As an intern with Dahlia and James Marin, a married couple of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists who co-own a brand called Married to Health, I was involved in many steps of the branding process. Their private healthcare practice provides an integrated approach to understanding the relationship between diet, disease and symptoms, and prioritizing dietitian visits alongside other primary care providers to bridge this gap.

At the start of my internship, I utilized the branding skills that I learned in COM 329, Visual Communication Design, to produce a thorough branding presentation with their standards such as colors, fonts, copywriting, vision, mission, target audience, and more. This helped us to refine the business goals in order to effectively communicate them to the target audience through their various online platforms. This became a long, continued conversation in which we discussed their current state, direction, and opportunities for growth. Then, we were able to make the document that outlined the very foundation of their business. This put my strategic communication skills to the test since I was tasked with concisely writing their brand standards so they were practical and easily understood by them and their target audience. Marins

Once the branding presentation was finalized, we began strategizing on how to visually communicate their specialties and services online. We discussed which elements were to be at the forefront of the page, such as their Instagram highlights, website description, and blog posts. We used copywriting from our Core Copy document, which was included in the branding presentation for consistency in their brand voice. The Marins and I strategically planned the chronology of clicks upon the consumer’s visit to their platforms and ordered the visual layout to direct this desired behavior. This was a daunting task ­– a complete remodeling – in which we sorted through all of their content, organized it based on the topic, removed ineffective content, and repurposed that which was useful in its new location. I discussed with them the need to remove that which is unnecessary and does not contribute to the effective communication of their brand to produce the desired consumer outcome of a patient consultation, visit, or other service.

Overall, this internship was an eye-opener to the process of branding and re-branding and the dire need for effective communication of the core values, products/services, and benefits of a company.