MD By Design

Branding Brief

by Seth D Brown and Associates

MD By Design is a new business that provides

consulting to physicians who practice concierge
medicine. In the higher tier business model of
concierge medicine, a sound understanding of retail
experience including design and sales principles is
needed to succeed and achieve a rewarding experience
for physicians and their patients. MD By Design
provides consulting services that improve the
fulfillment and success of the physicians that they work
with while ultimately providing greater health and
peace of mind for their patients.
Research
Valery provided an awesome amount of research to ground us in the industry of
concierge medicine and the audience of MD By Design. Rather than provide further
links, here’s a quick look at how Concierge Medicine is trending as a topic based on
Google searches.

Google Trends report on the Industry Concierge Medicine shows growth in recent
years:

In addition, there is plenty of interest in your geography, including Los Angeles which
is on the list of cities!
Audience
When we look at which doctors should form the core audience for MD By Design, we
should consider the doctors who are already practicing concierge medicine. Or,
doctors who are far enough along in the process to transitioning to concierge
medicine, for example they are in the process of looking for spaces for their new
practice or they are planning their first marketing campaign.

When it comes to doctors making the transition to practicing concierge medicine,

there is an existing service, MDVIP.com. This is the big player in the marketplace. In
the event that MD By Design decides to offer services that help doctors transition
from traditional to concierge medicine, this is also a competitor:

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from their presentation, and the voice of
their brand directs towards the positive higher values and patient-benefit approach
that we recommend.

Doctors who are already practicing concierge medicine will be more familiar with the
conversation around competitive differentiation through better patient experience.
They’ll be more aware of ways of improving their business that are possible with MD
By Design and more important in their higher tier of medical practice.
Audience (con’t)
According to the AMA report here: http://www.nmms.
org/sites/default/files/images/2013_9_23_ama_survey_prp-physician-practice-
arrangements.pdf

● A larger share of women physicians are in primary care than men, 52.7 percent
compared to 22.3 percent (data not shown).
● Women physicians were more likely than men to be in solo practice, 21.0
percent compared to 17.3 percent.
Audience (con’t)
The AMA report also shows that single-speciality doctors are the most likely to have
ownership over their practice and be in a place to make a decision to use MD By
Design services:

Based on this information, it’s suggested that the core audience is:

● Women
● Currently practicing concierge medicine or solo practice
● Specialty Practice - OB/GYN, Dermatology, etc.

MD By Design should aim to connect with this core audience, listen, and learn how to
shape products and services to meet their needs. From this core, MD By Design can
then expand to include men, general practices, and larger practices with many
doctors which cover a range of specialties.
Audience (con’t)
Looking further at specific data regarding concierge medicine from the Physicians
Foundation Survey Report in 2014 available here:
http://www.physiciansfoundation.
org/uploads/default/2014_Physicians_Foundation_Biennial_Physician_Survey_Report.
pdf

We find that younger doctors are more likely to switch to concierge medicine and
practice owners are more likely to practice some form of concierge medicine.

“7% of physicians now practice some form of direct pay/concierge medicine, while
13% indicate they are planning to transition in whole or in part to this type of
practice. 17% of physicians 45 or younger indicate they will transition to direct
pay/concierge practice.”

It’s also worth noting the high percentage who have no plans of transitioning. MD By
Design will quickly burn resources trying to convert this crowd to concierge
medicine. This data reinforces the suggestion to focus on doctors who have or are in
the process of switching.

There’s some conflict with the AMA data, in that the Physicians Foundation Survey
reports that PCs are more likely to switch to concierge than specialists. However,
given the larger difference between owners actually practicing some form of
concierge medicine, and the AMA data which shows specialists are more likely to
own their practice — specialists are the doctors who actually make the switch to
concierge medicine.

This is confirmed in the Physicians Foundation survey. While PCs report they are
considering the switch, it is more specialists who actually do. The percentage is
slight, but when we consider the greater number of specialist owners, we’re
confident the time of MD By Design is better spent focused on this core audience at
the start.
Audience and Messaging
We seek to connect with a core audience of doctors: primarily women, and also men,
aged 35 - 45 years old, who are the owners of a specialty practice and are in the
process of considering concierge medicine and looking to build out a new practice,
or having made the switch and realizing that they need help with the design and
business — what we might call the overall retail experience for their patients to truly
make it work.

When we consider how to connect with our core audience, we might consider that
many of these doctors had a vision of what being a doctor meant to them.

Really they want to "play doctor", but do it for real, actually caring for patients. For
the ideal MD By Design client, this person would also have an awareness of the
importance of design, and sound business principles. These doctors recognize that
growing up and playing doctor requires a "grown-up approach".

The immediate or forward facing messaging should speak emotively towards the
positive aspects with a set of proof points in the supporting copy and materials that
address "needs" "concerns" and "pain".

When connecting with the core audience we want to speak to the needs of their
clients also. The overall messaging should be positive, speak to higher values and
patient benefits. At the end of the day, it’s the happy experiences of patients that will
make the doctors more successful and more fulfilled.
Focus Words
The goal is to deliver an improvement to the patient experience.

Better

Improved

Experience

Health
Messages
The name MD By Design already carries with it the audience industry “MD”, and the
general principle that outlines the approach “design”. This allows us some freedom
to be more esoteric with the messages and supporting copy.

With the immediate or forward-facing messages — headlines, hero messages, and

headings — we can choose to reinforce one or more of these, or, preferably, we can
speak to the emotive benefits of the service as the practical aspects are somewhat
elucidated by the name.

Redesign your practice and redesign your life.

Practices made perfect.

A better experience for you and your patients.

Your practice shouldn’t feel like work.

A higher standard of medical practice.

Messages (con’t)
Practice a higher standard of medicine.

Deliver a higher standard of medicine.

Fulfill your dream of being a doctor.

The above with:

, one patient at a time.

Practice a higher standard of medicine, one

patient at a time.
Summary Content
In the higher tier business model of concierge medicine, a sound understanding of
retail experience including design and sales principles is needed to succeed and
achieve a rewarding experience for physicians and their patients.

MD By Design provides consulting services that improve the fulfillment and success
of the physicians we work with while ultimately providing greater health and peace
of mind for your patients.

MD By Design creates exceptional patient experiences that delight and impress,

improving the health of your patients, your success and your fulfillment as a doctor.

We craft exceptional patient experiences that lead to greater health for patients,
greater success for practices, and greater fulfillment for doctors. We make practices
perfect, one patient at a time.
Typography
Summary

The font should be a clean, modern font. We recommend a sans-serif font. We want
a luxurious feel for the brand with an open typeface and plenty of room for the
characters to “breathe”. We recommend these particular fonts because they meet
these requirements and practically, they are freely available and are optimized for
viewing on screen.

Headings and Hero Messages

Font Family: Pontano Sans

Better Patient Experiences

Better Patient Experiences
Better Patient Experiences
Alternate for Headings and Hero Messages*

Font Family: Lato

Better Patient Experiences

Better Patient Experiences
Better Patient Experiences
Content

Font Family: Open Sans

This document is written in Open Sans.

This document is written in Open Sans.
This document is written in Open Sans.

*The brand logo is based on the Lato family. We recommend using a thinner weight
on Lato: 400.
Technical Advisory and Suggestions
Website

Your website should be hosted on the wordpress platform. We recommend building

a modern, responsive site using a current modular Wordpress theme, such as the X-
theme.

There are many limitations when it comes to using Squarespace as your primary
piece of digital real estate. Most importantly, when it comes to integrating with other
services, or making specific changes to the site, these options are limited or non-
existent compared to alternatives in the widely used Wordpress platform.

Social Media and Search Strategy

We recommend approaching each platform based on its own merits. Twitter is great
for connecting with influencers. Facebook is great for reaching out to people based
on interest. Search helps you connect with people who are in the decision making
process.

In all of these areas you should use automated tools such as HootSuite for posting to
social media, and integrate these tools with your website; as well as use analysis
from Facebook, Google, and your web server statistics to see what messages work.

Content Strategy

Your content strategy should focus on providing solutions for doctors who practice
concierge medicine:

● 10 Tips to Improve Your Concierge Medicine Patient Experience

● 5 Tips to Use Social Media for Your Concierge Medicine Practice
Logo
Summary

After examining graphical elements for the logo and referencing luxury brand logos
provided by Valery, we’ve decided the primary brand imprint should be a word logo.
We consider the modern, consumer-facing message of the brand name and the
explanatory power it provides, as well as the need to create a logo that will sit well in
the square frame used by social media and other web properties.

It’s important that the logo sits well with other luxury brands. Luxury brand word
logos tend to have plenty of kerning or tracking between the characters, the letters
are given a chance to “breathe”. It’s this openness and lightness that implies luxury,
almost a haughty, austere form or luxury, yet attainable enough that it’s within
reach. Our primary references are “GUCCI” and “Richard Ashby”.
Colors
Summary

For the colors, we don’t want to use the traditional blues and aqua greens of the
medical industry. We want MD By Design to stand apart as a higher tier service
offering with a unique value add — an approach grounded in design and marketing
principles.

Removing green and blue and blue as primary color tones from our choices helps by
constraining our decision to colors which impart: status, wealth, comfort and
fulfillment – the higher values sought by the clients of MD By Design and their
patients.

The deep red and dark grey imply status and wealth, the dark rich tones tell us we
are dealing with a service that is a “cut above”. The beige or gilded light brown – what
we call Gilded Sands – hints at gold while being grounded in a more natural sense
that implies wellness, and sits well in the content of the medical industry while
implying a premium experience.

Proposed Brand Colors

Color Codes Color Codes Color Codes

HEX: 666666 HEX: 660000 HEX: cccc99
RGB: 102, 102, 102 RGB: 102, 0, 0 RGB: 204, 204, 153
CMYK: 60, 51, 51, 20 CMYK: 34, 98, 96, 53 CMYK: 22, 12, 47, 0
Imagery
We don’t want a literal medical translation in our logo design, so the images in our
presentation should convey what the service is to clients with an immediate visual
clue. We will rely on imagery to provide the audience the immediate context for MD
By Design marketing materials, including print and web.

Potential clients want to be happy with the service and want to have unconditional
trust in their caregiver. With these images, we provide that impression, reflecting the
goal of MD by Design to provide the best patient experiences.