Brand Development Research
A significant majority of brands and their employees think the best measure of brand development research is precision. As long as you get lots of survey results and accurate data, the research is deemed a success. But then…what do you do with it?
What defines good brand research is actually its applicability. The most exact insights in the world are no use to you if you don’t know how to apply them. Therefore, the importance of brand research isn’t the data itself, but what comes after the facts are gathered. Unfortunately for lots of brands, many research companies provide the study results and stop there. Their data is good, their research is sound—but it doesn’t lead to the desired results, because there is no interpretation to help marketers and decision-makers take action on the findings quickly and effectively.
Active Insight is here to share our perspective on what good brand
development research fully entails and the outcomes it could achieve for you.
What is Brand Research?
Brand development research is the process and strategies used to identify how your brand is presenting itself to the world. You might assume you already know the answer to this question, but often, such assumptions are more grounded in how you want to be seen than feedback from your consumers.
Your brand is different to every individual who chooses to do business with you. Do you know what is driving their perception and, by proxy, their buying choices? And furthermore, do you know how to apply that understanding in a way that optimizes profitability? If you think you know, how do you know? Did you ask them? Actionable, data-backed insights are the purpose of true brand research.
If you’ve been in branding or marketing for a while, your understanding of brand research might have become conflated with brand research projects. It’s true that benchmarking your pricing or a new market study is research for your brand, but it isn’t research about your brand. True brand research is a deep and sometimes painful exploration. The purpose is to pinpoint how and why the messaging you need to convey isn’t being received by your target customers. There’s no one brand research template that will help you get there, but there are some characteristics that all brand development research has in common.
What does brand research include?
Brand development research includes hard work and creative, thoughtful analysis of findings to generate action steps for improvement. One survey or focus group is not brand research, though it may be a start.
There are many approaches to brand research, and the best brand research companies may use several to get to the heart of what is holding a brand back from higher profits and more satisfied customers.
Types of research
Qualitative brand research, like focus groups and depth interviews, can produce incredible insights when conducted with the right approach. Active Insights has developed a particular reputation for excellence in this area through a practice called Account Planning. Our deeper thinking and thoughtful analysis take the findings from qualitative research and use them to reveal how customers think AND feel about the brand. Understanding both the hearts and minds of your customers is essential to capture and keep their business.
Quantitative brand research, like benchmark tracking and customer satisfaction measurement, provides hard numbers to confirm or challenge opinions about the brand. We are seasoned in all stages of this process, from designing the study to data collection, quality control, and findings reporting. It’s also essential to provide interpretive analysis and recommendations for the next best action as a result of the research findings. We bring creative thinking and fresh insight to go beyond the numbers and tell you how to achieve goals.
Quantitative brand research, like benchmark tracking and customer satisfaction measurement, provides hard numbers to confirm or challenge opinions about the brand. We are seasoned in all stages of this process, from designing the study to data collection, quality control, and findings reporting. It’s also essential to provide interpretive analysis and recommendations for the next best action as a result of the research findings. We bring creative thinking and fresh insight to go beyond the numbers and tell you how to achieve goals.
Who does brand research?
A large variety of companies conduct brand research, including manufacturers, retailers, financial services companies, health care companies, and more. Packaged goods companies in particular are heavy users of brand research. These include companies like P&G, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, and others. Please see our treatment of recent trends in the packaged-goods industry and how enlightened market research companies have responded.
Active Insights gives brand research meaning
Since our founding in 1991, Active Insights has proven a mighty global force, conducting brand development research for a veritable honor roll of brands and institutions. From the Fortune 50 to small businesses, we serve any organization that wants research both done well and translated well. We ask innovative questions and structure unexpected experiments that get to the heart of the information you need while also delighting your participants. But collecting and classifying the data to answer your questions is just half of the work. We also provide the reporting that makes it easy to apply research findings to the everyday decisions that drive success for your company.
If you’re ready to enter a meaningful conversation about the gaps in your knowledge about your brand, we are here to listen and to help. Call us at (425) 677-7430, or email jerry@activeinsights.com.
We’ll get back to you quickly!