By: Julie Wusenich
Branding is such an important part of every company: it lets consumers know who they are and what they are about. If the brand doesn’t fit properly with their brand image there will not be a connection with customers – the emotional vibe will not be felt and, in the end, they could lose current customers and future customers.
Everyone makes a decisions in their lives based on emotional and psychological factors – they tug at your heart strings and you follow.
A key element of branding is brand identity, and the design of a building can create this. As health systems are redefining themselves and their brands to encourage wellness and healthier behaviors, the buildings need to be designed / redesigned to incorporate wellness – walking paths, demonstration kitchens, and fitness centers. They are just important as health care facilities rebrand as a community of wellness and health.
As in the Building a Brand: Architectural Elements Help to Promote a Customer Identity, the author discusses the importance of brand loyalty and perceived quality: “Ultimately, the quality of care an institution provides drives repeat business, but it is the brand that today’s consumer patients relate to when making a decision about their care.” This, in the end, can cultivate brand loyalty and brand equity. It can also evoke feelings and a brand based on emotions.
Imagine be treated at a well-designed healthcare facility with top of the line amenities and then coming back for follow-up treatment, and outpatient services, and also being able to take wellness classes and a healthy cooking class in a state of the art facility. Who wouldn’t chose this facility over the one down the street that is cold, dark, and sterile and doesn’t offer future amenities that are required as part of the treatment plan?
This is especially true if the consumer is receiving the same level of treatment from a provider with the same credentials in a renovated or newly built facility.
Every company wants brand loyalty, as wherever they go their customers will follow and bring new ones with them. Brand loyalty can be generated in many ways, and this article focused on building the brand through the building itself. Your brand needs to stand out and be recognizable from a distance.
It builds a brand, because you will share your experience with friends, family members, and colleagues, because you have an emotional connection and you want to share it with others.
The recruitment of staff and new patients will be effortless, as they will recognize the brand and want to be a part of it.
With the right touch, a brand can have an impact on both emotional and psychological factors to sway a consumer to select their brand.
You want this type of connection with both your customers and employees – current and future. With brand loyalty, they will recognize you as you expand and build additional facilities that are a spitting image of what they are used to.
Marketing Discussions 
I completely agree with the role ‘architectural design’ plays in creating a brand. My college University is identified basically for its design and color of paint. I never understood what could be their persuasive reasons to paint the college in a particular color pattern. After 4 years of leaving that college, now it all makes sense.
LikeLike
Great blog post! I really enjoyed reading this. Branding can be creative in so many ways including the architectural design. The physical manifestation of a brand’s identity is just as important as its advertising. Name recognition is also an important aspect. For instance, a person may be more apt to recall a brand that made an impression through its design and by giving it personality, its about conveying a strong message through the design.
LikeLike
I absolutely agree with your post. Something that was brought up in last class that I thought was a good point is you can have a particular brand that stands out to consumers, but you have to be able to back it up with your product. You can come up with a unique brand that attracts customers, but if you don’t sell luxury, durable, and satisfying products consumers aren’t going to want to come back. Whenever people see the brand they won’t have positive thoughts about it and even when they see others wearing that certain brand they will question why they would pick it. If you want to keep loyal customers and keep persuading new customers you need to have great products that are going to connect back to the brand you build.
LikeLike
I agree! I think that brand loyalty is extremely important for both the customer and the company. Without loyalty, it is hard to build a relationship with customers in a certain company. Without a relationship, there is no trust and often times there will be a down fall for company profits. I think that having the opportunity to bring in customers that would like to enjoy a healthy place such as this would be wonderful. Showing customers that the company cares about them is extremely important. Customers want to feel a connection with the company they are buying from. They want to have that place to go when they need something specific. Having that emotional connection is what brings happiness for everyone. I also thought that this blog was nicely written. I completely agree with what Julie wrote as well as the other commentators.
LikeLike
I agree with Julie’s post that architectural elements help to promote a customer identity. It is definitely important that healthcare facilities are updated to focus on wellness and health in a warm but cutting edge environment. Nobody wants to have treatment or surgery in a facility that is outdated even if the physicians are the best. This concept can be applied to a lot of other institutions as well though including colleges and universities. The college search process with my daughters was very enlightening in terms of the architectural elements and branding. For example, the first building that you see when entering Syracuse University is a beautiful historic building with exquisite architecture which sets the tone for the whole campus. In addition, the Paul School of Business at UNH is a brand new $60 million building with state of the art technology. Most students would choose to attend there when compared to schools with older and outdated facilities.
LikeLike
Brand loyalty is very difficult to build, and I think this article did a great job of explaining the importance of building a brand. This article really emphasizes the role that amenities have when choosing decisions, as the smaller perks a person gets may sway them to make a certain decision. When choosing a certain gym for instance, people look at what the gym can offer them and if there is anything that stands out to them. Currently, I am trying to build a specific image for a newsletter I am the editor of, and there are issues of making the brand recognizable even with image and name changes. It is a fine line between making improvements and harming the emotional connection people already have towards the newsletter.
LikeLike
I definitely agree with this article, especially when you mentioned that a brand image can “pull at someone’s heartstrings.” My mom own’s a dance studio, so I grew up realizing the importance of a good brand image and reputation.
LikeLike
I agree with the idea that in building a brand there should be a consideration in the architectural elements used to promote itself however, I think there should be more consideration into a brand’s image. I also believe that psychology should play a role in creating a brand and its image. Consumers tend to buy things based off what they believe in and what the company believes in. People buy into an idea of a brand and not necessarily the product itself. That is why Apple is so successful in selling so many phones when other company’s such as Samsung and HTC are in the market as well. Consumers buy into the idea of brands with similar beliefs; proving that taking psychology into account and looking at how people think about and react to things is an important part of branding.
LikeLike
I agree. Brand loyalty and creating a connection with consumers is very important. Apple for example has a very loyal fanbase, which in turn makes Apple one of the highest valued companies in the world, and allows them to break sales records every year for the iPhone. Many Apple fans only own Apple products and are very protective of the brand.
LikeLike
Branding is such a crucial part of any company in todays day and age. Creating a brand and developing a brand Identity allows customers to identify with a company on a deeper and more meaningful level. Allowing customers to establish this type of connection with a company increases brand loyalty which really helps a company in the long run.
LikeLike
I enjoyed this reading. I especially liked the example of brand identity pertaining to the design in the building of health care facilities. A health care facility that has multiple walk ways, offers promotion of fitness through a gym/programs, or is built so that it is wheel-chair friendly shows that they truly care about the health of their customers. The design/building of a brand can influence consumers decisions alone. Take for instance college, the design of the campus and buildings/facilities it has to offer can have a big impact on a student’s decision of whether or not to attend the institution. Advertising is extremely important in building the identity of a brand in which consumers have an emotional attachment to. Yet, the actual physical design of the building’s or stores can also have a strong statement of what the brand is all about and consumers can become attached to brands through their designs of buildings/stores.
LikeLike
This is a great article that discusses branding. My favorite part was the line “It builds a brand, because you will share your experience with friends, family members, and colleagues, because you have an emotional connection and you want to share it with others.” Some companies get caught up in the idea of a company having no need to deal with emotions, as they believe businesses to be strictly about money. It is important to remember that companies need to make connections and satisfy their customers in order to gain loyalty and succeed in their industry.
LikeLike
I never really thought of the architectural design can play a big role in building a brand. It all makes sense after listening to your presentation and reading your blog post. I often wonder why McDonald or Burger King buildings look the way they do that is because the design itself help customers to recognize who they are and what they stand for as a brand. Of course, architectural design itself will not create a brand loyalty or keep customers coming back unless the company has the exceptional products or services that they provide to their customers.
LikeLike
I think now a days its not enough to be just one thing in business. For example, I’ve seen commercials for a bank that has a café build into it. The Coffee business is huge now and people so and sit in upscale coffee shops, drink their coffee and read or work. Now you can do you banking to. I think changing a business front and inside to create brand awareness is a key step to increasing customer base and staying with current brand image. No customer wants to go to a business and not have it match its brand image.
LikeLike
Brand loyalty in definitely a huge component when it comes to a company. As stated in the article, getting your customers to be loyal customers and follow you where ever you go is huge. You have to make yourself stand out and be different and have an appeal that your competitors don’t have. Companies have to be constantly thinking of new ways in which they can reach out not only to existing customers, but also to those who aren’t loyal to their brand so that they can continue to grow and outshine their competition.
LikeLike
I agree that Brand Loyalty is very important to a company. Because it will cost more to attracted new customers compare with keep the old customers. Many companies are awaring of this, and they take a series of methods to keep their customers loyalty. Those methods they took would not only kept the old customers but also attracted many new customers, because their products or service improved a lot by those methods. For example, like Bank of American.
LikeLike
Great post and on an important subject, I found the focus on architectural design and incorporation into an organizations brand image particularly interesting because it is something I have never even considered. When we first hear brand I feel like people, including myself, just think of it as maybe a logo and a tagline. This is a reminder that branding goes a lot further than this and really is actually about creating a whole experience around your product/service. Another thing I don’t really think about much is the emotional connection some brands create because I realize that when it is done correctly you can honestly gain customers for life.
LikeLike
It is important that companies find their brand identity early on so that they can promote brand loyalty for years to come. If a company is struggling to find their brand image then they could potentially be losing customers who are weary of the lack of identity. Apple is an example of a company that as been around for years with great brand image. Everyone can recognize an apple product due to its sleek design and apple logo.
LikeLike
I agree with Aidan, it’s really difficult for new companies to break into the market without a strong brand image. For a tech company to come in and compete with Apple of Samsung, they need to have a strong brand image right away that sets them apart and draw in consumers.
LikeLike
Building a brand is a very long road to walk in business, it contains many things together, the product, the value, the stories behind and so on. Building the brand is a big thing in business especially for marketers, a brand can be admired to customers or disappointed. How to build a good brand, there is not a right or wrong answer to the question, it is a long-term process and could never end in a brand life-time (that could be much longer than a person or much shorter than anything).
LikeLike