This is the 5th video in a 5-part series about building your health department brand.

My name is Kristina Wieghmink, Communications Specialist with the Ottawa County Department of Public Health in Michigan. My role in public health administration and as the public information officer, involves working with managers, supervisors and program coordinators to develop communication plans, design educational materials, lead promotional campaigns, write news releases and respond to media inquiries and interview requests. I hold a master’s degree in education and degrees in cultural anthropology and multi-media communications. I have more than 10 years of experience in visual, verbal and written communications in the profit, non-profit and public sectors. I have a passion for promoting health and providing people with valuable and relevant information. My goal is to not only educate, but also empower people to choose healthy behaviors and as a result, improve their quality of life.

In this video, I will share why and how Ottawa County Department of Public Health went through a branding process and why establishing a strong brand matters in order to reach the communities we serve. Our case study, Small county – Small budget, may be used as a model to start conversations within your department about why branding is important to you.

Project contacts:

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Barbara J. Schneeman, Vice President Communication & Public Affairs and Public Information Officer RiverStone HealthBillings, MT406.651.6420barbara.sch@riverstonehealth.org

Alisa BlumDirector of Media and Public Relations National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)1100 17th St. NW, 7th FloorWashington, DC 20036Direct: 202-507-4277ablum@naccho.org

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Why we went through a branding process.Let’s take a look at why we went through a branding process. Our department, like any other local health department, is not simply a building where people go to occasionally receive vaccinations. We are more than a state mandated agency who people call when they have an issue with an unsanitary dining establishments or their neighbor’s septic system is leaking into their yard. The mission of our department is to assure conditions in which all people can achieve optimum health to reach our vision of healthy people. So, collectively as a department, how do we get there? Or how do we ensure a successful journey?

Our mission, vision and values, written in our strategic plan, is not an inactive document. It is an integrated part of our department’s brand, which sets us apart from other organizations. Our strategic plan and our brand provide the necessary platform to help define our department’s culture of equality, integrity and excellence. They also enable the leadership team, staff members and stakeholders to be ambassadors of our department and to be in one accord; focused on our objectives. Collectively, when each person who represents our department believes in and upholds our mission, vision and values and know they are valued and important to our community, then we become even more excited to go to work each day with a commitment to serve. As a result, everyone benefits.

Who are we?When I started working for Ottawa County, in February of 2013, I was eager to learn

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the history, background and culture of our organization. First, I needed to understand our target audience, the services and programs we provide and community partnerships we’ve established. Second, I needed to know how the public perceives us, what response or emotions our identity evoked and how we communicated with the public. Third, I reviewed our SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), reports, surveys and assessments I could find related to our department, market position and how our current image compared with local health partners and other peer health departments, throughout Michigan and the U.S.

I found throughout the years we’ve been called the Ottawa County Health Department, County of Ottawa Health Department and Ottawa County Public Health. I asked what are we supposed to be called or how does the public identify with us? The responses varied based on who I asked. We needed to establish a consistent department name, image and message framework. In doing so, when people repeatedly hear our name, see our department logo and receive unified and consistent messages, they can be confident in knowing we are reliable, credible, transparent, trustworthy and respond with accurate, relevant and timely information or action items.

Who needs to know? Residents, the media and policy makers.Residents and the media need to be aware of public health and our contribution to the community. Every organization has an identity or how people perceive them. If we don’t intentionally and systematically establish our image to the public and media, they will. We need to be proactive and help shape people’s opinion and trust in public health. This way, they will know we work diligently to prevent and protect people from disease and hazards for better quality and longevity of life.

Another group that needs to know why we matter are local, regional and state policy makers. When our brand is consistently and continuously in the forefront of their minds, they recognize our value, economical return on investment and the necessity of public health. This in turn may create greater opportunities to receive funding and strengthen partnerships. A healthy state drives a healthy economy.

How will they find out?We needed to decide what our organization wanted and how to create brand awareness; our positioning objective. This again needed to be centered around and aligned with our strategic plan. We did a comprehensive communications review of our message content, various division and program logos, letterhead, business cards, presentation templates, rack cards, fact sheets, website, social media, posters, brochures, pamphlets, promotional items, public service announcements, news releases, banners, print and digital advertising, annual reports and other reports to decide how we wanted to establish our identity and consistently deliver our brand. By using revised and new communication messages and promotional materials, communications with our target audience would increase. Strong identities go beyond

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the basics of a logo and service descriptions. It is the essence of your organization.

Why should they care?By implementing and showcasing our brand consistently and having dedicated stakeholders who believe in our mission, vision and values, we become more identifiable by the public. The more the public sees us, the greater the opportunities to engage our community. This way, we can tell our story, so people know why we exist and how we make change.

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To begin, we had to analyze and plan the scope, duration and cost to proceed with establishing our brand. Other important factors where to outline the objectives and challenges.

Our Objectives were To receive leadership buy-in from all levels within the county.

To have consistent use of our brand by all staff and stakeholders, once it was rolled out.

To define how we wanted to be recognized and perceived by the public and increase their trust in local health departments.

Challenges we considered wereWe had no budget to start, process or implement a brand.

Knowing this challenge, we looked internally to evaluate the staff and resources we had available to still begin and follow through with the process. We new that a large brand roll-out was not feasible and it would be a slow transition.

Another challenge we considered was whether or not the new brand would be well received and consistently implemented by leadership and staff. If we did not over come this challenge, to intentionally create and maintain our identity, then the public

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would form our identity for us and may be confused as to who we are and what we do.

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We began the branding process in March 2013 and rolled it out, relatively fast by the first of July 2013. As I mentioned in slide 2, in order to begin, I needed a comprehensive understanding of our target audience, the services and programs we provide, community partnerships we’ve established, internal and county-wide reports, surveys and assessments, how the public perceives us, what response our identity evoked (at that time), how we communicated with the public and a thorough review of our mission, vision, values, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), market position and how our current image compared with our local health partners and other peer health departments.

After gathering the necessary information and presenting it to my immediate supervisor and the Health Officer, we had to determine where we wanted to go and develop a plan on how to achieve our desired outcomes. This project could not start and be successful unless we engaged leadership and received support from them and staff. I prepared a presentation (the link is provided on slide 8) to share with department managers from community, clinic and environmental health the brand concept, research, desired outcomes, challenges and how we may achieve a successful brand. After consensus from administrative leaders, to move forward with branding, we worked together to clearly define our objectives. This phase also involved articulating our messages to the public, creating a department logo and writing a brand guidelines (see the link on slide 8) to help ensure all department documents and promotional items consistently and repetitively showcase our brand.

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We developed our new logo internally. Several factors were considered. Such as, the official name of the department – Ottawa County Department of Public Health, font styles, color selection and whether or not we wanted to incorporate a graphic element. Our logo was created to be a visual representation about who we are and what we do. Consistent use of our logo, by all stakeholders, ensures more and more recognition over time. This is especially important as we continue to build a community presence and awareness about the many services and benefits our department offers to Ottawa County residents.

After these items were reviewed, revised and near final, I presented to division supervisors the brand concept, research, desired outcomes, challenges, how we may achieve a successful brand and the draft of our new logo. They received an opportunity to review, offer suggestions and help with any other revisions to complete this phase of the project. This step not only engaged leadership, it also provided a chance for recognition and that everyone who was participating had opinions and ideas that mattered. Once, department leadership was satisfied with our communications plan and brand guidelines, the Health Officer, Lisa Stefanovsky; Deputy Officer, Donovan Thomas; Medical Director, Dr. Paul Heidel and I presented our initiative to the Ottawa County Health & Human Services Committee for approval. The committee approved the new branding for our department and moved the item to the next Ottawa County Board of Commissioner’s monthly meeting. After the Board approved the branding initiative, we then officially rolled it out to department staff and the public the first part of July 2013.

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Engaging leadership to actively participate in the process and development of our department brand and logo, was the first and most important step to a successful roll-out. Upon receiving leadership approval and support, I presented the initiative to department staff at several of their division meetings. People openly responded, willingly accepted and effectively started to make the transition to consistently use our brand. By sharing information, training and providing the proper tools, staff and stakeholders have aided in a successful brand roll-out and moving forward the process of transition. In return, our identity takes shape and is strengthened throughout Ottawa County and neighboring counties.

The brand guidelines was, and still is, an important tool. It serves as a guide for all leaders, staff and stakeholders to become ambassadors for our department. It assists in proper use of our logo, colors, font styles and provides department templates. It helps us stay in sync with each other, so we are consistently building our image together and sending out consistent messages to the public. In a way, the brand guidelines, as a collective document, wraps up the creation of our brand and provides a starting point on how to implement it. As we work together on this common purpose, our department’s culture becomes even more resilient and increases morale and productivity. As a result, we are enabled to better serve our community.

We realized whether or not we went through a branding process with or without any funding, it was expected to be a slow transition. Even after leadership and staff

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acceptance and support, it will still take time. Everyone needs to make it a habit to speak, write and use the new brand as outlined in the brand guidelines. Old habits may be hard to break, especially for staff members who have been employed by our department for the longest time and have developed their own way of doing things. Strengthening our brand requires everyone to have a willingness to change.

Now that we’ve had almost a year under our belt, we are now at the evaluation phase. We will need to examine the implementation and exposure of our brand, by reviewing website analytics, social media insights, communication reports and the reach of our marketing campaigns. We also need to determine whether or not we’ve achieved our desired outcomes and how we’ve impacted the community, media and policy makers. This is commonly done by sending out surveys and polls. There are free tools available, such as surveymonkey.com. Using surveys and polls, help us find out if there have been changes in healthy or risky behaviors, if our relationship with the media is better than before and if policy has changed (links to health and media reports are available on slide 8).

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Our brand is the method for us to effectively reach and be heard by our target audience. To prompt a reaction or evoke an emotional response, we need to know the problems that need to be addressed and understand what our audience needs or wants. Answers to these questions are found in county-wide and departmental assessments, surveys and reports. An example is the Ottawa County Youth Assessment Survey (the link is located on slide 8).

We also need to guide people toward their own understanding of the issue at hand and its importance, associated cost and potential hazards, such as sickness, disaster or even death if it is not addressed.

So, how do we get people to listen and work toward obtainable and sustainable solutions? It’s in our deliverables; the messages and visuals we put forth to the public. It is essential that our messages are relevant, timely, clear and specific. If an action must take place, we need to inform people about what they should do, when it needs to be done by and provide them with the necessary tools or resources to reach the solution. Another part of delivering our message or brand is to keep communications flowing and consistent. This helps build more trust and credibility in our community and can be achieved by providing excellent customer service, evidence-based and quality programs and distributing educational material that peaks people’s interest. We want the information provided to be something they want to take the time to read or eagerly listen to and respond.

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Health organization partnerships are important to increasing brand awareness. How well we collaborate with other organizations to meet common objectives, greatly reflects the culture of our department. Leadership and staff participation in community coalitions, councils, committees, health fairs and conferences sends the message that we do care and do take action to address issues and help meet people’s health needs.

Visual brand deliverables are those that feature our department name and logo, such as letterhead, business cards, presentation templates, rack cards, fact sheets, website, social media, posters, brochures, pamphlets, promotional items, public service announcements, news releases, banners, advertising or annual reports.

Some examples of educational materials that featured our logo to expand our reach and increase our identity are . . . . Briefly talk about projects shown by thumbnail image on next page.

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Thumbnail of each project with link to pdfBrief description of the project objective based on problem/need

If you click on the title link or image, it will bring you to the pdf file. 

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Thank you for your time and best to you and your department as you embark on this journey!

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