What is branding anyway?
Your brand is basically your company’s personality. It’s how customers recognise you, it’s your reputation, and it’s the secret sauce that makes you different from other care providers. These aren’t things you should leave to chance. You need a structured, well-thought-out brand strategy to take control of how your brand is perceived.
Branding demystified
Coca-Cola has an unmistakable shade of red. Innocent Drinks are fun, playful and good for you. Apple creates reliable and user-friendly technology. When you hear these company names or glimpse the logos, your brain fills in the rest. The amount of effort that goes into making those brands so easy to recognise is huge.
Luckily, we’re not trying to topple Coca-Cola or be the next Apple in the care sector. But let’s take a look at the parts that make up their brands.
Logos and colour palettes
Your logo should be distinctive and represent your brand and values. It should be in your brand colours or white (this is called a reversed logo, and is useful for appearing on dark backgrounds), and you should have one or two approved variations that appear on everything.
Everything you produce, from your website and leaflets, to business cards and uniforms should be in your brand colours, and ideally, you want no more than three.
We picked an owl for our logo because owls are wise, and we bring years of marketing wisdom to the care sector. Our owl – known as Orwell to his friends – also puts the ‘hoot’ in Cahoot, and you’ll see him representing our brand in lots of different ways on everything we produce.
Slogans and mission statements
Think of 3-5 unique selling points that make you different from your competitors. Your slogan is a catchy, emotive phrase that tells prospective customers what makes you different. The mission statement is a short phrase summarising what your goals are.
While your slogan is great to use on adverts or other collateral, your mission statement is more subtle. Spell it out on your website if you wish, but make sure everything you communicate also aligns with this mission. When we talk about being ‘on brand’, it means acting in line with your mission statement.
Tone of voice
Innocent Drinks is an excellent example of how tone of voice can really differentiate your brand. Can you name another smoothie company in 5 seconds? If you can, have you ever sat and read their packaging? Innocent labels are fun to read and informative.
Quirky and fun might not be what you want to convey as a care provider, but how about trusted? Confident? Warm? These are all things you can master by defining your tone of voice and making sure everything you write uses your house style. Step one is thinking about who your ideal client is and how you’d speak to them if they were in front of you.
Brand guidelines
This is the master document you use to train everyone working for you on how to communicate, what your mission is, and who you are as a company. It’s the heart of both your brand and your marketing strategy. If you’re kicking off a new campaign, it should be the first place your team looks for guidance.
Brand guidelines don’t just act as a framework for how you operate. When you’re putting them together they should also consider who your ideal client is, which companies you’re competing with, and look at your current position vs long-term goals.
Consistency
Consistency is the glue that holds all of these components together. Your team should know who you are as a company and what you stand for. They should understand your values and goals, and they should speak the same language.
If you’re known for your exceptional care, you need to break down what that means and make sure your whole team knows how to deliver it. Your website should leave customers feeling confident that they’ll receive exceptional care from you, not just because it tells them to, but because going the extra mile is in your DNA.
Visually, your website and any printed material need to look and sound on brand, from the colours and font to the type of images you use. And every aspect of your brand needs to be aligned.
Think about Innocent Drinks again. The word ‘innocent’ makes you think ‘guilt-free’, ‘childlike’, and ‘pure’, and their logo of a child-like drawing of an angel reinforces this. The language is relatable and authentic, and the ingredients are natural. Everything about Innocent Drinks makes you feel like it’s a brand you can trust to produce something healthy, wholesome and worth the hype.
Ready to take your brand to the next level?
The care sector is under pressure to meet huge surges in demand, attract and retain staff and deliver outstanding quality of care. Great branding can help you stand out, and the good news is, that what makes you attractive to clients is often what makes you attractive to staff as well – you just need to shout about it.
If you need help with branding, recruitment or marketing, get in touch today to find out how we can help.
