A Unified Brand Has Many Benefits; Need to Give the Process Time
by Michele von Dambrowski
Among the many roles of marketers is the job of chief marketing integration officer, which usually involves the subject of brand. “It’s a subject we all know and love,” says Susan Solomon, vice president of marketing and communications for St. Joseph Health, an integrated health system based in Irvine, CA. In her career of more than 20 years, Solomon has been involved in three major brand overhauls and is the author of a comprehensive special report, “Building Powerful Health Care Brands.”
“Sooner or later,” she says, “if you have a great brand and are part of a health care system, you are going to face that big question, which is, ‘Do we go with a unified brand?’”
Essential to creation of a successful unified brand is making it part of the strategic plan. “Creating that identity” needs to be taken very seriously, stresses Solomon.
Clear benefits
A unified identity carries a number of benefits, Solomon notes. “A unified brand gives you a stronger voice in the marketplace,” she says. Besides a competitive advantage, a unified brand brings cost savings in the form of economies of scale and elimination of redundancies. “The last time I changed a brand we saved at least $6 million,” she adds.