A creative and marketing overhaul was just what the doctor ordered for the Blue Bell, PA-based InteliHealth catalog of wellness products. A few months after its redesign, InteliHealth — a wholly owned subsidiary of health insurance provider Aetna — is reporting sales increases of 15% above its projections.
In January the company enlisted outside help to refashion the catalog, says head of commerce John Selvaggio. New York-based creative agency Shasho Jones Direct was charged with the redesign, while Shawnee Mission, KS-based consultancy J. Schmid & Associates handled the financial and marketing strategies.
For starters, the new catalog covers feature lifestyle photos that skew to a younger demographic. Research had revealed that InteliHealth’s customers are largely in their 30s and 40s — younger than the mature buyers the catalog had been targeting. So whereas a previous cover featured a middle-aged woman in a robe snuggling against a pillow, a newer cover showcases a family with their dog in the midst of a “backrub chain.” (For its prospecting edition, however, the cataloger incorporated a grid representing each of the product categories inside rather than emphasizing lifestyle.)
InteliHealth cut the length of copy significantly, adding benefit boxes and callouts, color-coded by product category, in larger fonts. Some of the products are depicted with “cross section” graphics to showcase their construction. For instance, the Arcopedico Comfort shoes were one of the catalog’s best-sellers, “so we tried to leverage that by showing exactly what was involved in the design and construction of the shoe, such as boarskin insoles and elastic collar,” says Glenda Shasho Jones, president/CEO of Shasho Jones Direct.
The company also redesigned its logo using a bigger, bolder font that emphasizes the word “health.” And InteliHealth dropped the words “healthy home” from the title, Selvaggio says, “because it did not accurately describe our expansion into new product lines.” The catalog was founded in 1996 as part of U.S. Healthcare (later acquired by Aetna) to sell home products for asthma sufferers, but it has since expanded to sell items such as massagers, exercise equipment, facial treatments, and intimate apparel.
You might think that InteliHealth would be eager to capitalize on its connection with Aetna. But not only does the catalog not feature the Aetna name anywhere, InteliHealth does not mail to Aetna’s database of millions of members.
“We really want to build a strong and separate brand,” Selvaggio says, “and we don’t want the Aetna name to confuse customers outside of the Aetna network.” Some Aetna members, who receive a 10% discount, discover the Website through a link on the Aetna member home page, he says.
Even without prospecting to Aetna members, InteliHealth is thriving following the makeover, which took two months to plan and implement. The initial results, three months after the first May drop, indicating a 15% increase over sales projections are impressive enough. Then consider that the catalog cut back its circulation this year, mailing about 600,000 books a month compared with 700,000 books a month last year, and it’s apparent that the results are the picture of health.