Positioning and Strategy Case Study — Headspace for Work

Helping a wildly popular and rapidly growing B2B and B2B2C brand design its identity to meet audience needs

A graphic illustration of a smiling yellow sun with closed eyes, against a blue sky with a few white clouds.

How it started

What happens when a side business explodes in popularity? Headspace’s B2B offering was created in response to a desperate market need, but it was so quickly developed that it hadn’t been fully defined.

The brand needed to understand multiple things about its new enterprise decision-maker audiences: Who are they, where do they go for information, and how can Headspace help THEM increase employee usage of this powerful mental health app?

Headspace had been hastily purchased and “assigned” to HR teams to offer as a benefit to their employees. Now, we needed to help Headspace become trusted and needed by HR decision makers and employee end users of the app.

What we did

Program 11 performed primary audience, market and competitive research, then conducted a gap analysis to inform and develop a full brand identity and strategy.

We designed persona groupings, then developed product positioning and messaging frameworks to meet their respective needs.

Our a-ha moment: Headspace’s expertise and scientific proof were a magic combination for the B2B audiences, but Headspace was still focusing on its positioning as a meditation app. With the knowledge that its app improved workplace outcomes, we designed a new brand story and messaging to be around increased focus, productivity, and employee joy.

How it’s going

Our positioning and messaging were applied to a suite of compelling kits and guides for B2B and B2B2C distribution. This content not only helped distinguish the B2B offering from its B2C app, it also fully and brilliantly helped our client own its authority and status in an increasingly competitive and noisy space.

During year one, our mental health awareness campaigns and content for Headspace Health to distribute to employers and other partners (insurers, consultants) were accountable for three out of four of their most popular content downloads.