Creative Marketing & Visual Design

Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center (CBCC) is the largest freestanding cancer center on the West Coast and the oldest in the Kern County region of California. They are a well-established facility with a long history of “firsts” in cancer treatment. This center is well-renowned for having a team of experienced medical professionals and providing high quality care.

The Problem

When I came on board, the immediate challenges I was tasked with was their online presence. As it was quite out of date. They had a website that they disclosed as being old fashioned and stuffy. The branding was outdated and their marketing efforts were neglected. There were no systems in place to seek insight into their customers, so they were missing an opportunity to understand how to better market their institution and who to target. I knew that with a bit of research and direction, they could more effectively communicate their services.

Marketing Intelligence

The first step was to learn more about the typical patient at CBCC. We asked clinical staff to regularly forward patient demographic information and other data to the marketing department in order to understand the patients better. We also interviewed physicians and clinicians to learn about what each department and service line had to offer. In addition, we conducted informal patient interviews to learn more about patient expectations, habits and requirements.

Defining the Brand

The next step was identifying the “Unique Selling Point” for each service and developing marketing messaging for the institution as a whole. The research uncovered what we defined as the “Comprehensive Care Model” of treatment. The center’s unique approach to cancer treatment features a multi-disciplined team of physicians and clinicians. Each department working together to treat the entire patient –mind, body and spirit –all under one roof.

To symbolize this visually, we assigned each department a color to act as the secondary colors. While the center as a whole maintained its legacy blue as the main color. Then, I designed a gradient stripe to represent all the service lines working together in support of each other.

Establishing Brand Goals

Next, we established a series of goals for transforming the brand, which included:

• Make the brand more appealing, fresh and colorful while still maintaining reverence to the serious nature of cancer care.
• Refresh the visuals and messaging tone to make the brand feel more contemporary and modern.
• Engage more with women, since, according to our market research, women make 75% of cancer decisions in the household and most of CBCC’s web visitors were women.
• Create a branding design system for a consistent look through all marketing efforts.
• Develop consistent messaging to illustrate the “comprehensive care model” in action.

The plan was to spearhead this new branding initiative by launching the new website. Then roll out new branding items including stationery, forms and collateral, as well as to create advertising and digital posts to coincide with the launch of the website.

Building the Website

A custom website was necessary to reflect the new brand identity of CBCC. The first stage of this was to create mockups and stylescapes to determine the visual look and feel. I also took inventory of the existing and new content and organized it into clear user flows and sitemaps.

Creating outlines of each page helped to maintain consistent messaging for the copywriter. I directed photoshoots and video shoots to create stunning imagery, then designed a prototype of the site using Figma for user flow testing and content review.

Then, I hand-coded the entire website using the bootstrap framework with HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript.

Results

The new brand look and marketing messaging for CBCC more accurately reflects the passionate spirit, positive culture and unique personality of the institution. It has a friendly, human-centered appeal that is relatable and comforting to patients.

The new website now has an instantly recognizable look. Visitors can find information they are looking for much more quickly - and the service offerings are displayed more effectively. Since the launch, CBCC has seen continuous growth in the number of website visitors with longer sessions, as well as an improved search engine ranking.

This is better for the patient and also saves the staff at CBCC time, as there are fewer calls to the front desk with basic questions. Plus, patients can now pay for their treatments online with a new online bill pay system - saving a lot of hassle.

With a centralized control for their online presence and social platforms, it’s easy for CBCC to track their web and social media analytics as well as their advertising efforts.

The branding color schemes developed for the marketing materials were also integrated into the interior design. Each department was decorated with its designated color, making it easier for patients to find their way through the facility.

Launch Website