The science behind innovation means everything to you, but does it mean everything to your audience? Your solution has been painstakingly researched, tested, iterated and developed to become what it is today. The details matter. However, they aren’t always the most important part when it comes to building your technology or science brand. What your audience wants to know is how their daily lives will be changed.

Great brands are those that distil the science, and your passion as an innovator, into something that is commercially compelling. Into a brand that captures the big picture that your audience cares about.

The importance of a distinct brand

Great branding allows you to grow as a business. It should get your target audience excited, help them empathise with your vision, and clearly highlight the value you have to offer.

Instead of getting lost in the technical details, a commercial technology or science brand will focus on the benefits. This doesn’t mean ‘dumbing down’ your hard work, but instead means showcasing the parts that people can relate to. What problems are you solving? What is the mission behind the product?

This is the essence that makes your product or solution accessible to a wider audience than those with a scientific background. Not just buyers, but investors and potential partners.

How we create a science brand that scales

Firstly, a brand is much more than the logo. It’s who you are and how you want to be perceived. That’s why we start with strategy. Your brand strategy takes into account your commercial objectives, your market, and the unique positioning that will help you achieve those things. This shapes everything from your core vision and mission to your outward marketing activity.

Once our strategy team has started their work, then the brand can follow, acting as the all-important vessel that helps you achieve your objectives.

When we come to create your brand, we do this by weaving together two fundamental elements.

Design: As the first thing that catches the eye, we make sure to instil who you are, your mission, and what value you bring into a cohesive visual design that your audience will empathise and immediately engage with.

Content: We create an established brand personality, voice and story that portrays your business offering in a way that connects with your audience’s biggest challenges, while also showcasing your expertise and uniqueness.
The process

Creating a brand is easy. Creating a brand that is authentic to you and also captures the heart of your audience is not. That’s why we take our customers on a collaborative journey when producing a brand.

The creative workshop

Our creative workshop is the cornerstone, the catalyst, for your brand. In this process we uncover everything we need to know to create the perfect finished product.

Here are the stages we take you through in this workshop:

1. Understanding your brand purpose

We start by digging down into the soul of your company and defining the true nature of what makes you different.

Especially when working with deep tech or science companies, we want to understand the ‘whys’ as well as the ‘hows’. We want to understand your purpose from your perspective as this will dictate what avenues we explore with the brand. Doing this creates that authentic foundation upon which you can grow a standout brand in what is a highly competitive space. It’s what sets you apart.

Ultimately, people purchase based on emotion as well as fact. That’s why the best brands speak more to their mission, their USPs, and their market positioning than their features.

At this stage we often discover concepts that can be translated into creative representations of what you stand for. For example, one of Nike’s core principles is empowering ‘movement’. This comes across clearly in their brand identity, through the iconic ‘swoosh’ and powerful tagline; ‘just do it’.

Things we explore:

• Why you do what you do
• What your core principles are
• The balance between showcasing who you are or what you do
• Whether you want to align or stand out from your industry peers

2. Distilling your brand personality

Exploring both visual and written elements of your brand, we then work on uncovering your brand personality. Studies show that associating human qualities to brand gives them a significant advantage. A distinctive personality establishes what kind of relationship you want to have with your audience, how you want to be perceived.

Simply put, personality is an important dimension of your brand because, just like human personality, it is differentiating, endearing and enduring.

There are many different avenues you can take. Do you want to be powerful, modern and disruptive like Tesla? Informative, simple, and trusted like Microsoft? Or fun, approachable and a little bit cheeky like MailChimp?

While there isn’t a right or wrong answer, it’s about finding what answer is the most authentic for your brand and resonant for your audience.

Things we explore:

• Your competitors
• Tone of voice qualities
• Brand characteristics
• Brand values and desires

3. The nitty gritty

This isn’t the most exciting part of the journey, truth be told, but it’s important to cover.

At this point we discuss some of the fundamentals of your brand. These are elements that need to be defined and consistent, so we can create a brand that is recognisably your own.

For example, do you want a particular style of imagery or illustrations? Do you want a minimalist look or something more vibrant and involved?

Does your content need to be accessible to global audiences? Or should it instil a sense of where you came from? Do you have multiple products and platforms that all need a different approach?

It’s all the little details that can turn something good into something great.

The creation of your science brand

Finally, the bit you want, is to see your brand come to life.

As before, this is very collaborative. Brands, like people, are multifaceted. We feel it’s important to show you initial options that all demonstrate a different reflection of what we’ve discovered – all authentically you, but all telling a slightly different story.

Once we’ve chosen a direction you’re happy with, we develop this into a fully formed, living and breathing brand. Built on solid foundations, this will be something capable of accelerating your commercial presence and growing with you long term.

See some of our brand work in action.