Branding & Promotion

In the summer 2012 issue of Communiqué, I wrote a short piece about "Promotion": goal #2 of CASLPA's current three-year strategic plan. To refresh your memory, this goal is all about raising awareness of the important role and positive impact that our members' professions have on the lives of the Canadian public.

Recently, I've been updating members on a CBC Marketplace episode that set its sights on the high cost of hearing aids; making a number of illogical claims about base costs of and mark-ups on hearing aids and insinuating that audiologists are lining their pockets on the backs of individuals who are hard of hearing. Obviously, we take this issue very seriously and are doing everything we can to deal with it.

That said, I see this kind of story and the backlash it has produced for our audiology members as a symptom of a larger issue. With a better understanding of who you are, what you do, the value of your services and the positive impact you make, the Canadian public will be far less likely to fall for this kind of misinformation and the media will be less likely to spread it. 

Improving the awareness of what you do and the value you bring is what CASLPA's promotion goal aims to do. As I mentioned in that article, part of how we're going to raise your profile is through a branding exercise. What this means is that we want to make sure that the public knows who you are, how you can help and thinks of you first when faced with an issue within your scope of practice. Ultimately, the goal is a high level of brand recognition - similar to when someone has a toothache and they immediately think "dentist!" 

The first step in any branding project is research. We need to find out what people think of us to get a sense of where we are now, before we can decide where we need to go and how we’ll get there.

Some of you may have been contacted for a telephone interview and all of you should have received the survey we sent out last week. We are also interviewing the general public and members of other professions like educators, physicians and nurses to find out what they know about CASLPA and the professions we represent.

If you haven't filled out the survey, you have until March 5th. I urge you to participate in this important portion of our research. The information you provide will help us become the best possible representatives and promoters of your newly-refreshed brands. Together, we can make your profession a valued household name and make CASLPA the go-to organization for information about speech-language pathology and audiology in Canada. 

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. You can email me at krystle@caslpa.ca or call me at 1.800.259.8519 extension 241. 

Talk to you soon!


Krystle van Hoof
Director of Communications & Public Affairs

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