Medical Lab Branding for Conexus Laboratories

With busy schedules and the demands of running a profitable practice, medical practitioners want a diagnostic lab that partners with the physician as an extension of their practice.

Recognizing an opportunity to expand services and increase non-hospital laboratory revenue, Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) needed a distinct organizational identity that separated their diagnostic lab from the hospital and shared the Medical Center's core values. Equally important, an independent medical testing lab would lead to increased market share and higher profits.

Visit the Conexus Lab Website »

Medical Lab Branding for Conexus Laboratories

Confident guidance that Defines the Brand

Aespire recommended choices but never dictated them. They were completely transparent with the rationale for the choices they offered and they listened to our input and used it to set the next course of direction. Not only did they help create our identity; they educated us about the process so that we would make better decisions.” — Suzanne Leshinskie, Laboratory Director

The Business Case

Taking Insight From How the Client and Customer Feels

With busy schedules and the demands of running a profitable practice, medical practitioners want a diagnostic lab that partners with the physician as an extension of their practice. Office managers want to ensure a positive and convenient patient experience that provides professional support, a focus on connecting with medical offices and patients, and fast, physician-friendly ordering and delivery of results.


Physicians want results quickly. A delay in results can prevent physicians from caring for their patients in the way they deserve when their health is at risk.

  • The problem is that a national medical diagnostic lab may not have physicians’ or patients’ best interests in mind:
  • Working with national testing labs (who may send specimens to medical testing labs that are unfamiliar and remote) makes physicians feel powerless and not in control of test quality and results.
  • When tests aren't done locally, time is wasted, and patients worry about the results.
  • Busy physicians grow impatient when they don’t know how long a test will take or when the results will be available.
  •  Physicians understand their choice of testing labs affects the patient experience. Patients feel inconvenienced when they have to take time off from work and arrange their schedule around the hours of a draw site that has hours that favor the lab, and not the patient’s schedule.

Brand Strategy:

Turning Customer Understanding into Brand Activation

AAMC’s objective through a distinctly branded medical lab is to transform the physician/lab relationship and impact the patient experience.


Guided by these objectives, AAMC set out to create a new identity to deliver on their promise:

  • AAMC believes physicians want to provide the highest level of care within a fixed amount of time and need a diagnostic partner upon which they can rely and trust.
  • AAMC believes patients deserve to be treated with dignity. Lab tests make many people uncomfortable and scared. They want a positive and convenient lab experience with people they know and trust.
Outcomes:

Defining Identity, Purpose, Mission, and Brand

Aespire guided Anne Arundel Medical Center through our full Clarity Process to gain understanding, direction, focus, and connection for the essential elements of this new brand.

Positive Outcome through Connection

The selected name Conexus is Latin for alliance, coalition, or association. The medical inference is to a connecting structure — and phonetically sounds like “connect us.”

The new logo and name evoke the idea of connecting with physicians, affirmed by the tagline: “Partners in Patient Care.” Its personality characteristics are professional, competent, warm, and engaging—confirmed by what physicians and patients experience—a balanced blend of rational and emotional qualities that project the aspirations of the organization and how it wants to be perceived by its primary and secondary markets.

$10M in new revenue in the first year

Leverage existing assets to capture new revenue

Trail-blazing concept guided by design

Brand Activation In Print and Online

Defining the Audience through Research

  • Brand Assessment: Aespire interviews staff, leaders, and customers for insight into how staff perceives and how customers see AAMC.
  • Observe what competitors are doing to take advantage of opportunities for differentiation.
  • Understand customers’ goals, how the brand makes them feel, and the role it plays in their lives.
  • Articulate the values and dimensions that define and guide the organization.
  • Gain insight into the brand personality.

With this audience insight and understanding:

  • Aespire researched, brainstormed, and recommended naming concepts, with a rationale for each recommendation.
  • Guided AAMC through the process of review, prioritization, and selection.
  • Distilled values, insights, and impressions into a guiding positioning statement:

Conexus Laboratories is a team of professionals committed to providing patient-focused, high-quality laboratory services to our medical community in an environment that promotes innovation, service, and compassion

Naming, Logo Design, Sales Funnel

Aespire guided the Conexus team:

  • Developed the selected name, Conexus Laboratories, into a wordmark logo to establish the foundation of the visual identity.
  • Established typography, color, and style recommendations to differentiate from competitors and inherit shared equity of other identity systems.
  • Develop a strategy for activating the brand in the marketplace
  • Collaborate with a channel consultant to guide and articulate clear messaging across all channels.
  • Define and develop marketing collateral to support the way the sales team markets the medical lab.
  • Develop a content-managed web presence with a clear articulation of customer understanding, differentiation, and calls-to-action.
  • Brand and logo standards guidelines

Aligning Marketing with Strategic Initiatives

One of our hospital’s strategic initiatives is to increase the amount of unregulated (i.e. non-hospital) laboratory revenue. In order to expand into our competitor’s territory, we needed a distinct identity that separated us from the hospital but maintained our core values. We also needed assistance designing the marketing materials that support this new identity.”  — Suzanne Leshinskie, Laboratory Director

Share by: