Clora Reflections
Role: UX Designer
Date: July 2024
Project: Analysis of Clora Branding and Positioning
Brand Identity and Trust
We don’t trust what we don’t know especially when one’s professional reputation is on the line. While working on the Clora project, the research revealed a few barriers: users had questions about Clora’s identity and whether they could trust the company. The target customers either did not know what Clora was or did not trust that Clora could provide what they needed. I wondered if the name “Clora” was part of the problem. I asked each employee I interacted with what “Clora” meant and the responses included “I don’t know” and “it does not mean anything.” I asked friends and family if they had heard of the company or the word and no one had. However, “Clora” did evoke interesting ideas completely unrelated to the company’s services.
During the Clora project, I listened to an episode of Lenny’s Podcast. Lenny Rachitsky (former AirBNB executive leading product) interviewed Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, Marketer in Residences at First Round Capital) regarding her expertise in branding, positioning and naming companies. Their conversation was enlightening and gave me perspective into my Clora questions. I suspected the target customers didn’t grasp Clora’s identity or concept and thus distrusted its service. I implemented Arielle’s branding tools to better understand Clora so I could provide the best solutions.
Everything Arielle shared resonated with me. I enjoyed the podcast so much that I continued my learning from Arielle’s articles on the subjects in the First Round Review. Although this portion of the analysis falls under the marketing umbrella, I found this exercise helped me grasp Clora’s identity. As a UX designer, I must understand the user’s perspective and predicament. Arielle shared the importance of branding strategy and having a positioning statement.
“So a lot of founders may think that when we say your brand, we mean your logo and your font and your colors, and that is a visual expression of your brand, but it's not actually your brand, your brand is who people think you are. And so why is it important for people to think what you want them to think? That really comes down to people's understanding and particularly your target audience's understanding of what your company and your product is. And I don't really think there's anything else more important than that if I was building a company.
So your brand is who people think you are and developing a brand strategy is what do you want to be? What do you want people to think you are? And what are you going to do to help shape that perception? So when I work on a company, there's a lot of steps to this, but I kind of have this nice little process that's right sized for early stage startups. And I like to start with, why do you do what you do? Just having a really clear understanding of that. That's your purpose. The second part is your product positioning. So meaning how do you want people to understand your product and what role it plays in their lives? And then the last part is your personality, which is how do you show up in the world? What do you like? If your brand was a person, would I want to hang out with them? Would someone else want to hang out with them?”
Developing Clora’s Brand Strategy
Purpose
In this First Round Review article, Arielle introduced the process she uses with First Round Capital founders. While defining brand identity, she started with purpose: Why do you do what you do? Arielle defines purpose as “how you want to change the world for the better.” She uses an exercise from the Ad Agency Ogilvy & Mather. It is called the Big Ideal.
Arielle explains “This is how the Venn diagram works. In one circle, you have cultural tension. This is what is happening in the world that’s relevant to you. In the other circle, is your brand’s best self. This is what your company delivers at its prime. The intersection of these two areas is what Ogilvy calls ‘The big ideaL’ — or your purpose.”
I considered the world in which Clora operates. People are sicker than ever and pharmaceutical solutions give them hope. The patient, their friends and family or their treatment team are most likely unaware of the process of bringing a drug to market or that the process could stall if the pharmaceutical companies don’t employ the right experts. Clora could keep the pipeline flowing by providing the perfect match for open jobs from its extensive network of BioTech experts. It can do it faster and cheaper than anyone else.
Position
Clora did not want to be lumped into the recruiting category. They wanted to be recognized as a marketplace as they offer much more that provided qualified candidates. However, the research revealed that the target customers thought of Clora as a staffing or recruiting option while others could not define Clora’s identity. The brand needed some structure and definition. To do so, I followed Arielle’s process to write a positioning statement. The podcast referenced another First Round Review article where Arielle shared a formula she learned from former Google Head of Marketing and Communications Christopher Escher:
For (target customer) Who (statement of need or opportunity), (Product name) is a (product category) That (statement of key benefit). Unlike (competing alternative) (Product name)(statement of primary differentiation).
She says “using this framework, you can explain your product or service in as plain of English as possible. This requires some pre-work. Answering the following questions can help you get to a concrete statement.” I answered her questions and wrote a positioning statement for Clora.
What’s different about the way your product/service works? Niche, faster, cheaper, tech-powered, human-verified. Clora can provide biotech experts cheaper and faster, facilitates interviews, hires, contract negotiation and payroll
Why do you do what you do? Keep biotech pipeline flow without disruption
What is your broadest circle of prospective customers? Biotech-related businesses. Narrowed; HR or Hiring Managers. Decision makers and C-Suite Exec
What pain points are these customers experiencing? Busy, time valuable, stressful job, time constraints, wants control over team building/hires, arrogant, aging network, desired hire is unavailable, angry/annoyed, fear/worry, sadness/imposter syndrome, confident, powerful.
What other companies solve similar problems? Recruiting agency, Independent recruiters, headhunters, staffing companies, online: LInkedIn, Indeed, Monster, Barrington James
With these questions answered, I composed a positioning statement for Clora:
Personality
The last component of Arielle’s brand strategy is the brand’s personality.
Arielle explains “Your personality is really what you’re like. This part is less what you say and more how you say it. It’s embedded in your voice or how you sound in written copy… How do you ensure that anyone you hire can reflect your personality and your voice the way you want? You must pass along your company’s persona as part of the project parameters. “Ask yourself: ‘If you met your company at a party, how would you describe him or her?’ List as many adjectives as you can and then pick the top three.”
Based on all I know about Clora, I created a persona that exemplifies the company’s personality: Oliver is a well-educated, experienced and well-connected executive seeking to connect with customers and get them connected with the experts they need. He knows all too well the challenges his customers face as they build teams to solve the world’s Biotech and Pharmaceutical problems. He is smart, engaging and fun. He is the guy at the party who can talk about science, sports and kids.
In another episode of Lenny’s Podcast, guest Evan LaPointe asked “what kind of experience are you?” Evan pointed out that some people are easy, fun and joyful. People are drawn to them and interacting with them is a great experience. Conversely, some individuals are hard to be around. They are negative, rigid and difficult to work with. These people are not a great experience. Oliver, Clora’s persona, is a great experience. He is the smart friend who always comes through and he is the one that you want by your side.
Brand Identity Wrapup
Arielle’s Brand Identity exercise helped me better understand Clora. She demonstrated the importance of recognizing the complexity of branding. It is challenging to deeply examine, understand and crystalize a company’s purpose, positioning and personality. The creation, adoption and commitment to a brand’s identity is critical for success when a company is founded and as it evolves. It keeps the team focused on the WHY. It reminds the team of HOW the company should be perceived. It keeps the messaging consistent and familiar.
There is room for Clora to more clearly promote it’s purpose. Its services will bring about a better and healthier world. But the biggest opportunity lies in positioning. As there is confusion around Clora’s identity, more investment in messaging and marketing is needed to solidify WHO and WHAT Clora is in the customer’s minds. Although it seeks to avoid being associated with “recruiting”, it is a useful bridge for the target customer. Arielle shared “People understand what's new and different by comparing it to something they already know.” When examining their options, customers seek the services of recruiters, headhunters and staffing companies. Clora does indeed offer so much more than traditional staffing options. However, companies partnered with contracted recruiters will remember and seek those services even if Clora’s services are superior. Clora needs to invest in making a name for itself. How might they gain a prime position in the customer’s mind? Part of this lies in its name.
What is in a name?
I was surprised that no one knew who or what “Clora” was. I asked friends and family if they had heard of Clora and no one had. I followed up by asking what came to mind when hearing the word. One said she thought of Clorox, a chemical that cleans and whitens. Another said she thought of Chloroform, a toxic, poisonous gas. A third person said she thought of Chlorophyll, the matter that makes leaves green. No one was provoked to think about or remember a BioTech recruiting marketplace. In the First Round Review, Arielle explains why this may be. She has successfully named 30 companies. She shares her methods and what it takes to find the perfect name.
She shared that there are several kinds of names.
Based on these definitions and examples, “Clora” falls into the Fanciful name. When speaking with Lenny on his podcast, she referred to this category as an Empty Vessel name. It is not related to a product or service. The name comes to mean something over time. I stopped to think of companies with Fanciful, Empty Vessel names and Nordstrom came to mind. Named after its founder John W. Nordstrom, the shoe store turned luxury brand department store’s name has come to mean high quality and exceptional customer service. Arielle’s example was Volvo. She explained that when Volvo started manufacturing cars, it declared that its job was to protect the humans who drive the cars. In the 1950s, Volvo invented the three-point seat belt. Instead of patenting the invention, they made it available to all car manufacturers. Volvo’s commitment to safety went beyond business. When companies choose a fanciful, empty vessel name, they must be willing to spend time and marketing dollars to teach consumers about who they are. To become a household name in the BioTech industry, Clora needs to spend time and money to market its service the users.
“You have to be prepared to do a lot of explaining and marketing to get mindshare and really forge the association between your name and your business. Alternatively, a descriptive or suggestive name will do some of your positioning work for you.”
Because I do not intend to rename Clora, I did only one component of Arielle’s naming exercise. I considered the definitions of words that rhyme with Clora. According to grammarly.com,
“Rhyming words use the same sounds, called phonemes, to give speech and writing a pleasant appeal and to enhance memorability.”
Using rhymezone.com, I searched for words that rhyme with “Clora.” See adjacent image. The meanings of rhyming words included vegetation, a hat, a cat, Sleeping Beauty and a Greek goddess who possessed a box of evils.
Only one rhyming word could very loosely be associated with Clora: plethora. What Clora possesses and provides customers is access to its vast, deep network of qualified science experts. It is connected to a plethora of experts. This association is too far away to qualify Clora as a suggestive name.
Clora is niche. Its target customers are contracted with direct competitors and these customers don’t know who or what Clora is. I am curious if product-market fit has been reached.
Wrap up
I completely geeked out over Arielle’s podcast and articles. I thought “This woman has a dream job!” She solves problems and helps founders give meaning and identity to their precious ideas and startups. I enjoyed the process of deeply examining brand identity. Her processes establish the brand strategy and the brand voice thus unifying the company and its teams to pursue the same goal. As for Clora, its purpose is noble. Its personality is pleasant and trustworthy and its position needs time to be proved. I do not think its name is helpful, but as Arielle points out a bad name won’t kill a great company. It’s time for Clora to sink some time and money into marketing before it’s too late.