How to communicate innovation
Every cleantech company would probably describe itself as innovative. This is obvious because innovation is what cleantech is all about: novel and sustainable technologies. However, it’s not enough to use the same overused words as everyone else to actually be truly innovative. You need to make people understand what your innovation is and why it’s important. True innovation goes even further. It’s not just about your technology. It’s about being innovative as a company.
Let’s start with your technology. How do you best communicate the innovation behind it?
Communicating your innovative technology
Clean technologies are usually quite complex and require a great deal of explanation and communicative support to be understood by stakeholders such as customers, investors or business partners. Here are some of the main challenges that cleantech companies face when communicating the innovation behind their technology:
Complexity and degree of abstraction
The problem with clean technologies is that the majority are quite abstract, so most people can’t immediately relate to them. Often, it seems as if extensive expert knowledge is needed to truly understand them. To ensure effective communications, companies should simplify their difficult processes and break them down to their core. Look for good examples that illustrate what your technology is about and its real-life applications to make it accessible to all your target groups.
Novelty
The word innovation refers to something new, something that hasn’t been done before. You can use that to your advantage. Communicate exactly what is unique about your technology – specifically what hasn’t existed until now or been done before. In this way, you can arouse curiosity and highlight the uniqueness of your technology. At the same time, novelty always carries a certain risk. Investors in particular fear investing in an uncertain and unproven technology. You can alleviate these fears by giving them clear evidence of how your technology works using concrete examples.
Connectivity and uncertain use
Most people often find it too difficult to imagine something concrete among certain cleantech products, such as software solutions. Again, in this scenario examples are crucial. Try to find tangible applications of your technology based on the experience of your target groups.
The concept of deeper innovation
As we’ve already mentioned, genuine and comprehensive innovation goes beyond just innovative technology. Last year, our CEO Alisa Murphy made a call for deeper innovation. Deeper innovation means doing things differently, whether on a commercial, cultural, organisational or interpersonal level.
The first things that come to mind are probably agile working and flexible business models. However, there’s more to deeper innovation than just these practices. Deeper innovation explores new ways of human connection, building a digital company culture and advancing racial justice, diversity and inclusion. A successful company culture will be vital for any cleantech business that wants its innovation to succeed.
Our innovation approach
Our goal at Life Size is to pave the way for outstanding innovations and guide cleantech companies to success. We provide strategic communications to help cleantech businesses grow into market leaders. Last year, we launched the Life Size Membership for early-stage start-ups because we want to give the keys to success to all cleantech companies to realise their full potential, regardless of what stage they are at in their business journey.
We can help you find powerful words and identify clear, accessible ways of describing the innovation behind your business. Whether in a face-to-face or virtual workshop, we will challenge your team to articulate your company’s personality and use this to build a relatable company identity. We approach innovation by pinpointing a company’s USP and value proposition.