The familiar signature of auto baron Henry Ford will no longer be part of the logo for the health system he founded 107 years ago and that bears his name.
The Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System announced Tuesday that it is changing its name — by dropping the word “system” — and is updating its logo as it launches a massive rebranding campaign for the first time in 28 years.
“It’s something that we’ve been considering and evaluating for a period of time and we think the time is right for lots of reasons,” said Wright Lassiter III, CEO of the newly renamed Henry Ford Health.
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Among them, he said, is to present the company in a way that attracts new talent, connects with people in the community and gives the hospital system a competitive edge in Michigan’s shifting health care market, which was dramatically altered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We think for all those reasons that this is the right time for us to, in some ways, reintroduce ourselves to the folks who already count on us and to folks who maybe don’t count on us today but we hope may count on us tomorrow,” he told the Free Press.
Dropping the word “system” from Henry Ford Health’s new name was intentional, Lassiter said.
“The word ‘system’ creates formality and creates a sense of brick and mortar as opposed to a broader vision … that didn’t resonate with consumers as much,” he said.
“When we tested simply going to Henry Ford Health versus Henry Ford Health System, in particular with people who didn’t know us as well, we saw a more positive inclination to consider us.”
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The new logo will lose the old-time feel of Henry Ford’s iconic signature and the Ford oval, instead taking on a contemporary typographic approach.
It incorporates three shades of blue, is cleaner and is easier to read on a sign or a billboard, he said.
The new logo will be phased in on Henry Ford Health’s website, hospital signs, physician’s offices, pharmacy and health care retail stores as well as on letterhead and more, said Heather Geisler, executive vice president and chief marketing, communication and experience officer.
Initially, the change will be most noticeable on websites and digital channels. An “I am Henry” advertising campaign will air during the March Madness NCAA tournament, too, featuring the stories and experiences of patients and workers.
“The launch this week is just the start of the brand evolution process,” Geisler said. “The entire … turnover of the brand on every single piece of signage … and all of the other places where Henry Ford shows up will take about two years.”
Taking 24 months rebranding, she said, will allow the company to use up letterhead and other materials bearing the old logo in a way that is “the most fiscally responsible” and environmentally conscious.
Henry Ford Health has more than 30,000 employees working across its five hospitals, as well as a 100-bed psychiatric hospital, a physician network that includes more than 1,200 doctors, and the Health Alliance Plan insurance company.
It is now competing in an ever-tightening health care market grappling with staffing shortages, patient volumes that shift dramatically with COVID-19 surges and a backlog of patients who have put off health care over the last two years of the pandemic and now are sicker when they seek medical care.
Among its competitors is the newly merged BHSH Health, which combined the former Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health systems earlier this year to form the state’s largest hospital system and Michigan’s biggest employer with more than 64,000 workers and 22 hospitals.
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Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.