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“Tiller gave us a level of professionalism that allowed us to confidently engage corporations worth tens of billions of dollars before we had a single customer.”
Mark Little
CEO & Co-founder, Jotson
7x growth in users
86% lower CPA than expected
1000+ pre-launch social followers
Jotson helps Canadians make informed decisions about their household energy usage by simplifying energy purchases and identifying opportunities to become more energy efficient and save on energy costs. Jotson is targeting both B2B and B2C, and expects to expand to B2G in the future.
Company Size
Startup (2-10)
Category
Energy/ Utilities
Services
B2B
Our Work
- Branding
- UX/UI Design
- Web Design
Play
Challenge
Building brand credibility
When Mark Little (CEO) and his Co-founder dreamt up the big idea that would eventually become Jotson, they understood how important good branding would be to their overall success.
They needed to engender trust with future partners and users by (1) creating a unique and sophisticated brand that would increase credibility and accelerate the progression and market penetration of the product, and (2) prioritizing great user experience on the app and the website.
“We didn’t want to wallow around for years, trying to figure out why we aren’t getting traction, only to realize we did it poorly, then go back and redo it all,” Mark says.
They engaged Tiller to help them lay the foundation that would open the door to future opportunities — including potential partnerships with major corporations and an organic B2C marketing approach that they’d never dreamt was possible.
Solution
Branding that appeals to B2C, B2B, and B2G
Bringing a brand to life
Tiller helped Jotson accelerate three main areas:
- Brand positioning and presentation to the market
- Prototyping in UX/UI design
- Early customer discovery and research
Each one brought new ideas to the table and transformed the product roadmap.
Brand positioning
Tiller hosted workshops to refine the new company’s value proposition and discover a unique brand identity. The new brand had to feel techy and sophisticated. It needed to appeal to B2C, B2B, and B2G — so it couldn’t be too stuffy or playful. It had to feel distinctly different from large corporate energy and utilities providers.
- Name – Tiller created the name “Jotson” (Joules + Dr. Watson) to communicate how the company gives customers the facts to make accurate energy consumption comparisons.
- Logo – two circles intersected by two diagonal lines form an “e” for energy and represent a positive feedback loop between data and consumer.
- Colors – the purple and blue-gray color palette, inspired by energy and technology, is bold, crisp, and vibrant.
We applied this branding to a professional website that educates consumers on Jotson’s product and the problem they exist to solve. We then amplified Jotson’s market presence by supporting them across a variety of campaigns designed to drive awareness and engagement.
Prototyping
Tiller helped Jotson create a working prototype of their flagship product — an energy management app — ahead of development. This enabled Jotson to show developers, stakeholders, and other team members how users would engage with the product, and communicate the vision to new users and potential partners.
Tiller used this phase to help Jotson test feature concepts, create a user-centric experience, and mitigate risk ahead of more expensive development.
Customer engagement
Tiller helped Jotson connect with potential customers to validate the gap in the market. User feedback informed messaging surrounding the website and app.
These insights provided an unbiased window into the functionality users wanted and the value they saw. User research would be hugely important for later stages, even informing core features — like a utility contract comparison tool — that had never been considered.
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“The investment we made in brand identity to boost credibility removed the hurdles of people questioning our legitimacy and allowed us to be ready for the B2B and B2C sides of going to market.”
COO & Co-founder
Jotson
Results
Accelerated growth plans
By the time Jotson launched their minimum viable product (MVP) in Alberta, they had:
- Gained over 1,000 followers on LinkedIn
- Accelerated organic user acquisition by 4x
- Signed a “substantial” deal with a major utility retailer
When it comes to attracting new users and potential partnership deals, Jotson’s professional app and branding make a strong first impression.
“We have venture capitalists and suppliers phoning us to engage; they’re the ones initiating,” Mark says. “It’s funny when you’re trying to negotiate a complex commercial deal and senior stakeholders interrupt a presentation to say how much they like the design.”
However, what excites Jotson the most is that early work with Tiller accelerated their growth plans. The early success of B2C marketing proved that organic growth is a viable path forward and helped validate Jotson's plans to expand into Ontario.
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“By taking extra care to build our brand early, we engendered more credibility and trust, both with individual users and potential partners.”
COO & Co-founder
Jotson
