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Geko

BACKGROUND / CHALLENGE:

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs or pelvis. DVT symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and enlarged veins in the affected area, but some DVTs have no symptoms.

In the US there are an estimated 600,000 diagnosed cases of DVT every year and 200,00 fatalities due to pulmonary embolism (PE), stroke or myocardial infarction.

DVT affects people that remain sedentary or immobile for several hours such as surgical patients, hospital patients confined to bed, or air travelers.

In 2010 Sky Medical, a UK science and technology firm sought our help to create a brand strategy for a medical device that would help prevent DVT.

SOLUTION:

First we embarked on a program of discovery working with the Sky Medical team and their digital marketing agency in the UK. We conducted a two-day off-site meeting in central London immersed in understanding DVT, the new technology, customer needs and other products in the competitive space.

We also spent a day workshopping our brand positioning methodology to arrive at several different positioning ideas and themes. Through collaboration, refinement and research testing we settled on the memorable and alliterative positioning idea ‘Passion to Prevent’ which underscored the technology’s role as a preventative device as well as speaking to Sky’s devotion and enthusiasm for the product and its ability to help patients.

The naming phase took four weeks and concluded with three new names:

‘OnPulse™’ was selected for the bioelectronic technology platform for its ability to evoke the unique pulsing technology embedded in the device.

‘Geko’ was selected for the device itself, a non-invasive, easy to use, wearable therapy device about the size of a wristwatch and worn at the knee. The name geko was inspired by a gekko lizard, but we recommended eliminating the one of the ‘k’ letters to create a more unique and impactful four letter name.

Finally, the brand name ‘FirstKind’ was selected for the new company name that would market and sell the Geko device.

OUTCOME:

Geko and OnPulse have received numerous science, technology, health and innovation awards The geko device was approved by the FDA in 2019. And, in 2020, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) revealed that it has ordered thousands of hi-tech clot-busting devices to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients as it emerged that almost a third are developing dangerous blood clots.

Services

  • B2C
  • Brand Strategy
  • Brand Naming
Three Olives
Kimberly-Clark

East
New York, NY
bob@wantbranding.com

South
Miami, FL
j.bell@wantbranding.com

West
San Francisco, CA
john@wantbranding.com

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