Defining a for-profit brand’s social purpose strategy
More than ever, consumers are interested in supporting mission driven companies that give back to society. In 2017, I began a years-long journey with Home Instead, Inc. to define the company’s social purpose strategy and programs, as well as track performance and optimize for the target audience.
Responsibilities
Marketing strategy and team lead
Campaign management
Tracking and performance
Project management
Deliverables
Annual marketing plans
Program concepts and launches
Content strategy
Outcomes
2.9M aging adults helped
41k community members and partners
11 global market initiatives
Identifying a social purpose strategy
As the marketing lead for social purpose, I supported the evolution of Home Instead’s strategy. Over the years, the strategy came to include:
Defining the target audience
Developing a purpose statement
Aligning the purpose with business goals
Branding the social purpose platform
Defining social purpose platform goals
Building and refining programming
Establishing calls to action
Home Instead’s purpose is to fearlessly create today the world in which we want to grow older tomorrow. Their platform became known as Ready to Care by Home Instead and focused on ways to support our rapidly aging society.
Defining social purpose programs
Over 4+ years, I brought two social purpose programs to market for Home Instead.
Acts of Kindness
Acts of Kindness was the hallmark program of Ready to Care by Home Instead. Our team identified an action-oriented solution to support the rapidly growing aging population and their need for care and support.
And so, Acts of Kindness was born. This text-based program delivered simple weekly acts of kindness that anyone could do for older adults.
During its lifetime, the program attracted more than 20,000 SMS subscribers.
Pen Pals
In response to loneliness and isolation during COVID-19, especially among the aging population, Ready to Care by Home Instead launched the pen pal program.
My role in this program launch involved:
Fleshing out the program concept
Developing a 100% digital process for collecting, reviewing and distributing letters via Ready to Care’s website
Building a paid media and promotion plan, including paid social and influencers
Supporting growth through partnerships, such as a collaboration with AARP’s Cupid Crew; various sororities across North America; and developing toolkits for faith-based, educational, for-profit and other volunteer organizations
Consulting on global expansion opportunities with international franchise partners
Between 2021 to 2022, the pen pal program delivered more than 16,000 letters to older adults.
Annual planning
Between 2017 and 2022, I led the annual program and marketing planning for Ready to Care by Home Instead. This included:
Aligning with business goals and developing relevant KPIs and targets
Developing paid media and promotion plans
Creating an annual content strategy, including user generated content and other creative assets like video
Owning a monthly scorecard and reporting on performance and optimization opportunities
Please note that due to the proprietary nature of this work, more information about this project may be available by request only. Please contact me to learn more.
"Lauren is not only amazing at strategy, but her level of organization and detail is impeccable. You can always tell that Lauren is not only doing 'just a job', but is putting her heart and soul into her work and whatever she produces. She takes the time to ask consultative questions to make sure that what she delivers is exactly what is being asked for."
Erin Albers | Vice President, Social Purpose (former) | Home Instead, an Honor Technology company
Learn more about me and my work
Hi, I’m Lauren — a marketing pro with more than 10 years of experience leading strategic, product, content and digital projects and empowering teams to produce their very best work.
