Case Study: The Palma Center
New Lore Case Study: The Palma Center
We typically can’t show too much of the how behind our projects because we’re either under an NDA and/or because it’s strategic work and we obviously don’t that info out there for competitors to know about our clients. But we went through the process with a fake brand to show you a look behind the scenes.
Through this case study, we hope to make clear at least some of the elements that go into our Branding Package with narrative strategy, which is so much more than just designing a logo and visual elements.
So Much More Than A Logo
When we approach a brand identity for a brand, whether that brand is new or looking for a refresh of their existing branding, we must anchor that new identity in the timeless foundation of storytelling.
What does that mean exactly?
That we have to build a story for the brand upon which everything else stems from, so everything is cohesive, aligned, and tells the same story.
Why a Functional Medicine Practice?
So when we began this process we chose to case study a functional medicine women’s center, for a few reasons:
First, Medical practices tend to feel very constrained in what they can do with their branding, which means they are all typically doing the same look and feel (hello, commoditization!)
And second, because there is a lot of hesitancy about functional medicine as a practice, even though the practitioners are proper MDs, so it was an excellent opportunity to showcase a business with a couple obstacles for a realistic case study. Often times businesses don’t face just one challenge, and the only way to combat them is to identify them.
Uncovering the Latent Stories of The Palma Center
At this phase of a typical project we would do some research into the company of our lovely (fictitious) entrepreneur, Dr. Elena de Palma. She complains that she struggles to stand out from the competition with unmemorable branding, and more than that, as a holistic OB GYN she does not take insurance at her practice, and that presents an added hurdle in attracting patients.
But she also provides things many traditional gynecologists do not, and that is her asset in this case. The trick is to highlight her differences and attract the woman that is seeking for different, more holistic care.
Women everywhere struggle daily with symptoms from their hormones, cycles, pregnancies, and more that are often dismissed by doctors. The default answer to painful periods, acne, and more is “take this hormonal birth control,” and when the symptoms don’t alleviate, the reply is “take this other one instead.” Getting to the root cause of a lot of female health concerns can be frustrating for women, and thankfully a functional medicine approach, like Dr. de Palma’s, seeks to understand the woman in her entirety to pinpoint why she’s experiencing her symptoms.
The Archetypes
First we identify the Archetypes of the center, followed by those of the audience. In this case, we to combat the problem of commoditization (that is, being unrecognizable in a sea of businesses that look and seem exactly the same as yours), we ID the archetypes of the category. In this case medicine.
Brands in the healthcare space will often times occupy the archetype of The Caretaker of The Healer, both for very obvious reasons. Clearly these would be the obvious answer, but when you go with the obvious answer you probably choose the same answer as all of your competitors, too. Obviously, not what we want here.
We decided instead to take The Palma Center into the territory of The Seeker, The Big Sister, and The Reformer. We’ll explain each in a second — but it’s important to note here that we use three because it gives your brand depth, like a compelling character. One is typically your why, and the others are your how.
The Business Archetypes
The Seeker — She is motivated by a continuous desire to learn, grow, and expand. This archetype is ambitious and independent, constantly moving. With great patience and perseverance, she stands firm on the mission to seek out and find new and better solutions, without leaving any stone unturned. Pushed to know more, the Seeker thirsts for a better way of living and a better world.
The Big Sister — The Big Sister is by your side without judging you, defends you from your enemies without making you feel weak, gives you a model to emulate without making you feel inferior, supports you when you need it, and helps you grow. She teaches you how to break the rules worth breaking and, at the same time, how to preserve traditions worth keeping.
The Reformer —The Reformer is an incremental innovator who does not seek to replace the existing system altogether or destroy it but to improve it. She prefers gradual and controlled changes to large transformations and feels great satisfaction for each improvement, however small, of the processes and structures in the industry and in the lives of her patients. She is very reliable and safe because she tends to solve problems by always offering stability, order and continuity avoiding irresponsible excesses.
Patient Archetype Journey
While we don’t give away a ton of definitions of our list of 250 archetypes, we will explain the first and most important element of the audience’s archetypes. We identified three primary types of patient that come to see The Palma Center, and we’ll explain the first.
The journey we want to take the first type of patient, from The Renouncer to The Apprentice, is critically important. The Renouncer is a woman that has all but given up. She struggles with her health and bounces from doctor to doctor that fails to identify in her the root of her symptoms. Perhaps she has crippling pain from undiagnosed endometriosis, or she’s a 35-year-old woman with skin that breaks out still, or a woman plagued by fatigue and no one will test her thyroid or her hormones.
We can take this woman, who is at a low point in her health, and through The Palma Center, transform her into The Apprentice. A woman that, through patient guidance, support, and testing with Dr. de Palma, is learning to take charge of her health in ways she never thought possible. A woman that will learn, through proper testing, holistic ways to treat her diagnosis, manage her symptoms, and achieve balance.
She may not be an expert, but under the guidance of Dr. de Palma, she can find her footing as a way more empowered patient that ever before.
The Plot
We chose the plot of The Enigma for The Palma Center, because it goes out to explore unknown territory willing to find something new.
The brand acquires the ability to see something that, despite being in sight, is very difficult to glimpse and that no one else knows how to identify. In your journey the brand finds the intelligent and surprising answers to the most complex questions. The organization knows that things are not what they seem on the surface and that it has to look at them like no one has done before.
We thought this was fitting for The Palma Center because functional medicine requires Dr. de Palma to keep up with enormous numbers of studies from across the whole body, because the surprising answers to hormonal issues for one patient may live in her intestinal flora. Or the stress from a carbohydrate allergy are creating stress hormones which in turn stifle her thyroid. The answers she and her patients need are hidden across the whole system, and her astute eye is capable of finding the answers and implementing solutions that over traditional OBGYNs may overlook.
Armed with A Story, now a Strategy
Now that we have identified all these elements (and more, not shown in this case study), we can turn that story into a strategy for growth. One that we will use to design everything else about her branding to help her private practice to stand out from competition and reach the patients that she can help most.
The Branding Choices
Now that we understand who The Palma Center is, we can make the other creative choices we need to create a unique identity. Because this is a case study, we allowed ourselves to have fun with the branding — imagining that Dr. de Palma, a Miami woman with a practice in the heart of Coral Gables, would appreciate a bit of bold, feminine design.
We chose her brand colors because of how well they tie into the essence of her archetypes and combined them in tones that are fun and bold but feel sophisticated. Bold, bright colors but not childish or jarring. For balance the fonts are more traditional, but go nicely with the brand marks and patterns that remind us of the female form. This is a business for women’s health, after all, it should be highlighted and celebrated exuberantly.
Hope You Enjoyed The Look behind the Scenes
Hopefully you see how this, while trying to keep this case study brief, still has a tremendous amount of narrative power and strategy that goes into it, long before we start any of the design process. It is so much more than a typical branding service, and the guide that we provide clients like Dr. de Palma (if she were real) would guide her business for years to come, acting as a reference for her story, how to tell it, and how to use the design elements effectively to tell that story.
Do you have questions or comments about this project? Please leave them in the comments.
And if you see how we can make vast improvements in your own brand, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
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