You do not have to pick one yet. Start with a £2,500 first stage, deducted in full from whichever route you go on to choose.
01
The launch opportunity
What this is really about
The sub-brand isn’t the question. The depth is.
Cera is commercialising its technology as a new B2B proposition for the wider care sector. It goes to market as a technology sub-brand — distinct from the care business, but connected to it — supported by the right naming, domain architecture, website and search foundations.
Cera has settled that direction. What remains open is how much of creating and launching it you’d like Searchflex to own.
Each of the three routes below creates and launches the sub-brand properly. They differ in depth — from building around a brand you supply, to creating the essential identity, to delivering the full brand system. Post-launch growth is a separate decision, with no obligation attached to the build.
The window
Budget approval needed in September, ahead of the launch window.
The constraint
A cost freeze means the investment has to be justified line by line — which is why these routes are priced separately, not bundled.
Where we come in
One partner across brand, design, build and search, rather than coordinating several vendors.
02
Discovery · 21 August 2026
What we heard
Six things you told us on 21 August, and what each one changed about how we’ve scoped this.
01
A new sub-brand, not the Cera brand
The technology proposition needs its own identity — partly because you’ll be selling to providers who also see Cera as a competitor, which raises real data-trust and positioning considerations.
Naming and positioning are a workstream in every route, not an afterthought.
02
Don’t start from scratch on domain
A preference to refresh Cera HQ and add the new proposition on a subdomain, rather than stand up an entirely separate site. Cera Care is left untouched.
We agree, and Section four sets out why — including what protects the Cera Care rankings.
03
Design capability has been lost
Following your designer’s departure, you’d rather one partner handled brand, design, build and search than coordinate several vendors.
All three routes are single-partner. The difference is how much design we create versus apply.
04
The budget must be justified
A cost freeze means you need clear, tiered options to secure a dedicated budget at board level in September.
Three routes, priced separately, each with its own case — so the investment can be justified line by line.
05
A professional shop front
Not e-commerce and no complex logins — a high-quality site to showcase the technology, host video demos and build credibility, replacing the current slow Wix site.
Scoped as a credibility and demo site with a CMS, not a platform build.
06
Success at 12 months
A site that drives sales conversions and gives your team a CMS they can actually use.
Conversion journeys and CMS usability are acceptance criteria, and tracking ships with the build.
03
How we’d approach the naming
The decision behind the name
Naming runs in weeks two to four, against the demand data, so there are no names here and no palettes — those follow the research rather than precede it. What we can set out now is the decision itself: one axis, three places to land on it, and what each one costs.
Moving left
More borrowed credibility. Cera’s scale, funding and clinical record arrive with the name, and there is less to teach the market.
Moving right
More freedom to sell. Less of the competitor problem you raised on 21 August, and a cleaner trademark position — but recognition has to be paid for.
Territory 01 · Endorsed
Named for the parent
The new business carries Cera in its name and is understood as Cera’s technology arm.
What it buys
Instant credibility with providers and investors. No brand to teach, and the cheapest of the three to launch and to rank.
What it costs
It walks into every provider meeting as Cera. The data-trust objection you raised on 21 August arrives with the name, before anyone opens the deck.
Territory 02 · Coined
Its own word, in Cera’s world
A new, ownable word that still reads as belonging to the category. The endorsement is stated rather than built into the name.
What it buys
A trademark and a domain you can actually own, and room to sell to providers who compete with Cera Care without hiding where it came from.
What it costs
The endorsement has to be repeated — on the site, in the deck, in the footer of every email. That is a permanent line of copy and a permanent negotiation.
Territory 03 · Abstract
A name that owes nothing
No parent in the name and no category in the name. It means what you spend to make it mean.
What it buys
Total separation. The cleanest trademark position and the widest room to sell, including to organisations that would never buy from Cera.
What it costs
It starts at zero: no recognition, no search demand for the name, nothing borrowed. The spend to teach it is real and it is not in this quote.
If we had to guess today we would take Territory 02 into discovery first, because it is the only one that answers the data-trust problem without throwing away Cera’s credibility. But that is a hypothesis, not a recommendation — the demand data in weeks one and two decides it, and if the category terminology says otherwise we will say so.
04
Choose your depth
Three ways we can support the launch
Every route creates and launches the new sub-brand. The only decision is how much of that you want Searchflex to own — a depth-of-engagement choice, not three different businesses.
Compare the routes
Brand & positioning
Brand approachFoundationFoundation: You supply the brandLaunchLaunch: We build the core identityCompleteComplete: We create the full system
Naming consultationFoundationFoundation: FocusedLaunchLaunch: FullCompleteComplete: Full + positioning
Positioning, messaging & strategyFoundationFoundation: —LaunchLaunch: LightCompleteComplete: Full
Customer & market researchFoundationFoundation: —LaunchLaunch: LightCompleteComplete: Full
Logo, colour & typographyFoundationFoundation: Cera suppliesLaunchLaunch: CreatedCompleteComplete: Created
Visual language, icons & guidelinesFoundationFoundation: —LaunchLaunch: —CompleteComplete: included
Marketing templatesFoundationFoundation: —LaunchLaunch: —CompleteComplete: included
Search, build & launch
Domain & search strategyFoundationFoundation: includedLaunchLaunch: includedCompleteComplete: included
Search & competitor intelligenceFoundationFoundation: CoreLaunchLaunch: FullCompleteComplete: Full
Take the build as a one-off project, then start a growth programme whenever you choose. Six months of search bought separately afterwards sits on top of the build price.
Build and search together
Appoint us as growth partner for a minimum six months and the build price drops. Same build, same six months of search — £2,500 less on Launch.
Prices exclude VAT and are confirmed against final scope. The growth programme is billed monthly and is set out under After launch. There is no obligation to take one, and the one-off price stands if you would rather not.
Route 01
Foundation
Build · you bring the brand, we build around it
The focused route. A new sub-brand is still a given — in this route you supply the brand direction and visual assets, created internally or with another partner, and Searchflex builds an excellent digital experience around them. It does not include creating a new visual identity or brand guidelines.
Brand approach — we apply the direction and assets you supply, consistently across the new site. No new identity or guidelines are created in this route.
Domain & search strategy — the evidence-led domain and naming direction in Section four, plus a clean migration off the current Cera HQ site.
Website — sitemap and information architecture, focused conversion-led design, build on a modern CMS, video/demo capability, and demo/contact conversion with GA4 and GTM.
SEO — on-page optimisation across the launch site, plus technical and launch foundations: speed, mobile, crawlability, indexation and Search Console.
Choose Foundation if the brand is genuinely covered elsewhere. It is the fastest route to a credible, fast, search-ready site, and it spends nothing on identity work you are already paying someone else to do.
OutcomeA credible, fast, search-ready website built around your brand, live within budget.
Investment£10,000
Route 02 · Recommended
Launch
Brand + build · we create the essential identity
Searchflex creates the essential sub-brand identity and takes the strategy deeper — the identity and positioning needed to launch professionally, on one accountable partner across brand, search, design and build.
Everything in Foundation, plus:
Core sub-brand identity — creation of the essential visual identity: logo / wordmark, colour palette and typography, giving the business a distinct, consistent identity across the website and launch materials.
Market, naming & search intelligence — ICP definition, search demand analysis, competitor and SERP landscape, category terminology, naming for the company and platform, and core positioning and messaging — including the data-trust question.
Search-led website — a keyword universe, page strategy, URL structure and conversion journeys informing bespoke UX/UI, a full responsive build, CMS, product and video demos, and lead capture with CRM integration.
Launch SEO — core commercial pages with initial content, metadata and schema, technical QA and indexation, AI and answer-engine visibility foundations, and a measurement framework with a 6–12 month organic roadmap.
Why we recommend this one: it resolves naming, domain and search demand before those decisions get baked into design and development — which is where launches usually go wrong. It buys the identity you need to sell credibly without the cost and timeline of a full brand system.
OutcomeA properly positioned B2B sub-brand with a distinct identity and a website engineered around discovery, credibility and sales.
Investment£20,000
Route 03
Complete
Brand system + build · we create the full brand
The full route. Searchflex creates the complete brand system and the deeper research and strategy behind it, then builds a platform designed to scale — the strongest answer to your lost internal design capability, delivered by a single partner.
Everything in Launch, plus:
Full brand identity & guidelines — a complete identity system: logo / wordmark, colour, typography, visual language, imagery direction and iconography, with comprehensive brand guidelines, plus core marketing templates — deck, social, one-pagers.
Brand & positioning strategy — customer and market research, competitive intelligence, and full positioning and messaging architecture.
Scalable platform — a website architected to grow into the full platform, AI agents, future products, resources, case studies and industry / use-case hubs. Built once to scale, not rebuilt in 18 months.
Full launch SEO — everything in Launch, plus fuller commercial content and deeper AI-search visibility.
Choose Complete if the lost design capability is a standing gap rather than a one-off. It is the only route that leaves Cera with guidelines and templates the team can use without coming back to us — and the only one that assumes the platform grows.
OutcomeA complete brand and digital platform for the new technology business, built to scale.
Investment£30,000
05
Common to all three routes
Domain & naming
Common to all three routes — the same strategic workstream whichever you choose. Brand independence and domain independence are different things: you can have a new sub-brand with its own identity living neatly on a subdomain.
Subdomain on Cera HQ
[name].cerahq.com
Refresh Cera HQ off Wix and add the new proposition on a subdomain. Avoids starting from scratch, keeps everything under one roof, and gives the product a clean, modern home. Your stated preference, and we agree with it.
Recommended
Separate domain
[name].com
Maximum separation from Cera, which helps most with the data-trust question. But it starts the domain from zero and splits attention and budget across two properties during launch.
Possible
On the care site
ceracare.co.uk
Cera Care is the care and recruitment site. It carries real search equity and will not be touched — leaving it alone is precisely how those rankings stay protected.
Not advised
Cera HQ (cerahq.com) is the B2B and investor site this project replaces. Because neither the company nor the platform is named yet, the exact address depends on naming — naming leads domain, in that order. The one thing to weigh is trust: selling to providers who also see Cera as a competitor means the naming and positioning work has to make the product feel like its own proposition, even while it sits under the Cera HQ umbrella. That is exactly what the brand and naming workstreams are for.
What we’d confirm in discovery
A technical crawl of Cera HQ
A clean rebuild off Wix, with the subdomain set up correctly and redirects mapped.
The real demand landscape
The keyword and demand picture for the product’s category, before naming is fixed.
Naming, then availability
Naming for the company and platform, then trademark and domain availability on the chosen names.
Your international ambition
Which settles .com versus .co.uk, and the wider approach.
06
Our recommendation
Start with the naming, not the decision
Choosing between three routes is a September board problem. Getting a name is not — and it is the one piece of work that has to begin before the board sits if November is going to hold.
A first stage you can start this month.
Two to three weeks of research and naming, run on its own, at a number that should not need a board paper. You see how we work and what your category actually looks like before you commit to a route — and the naming clock starts in September rather than October.
It is the front of whichever route you choose. Nothing in it is repeated or wasted.
First stage
£2,500
Deducted in full from the build price of whichever route you go on to choose — Foundation, Launch or Complete. If you decide not to continue, you keep everything produced and there is nothing further to pay.
What is there now, what carries value, and the clean route off Wix onto the new structure.
02
Search demand and category language
What providers actually search for, and the terminology the category uses when it is buying.
03
Competitor and SERP landscape
Who already owns that language, where the gaps are, and what that means for positioning.
04
Naming shortlist, screened
Candidate names for the company and platform, built against the demand data, with trademark and domain knockout checks run on the shortlist.
Why this, and not a route
Naming leads domain, and domain leads the build. Until there is a name, every other decision is waiting on it — so this is the work that has to happen first whichever route you pick, and the only one where starting early actually buys you anything.
Why September, specifically
The delivery plan runs eleven weeks. Starting naming in mid-September puts launch in late November. Starting it in October puts launch in December — not because the work is slower, but because a name cannot be hurried through a board.
On the routes themselves: we would expect Launch to be the right fit, because it creates the identity you need without the cost and timeline of a full brand system. But that is a judgement made before the demand data exists. The first stage is what turns it into an informed decision, and you make it in October with the research in front of you rather than in September without it.
07
Sign-off to live
How November works
Backwards-planned from your launch window. The four marked gates are the only points where the schedule depends on a Cera decision rather than on us — they are also the only ones that cannot be compressed, so they are the ones we protect.
Week1234567891011
Discovery, ICP and demand
Naming and positioning
Identity and architecture
Design and build
Content and launch SEO
Contingency
Live
Rings mark the four points where the schedule waits on a Cera decision. Everything else runs in parallel, which is how eleven weeks of work fits the window.
Weeks 1–2
Discovery, ICP and demand
Technical crawl of Cera HQ, search demand and category terminology, competitor and SERP landscape, ICP definition. Runs immediately on sign-off and feeds everything downstream.
Gate 1 · Asset list issued to Cera, due by week 6
Weeks 2–4
Naming and positioning
Company and platform naming against the demand data, core positioning and messaging including the data-trust question, then knockout trademark and domain checks on the shortlist.
Gate 2 · Cera selects the name
Weeks 4–6
Identity and architecture
Logo, wordmark, colour and typography for the chosen name. In parallel: keyword universe, page strategy, URL structure and conversion journeys, so the sitemap is settled before design starts.
Gate 3 · Cera signs off identity
Weeks 5–8
Design and build
UX and wireframes from week 5, which do not depend on the identity. Visual design follows identity sign-off, then the responsive build on the CMS, video and demo capability, lead capture wired to your CRM, and GA4 and GTM in place.
Weeks 7–10
Content and launch SEO
Commercial pages, metadata and schema, AI and answer-engine foundations, subdomain configured, redirects mapped off Wix, indexation and technical QA.
Gate 4 · Cera reviews staging · consolidated feedback in 3 working days
Week 10
Contingency
Held deliberately, not spent in advance. On a fixed date with a naming workstream and a trademark screen on the critical path, a plan with no float is a plan that misses. If it is not needed, launch moves forward.
Week 11 · Live
November
Launch, then the first 90 days of close consultancy — go-to-market search strategy, launch sequencing, demand capture and conversion tracking — whether or not you take a growth programme afterwards.
Two things decide whether November holds, and both sit with Cera rather than with us. Naming sign-off is the one item on the critical path that cannot be parallelised, so each week it sits with the board is a week on the end. And a trademark conflict on the first shortlist means a second round — which is why we screen availability during naming rather than after it. A second round costs roughly two weeks, which is what the contingency week and the early asset request are there to absorb. Both are why we would rather start the naming workstream in September than wait for the full scope to be agreed.
08
Optional · a separate decision
After launch: search growth
The launch project installs the infrastructure — brand, naming, domain, search intelligence, architecture, website and tracking. Once live, Cera chooses how aggressively to invest in acquisition. These programmes are independent of the launch route and can be activated individually or together.
SEO
£1,500/mo
Long-term discoverability and category authority — technical SEO, commercial landing pages, content, demand capture, AI visibility, CRO and reporting.
No media spend
Google Ads
£1,500/mo
Capturing high-intent demand now — campaign strategy, keyword and intent architecture, build, landing-page alignment, conversion tracking, optimisation and reporting.
+ media spend
Integrated Search
£2,500/mo
SEO and Google Ads combined for full search coverage — organic authority plus immediate demand capture.
+ media spend
Media spend is billed separately. Programmes begin with close consultancy through the first 90 days — go-to-market search strategy, launch sequencing, demand capture, landing pages, analytics and conversion tracking — before the emphasis shifts to ongoing growth.
Built for a long-term partnership. Our preferred model is to stay involved beyond launch and remain accountable for turning the new platform into a source of qualified demand. Where Cera appoints Searchflex as its ongoing growth partner, we reduce the upfront launch investment across each route — that is the difference between the two prices under Three ways we can support the launch.
No obligation either way. There is no requirement to appoint Searchflex for ongoing marketing as part of the launch. The growth programmes are a separate decision you can make after launch, based on your commercial priorities and what the discovery data shows.
Next step
A 45-minute session, before your September board.
We’ll walk Andy, Ben and anyone else you want in the room through the routes, answer the commercial questions directly, and leave you with a fixed scope and a dated delivery plan you can table for approval.
Naming starts the clock. It is the one workstream that cannot be compressed, so the earlier it begins the more room November has. We would rather run that session in the first week of September than after the board has met.