The challenge

Our ability to understand and absorb information reduces greatly when we’re stressed. And a situation like finding out if you’re pregnant certainly qualifies as a stressful moment – whatever you want the results to be.

This means that the information on a pregnancy test needs to be clear and easy. And it’s a moment where friendliness and warmth can go a long way. But it also needs to give reassurance that the product is scientific and accurate.

And therein lies a common communications challenge for scientific companies. How do you make communications accessible, yet retain a reassuring air of scientific authority?

Clearblue is a world-leading producer of pregnancy and ovulation tests. Its research centre in Bedford, UK, is staffed by a team of 130 scientists who’ve spearheaded innovations and technologies that have given women across the world greater control and understanding of their fertility.

But scientific writing is necessarily detached and unemotional. Which for the Clearblue brand, was resulting in its instructions, packaging and digital information being written in a cold, sometimes difficult-to-understand way – especially for a moderately stressed person.

What we did

When the marketing team at Clearblue asked us if we could help them overcome this, we started by looking at all their communications, and aligning them to the customer journey.

We could see where the text could become more accessible – and we knew how to strike a balance in tone between friendliness and scientific reassurance. But we also knew that to make a lasting change, we’d need to show Clearblue’s scientists why the changes were necessary, and how they would help customers. So we suggested a training workshop.

To create the training session, we used examples from across the customer journey. We also knew we’d need to provide proof and evidence of why what we were suggesting would work.

We explained that while scientific writing styles are exactly right for a lab environment and peer review, there can be a different approach to communicating the science to customers and colleagues.

We held the first workshop in Bedford, UK. And then Clearblue asked us to run the session again for colleagues in Geneva.

Results

Clearblue teams now communicate with their readers’ needs front and centre of mind. The science is still very important – it’s why women all over the world trust the brand. But it’s now immediately understandable and accessible.

This is significant, because as the brand creates ever more impressive scientific breakthroughs – and brings more complex products to market – it becomes even more important that women can immediately understand their relevance and integrate them into their lives.

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