The problem was not the merch.
Valley Health
Dozens of departments buying their own branded gear will produce dozens of versions of your brand.
The challenge
Pediatrics had a school screening, Recruitment a career fair, Corporate Events a donor evening — each with a real date, each solving it alone. By the time marketing saw the whole picture, four versions of the logo were in circulation and no one could total a year of spend.
Our thinking
We were asked to recommend products, and the honest answer was that no product would fix this. Brand standards fail when the wrong logo file is the one already on someone’s desktop — so the job was to make ordering correctly the easiest thing to do.
The solution
A Valley Health store split into catalogs by department, with approved artwork locked in and a set price on every item. There is no longer an off-brand option to choose, and a department with a deadline starts from a catalog instead of a phone call.
Our takeaway
Sometimes the right recommendation is not a product at all.
Most suppliers would have delivered the store and moved on. The part that matters is what happens when a new initiative turns up with three weeks of notice and has to look like it belongs — that is what keeps a standard from quietly drifting back.
Your turn