Identity Building and Branding at CDC: A Case Study

Abstract

When asked to describe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most people think of outbreak investigations and“blue rubber suits.”This narrow view of CDC's broad scope of work makes it harder to ensure that critical health information gets to people who need it to live safer and healthier lives. CDC's Director recognizes that making our science available and understandable can help us be more effective in meeting our public health mission. To build a system that will help people better understand CDC's broad scope, the Director initiated an identity-building process based on audience research. The findings consistently pointed to CDC's reputation for action, as well as three aspects of CDC's work that were seen as valuable and unique: protecting people's health and safety, providing health information people can count on, and improving health through strong partnerships. From this foundation, graphic and writing standards, a new logo, tagline, and a brand architecture strategy that all communicate CDC's identity and benefits of its work were created and tested. This article provides an in-depth case study of this initiative to date at CDC.