B2B Sales Experience Design Case Study: Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Turning fragmented sales communications into a research-grounded commercial experience system.

A complete redesign of the commercial experience architecture, from a structured internal sales journey audit across US and EMEA markets through brand realignment, tool integration, Mobile Experience Centre, modular exhibition system, and EMEA Sales Conference design, built to enable a global sales force to engage and convert with consistency across a six-stage enterprise journey.

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics  ·  London, UK
Head of Design & Creative Director  ·  Pomegranate Media  ·  2015–2017

B2B Project Context: Global Diagnostics Strategy

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics was a global medical diagnostics company operating across two core business divisions: Transfusion Medicine and Clinical Diagnostics. Its product portfolio, anchored by the VITROS platform, served clinical laboratories and hospital blood banking teams worldwide with scientifically credible, clinically validated diagnostic solutions. The company operated a complex, six-stage B2B sales journey across multiple markets, with sales forces in the US and across the EMEA region navigating long procurement cycles and high-stakes customer relationships in a sector where trust, precision, and consistency are structural requirements, not differentiating extras.

At the point of engagement, Ortho had strong products and a globally distributed commercial team. What it did not have was a coherent system to bring that strength to market with consistency. Brand expression varied by market and by individual representative. Sales tools were inconsistently embedded into the journey. Customer feedback had no formal capture mechanism. Marketing and sales operated without shared operational logic, and the post-sale retention period had no structured architecture. The engagement at Pomegranate Media began not with a design brief but with a research commission: map the internal sales journey across all six stages, identify precisely where the commercial experience was breaking down, and build the evidence base for a systematic response.

Identifying the Systemic Gap: Six-Stage Sales Journey Audit

Validated
N

Need

Clinical diagnostics is a structural market. Hospitals and laboratories operated in an environment of increasing regulatory complexity and rising demand for accurate, rapid diagnostic results. The need for reliable diagnostics partners was not a trend signal. It was a clinical imperative.

Validated
S

Solution

Ortho's product range was genuinely strong. VITROS was a credible differentiator in a technically demanding market, and the organisation's scientific credentials were not in question. The solution was not the problem.

Broken
B

Business Architecture

The commercial architecture was fragmented at every level. Brand messaging varied by market and by representative. Salesforce and 4Edge were inconsistently adopted or functionally bypassed. No feedback loop existed to capture the customer voice. Sales and marketing operated in disconnected silos. Nine distinct failure categories were identified across the six-stage journey.

Twelve qualitative stakeholder interviews across Senior Management, Marketing, Account Management, and Sales revealed a consistent pattern: the gap between Ortho's brand promise and its commercial delivery was not concentrated in a single failure. It was distributed across the entire journey. No central governance existed for collateral, so teams produced their own materials and built private repositories of inconsistent assets. Salesforce captured activity data without influencing sales behaviour. 4Edge was used as a passive archive rather than an active sales enablement tool. Retention was treated as an outcome rather than a designed phase, with no formal post-sale architecture to develop the relationship once a contract was signed. The research replaced a fragmented set of local workarounds with a single, evidence-based picture of how the system was actually functioning and what a coherent response would require.

The problem was not the product. It was the absence of a coherent system to bring it to market with consistency, confidence, and the capacity to learn from every engagement.

Strategy: Redesigning the Commercial Experience Architecture

The work began before any creative brief was written. A structured qualitative audit mapped the full six-stage sales journey (Identify, Qualify, Quantify, Close, Implement, Enhance) through twelve depth interviews with Ortho stakeholders across Senior Management, Marketing, Account Management, and Sales, covering the US market as the primary focus. The output was a detailed journey map and a prioritised set of recommendations across nine failure categories, plotted against an impact-versus-effort matrix to give the leadership team a clear sequence for intervention. The research reframed the engagement: this was not a communications deficit to be solved through new assets. It was a systemic experience gap requiring a response across brand, tools, people, and physical environments simultaneously.

From the research, a parallel set of workstreams was initiated. The brand system was realigned across all sales materials, replacing the ungoverned, self-built collateral with a coherent hierarchy of product brochures and sales tools designed for consistent use at each stage of the journey. A brand film, produced using dance and ribbon choreography, established a new emotional register for the company: two dancers with paired orange and red ribbons symbolising the precision, balance, and connection at the core of Ortho's two business divisions. Supporting communications and visuals were developed specifically for Salesforce and 4Edge to drive adoption across the sales force, embedding the tools into the journey rather than leaving them as optional supplements that individual teams could ignore or bypass.

The physical experience architecture was built alongside the brand system. A Mobile Experience Centre, designed and fitted as a custom on-road laboratory and presentation environment, brought Ortho's technology and brand directly to customer sites without requiring access to a clinical setting: a self-contained format that respected the operational constraints of the laboratories it visited and mixed education with brand storytelling in a single space. A modular exhibition system, scalable from 5 to 30 square metres, extended brand consistency across events of any scale in any market. The EMEA Sales Conference in Berlin, attended by over 500 people and built around the theme "Stand and Deliver," received a complete conference ecosystem: branded signage and venue materials, a mobile-optimised registration platform, and a unified visual language that carried the same system across every surface from the main stage to the delegate agenda.

Research
Project overview document showing the six-stage Ortho sales journey map on the left, with a methodology panel on the right detailing two research phases: internal sales view and external customer view. Lists research activities including documentation audit, stakeholder interviews, and sales journey mapping. Shows who was interviewed: 12 Ortho Clinical Diagnostics employees across Senior Management, Marketing, Account Management and Sales.

Project overview — methodology.

Research finding titled Lack of Customer Feedback is Limiting Progress. An impact-versus-effort matrix plots six recommended actions across four quadrants. High-impact, low-effort actions include completing phase two of the customer journey analysis and introducing the customer to the broader team. High-impact, high-effort actions include deploying a customer feedback management system and conducting online customer surveys after success or failure of sale.

Finding — customer feedback gap.

Research finding titled All Aspects of Brand Need Review. An impact-versus-effort matrix plots seven recommended actions. High-impact, low-effort actions include making brand proposition training compulsory and introducing product development sessions at specific events. High-impact, high-effort actions include developing and executing a campaign to market a revised proposition and making brand training of brand proposition compulsory.

Finding — brand alignment gap.

Research finding titled Marketing Tools and Collateral covering findings three and four. An impact-versus-effort matrix plots seven recommended actions including auditing all existing marketing content, creating a repository for marketing tools, incorporating tools into the training process, developing a workflow for messaging across each sales stage, and linking deployment of marketing tools with the sales system.

Finding — tools and collateral.

Research finding titled Sales Process Improvements covering findings five and six. An impact-versus-effort matrix plots six recommended actions including consulting sales on new marketing initiatives, setting up steering groups across sales and marketing, creating an ongoing internal feedback process, developing an online workflow approach to each sales category, and segmenting sales teams into areas of specialism.

Finding — sales process improvements.

Research finding titled Collateral is Fragmented and Inconsistent with key findings panel on the left and a visual audit of existing Ortho marketing materials on the right showing brochures, product sheets, and digital assets in inconsistent styles. Pull quotes read: I have built a repository of my own and There are no tools that fit all stakeholders. Summary notes that account managers are using completely customised presentations built from elements of digital marketing materials, or self-built tools developed before 4edge was introduced.

Finding — fragmented collateral audit.

Research finding titled Sales Approach Needs to be More Systematised with key findings and improvement opportunities. A stakeholder map shows the relationship between Corporate Marketing Team, Account Managers, Existing Customers, and Technical Support with positive, neutral, and negative connection ratings. Pull quote reads: The account manager is the only person they know and see. They do not realise the whole depth and breadth of the team and company that is working behind it.

Finding — sales systematisation gap.

Journey analysis document for the Identify and Awareness stage of the six-stage sales journey. A horizontal flow diagram maps the customer journey across five touchpoints: building awareness about Ortho, collaborating on marketing materials, understanding the customers, first point of contact, and documenting meetings. Below, improvement opportunities are plotted across six categories: Brand Messaging, Systematised Approach, Customer Feedback, Marketing Tools, Collateral, and Salesforce.

Journey — identify and awareness stage.

Journey analysis document for the Qualify and Quantify stages of the six-stage sales journey. A horizontal flow diagram maps six touchpoints from receiving support from another team through to discussing Ortho's customer service. Below, improvement opportunities are plotted across seven categories including Collaboration, Systematised Approach, Marketing Tools, Collateral, Brand Messaging, and 4Edge.

Journey — qualify and quantify stages.

Journey analysis document for the Close, Implement, and Enhance stages of the six-stage sales journey. A horizontal flow diagram maps six touchpoints from debriefing after a win or loss through to contract renewal conversations. Below, improvement opportunities are plotted across six categories: Customer Feedback, Systematised Approach, Retention, Customer Feedback repeated, Systematised Approach, and Retention.

Journey — close, implement, enhance.

Visual Identity
Three printed Ortho Clinical Diagnostics brochures shown as a spread and two covers. The open spread shows a feature article page with the headline The Big Issues alongside product photography and brand imagery. The covers show the headline Because safety is in our blood with a dancer silhouette and ribbon choreography in orange and red against a dark background.

Brand collateral — printed brochures.

EMEA region brochure cover for Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Two dancers intertwined with orange and red ribbons are shown against a dark grey background with a red dot-matrix pattern. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo and EMEA label appear at the top. The Partners for Life tagline appears at the bottom right.

EMEA brochure — dancer cover.

Double-page spread from an Ortho Clinical Diagnostics brochure titled A New Harmony. The left page shows two dancers with intertwined orange and red ribbons against a dark background with dot-matrix pattern elements. The right page carries body copy describing how the dance with ribbons presents the harmony of Transfusion Medicine and Clinical Diagnostics, combining to deliver to customers. The Partners for Life tagline appears at the bottom right.

Brand narrative — a new harmony.

Full-bleed horizontal photograph of two dancers bending low toward the ground, each trailing a ribbon: one red, one orange. Shot in black and white with the coloured ribbons as the only colour elements. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo appears top left and the Partners for Life tagline bottom right.

Brand film — ribbon choreography still.

Brochure cover for the Clinical Chemistry and Immunodiagnostics division of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Two dancers with an orange ribbon are shown against a dark background with an abstract red dot-matrix pattern and molecular graphic. The division name appears in the top right corner. Partners for Life tagline at the bottom right.

Division brochure — clinical chemistry.

Double-page spread from an Ortho Clinical Diagnostics brochure titled Partners for Progress. The left page shows a dancer with an orange ribbon in a dramatic pose against a dark background with dot-matrix pattern. The right page carries headline copy and body text about Ortho's ability to help diagnostics professionals improve outputs and increase laboratory capacity. Partners for Life tagline at the bottom right.

Brand spread — partners for progress.

Brochure cover for the Transfusion Medicine division of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. The layout is identical to the Clinical Chemistry cover with the division name swapped in the top right corner. A note on the document reads: Only square and title has been changed, demonstrating the modular template system applied across divisions.

Division brochure — transfusion medicine.

Double-page spread from an Ortho Clinical Diagnostics brochure titled Because safety is in the blood with the sub-heading Global Guardians. The left page shows a dancer with an orange ribbon in a leaning pose against a dark background. The right page carries body copy about Ortho's 79-year history as a prominent protector of blood bank safety and its commitment to improving blood transfusion products. Partners for Life tagline at the bottom right.

Brand spread — safety in the blood.

Brochure cover for VITROS Automation Solutions. A motion-blurred red tunnel image conveys speed and precision. The VITROS Automation Solutions name appears in a white panel on the right. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo is at the top left and the Partners for Life tagline at the bottom right.

Product brochure — VITROS automation.

Double-page spread from a VITROS Automation Solutions brochure. The left page shows a motion-blurred red tunnel image with the headline Consider the options and a customer pull quote reading We must have a very high capacity analyser to manage our afternoon peak. The right page shows the same tunnel image at a wider crop with the footer line Is that really your best way forward? The wave and dot-matrix brand graphics appear on both pages.

Product spread — consider the options.

Full-bleed horizontal layout showing a motion-blurred tunnel image with the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo top left and Partners for Life tagline bottom right. A large red wave graphic and dot-matrix pattern overlay the image. The composition demonstrates the full brand system applied to a single visual field: photography, motion, brand architecture, and typographic identity in one frame.

Brand system — full visual field.

Sales Conference
Mobile phone shown at an angle displaying the Berlin 2016 EMEA Sales Conference event registration page. The screen shows the conference branding with the Stand and Deliver headline, a photograph of Berlin at night, and an event registration form with fields for first name, last name, and email address.

Conference — mobile registration platform.

Large-format vertical banner displayed on the exterior facade of a multi-storey building. The banner shows the Stand and Deliver conference identity in large type with a red dot-matrix pattern, and carries the EMEA Sales Conference dates of 18 to 22 January 2016 and the Berlin location. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo appears at the base.

Conference — exterior building banner.

Desktop browser showing the Berlin 2016 EMEA Sales Conference website outline agenda page. The page shows the conference branding at the top and a structured day-by-day agenda for Monday 18th through to the final day, with arrival times, conference sessions, dress codes, and evening dinner arrangements listed for each day.

Conference — outline agenda page.

Desktop browser showing the Berlin 2016 EMEA Sales Conference homepage. The page shows the conference logo and dates at the top left with a navigation menu. A photograph of Berlin at night occupies the left panel with a Conference Slogan placeholder. The right panel shows the event registration form with fields for first name, last name, and email address and a Submit button. The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and Partners for Life logos appear at the footer.

Conference — registration homepage.

Street-level photograph of a row of large-format outdoor poster sites showing the EMEA Sales Conference branding. Three identical posters are visible in sequence along a tree-lined road, each showing the conference identity with the Stand and Deliver headline in red on white with a red dot-matrix pattern. The posters recede into the distance under a bright blue sky.

Conference — outdoor poster series.

Exhibit Design
Exhibition stand functional layout document showing a floor plan on the left and an isometric axonometric view on the right. The floor plan divides the stand into three zones: Welcome Area, Discussion and Presentation Area, and Show Product Area. The axonometric view labels the same three zones in three dimensions, with the Coffee Machine and Discussion Area visible at the back and the Show Product Area at the front.

Exhibit — functional layout plan.

Modularity document showing an exploded axonometric diagram of the exhibition stand system. Components are shown separated and numbered: walls, stage elements, desks, shelves, and panels. Annotations describe the role of each component: walls act as display surfaces and secondary welcoming walls, the stage accommodates VITROS solutions, panels hold monitors and display graphics, shelves hold brochures. The assembled stand is shown at the right.

Exhibit — modular component system.

Elevation drawings of the small exhibition stand at scale 1:50 showing two views: Prospect Main Wall and Side View Secondary Wall. The main wall elevation shows the full-width Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo ribbon at the top, a large monitor, a smaller screen, and a product display area with the copy Global reach, local knowledge. The secondary wall shows the logo ribbon with the copy Leaders in Transfusion Medicine and Pioneers in Diagnostics.

Small stand — prospect elevations.

Elevation drawings of the small exhibition stand at scale 1:50 showing two back views: Back View Main Wall and Back View Secondary Wall. The main wall back elevation shows the full-width Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo ribbon, the brand dancer and ribbon campaign image with the copy Reimagining what's possible, and the Partners for Life tagline. The secondary wall back elevation shows the logo ribbon and a red wave graphic with the copy Challenging convention.

Small stand — back elevations.

Identity specification document titled Logo Ribbon Usage for the small exhibition stand. Four logo ribbon variants are shown with dimensioned drawings: front usage large I01-L at 200cm fixed dimension plus 100cm double curve footprint, front usage small I01-S at 136cm fixed plus 70cm double curve, back usage large I02-L at 165cm, and back usage small I02-S at 115cm as 70 percent of I02-L. All ribbons are shown in the Ortho red with white logotype.

Small stand — logo ribbon dimensions.

Graphic elements specification document for the Campaign Dancers wall panel. A dimensioned drawing at scale 1:25 shows the full 330cm wide dancer and ribbon campaign image with the A New Harmony headline in a red band. Dimension annotations show: 45cm distance between the Partners for Life tagline and the ground, 80cm between the Call Out and the ground, and 2cm between the dancers' feet and the end of the wall.

Exhibit — dancer panel specification.

Graphic elements specification document showing three rollup banner variants for the Campaign Dancers series. A large portrait banner at 135cm width shows the full dancer image with A New Harmony headline. Two smaller variants DY1-S and DY1-L are shown at reduced scale. Dimension annotations show: 160cm between the graphic and the ground for the large format, 19cm from the left edge, and 250cm between the graphic and the ground for the smaller formats, 6cm from the right edge.

Exhibit — rollup banner variants.

Graphic elements specification document for the Campaign Wave and Ribbon wall panels. Two identical portrait panels at 220cm width are shown side by side at scale 1:25. Each panel shows the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo at the top, a product display screen in the centre, the red wave and ribbon graphic below, and the Open. Flexible. Scalable. copy with the Partners for Life tagline at the base. One panel shows a dimension annotation of 80cm between the Call Out and the ground, the other 119cm.

Exhibit — wave panel specification.

Graphic elements specification sheet titled Campaign Abstract Graphics and Dancers. A grid of six abstract graphic options labelled A01 through A06 is shown. Each graphic is a variation of the red wave and motion blur visual language: landscapes of flowing red data waves, acceleration tunnels, and abstract particle fields. A notes panel explains that for each graphic element there is a medium and small version, and that the scale will remain the same.

Exhibit — abstract graphic variants.

Elevation drawings of the medium exhibition stand at 15 square metres at scale 1:50, with a floor plan and graphic elements key below. Two views shown: Prospect Main Wall and Side View Secondary Wall. The main wall shows the full-width logo ribbon, a large monitor, the Global reach, local knowledge copy, and dot-matrix brand pattern. The secondary wall shows the logo ribbon with Leaders in Transfusion Medicine and Pioneers in Diagnostics.

Medium stand — prospect elevations.

Elevation drawings of the medium exhibition stand at 15 square metres at scale 1:50 showing back views. Back View Main Wall shows the logo ribbon, the dancer and ribbon campaign image with Reimagining what's possible copy, and the Partners for Life tagline. Back View Secondary Wall shows the logo ribbon and a red wave graphic with Challenging convention copy. A graphic elements key lists the specific artworks used on each wall face.

Medium stand — back elevations.

Identity specification document titled Logo Ribbon Usage for the medium exhibition stand. Four logo ribbon variants are shown with dimensioned drawings identical in format to the small stand version but with larger dimensions. Front usage large I01-L at 200cm fixed plus 100cm double curve. Front usage small I01-S at 136cm plus 70cm double curve. Back usage variants I02-L and I02-S with full dimension callouts. A detailed notes panel at the bottom explains the logo ribbon construction and the MDV-PMMA ribbon width specification.

Medium stand — logo ribbon dimensions.

Logo depth options specification document showing a three-dimensional rendering of the Ortho Clinical Diagnostics logo ribbon in red with the white logotype. The ribbon is shown curving away at both ends with a lighting system diagram indicating back-lighting to enlight logo strip and create a backlight effect. Dimension callouts show the ribbon depth options: large ribbon H 40cm W 350cm, small ribbon H 40cm W 250cm, and back element.

Exhibit — 3D logo ribbon render.

Graphic elements specification document for the Campaign Dancers wall panel for the large exhibition stand. A dimensioned drawing at scale 1:25 shows the full 330cm wide dancer and ribbon campaign image with the A New Harmony headline in a red band. Dimension annotations are identical to the small stand specification: 45cm distance between the Partners for Life tagline and the ground, 80cm between the Call Out and the ground, 2cm between the feet and the end of the wall.

Large stand — dancer panel specification.

Graphic elements specification document showing three rollup banner variants for the large exhibition stand Campaign Dancers series. The same three formats as the small stand specification: large portrait banner at 135cm, and two smaller variants DY1-S and DY1-L at reduced scale. Dimension annotations are consistent with the small stand version, confirming the modular system scales across all stand sizes without changing the graphic language.

Large stand — rollup banner variants.

Outcomes

The engagement produced a scalable commercial experience framework adopted rapidly across US and EMEA markets. The breadth of the response reflected both the scale of the gap identified in the research and the leadership team's decision to treat the findings as a system-level brief rather than a list of incremental fixes.

500+

Sales and marketing professionals aligned around a single messaging system

EMEA Sales Conference · Berlin, January 2016 · Theme: Stand and Deliver · Complete conference ecosystem from signage to mobile registration

9

Distinct failure categories surfaced and addressed through the sales journey research

Customer feedback · brand consistency · collateral governance · tool embedding · sales process · cross-team collaboration · Salesforce adoption · 4Edge integration · retention architecture

6

Complete sales journey stages redesigned end-to-end

Identify · Qualify · Quantify · Close · Implement · Enhance · US market Phase 1 · EMEA framework built in parallel

+45%

Increase in sales team efficiency post-implementation

Client-reported · measured 12 months post-engagement · US and EMEA markets combined

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