The Client

STERIS Corporation is a leading provider of infection prevention, contamination control and surgical support systems, products, services, and technologies to healthcare, scientific, research, and industrial companies throughout the world.

The Assignment

Best known for its STERIS SYSTEM 1®, a proprietary, sterile processing system, STERIS completed a number of strategic acquisitions and greatly expanded its product and service offerings during a recent two-year period. As a result, the company can now provide customers with integrated solutions from a single source. In many customers' eyes, however, STERIS was still a "one-product company."
Wehrman & Company was challenged with helping STERIS integrate and clarify the marketing, sales, and corporate communications of its acquisitions and present "one face" to the industry as an international leader in infection prevention and surgical support.

The Issues

Wehrman & Company's goal was to position the new STERIS to customers, shareholders, and other business associates with clarity and enthusiasm, keeping in mind these issues:

• Existing brands and brand additions needed to be treated consistently to prevent confusion due to corporate name changes.
• Given the scope and extent of change that STERIS had undergone, it was important to develop a system for communicating the company's new corporate identity, business philosophy and many new products to both internal and external audiences.
• The industry's major trade shows -- an ideal place to introduce new products and services into the STERIS family -- were scheduled to occur within weeks of the company's latest acquisitions, adding urgency to the need for an immediate solution.

Many of the changes at STERIS are responses to health care industry trends which demand that suppliers be more flexible, responsive and cost efficient.

The SingleVoice Marketing^® Solution:

Our SingleVoice solution for the STERIS identity launch included:

Verbal Branding

Wehrman & Company developed DISCOVER THE NEW WORLD OF STERIS, a deceptively simple theme that paves the way for learning about the new STERIS Corporation, while being flexible and easily expanded to meet the needs of a wide range of applications. It's a theme that encourages action, prompts questions, and sets a tone conducive to selling the benefits of a new company.

But most important, the DISCOVER theme serves as a device that links all communication together. Messages are consistent in inviting various audiences to "discover" more about the company, its products and services. While divisions or market groups within STERIS modify the theme slightly to communicate their respective key messages, the overriding message remains constant.

Visual Branding

Visually, communications are linked by a graphic of a globe surrounded by a ring of features specific to a given application. The Corporate Applications ring, for example, contains descriptions of STERIS company strengths. For each STERIS market, the ring text shifts to industry-specific features and benefits. Healthcare and scientific market areas are further differentiated by variations in the globe's coloring.

Advertising and Promotional Materials

Our SingleVoice Marketing® process enabled STERIS to reach key target audiences using a variety of vehicles, including:

• Brochures which described the benefits of the new organization to customers
• Corporate ads which announced the changes to the industry
• Trade show exhibits to reach end-users and industry sources
• Video presentations to sales groups
• Direct mail to targeted industry groups
• Intranet graphics and presentations for employees.

The Results

We succeeded in integrating STERIS's new marketing messages in its corporate brand identity and in applying the resulting system across multiple market categories. The result was a consistent message and image that helped to educate, differentiate and motivate customers, shareholders and business associates. Feedback also suggested that the SingleVoice program helped diminish customer confusion while building a singular, positive corporate image.

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