Identity Branding
Penn State Hershey
Medical System
 

ORGANIZATION
The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, the Children’s Hospital, the College of Medicine, nearly a dozen institutes and centers of excellence, and more than two dozen ambulatory sites are all part of the Penn State Hershey Medical System.

CHALLENGE
Penn State Hershey Medical System did not have an official system name. It was known by individual entities with no overall branding. Research showed most consumers did not know about the Penn State- Hershey connection. The result was a disjointed, confusing brand, which weakened brand equity. The greater challenge was advancing a solution in a highly political environment and achieving consensus from the university leadership, physicians, medical administration, and employees.

SOLUTION
Princeton Partners Health led the marketing and executive leadership through a client-centric, collaborative process beginning with highly focused research that led to a well-conceived strategy to unify the overall brand. A Master Brand name, system, and logo were built on the core attributes of Penn State excellence, quality, and loyalty, as well as on key attributes of Hershey Medical, such as clinical expertise, warmth, and trust. The new logo and usage has generated the endorsement of leadership throughout the organization, the medical administration, physicians and staff, and the university and affiliate leadership.

Princeton Partners Health also created a comprehensive internal rollout plan to gain buy-in and create brand ambassadors throughout the system. This was followed by a strategically timed external messaging campaign.

RESULTS
We built trust among all stakeholders, strengthened brand perception, created consistency among service lines, eliminated confusion among customers, and clarified the system’s rich tradition as a natural extension of two respected partners. The outcome was a single Master Brand strategy, name, logo, and roll-out-plan that gathered the system’s many elements under one cohesive marketing umbrella.

CREATIVE
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