Unchained Labs
This ain't no science report...
Hey! š
This episode brings you Unchained Labs. Their voice is one of my absolute favourites. But before we dive in: 1. Thank you for being a subscriber! Thereās over 1000 of us already, which is, frankly, 𤯠. Keep spreadinā the love. 2. Write me! āļø whatās working? Anything youād like more of? Less of? 3. And if you know a brand with aš„ voice that I should feature, gimme a shout. (Yikes. I notice since Starface last week, Iāve become way more emojiful.) Anyways. Letās go:
Unchained Labs make the scientific instruments that are used in medical research, gene therapy, and other cutting-edge science stuff. They burst onto the scene as a start-up five or six years ago.
Now, a bit of context: the scientific instrumentation market is not what youād call brand mature. Pretty much everyone else communicates in an over-cooked casserole of noun-stodge: āOur high-performance scientific instrumentation and innovative analytical and diagnostic solutions enable innovation, productivity improvement and enhancement of customer success outcomesā. That kind of thing. There are interesting reasons for this, which weāll talk about later.
And then, thereās Unchained Labs:
Right away youāre getting strong Unchained vibes: say less. And say it with energy.
Letās keep going:
Scientific research is usually a world of complex questions and head-scratching problems, grey areas and uncertainty, incremental progress. Not for Unchained. They have an audaciously bullish simplicity:
Big Bill & Ted energy. Hereās how they introduce their instruments:
Uncaging the tools. Cranking up your research. Big-time differences. Unruly samples. This isnāt painting a picture of research happening in quiet labs by calm and methodical researchers. This is science made to sound more like extreme sports ā almost physically demanding, and something that needs you to be, like, totally stoked.
They keep it up in their portfolio, where they introduce each scientific instrument with a super-short, punchy paragraph. Meet Bouncer:
And hereās what they say about it:
Notice: Wonky. Jam. Ooze. sweet spot. Sounds more like a donut-making machine than a super high-end bit of scientific kit. Itās gloriously visceral. And again, the same relentless bish-bash-bosh-get-it-done energy: too thick, too thin, good to go.
Whoa! Wait! Back up there! Did I just say theyāve called this incredibly precise and expensive scientific instrument āBouncerā? What the hell? Everyone else calls their instruments things like F3-s980, or Xāpert3 or Partica LA-960V2. What kind of simple, memorable, personalityful name is āBouncerā?!
Which brings us to the second thing about Unchainedās voice. The brilliantly wild naming strategy. The names arenāt descriptive, theyāre emotive. And all of them have the constraint of including the letters āUNā in the name. Like Big Kahuna:
Also in the gang are Hound, Uncle, Lunatic, Stunner and Big Tuna. They sound more like a pro-wrestling tag team, or an anarchic superhero collective than a portfolio of scientific instruments.
Three things to love and learn from:
Itās a total science shake-down
In any sector, thereās often a default tone or format that haunts a lot of the writing. Lawyers, for instance, tend to write everything as though itās a legal contract. In science and engineering, thereās a tendency to unthinkingly slip into drafting a scientific report: objective, meticulous, dispassionate. Yet while itās often turgid stuff to read, it does work as a kind of credibility signalling: Trust us. Weāre too absorbed in science to be distracted by trying to emotionally manipulate you into buying our stuff. In this context, Unchained Labsās full-on emotional energy isnāt just ādifferentā, it violates all the unspoken norms of the category.Itās a naming masterclass
The names are brilliant ā unexpected, funny and memorable. The āUNā constraint is inspired. (Not least because everyone I spoke to who knows Unchained Labs took the time to point it out to me: itās one of those Easter eggs that makes you part of the tribe and you canāt help sharing with others.) Above all, though, it turns inert machines into characters. Insanely effective brand-building. Facepalms all round for everyone else. I mean, itās only been a generation since Apple showed the world that tech naming doesnāt have to be based around serial numbers and specsā¦Ohhh, the energy
Iām told that the full-on can-do vibe of the writing matches the culture of the organisation. Which is, Iām sure, completely deliberate. In fact, as a start-up, itās possible that an equally important audience for their writing, as well as customers, is potential investors.
There are gonna be some who find Unchainedās voice absolutely insufferable. Fair enough. But you canāt deny itās an absolute masterclass of Challenger brand swagger: just a tone of voice and a handful of product names, and all eyes are on you. If your brand is in a similar same-same sector, what the hell are you waiting for? More specifically, what Unchained reminds me to do is forensically examine the unspoken linguistic codes that might lurk in any sector. Cos once you know what they are, you can drive your Big Kahuna right over them.
Til next time. š