|  Scott Regan

I was recently facilitating a management retreat for a healthcare organization when an executive asked me when “brand conception” occurs. If a brand has a “Big Bang,” then when and where does it happen?

It’s an interesting question. One which I am sure will invite many answers.

I’ll explore some of the more plausible Big (Brand) Bang Theories.

Perhaps the easy answer is that brand conception begins with the name. Without a name, the organization doesn’t exist. And if the organization doesn’t exist, the brand doesn’t exist. But does the mere presence of an organization provide the sparks needed for the Big (Brand) Bang? I don’t think so. Consider two hospitals built and opened within days of each other in the same market. One is called Community Hospital and the other is called General Hospital. That’s all we know about either. Is it enough to set them apart from each other? Is there anything in their names that might differentiate their brands?

You might argue that I gave these hospitals names so vague as to carry my argument. Let’s rename them Community Cancer Hospital and General Heart Hospital. Or Starbucks Hospital and Apple Medical Center. I don’t think it really matters. Because as the age-old question asks, “What’s in a name?” The answer: Not much.

So, if the name is not the point of brand conception, then what is? How about the mission? In the mission we begin to see differentiation. Community Hospital’s mission is to serve the poor, ensure healthcare access for all people, and deliver health services to those in outlying impoverished areas. General Hospital’s mission is to advance technology to create an efficient and effective healthcare delivery system with the highest levels of quality attainable.

We begin to see brand differentiation, or do we? Are the mission statements powerful enough to create a catalyst for a brand? I’ve seen many mission statements that were strong in ideas, but weak in application. The organization may have birthed a mission, but it was not even a distant third cousin to the brand.

Let’s look at the vision. Community Hospital’s vision is to redesign the healthcare delivery system so that all people have equal access to every level of care, regardless of their ability to pay. General Hospital’s vision, on the other hand, is to create the highest quality, safest, and most profitable hospital in the world. Is this the point of the Big Bang, with the creation of a vision so unique, so energizing, that it single-handedly explodes into a brand?

I don’t know.

What about strategy, that omnipresent link between mission and vision. Can brand be conceived without the correct strategy that pulls it all together? And then, of course, there is leadership. Their role in the conception of the brand is critical, as without someone actually parenting the brand, the brand may never make it to full term.

Strong arguments can be made for any of these Big (Brand) Bang Theories, and I am sure many will. If I had to put one under the microscope for further study, it would be the mission. I suspect that the mission is where brand conception occurs. If not the mission, then it would have to be the vision. Or, perhaps it is a combination of the two, with conception occurring with the mission and the Big (Brand) Bang occurring with the vision.

It’s tough to say.

Your brand is like a small stone tossed into a pond. As it splashes into the water, it radiates ripples outward along the surface, each band growing increasingly larger than those preceeding it.

Rippling water is a wonderful metaphore for brand building. Consider the stone your mission and vision statements. The first ripple in the water is your executive team. The second ripple is middle management. As the ripples continue to gain momentum, we move on through your medical staff, employees, patients, and the community at large.

The fact that the ripples grow in size is not important. The key learning here is that the ripples have an order to them. In other words, there are a series of concentric circles that envelope your brand and eventually become your brand. And to give your brand strength, you have to move through these circles in a logical order.

Should you do much brand building with your patients if your senior leadership team does not represent the brand in their day-to-day actions? Is it worth your while to invest on an external brand-building campaign if your front-line employees don’t understand what the brand stands for? And should you train your staff on the critical components of your brand if middle management is not first serving as a strong brand ambassador?

The answers: No, no, and no.

To build a successful brand requires that you first have a stone to throw into the pond. Having meaningful mission and vision statements are first and foremost in brand building. Second, you then have to work through your concentric circles — one at a time — ensuring that each circle is entrenched in the brand before moving to the next outward ring.

Do this, and your brand has a much higher chance of success. But if you fail to pay attention to the logical order of your concentric circles, your brand will likely have a rocky childhood. If your brand is currently struggling, review your concentric circles and see if one or more was left out of your brand-building process. Chances are, you will find the source of your struggles somewhere within the ripples.