Adapting a Brand with Strategy (and Style)
A brand should capture a complete story for your company, organization, even your community. Within that story, you can create distinct identities for sub-sectors like city districts, service sectors, product lines, and more, through the use of text and/or color without changing the look and feel of your established brand.
When expanding your brand, the goal is to make it clear how the various product and service offerings fit together. With some strategic planning, you can change text, colors, and even slight graphics changes to make the full line work together.
Red Sage recently did this for Decatur ENT.
As you can see from this example, we started with the logo for their primary practice. For each of the specialized centers within their practice we kept the fonts, brand colors, and overall text placement very similar with the tagline appearing consistently in each. To further identify the center’s logos with the main brand, we carried “of Decatur ENT” throughout. These all work seamlessly together, but have enough of a differentiator to stand on their own.
Another example can be seen in the work we did for Lawrence Medical Center.
After finalizing the primary brand, four secondary facility brands that market specific medical services we needed. These are services that:
- are in standalone facilities
- have separate entrances at a larger facility
- have clearly defined architectural boundaries within a larger facility
Often, these areas are marketed individually with their own specific collateral materials. A strong tie binds them to Lawrence Medical main through a line of secondary text. Centers located at the main hospital are noted as “at Lawrence Medical,” while centers located in their own off-campus facilities carry the name “of Lawrence Medical.”
Additionally, the service line brands represent services that may extend beyond one campus or facility, and may contain one or more care center brands, physician offices, or other services. These brands contain a strong visual link to the Lawrence Medical brand.
While both of these examples are of local healthcare centers, this branding strategy has been used by international companies, including FedEx.
Red Sage Community Results has also worked with several communities to strategically implement a brand. Most recently, we helped Chambers County adopt a county-wide brand, then adapt it for individual cities and community organizations. Pictured is the approved county-wide brand, as well as suggested adaptations.
Through the adaptation process, each city, town, and county organization will receive an individual logo retaining layout, icon, and font, but with an individual color scheme and text. Red Sage worked directly with Chambers County Development Authority to strategize with participating cities and groups on color choices and implementation. It is estimated that the entire process will be complete within the next six months.
Want to know more about brand adaptations for your city or company? Give us a call! We would love to discuss how to adapt your brand to help tell your story.