Folio ‘21
︎Download CV

Case, Express Scripts

#brand_strategy
#brand_design
#service_design
#pharma
#rebrand
#2021

We co-created the brand position with customers, Pharmacists, and patients, and invoked the magic of authenticity by using actual Express Scripts pharmacists in all of our photo and video assets so the intangible humanity of pharmacy could be finally revealed 

Did you know Express Scipts was more than a logo on your insurance card? Did you know they also had a mailorder pharmacy that was delivering millions of prescriptions long before Amazon even existed? And did you know that pharmacy is actually the 2nd largest on the dang planet?

Neither did we.

And in the middle of the 2020 rendition of the COVID-19 global pandemic, this all seemed especially important. A major subset of Americans were entering a mailorder-everything reality, with services like Instacart and Shipt happily shepherding your groceries to your door, why wouldn’t we lean into mailorder pharmacy with the same enthusiasm? We found duty in keeping people safe (or safer), by saving them the risk of another point of potential exposure. Even more, getting your meds on time, every time, means you’re less likely to miss a dose, which may cause your COVID-19 mortality risk to increase.

Safe is safe. And good is good, but how might we stand out among the noise?

Convenience is assumed. If you can’t make something appear in our hands with as little friction as possible, you’re not even part of our lives anymore. But among those myriad life livery services, humans are rarely present. My food appears on my doorstep as if shuttled over by the wind. My groceries are here as a result of arcane elven magic. Among UberEats users, 98% check the box for No Contact Delivery.

We get it. That makes sense, because the delivery person didn’t check our Tikka Masala order against our dietary restrictions, our healthy weight plan, nor did they visit the kitchen it was prepared in to make sure it was done so safely, and with special attention to quality.

But that’s what Express Scripts Pharmacists do. In a world full of threat and anxiety, someone caring for you—YOU, the individual—is an emotional anchor.

Jad worked with a team of Marketing and Brand leaders to bring that notion to life: Show our customers that they are two clicks away from being cared for by, and having an enduring connection with, an actual person.

Jad partnered with the Brand Design team at R/GA to evolve the value propositions, reasons to believe, market position, and branding for the Express Scripts Pharmacy. And quickly, because people need to feel cared for now more than ever.
.

View the Express Scripts Pharmacy launch site.

We interviewed pharmacists, co-created with maintenance med patients, skeptics, and high-utilizers of other delivery services. We iterated on value propositions, proof points, and visual/tonal directions with our group of co-creators before putting final notional designs into quantitative testing.

The result is a brand that stands out in a category whose main goal has been to blend in, to become unnoticable, to step quietly out of existence leaving behind only a 2-meter receipt and a crinkly bag on your passenger seat.

As the brand matures we will employ the same research-based Brand Expressions strategy we invented for Evernorth. The first new packages have begun rolling off the line, and major media presence should be felt in the second half of 2021.

The Express Scripts Pharmacy brand is...
> Grounded in research
> Co-created with actual customers
> Features actual ESRX Pharmacists
> Accessible and ADA AAA compliant
> WCAG 2.1 Standard
> Iterative and living
> Complimentary to the Evernorth brand [ + x ]

Check out ESRX on Instagram to catch a vibe

→ This project took place while Jad was Global Brand Strategy Officer at Cigna, and he co-lead the global initiative with the CMO of Evernorth (neé Express Scripts), and the CCO of Express Scripts.

Media

---