Branding creates a distinct identity perception for a business – think of Apple’s iconic bitten-apple logo or Nike’s simple, dynamic swoosh.

After nearly a quarter century of branding some of Israel’s most disruptive high-tech companies, Titan Branding Agency partners Liri Keidar and Michal Gat are sought-after for their strategic expertise in this delicate blend of intuition, art and science. 

Gat spoke with ISRAEL21c about what goes into branding and how her firm is helping clients brand (or rebrand) during this time of war and anti-Israel sentiment.

Branding tech companies

First, some background on this women-owned branding agency and how it works.

In 1999, when branding was barely a concept, Keidar founded Titan to create corporate identities for consumer-facing clients such as the Isrotel hotel chain.

“When I joined Liri in 2000, I was really overwhelmed by the innovation in the new startup scene. I thought, if we could tell the story of a hotel or a food or whatever, we could tell the story of tech companies,” Gat says.

This sector became Titan’s sole focus. “For over 20 years, we have partnered and collaborated with leaders whose innovation has truly shaped markets and how we live, from medical devices to high-speed mobility and robotics,” she says.

Titan’s extensive portfolio includes, for instance, drone company Percepto (tagline: “Harnessing robots for autonomous inspection”), health-tech company Icecure (“A less invasive choice for tumor destruction”) and food-tech company Phytolon (“Natural colors at their best”).

“Even though most of these companies’ target audiences may be technical people or investors, we have to convey the game-changing technology in an exciting way,” Gat says.

Visuals and taglines

The most obvious element is the look of the company’s website, investor materials and product. Current trends favor two colors or black and white and an additional dominant color, Gat says.

Titan built a bold yellow-on-black motif for automotive safety client CorrActions. Like the sun, CorrActions’ NeuroMonitor illuminates the unknown and promotes life, detecting when a driver’s mind wanders due to intoxication, drowsiness or inattention. The stylized neuron logo looks like a driver holding a steering wheel.

The tagline for CorrActions, “Mind Your Safety,” does double duty as a call to action and a reference to the human mind that its technology monitors for safety. 

Visuals today must also include dynamic elements on the company’s website and social-media channels, particularly short-form videos such as reels. 

“Everything must be in motion; otherwise, people get bored,” Gat adds. “People don’t read anymore, and they don’t watch videos for more than 20 seconds. Because people don’t have long attention spans anymore, we try to make things very simple and short.”

Targeted storytelling 

Beyond visuals and explaining what the company’s product or service does, branding is also the intricate crafting of a company’s story. This message should encapsulate the company’s values and appeal to potential investors or customers.

“Companies meet us before they need to raise money, or go public, or go into the market, or receive FDA clearance,” says Gat. 

“The main challenge is how to convey the most effective stories. Inventors love to tell everyone how good their technology is. But that’s not the story. People get connected to stories.”

The story is written only after identifying the company’s objectives and target audiences – and it’s always multiple audiences, Gat says. One target audience may even be the firm’s own employees.

“We have to understand how each target audience wishes to understand information. We have to understand their criteria in choosing a product, whether as investors or consumers. We have to understand how to differentiate our client’s story from others so that people will pay attention and choose this company and not another,” she explains.

“From this journey, we create the most effective brand story verbally and visually. We present several options and choose the right options together with the client. Then our teams — creative, strategy, UI/UX, video — help them create all their marketing tools.”

Israel’s branding conundrum 

Throughout most of her career, Gat says, “most of our stories started with one pillar: Being part of Israeli innovation. It was very dominant in our stories because people knew about the ‘startup nation.’

“Sadly, now we are all facing a very difficult time. We find that Israeli companies feel antisemitism and foreign companies don’t want to do business with companies that are in a war situation,” says Gat. 

Historically, it was advantageous for an Israeli defense company to highlight that its founders’ knowledge came from their service in an IDF intel unit or that its technology was tested on the battlefield. It may not be smart to stress that anymore, says Gat.

“Sometimes we have to lower the volume on the Israel part – even with the many defense-sector companies we work with that do amazing things that are good for the world, like satellites that help find new drug candidates.”

Rethinking how to present portfolio companies requires Titan to steer its branding strategy away from any connection to war and even away from the startup nation itself.

“One of our companies went to the US for a conference and a Japanese company rep came over and said, ‘Your product is amazing, but we don’t want to buy from Israel.’ 

“We have to find a new messaging platform — not to change everything, but to take the pillar of the startup nation, of the heritage of Israeli innovation, and kind of shift it, and add the message that Israeli tech delivers no matter what.” 

That last reference is to the #nomatterwhat campaign created by the G-CMO Forum in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack that precipitated the war.

“Now we are highlighting more the company’s overseas offices and overseas manufacturing capabilities, and limiting mention of the Israeli headquarters,” Gat says. 

“Instead of highlighting the fact that they’re Israelis we highlight their values and how they change the world.” 

Rebranding Israel?

If the state of Israel were to seek branding advice from Titan, what would Gat recommend?

“We’d first have to understand its target audiences, like in every project we do. Then we’d have to really understand what those audiences are thinking about us right now; what are their perceptions of Israel and what bothers them in connection to Israel? What will make them change their opinions?” Gat responds. 

“There is so much ignorance and so many misconceptions about Israel out there. If we would target people who don’t know what Israel is, we’d have to take that into consideration and tell the story from scratch. 

“But we must remember – and this is the difference between a country and a company – part of the objective of branding is to create a consistent story. The CEO, the salesperson and the HR staff all need to convey the same story,” she says. 

“For Israel, we could create an amazing story, but then if people in the government say some radical things that aren’t in line with that story, this would confuse our target audiences.”

Communicating value

In the real world, the priority now is to help Israeli businesses set the proper tone.

Although there are exceptions — such as Upwind, a cloud security startup that recently raised $100 million, and Protego Ventures, a new defense-tech VC that secured $70 million in commitments in just two weeks — Gat says many Israeli companies are struggling to win funding and customers. 

“The innovation industry is about 35 percent of our economy, and we have to help them by communicating the value that they bring to the world and the fact that we are doing amazing things in healthcare, energy and other impact fields.”

She thinks for a moment when asked if she can envision a day when companies will again want to incorporate their Israeli identity as a highlight of their story. 

“If the war will end soon, if things will be normal again, there will be a great prosperity here, I know it. But first of all, things should be calmed down.”

For more information on Herzliya-based Titan and its branding approach, click here.