LOC's brand is developing too

LOC’s brand is developing too. As LOC expands to other parts of the UK, there will be a need for ‘LOC’ to stand for something more than just a London base. Read about how we have developed a partner-brand approach which can be used by any hospital or clinic collaborating with us.

The LOC Brand 

When LOC was founded in 2005 and a name had to be chosen for the new venture, the ‘does what it says on the tin’ approach was adopted. The new venture specialised in oncology: it was indubitably in London: and it was emphatically a clinic, with all the standards of care implied by that. Names are after all what you make of them. It’s the quality of what you provide that defines whether the name is potent, appealing and valued.

But now there are now two new considerations. The first is the fact that all successful brand names have a maximum of three syllables. ‘The London Oncology Clinic’ has nine. And second, ‘London’ is obviously fine for an organisation based only there, but not fine, indeed potentially counter-productive, the further north you go. Metrocentricity can be a patronising vanity. And LOC has ambitions to open new clinics across the country.

The upshot is that patients and clinicians increasingly refer to .....’L-O-C’, with the initials increasingly becoming the name (the brand) by which the clinic is known. The other consequence is a change in what we want these initials to represent. We want these three letters to create in future the perception of an expert potential partner  with whom expert clinicians in hospitals throughout the UK can collaborate as an equal, in a manner which also respects local reputations.

The initials LOC will therefore from now onwards stand for something new -  ‘Leaders in Oncology Care’.

This new description helps to make possible is the creation of a new network of like-minded partnering clinics, all linked together by being members of a group with shared high standards, procedures, and expertise. What they will also have in common is a dedication to providing the best patient care possible. Every clinic partnering in future with LOC will therefore be able to claim with pride that they are ‘A Member of the Leaders in Oncology Care Network’. It is participative branding, one which adds value to all who carry it.

This evolved identity will increasingly be seen not only as part of LOC’s own identity in Harley St, but also used by many partnering organisations we hope to welcome to this new network. It will signal to referrers and patients alike that wherever it is seen, there will be found the highest standards of cancer care available anywhere in the world. 

Posted on Wednesday, 08 December 2010 under Homepage