EEI Case Study
| The Client: | American Society of Health-System Pharmacists ASHP is the 30,000-member professional association of pharmacists practicing in hospitals and other health care settings. ASHP’s core mission is to advance and support the work of pharmacists by promoting their professional interests and to advocate on behalf of public health issues related to medication-error prevention. ASHP has four practice-area sections and two forums (for new practitioners and students) to meet the needs of members in every practice area and at every stage of their career. Contacts: Ellen Wilcox and Kathleen Bieseker, 301-657-3000 |
| The Product: | ASHP Intersections magazine |
| The Challenge: | As part of a strategic mandate for increased member outreach and organizational visibility, ASHP determined that its existing one-page, two-sided glossy membership newsletter was not living up to its potential as a communication and branding vehicle. Most members weren’t reading the soundbite-style articles that fit into that space with a few tiny photos. ASHP’s president and communications director believed that a small, carefully crafted magazine would better fulfill the vision of helping members connect with ASHP and with each other—despite having a budget that allowed only a 16-page magazine. By showcasing how pharmacists “just like you” handle their practical challenges, ASHP’s magazine could cheer members on to greater accomplishments, despite the at-times discouraging politics of their work environments. At stake was successful alignment of the magazine with the organization’s strategic communications objectives and members’ stated wish for more networking and advice. |
| Why EEI Communications? | ASHP chose EEI because they sought the highly collaborative approach that we provide to bring the promises, best practices, options, tradeoffs, and limitations of a proposed publication into sharp focus. With economy uppermost in mind, we committed to creating a template for a small, visually appealing, colorful magazine with editorial flexibility and room to grow—that would reflect well on its publisher as it evolves. The only way that was going to be possible was with comprehensive editorial planning. |
| EEI's Methodology: | Before undertaking the design phase of the magazine launch, the EEI team met with ASHP communications leaders to define the scope and goals for the launch of a magazine. We created an economical framework for a small magazine that could drive subsequent decisions about content; used demographic information to define the target audience by its information-seeking characteristics; identified and prioritized appropriate types of content based on the strategic goals; arrived at a workable table of contents that served as the dashboard for designing the template; and came up with a name and tagline for the magazine, subject to corporate and member-focus-group approval. At each stage, EEI recapped the consensus and did the necessary behind-the-scenes research and planning for the next meeting. The client told us that EEI was not only the most prepared consultant ASHP had ever worked with but the only consultant who came to each meeting ready, charged-up, and focused on what needed to be accomplished—then built on the results. We then presented design thumbnails that demonstrated consistent branding and production efficiency. They included a table of contents showing the focus of the individual sections, a cover story, supplemental features, and key departments and columns. Finally, while the design was being created, we developed writers’ guidelines that would yield a dynamic, reader-centric content formula for each quarterly issue, with latitude for breaking news and special stories. We also created a graphic of the desirable flow of stories—descriptive thumbnails by content category—as a reminder of the need to stick to a focused story list. The hope is that coverage can expand and the magazine can grow as ad revenue grows. For now, the small magazine is an admirable addition to the organization’s communication vehicles. |
| Results of Our Work: |  |
