From the niche into the spotlight: Transforming a technology into a brand
Your digital solution flies below everyone’s radar, even though it is a crucial piece of next generation technology? We can help you with that.
What a time to be alive! What sounded like science fiction just a decade ago now becomes reality: Cars transform into driverless pods, homes automatically adapt to the routines of their inhabitants, and everything is connected to the internet.
This happens mostly thanks to digitalization. At the same time, there are new challenges emerging. Take data protection for example: Now that your phone can recognize your face, what will it do with this knowledge? The digitalization touches the very core of our lives — by reaching out for the data of our lives.
Indeed, many of the most ambitious and exciting business models evolve around personal data and its protection in the digital sphere. The problem is: though countless of them are crucial, they are totally niche. Only some of them started off to become a solution for the broader public — no easy task, as the topic itself has been below the public radar for a long time, and the brand around the data-driven product often is completely new and unestablished.
We helped one of these new and niche data protection solutions to step out of the corner and into the spotlight. We think: The case is worth sharing our experiences, as it applies to many digital startups out there.
First: Define a crisp clear messaging (and find the right audience)
Digitalization is not simple. In fact, it is one of the most complex processes in the history of humanity. The technologies that fuel this process are highly sophisticated, often masterfully engineered and specialized solutions that only a few people can truly understand.
However, the public is mostly interested what it does for them – and not how it works. This is a basic, yet extremely important step in order to define an effective messaging. In other words: You need to step out of the business and engineer perspective, and focus on the benefit for your customers — ideally embedded in the context of a societal problem, a challenge that resonates with everyone.
In our case of the data protection solution, we decided to go for a balanced mixture between emphasizing security and simplicity. The core message here:
Re-gain power over your personal data — and with us, it’s that easy.
At the same time, don’t forget to have a look at target audiences — for instance, shape them through data from social media platforms. For this kind of topic, you need to find people that have an inherent interest due to their lifestyle, such as heavy online shoppers. They will already have thought about their personal data security.
Second: Establish a digital brand
A brand needs to be understandable — and a feast for the eye. Once you have defined your target message, the company must become instantly recognizable. This is why a unique logo, powerful colors and — last but not least — a coherent image language need to be established.
Together with the core messages, they form the identity of your solution, your product and your company. And step by step, the brand will start to attract people. Again: Keep in mind the target audiences. If the visual appearance doesn’t connect to their lifestyle, your brand will fail.
Third: Make the niche topic a core topic
Let’s be honest: Digital privacy and data protection are unsexy. No one wants to get his or her head around the fact that we need to protect our personal data in the internet — until you become a victim of password robbery or identity theft yourself.
We embarked for a journey through social media, trying not only to raise awareness, but to change the wind of the topic itself: from a boring, dry and unattractive subject towards a fun, responsible and stylish one. Based on the core message of the product — “safe andsimple” –, we expanded the entire topic of personal data security in order to make it part of modern, urban and conscious lifestyle.
This is of course an ongoing, lengthy process, and its success depends also from external factors as — for example — security scandals that help to anchor the topic to people’s minds.
Further success factors
Of course, brand awareness and public discourse are not the only milestones on the road to a successful product. Processes and communication lines between Marketing, Engineering and Business Development need to be healthy and aligned — and this is sometimes the hardest task of all. Internal tensions about a product vision are poison for brands, products and services — new and established ones alike.
What about other underlying technologies that fuel the megatrend of the “internet of things” and other aspects of digitalization? They are the real drivers of tomorrow’s everyday life, and we — the public — tend to oversee them. The points discussed above may help you to gather a crowd surrounding your digital solution.
If you want to discuss further aspects of how to get technology out of the niche and into the public spotlight: Let us know in the comments below, or write us an e-mail.
