About PortaOne
PortaOne is a global telecommunication software platform developer. They have been a leader in their field since their start in 2001, having helped over 490 telcos from 90 countries to become market leaders while keeping their costs under control.
“Brandician is incredibly collaborative and an absolute pleasure to work with. I would recommend them to any brand looking for structure, creativity and solid execution”
CEO Andriy Zhylenko
The Challenge
In their 20 years in the industry, neither PortaOne’s brand nor its brand identity had changed much. The typeface, colors, images, and logo were severely outdated and the webpages were drowning in too much confusing information. It was difficult for new visitors to the site to find a simple, concrete message about who the company was and what it offered its customers. There was fear that this might have been hindering organic sales.
The Objective
Our task was to reevaluate the PortaOne brand, align it with the current company values, thereby strengthening the PortaOne brand in the eyes of the telecommunications community. We also were set to improve the presentation and structure of their webpages to make it easier for users to navigate the site. This included modernizing the visual profile, so that it was obvious who PortaOne is, and make it more appealing for customers, who will in turn be more willing to choose PortaOne when it comes to Business Support Systems and Cloud PBX in Telecom.
The Road to Results
Discovery and thoughts
Through research, interviews, and observations we discovered that PortaOne is well-known in the telecom industry. We found that they excel in customer support and in working closely with their customers to understand their needs and how to better serve those needs. This includes understanding what customers are looking for when selecting a software vendor.
Archetypal analysis
PortaOne initially promoted themselves as market leaders, leaning towards the Ruler archetype. This helped the company succeed and prosper through the years. Yet, with time, things change and so does brand identity. After further analysis, and in close collaboration with the PortaOne team, we determined that the brand had shifted towards the Everyman archetype because of the company family culture and exceptional customer care.
Plan of action
With this knowledge, we decided that the PortaOne brand identity needed to be updated to embrace the Everyman archetype, building upon their already strong image as being customer-focused and relatable to their community. This included a website that is readable by everyman and an attitude that is inclusive, sincere, and genuine.
Our concept: telecommunication is a complex industry, and we felt that PortaOne excels in uniting and including all telecom professionals through its mission and the stories that brings them together with the blog we launched earlier. The identity reflects how PortaOne unites and balances these stories.
“Brandician is the top curator for all of our brands. Using branding archetypes in an ingenious approach that saves us lots of time and proved to be effective. Hats off!”
President Oleksandr Kapitanenko
The Response
The PortaOne team came out in full force to help Brandician cultivate and fulfill its mission of delivering a refreshed brand and website. We collaborated with everyone from the engineers, marketing team, sales, all the way up to the CTO and CEO. This was perfectly inline with the newly discovered brand archetype, as everyman (and woman) within the company was able to assist in the process.
Also importantly, Brandician brought a new perspective, as we were not entrenched with the previous company image and could see where there was room for improvement.
In the end, it was truly a group effort, as individuals and teams of people from around the globe came together to offer ideas for redesign, research, creativity, and hard work. Utilizing the Everyman archetype, as well as our expertise in marketing, UX/UI design, and
Values
PortaOne values are very clear and visible in the actions they take:
- Standing for quality and promising fairness
- Working hard and living a simple life
- Everyone matters, just as they are. Good things in life belong to everyone not just the elite or rich
- Supporting and encouraging teamwork and expressing positive feedback and gratitude when everyone solves problems together
- Building a community, as well as communicating wholesomely
Brand pillars
- Positive, colloquial messaging. Relatable and helpful content.
- Informal-style communication with customers, encouraging discussion and feedback.
- Visuals and advertisements featuring ordinary people performing ordinary things.
- Great customer service, trust-building elements, such as educational content for leads and prospects.
- Social proof and community-building initiatives.
- Portraying a family culture rather than a corporate one.
Brand personality
A brand’s personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name, something to which the consumer can relate.
The Everyman archetype is known for being: humble, frugal, neighborly, loathes pretension and outlandish claims. We communicated these personality traits to the consumer in the following ways:
Logo and fonts
The old logo was outdated in terms of typeface and design. The wordmark was inseparable from the symbol which limited logo application especially when displayed in small format, which has become paramount for mobile devices.
Michroma/Eurostile font was originally used in the old logo wordmark, clearly depicting the Ruler type, as can be seen when used by the police force in former Yugoslavian countries. The new logo uses Montserrat which gives a contemporary feel while still being practical for everyday use.
The new PortaOne logo uses a modern font that looks fresh and elegant and better reflects the brand values. It really feels like an updated reflection of who the company is today as opposed to what they’ve been in the past. It was created as a unifier of new experiences. It also functions as a vessel for motion and provides a UX (user experience) that connects us all.
Slogan/Tagline
The old slogan was too technical, reflecting what PortaOne was doing rather than why and who they did it for. Applying the archetypal identity we suggested a remake of a Nokia slogan, presenting a great product for all and added “since 2001” to underline tradition and trust.
Icons
Over 150 icons for PortaOne were meticulously designed to ensure that they matched the core theme of connecting people. The use of lines, rather than filled shapes, was an obvious choice as it symbolises connection and is one of the most basic shapes we use in our day-to-day lives.
“The human connection these lines represent is something that was very important to me as it helped create a visual language that I hope will help normalize technology and encourage more people to embrace its power.
Brand voice is something you should amplify with custom icons. They help make your design more unique and personal, as well as engaging for customers who want to be part of the journey instead of just receiving information from start-to-finish without any input or participation needed on their end!”
A. S. The Icon Master
Promotions
There are and will be various ways in which PortaOne promotes their company and their products. It was important to secure the uniform presentation of the brand across all mediums of communication. This can be seen in our work developing their brand book or brand guide, designing the website, and creating templates for employees to use when compiling presentations.
Brand book
The Brand Book is an important document designed to energize and strengthen the PortaOne brand, and apply the corporate identity accurately and consistently across different media.
Website
The old website had existed since 2006 and was collecting tonnes of information from various PortaOne departments – marketing, sales, support, business development and HR. After all these years it was no longer user-friendly to new visitors nor long-time customers alike, because it was nearly impossible to find relevant information among the vast number of over-crowded pages.
Our solution was to separate content for different users: prospective customers (business and engineers), existing customers (support, financial and management) and financial institutions. Another thing we did was to clear up cluttered text and make the information easy for instantaneous comprehension.
We also worked closely with the PortaOne engineering team to make sure the transition was as painless as possible, without lost links and redirects and many similar SEO criterias, so that the Google ranking wasn’t affected.
Creating new content for the solutions pages, product pages, and company pages was no small matter, and required a great deal of joint effort from PortaOne’s team as well as the Brandician team.
Presentations
PortaOne is a sizable company and many people are and will be creating and making presentations during events, webinars, and conferences. To guarantee that everyone offers the same visual aesthetics, we created simple templates in Google docs, slides and even sheets for all to edit and use. We highly recommended that all PortaOne members use ONLY these templates in any and all work going forward, whether for external or internal communications.
A company’s culture is a powerful driving force for success, and it starts internally. When workers are loyal to the brand they’re working for more than just paychecks; strong internal marketing creates an environment where employees can be themselves which leads them on their path towards happiness as well being productive at what they do best.
The Results
The internal feedback from many distinct PortaOne team members has been extremely positive. Many have commented on the ease of use of the templates when creating new presentations. The sales team enjoys having specific pages where they can send prospective customers that convey in simple and understandable terms – who PortaOne is, what they offer, and how they deliver that.
Externally, long-time customers have remarked that the website makeover is a breath of fresh air. They are loving the new logo, colors, and the easy design of the site, making it easier to find the material they need quickly.
The marketing department in particular appreciates the direction they now have with a clear brand archetype to follow when creating new material. This has greatly enhanced their work and sped up production of marketing materials.
Conclusion
We are engineers and that’s why our vision is too technical, but thanks to the archetypal approach it was clear what and how it needed to change. Thanks to Brandician’s team for helping us achieve more than we could envision ourselves.
Andriy Zhylenko, CEO
It’s not often that we get to work with a company which has already been successfully operating for more than 2 decades. It was a challenge to work with so much history and information and so many people (which always adds more opinions and directions in brainstorming). We did not want to cause PortaOne to lose any of their already hard-won recognition in the field, yet we had to give some sharp nudges in a different direction in terms of brand identity and presentation to the public.
Our sales team had always struggled to present material that conveyed who we are and what we do to new potential customers. Now with the new branding and new web design, their work has become much easier and saved them a great deal of time.
Roman Khalenkov, CCO
We feel confident that we were able to do so, as well as provide PortaOn with the necessary material in the form of templates, the brand book, and icons to empower their team to maintain the branding process going forward. They already espoused the values and personality of the Everyman, it was only a matter of Brandician drawing this out of them and making it evident to all those in their community.
The new design is exactly what we were missing. We got all we need to look professional in every piece of communication with our customers
Klaus Haertel, Director of Strategic Alliances and Channel Sales