Branding is a concept often associated with slick logos, clever taglines, and marketing campaigns. But for labs, branding runs much deeper. It’s the sum of experiences that shape how stakeholders, employees, and collaborators perceive you and the quality of your research. Jonathan Chun, PhD, CEO and founder of Alliance Technologies, shared this perspective during his talk at the 2025 Lab Manager Leadership Summit.
To illustrate, Chun asked the audience to think about walking into a restaurant. The food might be good, but if the service is slow or the space feels unwelcoming, most people won’t come back. “All of those things say something about our brand. And if we don’t think about those, then we are affecting the brand, even on these little, small things,” he said.
For Chun, one of the most important lessons was that laboratory reputation management depends on the outside view, not internal perception. That means even the smallest details—from experiment turnaround time to how emails are written—are part of your branding story and how your lab is perceived.
The three pillars of strong lab branding
Chun’s approach to branding rests on three interconnected pillars: identity, coherence, and communication.
Identity is about understanding what truly makes your lab valuable—not just what you do, but what stakeholders recognize as worth paying for or supporting. “What are we really selling? What are we good at selling?” he encouraged attendees to ask. The answer can be surprising. For Alliance Technologies, that meant focusing on analytical services that offered the highest value to clients and avoiding overextension. Understanding what services drive the most value for customers—and the most revenue for your lab—allows you to focus on growing those areas, cement your lab’s reputation in those areas, and allocate resources strategically. Strong branding begins with clarity of identity.
Coherence means aligning every part of your operation with your lab’s branding. Chun compared it to the meticulous way Bentley assembles its cars, with hundreds of quality checkpoints. For a lab, coherence could mean ensuring sample tracking is systematic, reports are consistently formatted, and even the appearance of the workspace communicates professionalism. When you understand your lab’s identity, you can articulate the values that act as your compass for leading the lab and bring all operations in alignment with that direction.
Communication bridges the internal and external sides of branding, focusing equally on laboratory customer experience and employee engagement. “Your employees are part of the brand,” Chun said. That means staff should understand how their day-to-day work supports the mission and vision of the lab. “They do need to see how they fit into that.” He recommends asking your team a few key questions to gauge how they perceive the company’s brand:
- Do you know the company identity?
- Can you articulate the company’s mission and vision?
- Do you understand how your work impacts the whole customer experience?
While bench scientists shouldn’t worry about outbound marketing or sales, or vice-versa, Chun says they still need to understand how they fit into the company’s messaging. Staff can collaborate and prioritize more effectively when they understand their role in the larger vision. Effective internal communication is critical to effective lab branding.
Putting lab branding into action
While the principles are universal, Chun noted that applying them depends on the lab setting. In corporate or internal labs, lab stakeholder engagement means aligning your value with the needs of other departments. In academia, it may mean treating deans, provosts, or grant agencies as clients.
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For commercial labs, strong branding can be a decision-making tool, helping you know when to take on a project and when to walk away. Chun says establishing a strong brand helped Alliance Technologies say no to certain requests. That focus preserves resources for work that reinforces the lab’s brand promise. This thinking also guided a decision to form partnerships with other labs to expand capabilities without diluting their identity.
Chun closed with a reminder that laboratory branding best practices require an ongoing commitment to both external and internal audiences. “Successful managers should have an experience mindset. . .thinking about customer experience, but also thinking about employee experience.”
The bottom line
Branding in the lab is not a surface-level exercise—it’s a strategic, operational, and cultural commitment. By clarifying your lab identity, ensuring coherence in every detail, and communicating effectively with both customers and employees, you can build a brand that inspires trust, supports collaboration, and stands the test of time. And when tied to a clear brand strategy, your branding efforts can become one of your lab’s competitive advantages.
