Kane and Morrison

It is my experience that the approach taken by many NHS Trusts to branding is quite frankly back to front. The first thing that seems to come to mind to most in the NHS when talking about branding is usually logo's. There is nothing wrong with this of course and logos play a major part in the branding process. Where would we be without our brand sat-nav when we go to a supermarket? If it weren't for our familiarity with brands it would take as long to navigate our way round a supermarket as a small town.

So what do I do? I hear you ask. Brand architecture relates to the structure of an organisation, its values and how they are positioned to key stakeholder groups. It is the structure that underlies any designs, logos or straplines.

The brand architecture of NHS Trusts can be extremely complex as there are many key stakeholder groups such as patients, staff, referrers, carers and families. There are also other partner organisations and their stakeholders to consider such as PCTs, SHAs, local borough councils as well as universities, colleges and research bodies. In addition, in recent years we have seen trust mergers and PCT re-structuring and the recent formation of academic healthcare based Trusts. The complexity of some of these organisations is so great that it even rivals some of the large commercial companies.

One academic healthcare trust has imposed its college name and perceived benefit to all its stakeholders by imposing its own brand as offering ‘breakthroughs in medical research directly to its patients'. This may be all to well for those who actually benefit from this scenario, however I am willing to bet its is a very small percentage who perceive any advantage from this arrangement. What about the patient who perceives their local hospital and the elective and routine services it provides to be the most important factor. Surely they are most likely to feel that their hospital has been absorbed into a big and less interested organisation. Where is the value in this brand to this large majority? Having said that I'm sure a small percentage of patients and many doctors providing services at the cutting edge perceive this arrangement as a benefit.

The point I am trying to make hear is: when such a brand was in development, who were the board considering when designing this architecture? Rather than look down upon their multi-trust conglomerate from the academic board and take a blinkered approach to the advantage of their new organisation and its value to stakeholders, perhaps they should have developed more thorough brand architecture for their organisation.

I have found that a useful way of developing a good brand architecture is to consider the development of a ‘stakeholder led' website navigation map. This helps us to assess our groups of stakeholders, what information they need, where it should be found and provided by whom. When we develop brand architecture it is equally important to consider these factors. An academic partnership or trust formation is less important to staff and patients generally. It is more likely to be a benefit to groups of doctors, referrers and those involved in academia, both in the trust and the college or university. It should then be possible to design an architectural model that ensures that the academic link is more prominent when communicating to those groups that perceive a benefit and for those who do not; we can design architecture that demonstrates brand values and benefits to match their perceptions.

The company Johnson & Johnson provides a good commercial example. Their product range is very diverse with brands such as Baby Lotion, Splenda, Band Aid, Listerine, Sudafed, Nicorette and even Acuvue contact lenses. Although J&J's brand may appear on the packaging somewhere, I'm willing to bet most consumers are not only unaware of their association but probably don't care, simply because they do not perceive any benefit to themselves. J&J recognise this and brand their products accordingly.

Obviously many trusts, both acute and pct, have a relatively simple architecture and I'm sure they are often thankful for small mercies, however it still amazes me to find many who simply are not looking at the picture from their stakeholders eyes.

The next stage from developing brand architecture is brand design and I will be writing a new article on this subject soon. In the meantime look at your trust's brand in your last major publication and your web site and ask yourself what it is saying to your stakeholders about your trust and its potential differentiating factors! Take a look from the outside in!