Case Studies

Intuit Ignites Annual Enrollment with New Benefits Website

Reaching employees can be simple. Send an email, create an intranet post, mail a letter, hold a meeting. But reaching employees’ families? That’s somewhat more difficult.

Intuit faced this challenge with its annual benefits enrollment. Employees make decisions about open enrollment with their families. So their families need to be just as informed (and inspired). More

Intuit Employees Get Smart about Their 401(k) Plans

In late 2007, Intuit decided to streamline its 401(k) plan to make employees’ choices easier. The change meant eliminating many popular funds and restructuring management fees. Overall, this was a good thing. Intuit needed employees to see it that way, too.

The company decided the best way to prevent any misconceptions was to communicate early and give everyone enough time to make decisions. More

New Wellness Program Gets Ardent Employees Feeling Better About Their Benefits—And Moving Toward Better Health in the Process

Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Ardent Health Services subsidiaries own and operate acute care health systems.Their network of more than 7,745 employees delivers health care at seven acute care hospitals, a multi-specialty physician group, a health plan and a nationally- recognized medical laboratory. More

Nanotechnology Company Elegantly Communicates Change—by Changing up Communications

A major nanotechnology company whose technologies improve the way people live—from semiconductor chips to solar panels—turned to Benz Communications for help improving its employee benefits communications. More

Banks Take Good Care of Their Most Important Assets—with Help from California Bankers Association

California Bankers Association, one of the largest trade associations in the country, helps banks save money and leverage best practices. Among CBA’s member services was a turn-key health and wellness benefits program. Called Banker Benefits, this program helped banks keep costs down while also taking care of their most important asset: employees. In 2006, CBA decided to make big changes to the program. The new Banker Benefits program would include new health plan carriers, a new benefits administrator, and health savings accounts (HSAs). More

Intuit Brings the People Experience to Its New Brand

Intuit is a leading provider of great people experiences.
The company doesn’t just talk about its people-focused brand.
It lives that brand from the inside out.

In early 2008, Intuit decided to better communicate this brand to the outside world.

The company visually rebranded itself, creating a new corporate logo and other brand guidelines to match the company it already was:
People-focused. Responsive. Delightful. More

Central Valley Health Forum Brings Everyone Together for Good

The California Health Care Coalition is dedicated to improving quality and reducing cost of health care without eroding benefits. CHCC decided to extend its mission to the regional level, starting with holding its first annual forum in one of the most underserved communities in California—the Central Valley. More

Zhone Employees Get the Message, Get Involved in Their Benefits—Thanks to New Communication Strategy

Zhone helps customers all over the world have it all. Its telecommunications provide “everything” access with just one platform.

As a company grows, it must adapt its benefits communications to fit a diverse audience. In 2006, Zhone realized it needed help with that. After acquiring a manufacturing company, the company suddenly found itself composed of two distinct audiences: high-tech-savvy, highly-educated knowledge workers; and more traditional manufacturing plant employees.

The company had grown so quickly that most employees didn’t understand the value of their benefits. As a result, employees weren’t taking advantage of all that they could. More

BenefitPartners Boosts Sales with Value-Driven Marketing

BenefitPartners may be a small brokerage firm, but it thinks big for its clients. The Southern California firm doesn’t limit itself to providing a standard group of services. Instead, BenefitPartners starts with what its clients need.

BenefitPartners’ clients understood the value of the services they were using. But they didn’t understand the value of the services they weren’t using. They didn’t understand how the firm’s other services could deliver more value to their employees—and to their own businesses. More

Woodruff Sawyer Brings Account Managers Back to Benefits

Woodruff Sawyer, one of the top-ranked benefits brokerage firms in the country, giving value means focusing not on results for every quarter, but on results for every customer. In 2007, Woodruff Sawyer identified a challenge of its own. Account managers, in an effort to put clients first, were spending too much time creating and customizing their clients’ in-house benefits materials. More

La Cocina Uses a Rebrand to Nurture Its Business—and Dozens of Others’, Too

La Cocina gives low-income entrepreneurs much more than a taste of success. The nonprofit equips them to succeed for life. With such a delicious business model, it didn’t take long for La Cocina to become successful and nationally recognized.

As the nonprofit grew, it realized it had outgrown its original logo. A talented design agency was brought in to create a new logo. And yet, despite feedback from focus groups and the board, the new logo stopped short. Without style guides and a fully-developed visual identity, the logo was just a logo. More

Brooks Brothers Makes History with a Benefits Newsletter That Introduces—& Helps Employees Embrace—Change

With more than 210 stores across the United States, plus manufacturing plants and a corporate headquarters, Brooks Brothers’ workforce is as diverse as the company’s history is long. This multilingual workforce ranges from retail employees to manufacturing plant workers to knowledge workers.

True to tradition, Brooks Brothers had always created its benefits materials in-house. But as the company grew, its benefits needs grew more complex. Despite having valuable benefits, Brooks Brothers employees weren’t taking advantage of all their programs. Most simply didn’t know what they were missing.

The company realized it needed new benefits materials. Materials that could capture attention and clearly communicate benefits—all while reflecting the company’s newly articulated corporate values. More