Inside Advice on Marketing Senior Housing—The 15 Critical Components of Success is what happens when two leading industry consultants, Phyllis M. Thornton, President, Signum, Inc., and Christine A. Wirthwein, President, Wirthwein Corporation, distill their 50 years of combined experience and knowledge into a comprehensive marketing compendium. Developing and implementing strategic marketing plans is what these two respected marketing consultants do best. That’s why there is no better tool to guide you through the marketing planning process.

Phyllis M. Thornton, Author

Ms. Thornton’s first job in the healthcare industry was as a nurse’s aide in a long-term care facility. She recently retired from the industry as President of Signum, Inc., a firm that she founded in 1987 that provided national consulting services to owners and operators of retirement housing, assisted living, long-term care, and community services. In 1992, she also formed Ethos, Inc., an affiliated company that created industry-specific breakthrough customer service training tools and materials.

She learned the senior housing industry from the ground up and over the course of her career steered hundreds of senior housing providers—including not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, stand alone facilities, and vast multifacility operators in the U.S. and Canada—to an understanding of how to develop and implement an effective marketing program.

Inside Advice on Marketing Senior Housing—The 15 Critical Components of Success came about because, from her first formal marketing position as a marketing director for a retirement community to her work as vice president of marketing for a national operator of retirement communities and long term care facilities, Ms. Thornton was always searching for definitive “how to” marketing information. She never found it. However, over the years, she did learn what worked, and what did not work, in senior housing marketing. These experiences and observations grew into a body of knowledge that Thornton coined the "Critical Components of Marketing.” 

She invited an industry colleague, Christine Wirthwein, President of Wirthwein Corporation, a top-flight senior housing marketing consulting firm, to contribute so they might share their collective and comprehensive knowledge.

In addition to authoring this book, Ms. Thornton has worked over the years to educate the industry on every aspect of marketing through her presentations at national conferences to her numerous articles that were featured in professional journals and trade publications. In 1997, she joined forces with  Life Services Network, to create and instruct the first-of-its-kind intensive, two-day national training and credentialing program, the Marketing Professional Certification Program (MPCP). The curriculum, now being taught by the book’s contributor, Christine Wirthwein, follows and expands on the 15 Critical Components presented in Inside Advice on Marketing Senior Housing and includes testing and certification as a Certified Marketing Professional (CMP).

Other faculty positions held by Ms. Thornton included the University of North Texas and American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Certified Aging Services Professional (CASP) national professional certification program, formerly the Retirement Housing Professionals (RHP) program.

Ms. Thornton has also been a featured speaker and presenter at countless conferences and seminars, including the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the American Health Care Association, and the American College of Health Care Administrators, as well as many state associations. Her numerous articles have been featured in such publications as Contemporary Long‑Term Care, Provider, Nursing Homes, McKnight's Long-Term Care NEWS, and the Australian Health Care Journal.                                                                                     

Ms. Thornton holds both a Bachelor of Science and a Masters Degree in Health Systems Science from the University of Louisville.

Christine A Wirthwein, Contributor

WCMA pre-markets new projects and assists operational communities that face occupancy challenges. The firm has extensive experience in marketing communities that offer life care, fee simple, continuing care and rental programs. Christine Wirthwein has worked with over 170 clients in over two dozen states and Canada and has marketed over 60,000 units. The firm's broad range of marketing experience provides its clients invaluable expertise that includes strategic planning, image enhancement, lead generation and management programs, collateral material development, advertising services, public relations, and sales recruitment and training. One of WCMA’s specialties is the marketing assessment, or "report card," that helps to determine which obstacles are contributing to under-performing communities and recommends viable, cost-effective solutions to bring the community to a successful occupancy level.

Ms. Wirthwein began her career as a sales manager with a Fortune 500 company. Her first position in senior housing was as a Marketing Director in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and she became Vice President of Kedney & Associates (now CRSA). She served in that position until she founded her senior housing marketing firm.

A highly sought-after speaker, Ms. Wirthwein has addressed dozens of conferences both on a national and state level, including the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the American Health Care Association, and the American College of Health Care Administrators. She also serves as the faculty for the Life Services Network Marketing Professional Certification Program (MPCP), and the University of North Texas and American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging’s Certified Aging Services Professional (CASP) national professional certification program, formerly the Retirement Housing Professionals (RHP) program.
 
Ms. Wirthwein is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and holds both a Bachelor of Science and a Masters Degree.

Visit our Resources page to learn more about the Wirthwein Corporation and how Christine can help you achieve your marketing goals.