Building a powerhouse of brands

The Ask

OpenText approached Gel with the goal of creating new brand identities for its flagship cybersecurity products. A publicly traded software and information company, OpenText needed to tell a clearer, more powerful, more compelling and more expressive story about these products and their capabilities.


The answer would need to be equally valuable and memorable, but also distinct, authentic, and clear in its strategic execution. We were tasked with creating the tools and systems that would result in a lasting and meaningful relationship with our audiences.

The Challenge

The key challenge revealed itself in our robust discover phase. This newly elevated story and identity would have to be crafted in a way that appealed 
to a wide set of stakeholders with differing needs and perspectives; many of which were conflicting. A range that spanned sales partners and professional buyers to a broad consumer audience.


The discovery phase brought to light a number of insights that would 
set the course for decisions made throughout the rest of the process. OpenText’s many audiences could be segmented into two distinct buying groups that valued different (and often competing) aspects of OpenText’s products. The functional value of OpenText’s products to these audiences are directly tied to deeper human needs and desires.

The cyber security sector relies heavily on messaging centered around feelings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt for the buyer – undifferentiated 
and inauthentic traits that may convert quick sales but that, when relied upon primarily in communications, make it challenging to build a deep 
and lasting relationship.

The Solution

Our recommendation was to create a family of brands, while simultaneously segmenting our audiences into two buyer groups. This allowed the team to develop distinct identities that could be tailored to each based on sales needs and OpenText business goals.