Creating a Brand Standard and Style Guide for Your Hospital

Q. 2020 is the year I create a brand standard and style guide for my little hospital. I have a couple of questions: Do you have one? Do you find it channels creativity or curtails it? Is it a stagnant asset? How do you use it?

A. This is definitely a "must have" so that you can prioritize, align and grow all brand activities. I've worked for a few major health systems and I can say without a doubt that the brand guide channeled creativity that advances the brand and curtails creativity that brings risk to your brand.

At the outset, share it with all employees and try to get them excited about using the brand guide to align priorities and build a strong, long-lasting brand impression. You'll want to include templates for others to use and own. Gather up other questions and ideas from employees about how and where they might communicate externally.

Next, share with any partners that you're using to help you with execution (advertising, printers, designers, agencies, etc.). Do some audits so that you have some sample materials/videos/etc. to adjust and help people visualize the difference. Then do some random audits to continue to generate consistency.

I've never seen a brand guide become a stagnant asset. It is the image and voice of the organization, so it can be used as a catalyst for changes in patient experience, services offered and more. I can't emphasize enough the importance of templates.

A: It is a must and we refer to it all the time. It is very helpful when other departments do not understand the need for consistency and I can send them the brand guidelines that will help govern us to keep us on the same page. 

 

A: Ours is a combo brand standards guide that includes brand structure and then goes into use of logos, color palette, typefaces, etc. Then we have Copy Style Guidelines. We also created a copy style cheat sheet that is helpful for marketing and communications. Does anyone read the entire guide? Probably not, but when someone wants to create their own logos or make their own brochures and signs, it's really good to have these. It is a lot of work to create this and a collaboration between design and writers. Even if you start small, it's worth it. 

 

A: As a large organization, DLS is an absolute necessity for us.The new hotness here is including brand standards in the overall "design language system" (DLS) of the organization, which is like a functional evolution of brand standards. All DLS contain brand standards, but not all brand standards contain DLS. 

 

A: I've been involved with several programs and developed manuals for new brands and rebrands. Yes, a good brand standards manual is a must-have asset, no matter how small your institution may be. Going without one leaves your brand vulnerable in several ways. As to the question of "creativity," the hard reality is that you need to protect your brand from "well-meaning amateurs" who might, no matter how well-intentioned, distort the brand and set bad precedents for usage.

How often to update the manual? I'd say make it part of an annual marketing communications review checklist. Unless there's an actual rebrand. Then of course it's all got to be revamped.

Another consideration is making it accessible to internal and external users. It isn't going to work well if those who need it can't get to it, or don't know it exists. I've seen many health systems put their brand guidelines on their websites with the intent of making it accessible to vendors, partners and media.

An editorial style guide is another good idea. This simple document is how you protect the integrity of the brand and maintain the proper "brand voice" in editorial content. This is a pretty simple asset to create, and will prove to be well worth the small investment when several different writers are all making editorial contributions.

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