By Mars Media

The translation challenge

On many biotech websites, visitors are introduced immediately to platforms, targets, mechanisms, pathways, pipelines and research results. For the people inside the company, that order can feel logical. They know the background, the terminology and why each detail matters.

For a first-time visitor, however, a more basic layer may still be missing. Who is this company? What problem is it trying to solve? And why does that matter?

Michel Kobus, founder of Mars (marsmedia.nl), a brand and digital agency working with biotech and other innovation-driven companies, sees this pattern regularly.

“When you are deeply involved in the science, everything can feel important. The difficulty is deciding what someone outside the organisation needs to understand first, and what can come later.”

That challenge is particularly relevant for companies that have grown out of universities, research groups or scientific breakthroughs, where depth, evidence and nuance are fundamental to the way people work.

“That scientific depth is a strength. You don’t want to lose it. You need to create a clear way into the story, so people understand why the science matters before asking them to engage with all the complexity behind it.”

Structure, not simplification

According to Kobus, the answer is to build information in layers.

“The goal is not to strip away the science. It is to give people the right way into it. Start with why the work matters, then explain the approach, and give people the opportunity to go deeper into the mechanisms, data and evidence when they need to.”

That also means accepting that not every visitor needs the same information first. A pharma partner, investor, scientist or potential employee may enter the story from a different angle.

The scientific core remains the same. What changes is the order, emphasis and depth.

What clarity can change

Clarity can have a very practical impact. When people quickly understand what a company does, why its science matters and where it could be relevant to them, it becomes easier to take the next step.

For an investor, that might mean finding the answers needed to continue evaluating an opportunity. For a pharma partner, it could mean recognising a relevant programme or collaboration opportunity. For a potential employee, it may mean understanding not only the science, but also the ambition and organisation behind it.

Clear communication will never make an investment decision or close a partnership on its own. But it can remove friction from that decision-making process. The right information, presented in the right order, can answer questions before a first conversation takes place and give people a clearer reason to continue that conversation.

From a clear story to a brand and website

That clarity also needs to be reflected in how a company presents itself. Once the narrative is clear, the next step is translating it into a brand and digital experience.

For Kobus, this means not starting with design. Mars first looks at the company, its audiences, ambitions, differentiators and desired perception. Only then are those choices translated into brand identity, imagery, information architecture, UX and website design.

This is particularly relevant in biotech, where visual conventions are often similar. Laboratory photography, white coats, cells and molecular imagery quickly communicate “biotech”, but do not necessarily show what makes one company distinctive.

Confo Therapeutics: looking beyond the website

Confo Therapeutics provides a practical example. Confo initially approached Mars with a request to redesign its website. Its existing site contained substantial scientific information, but dense text and limited hierarchy made important messages harder to find quickly. Confo also wanted to move away from a more generic biotech look and show more of the people, culture and collaboration behind the science.

As the project developed, it became clear that the website could not be treated separately from the wider story. Before redesigning it, decisions were needed about positioning, audiences, information priorities and the way Confo wanted to be perceived.

The scope therefore expanded to include both brand and website, from positioning and audience priorities to a new identity, information architecture and visual ways of communicating the science.

The result was a clearer structure, a more distinctive brand and a website that made Confo’s science easier to navigate without losing its depth.

“We came to Mars with a project to rethink our website, and it was quite eye-opening to see how much sat underneath that question. As we worked through the process, it became clearer how important it was to first define how we wanted to present Confo, what our different audiences needed from us and which messages should come first. That gave us a much stronger foundation, not only for the website, but for how we communicate the company more broadly.”  Stephen Dowd, Chief Business Officer of Confo Therapeutics

Scientific depth has more impact when people can find their way into it. For biotech companies, the challenge is to make that expertise accessible without reducing its substance. Clarity needs to carry through from the story a company tells to the way it looks, feels and works online. When those elements reinforce each other, complex science becomes easier to understand, navigate and engage with.

More about Mars: marsmedia.nl