Building a stand-out brand in Life Science – the new reality

Life Science companies are having to work harder to stand out. Smaller companies in particular are competing more fiercely for customers and investors. And they’re not immune to the explosion of information vying for customer attention coupled with ever shorter customer attention spans in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Companies are having to think differently about their brands to grab and keep attention. Many are shying away from traditional corporate branding and embracing consumer-style branding to establish familiarity, trust and create a perception of added value for their customers. They are creating brands that are more accessible, playful and human.

The company website is usually the most visible expression of the brand.

The average time spent on a web page according to Contentsquare’s 2021 Digital Experience Benchmark report*, across all industries is 54 seconds. Companies are increasingly having to convey their brand values, personality and message through the use of visual devices such as images, video and iconography and by writing simpler, more straightforward copy that gets to the point more quickly.

Holly Small, CEO of Life Science web design agency, Synapsis Media said, “We see a trend where Life Science companies increasingly want to portray themselves as in touch with their customers. They want to look more dynamic, cutting-edge and modern-thinking. This is making them more open to the use of better designed graphics, animation and video, to connect to customers in a much more engaging way.

Life Science companies are moving away from traditional corporate designs and text-rich websites towards the use of more visual interpretations of information. This is great for us as web designers as it poses new challenges and allows us to be more creative.”

Three examples of companies that have strongly differentiated branding that stands out are bluebird bio, Kernal Biologics and Oxford Gene Technology.

Bluebird bio’s branding stands out for several reasons:

• The company uses a traditional Life Science blue as the primary colour which immediately identifies them as a player in the sector. They have added two accent colours: yellow and pink to grab attention;

• The logo is simple and lowercase suggesting that they are an approachable brand with the tagline ‘recode for life’ integrated into the logo so that their mission is directly embedded in the logo. The logomark is distinct and echoes the name;

• The use of bespoke fonts, that look like handwriting, creates a personal touch again emphasizing the accessibility of the brand;

• The imagery is strongly people focused. The photographic style involves the subjects making eye contact with someone or something just outside of the shot. This helps to make a connection with the audience;

• The brand personality comes through clearly in the copy and tone of voice. They position themselves as a change agent by using terms like “all in”, ‘taking a stand’, ‘recode the science, the system – and even the status quo’. They talk about ‘recoding to rewrite (patients’) stories’ – which makes their messaging quite personal to their audience.

Another stand out example of a bold, visual brand is Kernal Biologics. Their bespoke design elements, bright colours and snappy copy are guaranteed to get attention.

Oxford Gene Technology is a company that is not afraid to be different. Its branding is a significant departure from traditional Life Science corporate branding which tends to feature instruments, laboratories and people. Instead, they have created bespoke illustrations to tell their brand story.

These three examples show how Life Science companies are investing to get their branding right. All the elements work together and reinforce each other to tell a compelling brand story that is easy for customers to decode and gives an immediate sense of what the company is about and what they might be like to work with.

Good branding takes time and energy to create a sound brand strategy but also requires brand assets that are bespoke,

unique and fit for purpose.

There are practical considerations when creating a brand that can stand out in an increasingly digital world. Visual impact is vital but is often restricted to very small spaces – a typical social media post is about the size of a Post It note with very little room for logos and copy. Colour and imagery play an increasingly important role in making the brand quickly identifiable in these limited spaces.

Many social media formats, like LinkedIn search, have only enough space to properly display an emoticon which means the logo must scale down while remaining recognisable.

A coherent brand strategy with a clear message, aimed at a well defined audience and delivered in an easily accessible way combined with clear and consistent execution is increasingly necessary when competing for customers and investment in Life Sciences.

* https://contentsquare.com/insights/digital-experience-benchmark/