Think International: Coloplast on branding

Jacob Barnes, Coloplast’s Corporate Brand Communication Manager, talked about building a strong brand within the intimate healthcare industry at Eye for Image’s Think International seminar. “It’s all about winning trust,” he says.

To be a brand that matters in the intimate healthcare industry, you need one essential ingredient: trust. To achieve this, you need to create a compelling brand experience that resonates with your audiences.

Coloplast is a global producer of colostomy bags, catheters and dressings for chronic wounds. Talking with customers about their special problems requires a lot of sensitivity. And Coloplast talks a lot: to nurses, doctors, wholesalers, retailers, and with the end users themselves.

It’s personal
Jacob believes that everyone at Coloplast plays an active role in branding the company. “Everyone needs to be aware that they personally have an impact on how the corporate brand is perceived. This perception is formed through the company’s communications and visual identity, and also by the way its employees act and discuss the company – even outside work.”

These factors all come together to create an impression, a gut feeling, about the company. When enough people share the same gut feeling about a company, you have a brand. And if the gut feeling is positive, you have a strong brand.

Building trust
Coloplast is a technology-driven company that communicates with end users, not engineers. Overly technical language is difficult to understand and it doesn’t fit with the company’s mission: “Making life easier for people with intimate healthcare needs.” That’s why Coloplast’s Style and Tone guidelines focus on communicating in a voice that customers can relate to. This builds trust in the company.

It takes a lot of confidence to simplify your communications. You need to leave your comfort zone of corporate or specialist language when you communicate in a way that’s clear and accessible. “It might sound scary,” Jacob says, “but your audience will understand you – and reward you for it.”

Consistency is everything
A strong brand carves out a niche for itself in the market. But to help your customers experience your brand the way you intend, you also need to align your company’s internal culture. A platform for changing internal communications makes your team more efficient and puts everyone on the same page.

When Coloplast decided to support ambitious new business and growth strategy with corporate branding, the company went through an intensive series of workshops to find out what made Coloplast unique and why people bought its products. The results are summarized in Coloplast’s brand platform, which influences future strategies and is the basis of all new communications tools.

From the inside out
How can a company live by these new principles? At Coloplast, it’s all about budgeting for time and money – and making a commitment. Jacob’s department developed e-learning tools for remote offices and a Style and Tone guide to help Coloplast employees write effective English. And the Coloplast brand ambassador network circulates the right messages through the organization, including subsidiaries.

As Jacob said, “Good corporate branding needs more than a big budget: it needs an across-the-board commitment to brand consistency from everyone in the company.”  

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