Evidence-Based Branding

I hear a lot about evidence-based treatment as I travel. Over the past ten months I have been fortunate to attend behavioral health and addiction treatment trade shows and conferences across the country. These shows are pivotal for my personal growth. I am able to engage with experts in the field, current and potential clients, learn from clinicians and researchers, and hear first-hand about trends surfacing within the field.

Evidence-Based Practice is Always a Hot Topic. 

The principle is simple enough. It’s all about providing high quality services that lead to good outcomes. Evidence-based practitioners must integrate clinical expertise, scientific evidence from research, and the needs and values of clients/patients/caregivers. 

The Practice of Evidence-Based Branding.

The more I learn about the principles behind Evidence-Based Practice, the more I realize that these same principles apply to branding. In fact, the steps we practice in Evidence-Based Branding are fairly representative of the steps in evidence-based practice: 

1. Assess: Understand what success looks like for you and your organization. 
2. Ask Questions: What makes you special or different from everyone else?
3. Acquire Evidence: Conduct research among key audiences. 
4. Appraise Evidence: Use expertise to reveal brand positioning insights from the research.
5. Apply: Infuse that brand position into the visual brand identity and core operations of the organization.
6. Audit: Continually ensure that your actions are in line with the brand position.

The principle remains simple. In order to build a healthy brand, we create a unique position through expertise, evidence, vision, and the needs and values of the audience. This is the process designRoom follows every time we begin to build a brand. Because we know that the healthiest brands are built upon evidence. We have seen it work.