“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion” – W. Edwards Deming

An opinion that might not necessarily represent your target market!

Last time, we talked about why Branding is important and that it goes hand in hand with Advertising. So once you have created your Brand, you need to spread the word and convince people of the value of your Brand.

Now to create a successful Brand, you need to come up with a Brand Strategy; a long term plan for your Brand filled with goals and measurement metrics. And to come up with a strategy you need to research extensively, Branding Research feeds in directly to your Brand Strategy.

By conducting on going Brand Research and implementing the findings into your Brand Strategy you can ensure your Brand is continually building market share as well as brand share.

What findings can you get from Brand Research for your Brand Strategy?

1) Research helps you understand people’s pain points and their needs. Your Brand can be designed to relieve these pains thereby becoming relevant to their needs and as such increasing your demand

2) We live in a dynamic world, research helps you stay up to date on the market as well as customer. You need to know who your competitors are, both direct and indirect and what they are doing. Conduct research on your competitors, predict their next steps and ensure your Brand is prepared to withstand whatever disruption they are bringing to the industry

3) Speak to your customers, ask them why they continually choose you. Sometimes, these truths might be different from why you think they choose you. That’s fine, take the time out to align these truths with your Brand’s mission, vision and values so every day you constantly grow your Brand around these truths. If you can align your values with that of your customers, they will keep choosing you

4) Speak to your non customers and understand the reasons why they do not choose you. Strategically break down these barriers of usage and ensure you communicate back to them that these barriers have been broken down.

“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals” – David Ogilvy

And conversely, research, Advertising Research is extremely important in creating your Advertising Strategy. Your Advertising Strategy is a long term plan on how you intend on communicating the value of your Brand.

Advertising Research provides insights which feed into your Advertising Strategy and help you create awareness about your Brand, increase purchase desire and intent, increase purchase, increase repeat purchase and recommendation.

What findings can you get from Advertising Research for your Advertising Strategy?

1) At the moment of truth (in stores), consumers are faced with a vast variety to select from, so how do you ensure that your product stands out, grabs attention and drives purchase? Conduct research on different packaging options, and let consumers tell you (directly or indirectly) which design grabs and keeps their attention the most

2) Advertising is very important to let non customers know and remind customers of your Brand’s value. But just as the stores are cluttered, the media landscape is also cluttered. So how do you ensure that your advertisement stands out, grabs the attention of the customer and drives action? Conduct research on your advertising to ensure it is relevant, engaging and unique

[3] Studies have found that about 60-70% of marketing budget is wasted, why? A reason is that the channels used for marketing activities are not always in areas of view of the target market. Research helps you understand what areas your target market has access to that will have your marketing activities in their view

We have established that Research; both Brand and Advertising Research is important so now,

How does an MSME conduct Brand and Advertising Research? Stay Tuned!

References

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