position Sun River Health as a compelling and uplifting solution for people in need.

Much like the name, the new visual system integrates elements of both legacy brands, HRHCare and Brightpoint Health, to create a new inspiring, uplifting, and optimistic identity for the market and a bridge to unite the two merging cultures.

The sun icon from Brightpoint Health was kept for its visual qualities. The sun icon is meant to represent the organization’s ability to shine a light on what is important to patients: dignity, respect, and the care they need. The stylized graphic river recognizes the rich Hudson River heritage, and represents the healing, renewal, and hope that good health brings. The dominant colors of the new identity, blue and yellow, demonstrate an organization that is positive, energetic, and optimistic

The strategy was then articulated across a broad range of applications, all in both English and Spanish.

A signage system to fully leverage the bold color system was developed to be immediately visible and memorable across urban and rural areas.

A bi-lingual website was built based on a user experience and content strategy designed to showcase and reinforce Sun River Health’s commitment to be an uplifting and compassionate presence in people’s lives while providing patients with immediate access to information, resources, tools, and functionality necessary to meet their needs.

To demonstrate the organization’s commitment to the communities served, photos and videos of real patients were used across digital and traditional assets. This choice made Sun River Health come across as authentic and trustworthy, differentiating it from the corporate-looking health care organizations that operate in the market.

Lastly, a new set of brand architecture guidelines provided cohesion to the 50 local health care centers and partners spread through the region to position the Sun River Health network as a consistent presence across the region.

In partnership with DCW Media, BrandingBusiness developed a brand launch plan supported by a variety of highly-targeted digital, print, and video tactics. The new Sun River Health brand was launched in September 2020.

Sun River Health’s partnership with BrandingBusiness continues today covering a variety of strategic and brand-building issues tied to ongoing expansion. Three years after the brand launch, Sun River Health continues to serve with an inspiring and effective presence in New York State and an expanding network of 50 healthcare centers where the organization continues to fulfill its mission to provide affordable, high-quality care to people no matter their budget and insurance status.