E-branding in BioScience
Branding on the web is obviously a lot more than slapping your
logo on a site. It’s about creating a brand environment.
Every bit of your site needs form and function that provide
a living example of your brand. The same holds for all related
e-communications, such as targeted emails, online ordering,
and e-newsletters.
Here’s an example. Suppose
your bioscience brand is a complex therapy for a serious disease
state—say, a novel anticancer agent. You need to communicate
first to clinical thought leaders and top physicians at major
cancer centers, with savvy cancer patients as a secondary
audience. Your brand identity is high-tech, intelligent, visionary.
Your logo conveys this beautifully—but it will be cancelled
out if your website navigation is cumbersome, if your online
content is too dense, or if your disclaimers and legal copy
are leaden lumps on your webpages.
To ensure your e-branding really communicates your brand
identity to your targets, try these tips:
• Navigate well. Nothing ruins an online
experience like inappropriate site navigation. People want to get
to information fast, so clear, easy navigation is basic. What’s
more, a science-based brand with confusing site navigation feels
old, slow, and inelegant—hardly the features we’re looking
for. Navigation can also be a positive branding element. For instance,
if your brand identity is warm and organic, consider designing navigation
that uses organic shapes rather than the “standard”
bars.
A strategy for getting navigation right—have a writer and
an art director plan it. Your webmaster has many irreplaceable skills,
but a traditional creative team brings logic, order, and style to
the linkages within your site. The creative team will also apply
their thinking to your emails and e-newsletters, so that these communications
link back to your website in logical ways.
• Let content reinforce brand. If
your brand identity is “highly innovative,” make
the clinical data available, and put some artistry into the
charts and graphs. If your brand “makes people’s
lives better,” include real testimonials on the site—and
a place for patients, consumers, and professionals to sign
up for trials, coupons, samples, and educational programs.
Don’t leave out or downplay content that embodies the
essence of your brand.
• Don’t let legal content ruin your site.
For many in the life-sciences, disclaimers, fair balance,
and other legal copy are necessary safeguards. Design the
site from the outset to include legal copy in the required
type size, and come up with attractive ways of placing this
text. Don’t just plunk the legal copy into a design
that never included it—that can get ugly. |
