A BRAND STRATEGY for Cellink
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BRAND PLATFORM
BRAND ARCHITECTURE
BRAND POSITIONING
BRAND COMMUNICATION
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BRAND PLATFORM
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he aim of creating a brand platform is to align our vision, mission, and values into a cohesive and consistent message.
This helps our company deliver the core message to our external stakeholders throughout all areas. This process keeps such internal elements in the core of our company while also giving the flexibility to revisit them continuously. By understanding the value of these elements, it allows our company to generate new ideas based upon them and provides the opportunity to explore future possibilities. It also helps us tackle market fluctuations and difficulties while our company is growing. Basically, the brand platform is one of the most important aspects of a brand strategy, as it sets the internal understanding of what we stand for. This means that how we set our vision and mission can directly impact the goals of our organization, what we plan to achieve and focus on, and ultimately why we exist. And also, it is important that a brand platform is shared within our company, implemented in our culture, making everyone stay on the same page.
An effective brand platform helps align our vision, mission, and values into a cohesive and consistent message. This particular area of the brand strategy is important because it sets what we stand for from an internal perspective. How we set our vision and mission can directly impact the goals of our organization, what we plan to achieve and focus on, and ultimately why we exist.
Vision
Values
A vision is the reason for being, based on tapped and untapped needs and desires of customers. An audacious statement, the vision crafts the company’s aspirations, frames its long-term ambitions and captures the company’s point of view of the market and the world.
Company values are the tenets that guide a company’s relationships with employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It captures the spirit and beliefs of the brand, therefore reinforcing the vision and mission. The core values remain consistent in the face of changing marketing strategies and decision making processes.
Mission A company’s mission is a statement that describes how the vision can be accomplished, in a more practical and down-to-earth level. It embodies practical and achievable business goals, also considering the market trend changes and company development.
VISION
MISSION
VALUES
To leverage the power of technology and science in ways that contribute to the evolution of life.
We seek to develop and provide accessible, ethical and life-changing solutions, to become the world’s most innovative and trustworthy bioprinting company.
Trust
Commitment
Integrity
Discovery
We keep our promise to deliver great support and valuable experiences to our clients.
We do our best to meet the needs of our customers, being at the forefront of development.
Transparency of our research and offerings is our priority when building relationships.
Our feet within academic ground, we believe in science and how it can change human lives.
We Suggest
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Constantly revisit the brand platform whenever internal decisions are made
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Implement thoroughly and coherently within business and marketing strategies
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Keep it consistent even when exploring new possibilities
BRAND PLATFORM
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BRAND ARCHITECTURE
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he aim of creating a brand architecture is to structure our business considering our current position within the market
and future possibilities. This refers to the hierarchy of brands within a single company. It is the interrelationship of the parent company and subsidiary brands, products and services. There are three main types, and each architecture leads to different benefits and possibilities. Such alternative architecture strategy includes corporate branding, house of brands, and mixed branding. The perception of a brand that a customer gets from each structure varies, which results in different customer relationships, loyalty, brand awareness and brand portfolio/extension, and so forth. It is important for us to establish a concrete structure based on our brand platform, future plans, and potential market explorations.
We Suggest
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Keep Cellink AB as mother brand, Cellink (bioinks) as main product brand
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Additional markets can be explored, but make sure we keep the brand architecture in mind
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Communicate the brand platform (mission, vision, values) consistently throughout the architecture
Brand Architecture Due to Cellink’s technological strengths, in particular the universality of our bioinks, our brand architecture is important in order to establish a proper structure for our company. This architecture will provide multiple application possibilities that we will find in different segments, markets and industries. To be able to respond to these different opportunities, we must set up a brand architecture that anticipates strategic actions in the future and is responsive to change. It will keep the business safe from market and trend fluctuations, possibly opening up to untapped opportunities and discoveries. The suggestion for us is a mixed branding architecture. As displayed in the figure above, a mixed branding architecture will enable us to compete in different market segments with diverse products or services, while Cellink AB and our bioink products remain secure and strong as our asset. The association of our product or the service will not necessarily connect to Cellink AB, which implies that the structure gives Cellink the possibility for new markets and extends our
brand portfolio in other areas such as the medical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. The brand architecture must be set up to avoid damaging the brand identity by negative associations. This is the same for different target groups inside the same market. In case of similarity between two or more markets and or between target groups within the same market; our brand architecture must be set up to transfer the values of positive associations, in which we believe the answer for Cellink is the mixed branding strategy. By setting up the architecture this way, it will allow us to set up our products and services, such as the Inkredible printer and the Cellink bioink, as stand-alone. This in turn, we can create a clear hierarchy and structure between different brands and/or products, which will increase brand awareness and loyalty with our customers.
BRAND ARCHITECTURE
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OTHER POTENTIAL MARKE TS
PRINTER
PRINTER
TOOLS
BIOINK
BIOINK PRODUCT EXTENSIONS
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BRAND POSITIONING
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he aim of positioning our company is to identify what our company offers, in comparison with the actors and
competitors within the market. It is important to acknowledge the market dynamics and also the strength, weaknesses and strategies of different companies. Even though some competitors might seem competitive and promising, it is not always true when you break down into analysis based on customer touchpoints and detailed elements, such as communication, identity, transparency, quality of information, accessibility, and so on. This then helps us to navigate our business in spite of market instability and trend shifts, aiming for a certain position amongst our competitors and different actors. Our company needs a compass, a specific goal that will eventually differ-
entiate us from others, which then will help us build strong customer relationships by delivering unique and compelling offerings.
Short Term
Brand Positioning Cellink’s current market position is in a promising state, according to competitor analysis. Our company has a clear asset, strong technology in creating customizable bioinks and connected tools including bioprinters. However, there are companies that are better in communicating what they have, in coherent language and visuals, sometimes combined with emotional elements and stories. However, most of the companies do not provide accurate and detailed information of products and services. Also considering the fact the the biomedical industry is still growing and additional competitors might join the race, we set a position for us as a flexible, young and modern company that effectively communicates such vision. We believe that
we, Cellink, has the potential to create a more accessible, easy approach to such a complex industry. We will be able to create customer relationships based on friendliness, clear and simple communication, and willingness to adapt to change. The purpose of this strategy is to make the technology more accessible to everyone, eventually changing how the market will develop and how open people will be for 3D bioprinted human parts in the future.
Long term
We Suggest
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Aim for a position within the market, and revisit the goal when making decisions
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Differentiating factors must be implemented and communicated internally and externally
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Continuously visit and analyze competitors and their communication methods
BRAND POSITIONING
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BRAND COMMUNICATION
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he aim of creating a brand communication strategy is to successfully manifest and deliver our company’s beliefs and
values to the customer. The perception of a brand may vary from customer to customer, sometimes barely matching the company’s primary purpose. Successful brands, however, packages and delivers the company’s internal values by using a consistent, coherent strategy in terms of communication. It is not only about visual rep-
resentations, but also the tone of voice, the story and personality that is associated with the brand, and what emotional connections the brand brings to the customer. A brand communication strategy has to be delivered in a clear, consistent, unified form and approach. Once our company establishes a brand platform and architecture, we should keep in mind that it is most important to wrap it up in a certain way, following a rule that is set up beforehand.
An effective brand communication strategy helps create and deliver our company’s beliefs and values to our customer. This strategy has to be delivered consistently through areas such as Brand Voice and Personality, Brand Identity, Brand Management and Brand Portfolio. As a whole, these will help establish the emotional connections, if any, we will land with our customer. Brand Identity
Brand Management
Brand identity is the manifestation of a company’s vision, mission, values and is used to communicate with the customers and stakeholders. It not only means visual representations but also is a blueprint, a relationship, an agreement, a nature, and a distinctive element of your business. A brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses and fuels recognition, amplifies differentiation, and makes big ideas and meaning accessible.
In order for us to effectively continue our successful evolution, the brand and brand strategy must be managed continuously. This stage takes on a leading role in communicating the brand and its values internally, making sure every decision that is made externally aligns with the brand strategy, and the brand platform. Brand management needs to intervene and guide whenever decisions tend to damage and or alter the brand and the way it is perceived externally in every form. It also needs to guide and position certain progression to the strategy in case of beneficial innovations. For us, this means the brand management makes sure a common awareness and understanding of the brand and its strategy is present amongst the all our team members. Every step towards the development of our company should be understood through the lens of the brand where clarity, coherence and construction
Our company needs a well-established brand identity that differentiates our company with the existing and potential competitors. To establish a consistent brand identity, Cellink should fix a brand identity guideline that we keep agile throughout the business. It will help us take scattered images and visual representations and unify them into a whole system.
BRAND IDENTITY
BRAND VOICE & PERSONALITY
BRAND COMMUNICATION
BRAND MANAGEMENT
are the main driving actors. Our Cellink members are part of the brand, as well are the products, the services… Throughout the upcoming period we need to anchor the brand platform for the brand management to maintain, improve and uphold the company built on a strategy that ensures the brand is favorable to all actors.
Brand Portfolio Our company has a great asset. We see further possibilities, but we need to keep one feet on the ground. Cellink has various future possibilities connected to bioprinting, and not knowing what will be the next emerging market within the industry, a concrete brand portfolio that embraces more than one product or service is essential. We now have bioinks and bioprinters, each under a different brand name. In order to create
BRAND PORTFOLIO
additional brands with different offerings, the portfolio strategy has to be merged with the mixed branding architecture suggested beforehand, keeping the openness to adopt changes and new creations. Also, ‘Cellink’ as a company brand and as a product brand should stand strong as the business core apart from additional subbrands including Inkredible. New offerings do not necessarily need to be associated with the bioinks, which is our main asset. Brands as a team will support Cellink AB’s growth and generation of brand equity, but there is still an openness to explore new markets.
BRAND COMMUNICATION
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Brand Voice and Personality By establishing a brand personality, we are able to create an emotional bond with our customers, especially with those who consider that our brand’s personality matches their own. In our case, it is best that we set the values of Trust, Commitment, Integrity and Discovery in order to align us with what we have learned about ourselves as an organization and the bioprinting industry as a whole. When we establish a personality for our brand it will essentially have the capacity to create a lasting impact, and will be less likely to be mimicked or copied. Because the bioprinting industry is quite disruptive at this moment, and we will have many more unforeseen ethical complications in the future, our core values and brand personality will be an important aspect when establishing our voice across multiple
channels. Among many other suggestions this will help keep our brand more cohesive, trustworthy and approachable from the perspective of the customer. The suggested four values of Cellink should remain constant in the face of changing market trends and fluctuations as a firm ground, combined with the vision and mission. Such simple and communicative words will open up to new relationships and partnerships by making us an earthy and sensible brand.
We Suggest
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Remember to establish Cellink as a person with a certain personality
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Use consistent tone of voice and language combined with real emotions, so customers can connect
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Consider that different channels (social media, website, advertising, articles etc) need different framing in language for communication
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Maintain clarity and consistency across Cellink’s package, website, product, marketing, social media, advertising, etc
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Keep and manage the brand strategy as an overarching internal discipline for understanding and representing Cellink
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Carry out Cellink’s core values: Trust, Commitment, Integrity and Discovery, in every action
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The values should act as a clear assessment criteria when external decision making
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Revisit the brand architecture when extending brands, and avoid unnecessary associations with the parent brand Cellink
BRAND COMMUNICATION
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