SpringBOARD Innovation Centre is a business incubator. The purpose of a business incubator is to mentor, support and help grow start-up or early-stage companies and to enhance and accelerate that company's success. SpringBOARD consists of a physical premise that provides office space and additional access to labs and testing facilities and advocacy on many different business issues to our resident companies. Most incubators will have a specific sector they are specializing in. The focus at SpringBOARD is on innovative business ideas that have an environmental benefit or demonstrate low environmental impact.
SpringBOARD Innovation Centre is a not-for-profit corporation governed by a board of directors with members from the private and public sector.
SpringBOARD Innovation Centre required an overhaul of their existing brand as well as support for their members from a branding perspective. New members such as The Golf Lab would have the opportunity to engage with MERGE on revised branding as a spin off to SpringBOARD’s other business incubation offerings. The re-design for both SpringBOARD and The Golf Lab had to be relevant to targeted consumers and partners as well as creating a sense of community tied to innovation.
A strong brand creates the image of an established business that has been around long enough to become well known. A well branded business is more likely to be seen as experienced in their products or services, and will generally be seen as more reliable and trustworthy than an unbranded business.
When looking at the whole of an organization we tend to focus first on branding and the feeling we are left by the initial representation of an organization. It is critical to convey the appropriate message to the community in order to fortify recognition, loyalty, establishment, and image.
Branding is extremely important when organizations position themselves out to the marketplace. Properly developed identity helps create awareness, loyalty and a superior value proposition around the brand. Providing quality services requires clientele and associates to be given an awareness of quality through appropriate visual identity. MERGE has taken these critical elements into consideration when developing branding and design for SpringBOARD Innovations. It has been proven that visual brand quality positively affects customer advocates, usage and adoption.
Research has shown that brand quality is the single most important contributor to a company’s return on investment (ROI), having more impact than market share, R&D, or marketing expenditures. Brand identity perceives quality that contributes to profitability, in part by enhancing prices and market share.
MERGE understands that customers equate value with quality. This is closely connected to a client’s connection to a brands perceived value and is a key driving factor in differentiation.