BD
Identity
Visual Systems
Indispensable to human health
When Becton Dickinson, a $3 billion medical devices company, celebrated its centennial year, the company was in the midst of a cultural transformation. The leadership of the company recognized the need to communicate more effectively to customers and other audiences. Despite its success, the company was not well known to some key customer constituencies that were expected to have an increasing influence over purchase decisions. The company was also entering into new businesses where its strengths, future direction and philosophy were not understood.
Challenges
Three different names–Becton Dickinson, Becton and BD–in use as well as two different logos
The need to build consensus worldwide across all the company’s businesses
Little understanding of the company’s relationship to its well-known brands
Actions
Developed a new positioning statement and image goals
Conducted name and nomenclature research with key audiences as critical input for the development the company’s new brand architecture
Developed a master brand strategy with BD as the communicative name
Created a new symbol, logotype and design system to signal a new direction and implemented a family look for all communications
Created branding standards and decision tools to leverage the corporate brand as well as its well-known, highly regarded product brands
Created a new tagline: “Indispensable to human health” to support the positioning