Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Kelly,

First question: What has prompted your chiropractor client to surface these very fundamental - and critical - strategic marketing communications issues at this time?

Increased competition, downturn in business, aspirations and capital to expand, etc.? Comments he's received from others - friends, competing design/ad/web firms, clients, etc.? New services or locations in the offing? A website overhaul/update proposal you recently submitted? Or all, some or none of the above?

The answer to that question will help everyone here provide more informed suggestions (in addition to more questions below) but, as important, this background may be most helpful in tackling the toughest part of your job...selling the positioning and its manifestations (logo, tagline, etc.) to the client as the best move for his business.

Basically, before resolving logo changes or taglines, you need to have a differentiating "positioning" in the mind of your customers and prospecs (Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote "Positioning" 25+ years ago and it's fundamentals still apply today, though few who use the term truly understand it). You need to own a word or set of related words in your target's minds. And for better or worse, despite the somewhat unfocused messaging of the website, you probably already do. Find out what it is.

The comment by wordofmouthguru above - who does seem to get positioning - is basically the best first step, though I'd do more quantitative research than focus groups initially and broaden it to include former patients, competitor patients, non-chiropractic-types. etc. To do this right, you need to know upfront both the marketplace realities and perceived realities of your client's business and the competitors. It's not expensive, but producing marketing materials with the wrong message is.

Rather than spend an hour writing a long list of what you need to know and where/how to find it before doing a logo or tagline (or website) - and since your question inspired an unrelated new angle for my business - I'd be happy to chat on the phone for a few minutes if it'd help and if that's cool with this site's rules since I'm fairly new here (and yes, free advice, no charge, no BS, etc.). Or you may very well have your answer from everyone here shortly too, whatever works for you.

For specific answers to your questions about logo and tagline, you first need a positioning to work from - though a mountain range or some abstraction thereof would seem appropriate with your client's name (I'd steer clear of using interlocking circles though!) Good luck and thanks for inspiring me to look at my business differently!

I think a change in the logo could be managed if it was not a TOTAL change. For instance, because the objective is to reflect the sports rehabilitation aspect of the service, you could introduce new elements supporting this service in the logo while reducing emphasis on the spinal therapy aspect. The logotype can still be maintained as per, thus the logo's integrity is not compromised, but would portray a somewhat "evolved" look. If done in this way then yes, changing the logo would be a feasible idea.

As for the website, I am of the opinion that THERAPY is the main thrust of the business, not sports or action. Unless the client is looking at focusing more on the sports aspect of the business, I would say keep the colours soothing and therapeutic.

The response as to what prompted this helps a bit. It doesn't get to the underlying positioning issue which, if not resolved, makes everything from a logo to the website irrelevant...unless your client is fortunate enough to have no competition, having a point of differentiation is critical and only THEN should you consider any executions thru website, tag, etc. What separates him from other chiropractors in the area? Knowing that everything. Everything.

That said, my three answers are:

Is changing the LOGO a good or bad idea?

Doing a logo in the first place is a good idea. The current manifestation isn't a logo, it's a typeface, without personality. It says nothing other than what the words say.

Should the website be soothing, healing colors, or "action, sports" colors?

Presumably patients are looking to feel better (excluding those just trying to collect bogus injury claims from car accidents, which can easily be 25% of a chiropractor's business). And they're looking to get back into the swing of things, whether that be sports or just walking the dog and doing the normal, active lifestyle things someone once did. So positive, active, informative and upbeat make sense. How that translates into color is somewhere in between. Again, using the same color (or overall look/feel) of a competitor would be confusing, so study what others in the market are doing.

What is a good tagline?

Research shows that most people cannot correctly associate brand with tagline in more than 10% of cases when given a list of very well-known and heavily-marketed companies and tags. They have a hard enough time remembering the name of a brand and what it does, much less a tagline. Seems like his current name says what needs to be said. If people want to get back to what they did before their injury, how about "Get Back" and use a homegrown version of the Beatles song of the same name, since the ear has better recall than the eyes.

Thanks again for inspiring a new business angle for me. When I was managing agency interactive divisions, I saw firsthand how the importance of strategy in the context of the competition is lost on 80% of web designers, so it's nice to know that hasn't changed much over the years. More and more clients come to web designers before they ever contact any strategic marketing resource...what an opportunity for the 20% who recognize and address this shortcoming.