Identifying the need:
We recently had the privilege of working with Texas Instruments (TI), one of our longstanding clients, on branding its medical business unit. Most of the internal divisions at TI are positioned by the product they develop or the audience they talk to, so this business unit was known simply as the medical business unit. The division broadened its product offerings and targeted industries, so medical no longer covered all of their offerings. They needed an impactful way to communicate this expanded focus internally and to their customers/prospects. We were brought in to develop a brand position, identity and key messaging to address their audience needs from the first brand encounter, and set them apart in the competitive marketplace.

The process:
To launch our branding efforts, we sat down with TI’s medical business team to understand their marketing objectives and challenges, and we gathered binders full of information about TI, the medical business unit and other internal departments.  We then conducted a roundtable discussion with key internal stakeholders to uncover their current perceptions, how they are seen in the marketplace and how they would like to be seen. Additionally we held one-on one interviews with TI’s international sales team members to learn about customer perception, and also interviewed current customers. The last step of our research was a marketplace analysis to determine how their competition was positioning themselves.

Compiling, analyzing and reporting back on the data led to a new brand positioning statement and blueprint for the business unit’s marketing efforts. The deliverables also included a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and a creative brief.

Conclusion:
This was the foundational step in the branding process. In the next two blog posts, we’ll fill you in on the brand and identity we developed for TI’s medical business unit, and how their marketing elements came to life. We welcome your feedback, so please check back next week for the next post in this series!

UPDATE: For a look at some of the graphics that we created for TI’s rebranding, click here to check out the 2nd post in our blog series. The final post in the series explores the results of the rebranding process following the new campaign’s debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January of this year.