What we do
Hospital mergers improve profitability
Situation: Catholic Health System, a five-hospital healthcare-provider network in Western New York, was under significant financial distress in 1998. Shrinking Medicare reimbursements coupled with shorter patient stays and fewer overnight admissions due to new technologies and therapies had put Buffalo, NY-based CHS at a crossroads. Management at CHS decided to “retask” three hospitals – providing [...]
Building PR helps build homes
Situation: Habitat for Humanity is a not-for-profit, Christian housing ministry which partners with the community to provide affordable housing for low income families. Each home is purchased by the family for the value of the materials without charge for the volunteer labor or allowance for profit. Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity (GDM Habitat) was [...]
PR transforms University division into fee-based enterprise
Situation: Strategic Marketing Services (SMS), a unit of the Cedar Falls, Iowa-based University of Northern’s Iowa College of Business in 1997 found it necessary to move from a federal grant-funded organization to a fee-based enterprise. SMS’ client base for its market research services was Iowa manufacturing companies. Having very little time to make this transition [...]
Public input supports city’s parks plan
Situation: Hanser & Associates was retained in 2000 to support the City of West Des Moines’ Parks staff and their landscape architecture consultant, Dunbar-Jones, to gather public input for updating the city’s Parks Master Plan. Please Register or Login to read the rest of this content.
Public input supports community/performing arts center
Situation: Hanser & Associates was retained in 2004-2005 to manage the overall process of forming an advisory committee and supporting all of the work of the committee – to assess the feasibility of a Community Center and Performing Arts Center that would be jointly operated by the City of West Des Moines and West Des [...]
Public input supports city’s community center
Situation: City of Urbandale, a rapidly growing and affluent suburb in the Des Moines metro area, was confronted with an aging swimming pool complex that needed extensive repairs at the same time community leaders identified a need for a community recreation center. PR Action: Hanser & Associates in 2005 conducted a feasibility study assessing the [...]
International media relations drives record sales and profits
Situation: Scottsdale, Ariz.-based RSC Equipment Rental, the leading provider of equipment rental services for the construction, industrial/petrochemical, manufacturing and government sectors in the United States, Canada and Mexico, sought to increase awareness of the benefits of rental equipment vs. ownership. PR Action: Hanser & Associates created an international media relations program targeting national trade and [...]
PR/labor relations during strike maintains customer relations
Situation: Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink, the third largest telecommunications company in the United States, was formerly named Qwest Communications and US WEST. The company was faced with a labor strike by 36,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 1998. In Iowa, 1,900 workers were off the job. In CWA, US WEST was dealing [...]
Recycling campaign supports fee change – participation remained high
Situation: Metro Waste Authority is the waste processing agency for Central Iowa. In addition to managing the area’s solid and toxic waste disposal, Metro Waste Authority (MWA) administers the recycling program for Des Moines and most of its 14 suburbs. MWA retained Hanser & Associates for communication strategy and counsel when fee structures for recycling [...]
Church members better connected through Communications Audit findings
Situation: Established in 1844, the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church (IUMC) is one of the oldest organized religions in the state of Iowa. In recent years, the IUMC recognized that its communication vehicles have not been as effective as they could be, yet struggled to determine which vehicles were ineffective and how [...]