Branding isn’t style layered on top, it’s strategy made visible
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Claiming the center spot in your community and clients’ world
Branding is often mistaken for design, but design is just the wrapping. Potentially incredibly nice and solid wrapping. But a brand is not decoration. A strong brand is alignment: the point where what you know you can deliver and what the world believes you can deliver come together.
Research in organizational identity shows that misalignment between self-perception and external perception erodes trust. If your story doesn’t match how you act or how you are seen, credibility suffers. And it doesn’t stop at perception: brand misalignment quietly undermines every other communication effort. Campaigns fall flat, messaging feels inconsistent, outreach struggles to land — not because the work itself is poor, but because it isn’t anchored in a clear, trusted brand.
A strong brand, on the other hand, is what allows an organization to step confidently into the arena. It signals maturity, creates clarity for partners, and builds the credibility needed to convince major clients and stakeholders. It gives teams the confidence to show up consistently, and audiences the confidence they are engaging with a serious, trustworthy player.
That’s exactly what was at stake when Quantum Industries asked me to lead their rebranding. The company had built something extraordinary: a commercial-grade, entanglement-based QKD system that doesn’t just raise the bar but sets a new standard for secure infrastructure. Yet the old name and identity lagged behind. They didn’t communicate the maturity or trustworthiness that matched the technology.
The rebrand was about aligning the identity with the product’s maturity and impact — truly stepping into the arena and claiming the center stage in eQKD. That’s when Quantum Industries became zerothird.
Why zerothird?
The name expresses the foundation of their approach: true end-to-end security. No third party. No assumptions. No exposure. Their systems generate cryptographic keys locally from entangled photon states, without ever transmitting them. It’s not just secure by design; it’s secured by physics. That clarity is now captured in their tagline:
Protected by the laws of nature.
A brand that matches the mission
From the beginning, the rebrand was anchored not in decoration but in differentiation. zerothird now communicates the qualities that define the work:
• Security by physics – not algorithms
• Zero trust required – no key ever transmitted
• Instant eavesdropper detection – via quantum state changes
• Seamless integration – with existing telecom infrastructure
This isn’t style layered on top. It’s strategy made visible.
The takeaway
When your brand doesn’t align with your mission, it weakens every other marcom effort. But when it does? It amplifies them. It gives you the clarity and maturity to stand in front of major clients, investors, and global audiences and say: this is who we are, this is what we deliver, and this is why it matters.
That’s the power of a brand that connects.
Credits
This rebrand was a true (European) team effort.
Project Coordination: Juliette de la Rie, Colorful Matter – the Netherlands
Leadership & vision at zerothird: Felix Tiefenbacher, Rupert Ursin, Lukas Helm, Thomas Heine, Christoph Thaler – Austria
Brand & Visual Identity: OH-SO Digital – Germany
Does this suit your organization or any of your projects? (juliette@colorfulmatter.eu)
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