Category: Fluro

Today’s marketplace is crowded.

But you know this, because you’ve heard it. A million times before. Haven’t you?

That’s because ChatGPT loves to start articles with this phrase, or something like it. And to be fair, ‘those in the know’ will generally agree that beginning your piece with a framing statement, a line that sets the context, is best practice.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with opening your article with a framing statement like this. It’s perfectly fine. But it’s getting boring. And boring is something you don’t want to be accused of when it comes to branding and marketing. In fact, boring is quite possibly your biggest enemy.

So, What’s Changed?

To be perfectly honest, being boring has never been acceptable, but applying best practice used to mean something. But that was in a world where only ‘those in the know’ knew what that was. But in a post-AI world, where we’re all ‘in the know’, best practice has lost all its power, because best practice now means standard practice.

And if you want to do better than bog-standard, then you’d better listen up.

Why so Beige?

Somewhere along the way, the world of branding and so-called ‘creative marketing’ became very flat. Now, we’re not pointing the finger at AI here, because it simply isn’t true. There are loads of reasons that we’ve ended up in this situation; the pandemic, globalisation, digital transformation, the constant pressure to scale up…just to name a few.

“You make something off-white or beige because you are afraid to use any other color – because you don’t want to offend anybody. But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it…We don’t talk about planes flying; we talk about them crashing.” Tibor Kalman

In this sprawling, blandscape, everyone has become scared of saying the wrong thing. They fear doing anything that might alienate a portion of their audience. And in their valiant efforts to be a ‘brand for everyone’, they end up doing nothing.

Maybe it’s because we’re in the creative sector that we feel it so acutely, we face the daily drudgery of everything becoming so diluted… from colour palettes and TOV to imagery and graphics. It all just starts to look the same, sound the same, feel the same.

Ready for a change

You know you’re probably guilty of this, and it’s ok, we get it. The stakes are high. You’ve got KPIs to reach. Metrics to achieve. A job to keep. And we’ll be the first to admit that the winning formula has worked for a long time. The path to success has been very straight forward.

But things are changing. And not just for marketers and number-crunchers. Audiences are changing. The way we measure success is changing. The very fabric of the Internet is changing. While this might sound scary, it’s actually good news, because change means opportunity, and opportunity means change.

Thanks to this almighty compression that has flattened the landscape of just about every sector in every corner of the digital universe, we’re in a situation where it’s become quite easy to stand out in the crowd. And by ‘easy’ we don’t mean ‘easy’. We understand that it’s never easy to find your brave.

Brands who broke the mould

Just look at brands that have broken the mould. SURREAL flipped the traditional cereal market with bold design and irreverent messaging, trading broad family appeal for standout, health-focused disruption. Oatly did the same in the alt-milk space, using quirky, self-aware copy on minimalist cartons to build a loyal following. These weren’t accidents, they were strategic decisions to be brave.

Afraid to Be Different?

“When we talk about finding your brave” says Mat Harris, Founder of Fluro, “we’re not talking about being reckless, we’re talking about true creativity, having the courage to stand up and be different in your category. If you think about it, the most reckless thing any brand can do is be safe and stick to the formula, because that’s the quickest way to blend in and get forgotten.”

“Playing it safe can be the most costly thing in the world”. Bill Bernbach

When Benchmarking Goes Wrong

If you keep benchmarking your brand against your competitors, then you will continue to blend in. It’s that simple. But if you can shift your perspective and see the immense power of going against the grain, then you’re on your way to building a brave brand.

Bold, strategic decisions aren’t about making affirmations that everything is fine as it is. Strategy isn’t about doing more of the same. If the status quo was working for you, you wouldn’t be reading this article. You could argue that being brave is about being prepared to give something up to stand out.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter

Brave branding in action

Consider how BrewDog deliberately positioned themselves as the anti-corporate brewery in a sea of traditional beer brands. Or how Patagonia consistently makes choices that might alienate some consumers but deeply resonate with their core audience, like their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign that actively discouraged excessive consumption. Both brands made clear choices about what they wouldn’t do, and whom they wouldn’t try to please.

How do I Know if my Brand is Boring?

This might hurt a bit, but change is always hard. Here are some questions you could ask yourself…

Messaging and TOV

• Brave brands make you feel something. What does your brand make you feel?
• A brave brand has an opinion. Is your brand making a stand on anything?

Design

• Colour and imagery are huge emotional triggers. What emotion does your brand evoke?
• A brave brand doesn’t follow trends, it creates them. What creative risks are you taking?

Strategy

• Have you clearly identified who you’re NOT for?
• What industry “best practice” are you willing to deliberately ignore?

How Brave Is Your Brand?

In the Private Healthcare sector things are changing fast. There’s more competition than ever before, technology is setting new benchmarks and patients are more demanding, sceptical, and overwhelmed than ever before.

The time has come where you have to evolve and adapt your approach. This means building trust by being more responsive to an audience who has lost faith in the system. It means it’s time to meet patients where they’re at, which is online and in the remote consultation space. And we know you don’t want to hear this, but it also means that it’s getting harder to get noticed and be remembered in an increasingly competitive sector. 

But we’re here to help. 

We’ve got some hard truths to deliver, but we’ve also got ways you can turn these bitter pills into brilliant opportunities.

Bitter Pill No. 1

Your patients aren’t ‘shopping around’ they’re running from NHS waiting lists.

FACT: the NHS waiting list has hit 7.5 million people. Patients are frustrated, exhausted and turning elsewhere.

People don’t turn to private healthcare because they love spending money. They’re frustrated, and desperate for treatment and advice.

Don’t waste this opportunity to step up and be the healthcare provider they need right now.

Be faster. Be better. Be there.

Bitter Pill No.2

Trust is the only metric that matters and you’re losing it.

FACT: The Edelman 2024 Trust Barometer reports that patient trust in healthcare is eroding.

But you already knew this didn’t you?

Because you’ve been a patient.

You know how it feels to lose faith in the system.

Patients don’t just want healthcare, they want honesty, clarity and compassion. If you don’t make transparency and empathy a priority you’ll lose market share.

Bitter Pill No.3

Healthcare is deeply personal and earning patient loyalty takes more than a slick brand.

FACT: 30% rise in self-funded treatments since the pandemic. Patients are being forced into private healthcare.

Patients might feel forced into private healthcare, but you can ease the blow by creating seamless patient journeys, providing consistently excellent service. A loyal patient will be an advocate.

Bitter Pill No.4

Don’t talk like a doctor. Talk like a person.   

FACT: 40% of patients struggle to understand health materials. Patients are overwhelmed and confused.

Step off your pedestal, put your clipboard down, take off the white coat.

You don’t have to choose between being professional and personable. Be both. It’s not that hard and you’ll be amazed at the response.

Bitter Pill No. 5

Your website is old and confusing. You’ll get left for dust in the AI era.

FACT:  Brits consult ‘Dr. Google’ nearly 50 million times per year. Your first point of contact is now Google.

Google and Meta are becoming more user-oriented. Search behaviour is changing.

Stop putting your agenda before your patients’ needs. Tell them what they want to know, not what you think they should hear and you’ll find favour with the algorithms.

Bitter Pill No.6

People are sick of being in the dark. Waiting, helpless and uncertain.

FACT: Patient experience is your new battleground.

Think of your patients as consumers.  

Because they are.

Earn their trust, earn their loyalty and you’ll earn their wallet share.

Bitter Pill No. 7

If your operations can’t be on the cutting edge, at least your CRM can be.

FACT: AI isn’t going anywhere.

We get it. Healthcare moves slow. But your marketing doesn’t have to.

Use emerging tech to streamline services and enquiries and create highly targeted campaigns that get your services seen by those who need them most.

Bitter Pill No. 8

Without data, you’re flying blind.

FACT: Data is your secret weapon in private healthcare marketing.

Your patients are giving you valuable insights every day through their behaviours, preferences, and feedback.

Use this data to personalise their experience, drive engagement, and build trust.

When you understand your audience, you can speak directly to their needs—and they’ll listen.

Ready to face the truth and transform your private healthcare marketing?
Download the Guide Here to discover actionable strategies for building trust and engaging your patients.

In a crowded market like Tech, the fierceness of the competition has created an excruciating conformity, homogenising the landscape to an unbearable shade of blerrrrgggh. It’s become a race to the bottom and the results are painful for everyone.

Tech brands are treating their audience and their problems as if they’re completely interchangeable. This means that the audience ends up thinking that all tech brands and their solutions are completely interchangeable. It can’t go on like this.

The ‘S’ Word

Take a look at all the most memorable tech brands, we’re talking Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, WeTransfer, Mail Chimp… What’s the first thing you notice? Here’s a clue, you won’t find the ‘s’ word anywhere but the nav bar most of the time. We’re talking about the word ‘solution’. And you won’t find this word plastered everywhere because these brands understand that their product is a tool, not a solution.

The human problem.

The human problem is at the centre of their communications, and they frame their offer in response. This is how it should be.

And we’ll be the first ones to admit that it’s harder to find that human problem for B2B, when you’re trying to solve business problems. But if you put in that extra effort to figure it out, you’ll be rewarded.

• Your brand will be stronger because it is more relatable.
• You’ll be able to communicate on a more personal level.
• You can market your offer in more meaningful ways.

It can be done.

And there are plenty of tech brands out there making B2B feel less transactional and more relatable; WeTransfer, Accenture, Intercom, Dropbox, Drift, Mail Chimp, Gong and Notion, Figma.

• They understand the value of brand awareness and being top of mind not just now, but when it’s time to buy.
• They don’t sell product, they sell benefits.
• They talk to humans, not businesses.
• They appeal to our basic and more complex sensory needs; colour, movement, sound, music, narrative, compelling messaging, TOV, clear and well-signposted calls to action, thoughtful UX.

The iceberg.

Lots of brands believe that to connect with their audience all they need is a signature colour palette, a logo and a strapline. But the mechanics of brand communication are much more complicated than that.

The classic ice-berg metaphor is used so often because it’s a great way of communicating how the most influential elements of a brand remain hidden but perceivable. And, as much as you wish it were so, there are no short cuts to getting this right.

We can understand a lot about a brand from visual clues like colour, shape, font and photography. But deeper, more complex clues about things like purpose and culture (beliefs, goals and values) have to be expressed with words and tone of voice.

A brand should be a response to an audience or societal demand.

It should be positioned amongst its competitors and in the marketplace to help it become less ‘interchangeable’ with other brands.

Ask yourself, how is your brand trying to respond and connect with your audience?

And how do you differentiate your brand in the marketplace?

Be different.

You’ve heard people talk about it. Marketing experts write books about it. Business empires are built upon this single foundation; be different.

Think about it for a moment. If your unique selling point (USP) is about outperforming or undercutting the competition, chances are you won’t be able to rely on that as a competitive advantage forever. Someone else can come along at any moment and do it better than you or cheaper than you.

So, what’s the one thing they can’t compete with or do better at?

Being you.

Having your perspective, your technique and your experience are the intangible qualities that make your business different. And when you’re different, you stand out.

If you want to read more about how to be different, take a look at our handy guide.

Download Guide