What does Guard Dog™ Brand Development do?

GDBD develops brands by understanding audience perceptions, needs, wants, and motivations; analyzing strategic positioning options; choosing direction; defining brand identity; creating and implementing that identity; and continuously testing and monitoring the market to ensure the brand’s messages remain fresh and relevant to all key stakeholders. .. back to top ..

Whom does Guard Dog™ Brand Development provide these services to?

GDBD specializes in healthcare – hospitals, health systems, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies – and the drugs, biologics, and medical devices they develop. .. back to top ..

How does Guard Dog™ Brand Development fit in with a company’s advertising agency, medical education, or PR firm?

In today’s extremely competitive marketplace, the number of key stakeholder audiences of a brand are numerous and diverse. Your message platform needs to be relevant, but it also must be consistent and cohesive for all key stakeholder audiences. You simply cannot afford to let your brand be off message.

And yet, when a brand’s identity and message platform is approached in silos by using multiple agencies, being off message is exactly what is at risk. If you have ever experienced participating in separate message workshops with a medical education, advertising, or PR agency for your brand, you understand this point firsthand. It is inherently inefficient, costly, and can ultimately fragment your brand’s identity.

When you invite GDBD to be at the center of the message platform and brand identity creation table, you are taking a solid step toward ensuring your brand identity and message platform is secure. Because GDBD is not in the business of selling you tactics or programs, we can focus on one thing and one thing only – being fiercely protective of your brand identity and message platform across every communication channel.

GDBD has experience in creating message platforms across the key stakeholder groups relevant to healthcare brands. And because of our expertise and objectivity, you can be sure that your brand’s message platform is consistent, cohesive, and relevant. Importantly, because we respect the value a medical education, advertising, and PR agency brings to the table, we include representatives from them along with members of your brand team to participate in our comprehensive message development process... back to top ..

Who would benefit from partnering with Guard Dog™ Brand Development?

Any healthcare brand owner – CEO, president, COO, director of commercial development, director of marketing and communications, and brand manager – seeking a branding process with peace of mind , who values a partner who can help coordinate efforts across divisions (such as marketing, PR, medical education, market research), who recognizes the value of having a dedicated team on his or her business ensuring a cohesive, consistent, and relevant outcome, and who appreciates a partner who looks after the bottom line as much as he or she does would benefit from forging a professional partnership with GDBD. .. back to top ..

Does Guard Dog™ Brand Development do advertising?

GDBD creates the brand identity that advertising promotes; we typically collaborate with advertising agencies to ensure the brand identity – both verbal and visual -- is maintained across campaigns and collateral. .. back to top ..

Does Guard Dog™ Brand Development do PR?

GDBD creates the brand identity that PR communicates across various channels; we also provide insights that help PR firms ensure relevancy of their messaging to key stakeholders. .. back to top ..

Does Guard Dog™ Brand Development do medical education?

GDBD has a heritage in developing science identities for pharmaceuticals, biotechnologies, and medical devices even before they have brand names. This includes simplifying and visualizing the mechanism of action of products, naming clinical trials, and creating briefing materials on pipeline products. We also conduct positioning and messaging workshops for products during the pre-launch phase, as early as Phase II. GDBD works extremely well in early partnership with our client’s medical education partners. .. back to top ..

How does Guard Dog™ Brand Development "fiercely protect" brands?

Once we create, launch, and implement a brand identity, GDBD acts as "brand police" to ensure that there are no violations of positioning or verbal and visual standards – and, if there are, to quickly correct those violations. We are also a helpful resource when internal groups take on new identity projects, providing guidelines and ensuring that whatever is newly created fits within the already established identity standards, to ensure consistency and relevancy of the overall brand. GDBD, through monitoring and research, maintains objectivity and reflects the "voice of the consumer" and infuses that voice in the activities conducted by our client’s advertising, public relations, and medical education firms. Because of the size of most companies or health systems, and their having many internal divisions, it is quite advantageous for all parties to receive input and guidance on new projects from a single, objective resource such as GDBD to ensure the brand does not revert back to an older or fragmented image. .. back to top ..

How is Guard Dog™ Brand Development structured?

GDBD is founded by two managing partners who have 50 collective years of healthcare branding and marketing experience. Both partners have "big agency" experience in healthcare branding, advertising, marketing, medical education, and public relations, which creates the unique foundation for GDBD. GDBD’s team is a coordinated consortium of award-winning branding and market research specialists who keep GDBD nimble, flexible, and agile in creating best-in-class teams for each client – each team lead by one of the managing partners. Our unique structure makes GDBD extremely efficient and cost effective – a client will only pay for the talent directly applied its business. In contrast, larger branding companies charge their clients for hefty overheads and staff that never touches its business. GDBD never does the talent "bait and switch" – the talent you see in the room during the pitch will be the talent working on your day-to-day business. .. back to top ..

Where is Guard Dog™ Brand Development based?

GDBD is located in Manhattan (NYC). .. back to top ..