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Technology companies face a unique branding dichotomy: their complex product or service must “speak” to both the technical buyer (often the CTO) and the financial buyer (typically the CFO). One of our clients, a materials discovery firm with a revolutionary technology for life sciences, faced this challenge as it tried to attract partners and clients.

To realize its full potential, the firm had to translate its unique technology platform into a set of messages that appealed equally to scientists (who would be interested to know that the technology could save time and accelerate discovery) and CFOs (who wanted the bottom-line value proposition and payback scenario of the high-ticket item). One brand had to simultaneously address very different issues and speak two languages: that of science and technology and that of dollars and cents.

This is a branding conundrum for many technology firms: at the corporate level, you can only have one brand, yet that brand has to straddle both messages, the scientific/technological and the financial, speaking to very different audiences.

While the process of building a “bilingual” technology brand is far too complex to cover comprehensively in a single blog post, it is important to note that the first step is gathering the right information. You need to understand what (each of your) your target audiences want. Based on this research, as well as an in-depth competitive analysis, you can begin to lay the foundation for a compelling brand strategy that bridges both audiences.

Building a Cohesive Technology Brand in a Decentralized B2B Buying Environment

In this post, we examine the third principle of branding technology firms, in our on-going series adapted from our chapter on building long-term value in a system-update world in the Brand Challenge.

The proliferation of all things digital has transformed technology from a nice-to-have to a must-have for consumers…

Innovation: Show Don’t Tell

Innovation. It’s been a recurring theme in almost every one of our conversations with B2B companies looking to refresh their brands. From the CMO to the CEO, B2B executives have been laser-focused on building brands that convey innovation.

When did this word become so ingrained in our lexicon? According to Google Ngram, the…

Understanding the Emotional Side of B2B Technology Branding

In this post, we examine the second principle of branding technology firms (the first focused on an important distinction: simplification vs. dumbing down), adapted from our chapter on building long-term value in a system-update world in the Brand Challenge.

What’s the difference between return on investment (ROI) and return on emotion (ROE…