Prince George’s County’s Health Department first asked us to brand a new awareness campaign for its growing mental health services division. They wanted to target children’s services.
This was an exciting ask, for several reasons.
First, we’re in Prince George’s County and we feel proud to be part of an effort to help children, families, and individuals get the services they need.
Second, we live and breathe branding and marketing.
So we dug in. What’s the best way to come up with a name that works for a given community? Involve the community itself.
Focus Groups: Part of our Branding Research
We set up four focus groups of various ages and interests (from young people to health care providers), primed the pump with a few ideas, and let the groups talk things out with the help of a facilitator.
From these focus groups came more than naming ideas.
The four groups talked about the challenges of mental health and substance abuse disorder services, such as
- Low awareness and service visibility
- Limited access to services
- Long waits
- Insurance issues
- Geographic challenges
- Funding
- Too few providers
- Lack of training in settings such as schools
The thoughts and ideas of focus group participants was invaluable to the Health Department’s original scope. In fact, it helped Health Department officers understand that children needn’t comprise the audience, but rather families and individuals. In effect, everyone in Prince George’s County was now part of the target audience.
These groups selected Step Forward, one of the names we had offered early on to stimulate discussion. The group found that the name Step Forward was hopeful, confident, and empowering, and also reflected the initiative it takes for many people to seek help for themselves or their families.
Creation of a Tagline
With the focus group results and also thorough research of the policies and guidelines of the Health Department, we developed the tagline, “Empowering young people, adults, and families to lead healthier lives.”
Large-Format Brochure Design
Sutter Group moved on to our next opportunity — the design of marketing pieces suitable for distribution by doctors’ offices, the Health Department, schools, and the public at large.
We began with the development of a four-page 8½” x 11” single-fold glossy brochure that put Step Forward’s many services front and center.
These services include:
- Support and crisis lines
- Advocacy and support groups
- Diagnosis, treatment, and therapy resources
- Treatment settings such as rehabilitation centers and respite care locations
Rack Cards, Post Cards, and Business Card Design
A rack card makes it easy for stores, community centers, and health care providers to display helpful information.
A series of postcards was perfect for mailings to introduce Step Forward to the community.
We also created a hotline business card that would be easy for people of all ages to speak or text with a mental health care professional.
Bus Shelter Poster Design
Some of the most eye-grabbing of our marketing materials were a series of bus shelter posters featuring a variety of our target audiences, from teens to parents to retired professionals.
All in all, our design and content development took several months.
Our client had this to say, “Thank you so much for helping us not only design great-looking pieces, but also for helping steer us in the right direction when we adjusted our scope of work. You made our launch successful.”
Our Experience in Healthcare Branding and Marketing
We’ve done extensive work branding and marketing for healthcare administrators, healthcare providers, biomedical companies, and more. Call us if you are looking for help.
