Cephalon | Our Work | Baker Brand

Revitalizing a stuck brand

With its international expansion, roster of first-in-class products and rich pipeline, the up-in-coming biopharmaceutical company Cephalon was on the verge of thriving. Revenues would soon exceed $1 billion. But Cephalon’s brand story had not kept pace. CEO Frank Baldino Jr. himself believed the brand felt terribly outdated and kept the company stuck despite its business performance.

Cephalon was ready to take its brand to the next level and needed to:

evolve its corporate brand to reflect its growing stature and market potential.
preserve the strong cultural qualities that had brought about its present success.
leverage the power of employees in the brand’s delivery.

To do all of this, they sought our help.

“We are in a period of remarkable achievement. Cephalon has transformed itself into a successful biotech-based pharmaceutical company with a broad international presence. We are evolving and growing, and so must our brand.”
Frank Baldino, Jr.
Former Chariman and CEO, Cephalon, Inc.

Uncovering the strong cultural drive

We helped the Cephalon team hold up a mirror to their brand, articulate their vision and uncover the fabric of who they were. A sense of drive, an entrepreneurial spirit and strong leadership were at the heart of Cephalon’s success. These attributes needed to play a continued role in the company’s story of deepening maturity.

We defined a full brand platform that captured the company’s pioneering spirit and legacy of innovation. “Deliver more” became the essence of the brand – a promise that spoke to Cephalon’s aspirations for growth as well as its commitment to advance medicine. We designed a clear brand architecture and robust brand management tools to help the company maintain a consistent voice and image over time.

“Our brand was right there all along. We knew it intuitively, but it took the skill of the Baker team to bring it out and guide us to a brand expression.”
Bob Grupp
Former Vice President of Communications, Cephalon

Capturing the entrepreneurial soul

To capture the energy and soul of the company, we designed a modern, colorful and distinctive visual identity. In keeping with Cephalon’s bold personality, we also created touch points that steered clear of expected, generic design styles and treatments typically found within the pharmaceutical industry. Instead, each piece embodied Cephalon’s seasoned and self-confident spirit in a way that sparked excitement among stakeholders for the greater brand story.

Internally, these tools struck bonds between employees’ personal values and the greater business purpose. This helped commission individual employees as powerful brand advocates. Externally, these touch points helped bring the enterprising brand to life in thoughtful and lively ways that resonated with investors, business partners and the medical and academic communities.

Establishing key leadership promises

With the overarching brand in place, we went on to help Cephalon’s Research and Development team specifically link their departmental leadership promises to the greater brand story. For more details, visit our Cephalon employee communications case study.

Staying relevant, attracting a remarkable acquisition

The brand remained active for nearly a decade – a testament to its relevance and true authenticity. It helped the company continue its groundbreaking work. The resulting sense of clarity and alignment within the company postured it as a highly-attractive acquisition, evidenced in a subsequent sale to Teva Pharmaceuticals October 14, 2011 for $6.8 billion.