Intelligent Ink had been working with Hardy’s Health Stores for over four years, providing all of the editorial content for their MyHardy’s (and later, Discover) magazine before the brand went into receivership in early 2017. Diana and Vince Burgess bought the business and, having been involved with owning Hardy’s stores for some time, bought with them their commitment to bringing the brand back to its former glory – and then some!

Knowing the role that Intelligent Ink had played in the Hardy’s brand voice until that point, Diana soon got in touch with Intelligent Ink to see if we could help.

A legacy lives on

Hardy’s had been a household name for coming up 31 years and their loyal base of customers valued the professional advice and education that were strong values of the brand. Diana and Vince’s primary objective was to continue to communicate with Hardy’s customers – both old and new – by sharing valuable content, like they had been used to, and telling the stories that helped to convey the brand’s personality.

Further to that, was the desire to conduct a coordinated conversation with these customers and the market, demonstrating that although the Hardy’s brand may now have a smaller footprint than previously, they are still the best at what they do and had some new and unique points of difference to offer the market.

An integrated approach

While the magazine formed the cornerstone of the communications strategy for Hardy’s, they knew that having a coordinated conversation with the market would require integration across all of their external communications channels, including social media, their website and blog and regular enewsletters to their substantial database.

As well as drilling down to the brand’s target audiences and key messages, Intelligent Ink started from a seasonal theme standpoint and, from there, created a calendar that specified coordinated, channel-appropriate content for use across all of Hardy’s communications.

Mission successful

Working alongside our design and print partner, a launch issue of the newly-imagined magazine was put together in record time and is already having the desired effect! Not only has there been great feedback from Hardy’s customers following the magazine appearing in stores and in their letterboxes, Diana reports that there was a definite increase in turnover the week after the magazine was released.

Suppliers have been complimentary also, with some disappointed that they were not invited to advertise in the first edition and already booking a slot in the summer issue. For Diana, “the nicest part was when I received comments from a couple of key account managers saying they loved the professionalism of the mag and how it delivered our brand values.”

The Intelligent Ink team are already working on the plan and content for the summer issue, researching and writing editorial, and liaising with suppliers to craft their advertorial features also.