Bionic
Challenge
Solution
Result
Every small business requires essential services to operate. Think energy, insurance, broadband, and so on. But many small business owners find these services complicated to manage. Bionic is a UK-based business switching service that pairs SMEs with essential business services. The brand has used Frontify to navigate a major rebrand and ensure brand coherence across crucial co-branding partnerships. To learn more, we spoke with Glyn Britton, Chief Customer Officer.
A Brand Transformation
Bionic was originally named Make It Cheaper, and offered a white label call center service for partners, like price comparison websites or restaurant delivery marketplaces. In order to grow and better meet customer needs, the leadership team decided to become a direct-to- consumer brand. The decision sparked an intense transformation that included rebranding from Make It Cheaper to Bionic. Glyn credits digital tools like Frontify for a successful transformation:
Standing Out in a Generic Category
Following the rebrand, Bionic still faced several branding challenges. For starters, the essential service industry isn't exactly exciting, and the marketplace is populated by hundreds of generic brokers. Also, Bionic relies on a complex network of partnerships that includes pricing comparison websites and UK's leading telecoms, insurance, and energy companies. Adding to the complexity, each partner has different degrees of co-branding. To maintain clarity, Bionic needs to make sure 1) each partner understands how to use the brand and 2) each partner has access to different parts of the brand architecture.
To address the brand challenges, Bionic uses Frontify to easily create and manage a set of brand identity guidelines. With guidelines and extensive permission settings in place, Bionic's team can ensure that every partner has access to the information they need – "no more and no less", as Glyn puts it – while also making positive impressions with these important partners.
Enabling a Brand to Evolve and Grow
Bionic is still learning on the fly and evolving its brand identity system in the process. Every change to the Bionic brand needs to be communicated to their network of partnerships. That's where Frontify has especially helped Glyn and his team.
In addition to external partners, Bionic uses Frontify for an array of internal teams. For example, the company's digital product and technology teams use Frontify to build out new customer experiences, whereas the marketing team uses Frontify to make sure customer service communications – a core part of the business – remain on point. Bionic's Creative Lead Ignacio Suarez oversees a highly efficient design team, where usability is a must for tools.
With digital brand guidelines in place, Bionic can make sure its brand resonates coherently across partners, internal teams, and, most important, the small business owners it wants to champion.
Glyn's Four Pillars of a Strong Brand
- A strong brand helps customers navigate complex categories.
- Within a category, a strong brand builds sustainable competitive differentiation.
- A strong brand makes employees proud to work for your business.
- A strong brand needs to engage emotionally and be fun to use and share.
