Author: Jeremy Braune

It is generally accepted that up to 95% of new products across all categories fail. 

Brandspeak is a new product development research consultancy that has helped bring 100’s of new products and services to market. 

As a result, we have real understanding of what it takes to succeed in new product development, as well as the conditions most likely to lead to new product failure.

What we’ve observed time and again is that;

• When new products do fail in the market place, that failure has actually been baked-in months previously, at or near the start of the development process.  

• Failure is often avoidable – the result of corner-cutting on the part of the those responsible for the new product’s development.

• Failure needn’t be terminal. By identifying the warning signs early enough and adapting accordingly, significant amounts of time and money can be saved – enough to regroup and refocus the project.

What we’ve also learned is that the key to avoiding baked-in failure,  maximising new product development successes and minimising failures is timely and appropriate market research.

In this 5-minute article, we explore the different types of new product development and why market research is essential for all of them.  

New product types

There are actually 4 main types of ‘new’ product development project, reflecting;

1. Improvements to an established product or 
2. Line extension, or
3. ‘Me too’ development or
4. Genuine innovation

Of those four different types, only the last one can be considered genuinely new – or revolutionary.   The others are all evolutionary, based on product or service ideas that already exist.

Evolutionary products and services actually account for over 95% of all new product development and are typically less challenging, costly and time-consuming to bring to market.   

Truly revolutionary products, on the other hand, account for less than 5%.

Evolutionary product development failure

Notwithstanding the above, evolutionary products tend to have failure rates that are similar to – or even greater than – revolutionary ones.  

This is because, in our experience, new product development project types 1-3 (as outlined above) are often approached with a degree of over-confidence, simply because they are each based on an already-existing and successful product or service.  

As a result, it is felt there is no need to research the concept and its appeal, as the overall risk is much smaller and any improvements to the existing concept can only enhance appeal.

What happens in reality, however, is that without research, the project team often loses sight of what made the original product successful in the first place.  As a result, key features and benefits end up being watered down, or engineered them out of existence completely, as the team’s own agenda is pursued at the expense of the consumer’s. 

Revolutionary product development failure

Truly revolutionary products tend to be far fewer in number and cost considerably more to bring to market. From our own experience, digital or technology-focussed projects account for the majority of revolutionary product development.

The issue we encounter here most often is that whilst it is the B2C or B2B consumer who will be the new product’s ultimate target, the developers are often more technically-minded – sometimes to the extent that during product development they actually think relatively little about the end-user.

In this instance, market research needs to challenge the developers’ thinking and introduce the end-user’s perspective, before serious amounts of time and money have been spent.

Often, however, it is only in the latter stages of development that research is commissioned – and then only to confirm decisions already made, rather than challenge them.

The 2 critical stages of new product development research

Whether your proposed new product is evolutionary or revolutionary in nature, there are 2 stages of the development process where market research will enable you to avoid the costly and unnecessary mistakes that lead to new product failure. 

Both are outlined below;

1. The Ideation stage 

The Ideation stage is crucial, because it often defines the strategic parameters for the remainder of the project.  

That is why, rather than putting all their eggs in one basket, many organisations prefer to generate several new product ideas at the project’s outset, before identifying the strongest candidates for onward development.

The process of idea generation and prioritisation is often undertaken internally, by members of the marketing / development team. 

The problem with this approach is that it tends to be prescriptive and lacks the objectivity and creativity that an external moderator would provide.   It can also fail to identify the important opportunities and challenges that members of the target audience would surface – via focus groups or co-creation sessions which mix members of the development team and public together.

The result of an internalised Ideation stage is that the idea(s) that is selected for onward development is the one that the business feels most comfortable with, but not necessarily the one with the greatest potential.  

Remember at the outset of this article it said that failure is often baked-in near the start of the project?  Well, the Ideation stage is the point at which that happens.

2. The Concept Development stage

By this point, the shortlisted ideas have been turned in to three-dimensional concepts, each with new levels of detail that need to be reviewed and optimised, before a final decision can be made about which (if any) concept(s) will be taken forward for production and launch. 

Again, this stage is often conducted internally, for the reasons outlined.  

However, we regard both qualitative and quantitative research as essential here, to provide the range of insights necessary to make the appropriate Stop / Go decision(s).

Qualitative research at this point ensures the proposition underlying each selected concept;

• Is as compelling and relevant as it can be, with a suite of features and benefits to match
•  Resonates socially and culturally 
• Reflects and addresses real target audience need and behaviour, at both rational and emotional levels
• Identifies itself easily with core usage occasions
•  ‘Fits’ with any parent brand

Quantitative research can also clarify a range of other details that are essential for a final top / Go decision and for marketing planning, including; 

• The demographic definition of the target audience
• Likely levels of product demand
• Key usage drivers and occasions
• The most motivating hierarchy of communications messages
• Retail / wholesale price points and price elasticity

Not just any research…the right research

The rush to quant

Almost as bad as conducting little or no research at either of these stages is conducting the wrong research.  

By far the most common example of this is organisations wishing to quantify the potential of their new idea before consumers have even had a chance to kick the tyres in early stage, qualitative research. 

By moving to quant too early, assumptions end up becoming ‘facts’ and the trajectory of the remainder of the project becomes set.  In such cases, opportunities to challenge, tighten and refine the proposition have been missed and this can mean the difference between success and failure.

Final thoughts

When important corners are cut in the new product development process it is usually down to a lack of resources and / or the (over-) confidence of the development team.

If budget is the issue and it won’t stretch to qualitative research we recommend;

• Hiring an external new product development specialist to act as the voice of the consumer in workshops designed to challenge, refine and augment existing ideas / concepts.  The outputs won’t end up being as insightful as the real thing, but they should help expose many of the bigger issues that qual would have identified 

• Asking your research agency to be creative in finding ways to research your concept / proposition as cost-effectively as possible.  This may include running Friends and Family focus groups which provide considerable savings on recruitment and incentives.  Also, running much shorter, high intensity focus groups that cut to chase quickly. These can save money in terms of incentive payments, analysis and reporting

• Repurposing existing research – either your own or work that is in the public domain.

You can read about the individual stages of the best practice, new product development process in our article; The New Product Development Process – a Best Practice Guide

Brandspeak research has helped many companies in many different markets gain valuable insights prior to successful product launches.  If you would like us to do the same for you, please call Brandspeak on 0203 858 0052 or contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

Introduction  

It is commonly agreed that up to 95% of new products across all categories end in failure, whilst the figure for the grocery sector is estimated at between 70-80%. 

Brandspeak provides new product development workshops and research programmes for large and small B2C and B2B clients in the UK and internationally, on pretty much a weekly basis.  

Whilst some brilliant innovations get launched having had little or no input from the consumer, most successes are the result of rigorous, new product development processes that have put the target customer firmly front and centre from the beginning.  

In this article we outline the broad stages of a simple, customer-driven new product development approach that does just that. It won’t guarantee that your new product or service will be a success, but it will guarantee that your organisation doesn’t waste time, money or opportunities by undertaking product innovation the wrong way. 

The 5 stages of new product development

There are 5 broad stages in the process;

Each stage is described below.

Stage 1: Opportunity Identification

The success of a business’s innovation capability depends on its ability to identify a continual stream of product or service opportunities with which to prime the new product development process.

At this stage, each opportunity can be defined in a simple statement comprising just a few sentences which together address;

•  The nature of the perceived gap (or opportunity) in the market

• The reason for the existence of the gap

Tip; Very few opportunities actually make it to the end of the innovation process and become new products or service, so the more opportunities that are identified at this stage, the better.

Stage 2; Ideation

The Ideation stage typically comprises one or two creative workshops with the stakeholder team.   Their purpose is to enable the exploration of each opportunity, with the aim of identifying one or more ideas in relation to each.

The success of the overall stage relies upon:

• Immersion – the ability of stakeholder participants to free their minds from the confines of their day jobs 
• Customer-centricity – either including consumers directly in the ideation process, or by ensuring individual stakeholders adopt target consumer personas 
• Creativity – a series of exercises designed to really explore the opportunity from a number of different perspectives
• Open-mindedness – a refusal to reject an idea that emerges just because it is ‘left field’ or somehow difficult

At the outset it can be really helpful to produce a map of the market place corresponding to the area of opportunity, in order to better understand the interrelation between the;

• The usage / consumption occasions
• Associated consumer behaviours and needs (both conscious and latent) or need states
• Existing brands; propositions, features, benefits – and weaknesses

The insights for this mapping exercise will typically come from the participants’ own knowledge and data.  If significant knowledge gaps remain, these can be plugged by:

• Specifically-commissioned, contextual research (e.g. mobile ethnography or survey)
• Market safaris undertaken by stakeholders
• Additional workshop exercises

The completed map can then be used as the basis for a number of creative exercises designed to identify fulfilment gaps; those places where there is (latent) consumer need but little or no brand presence.  

It is in relation to these locations that idea generation is often most successful.

Ideas should be identified in terms of:

• The nature of the fulfilment gap 
• The underlying occasion
• The (unfulfilled) consumer needs or need states 
• The outline proposition to address them 
• Reasons to believe that the proposition will be successful

Based on the above, concepts can be scored on their potential. 

Tip; Key here is to identify as many ideas as possible, and then filter them at the end of the exercise, so that only the most promising are taken through to Concept Development

Stage 3: Concept Development

The Concept Development stage comprises more creative workshops, during which the  individual ideas are further evaluated on a stop / go basis.  The workshops can be run on a co-creative basis, including consumers.

Those ideas that pass are then expanded upon significantly, to turn them in to fully-formed concepts, typically by adding;

• A detailed description of the proposition, including features and benefits
• Consumer demographics
• Key occasions and needs / need states to target
• How the proposition will address those needs / need states 
• Reasons to succeed

Depending on the nature of the concepts in question, further detail can be created, to help bring the concepts to life, potentially including mood boards, branding, packaging, web page designs etc.

It is during the Concept Development stages that the concepts are also sense-checked / challenged in detail for the first time, in terms of their technical, operational and commercial feasibility.  

Those that are deemed unworkable in their present state are either rejected, or returned to the Ideation stage to be re-worked.

Stage 4: Concept Evaluation 

Each concept is now sufficiently robust to be evaluated and refined by the target customer, usually using either qualitative research and / or co-creation in the first instance.  

The purpose is primarily two-fold; 

• To assess and refine thinking to-date, with members of the target audience
• Obtain an initial read on the commercial potential of individual propositions

Following the consumer’s input, a further round of concept refinement and filtering may take place.

At this point quantitative research may also be undertaken, in order to quantify the appeal of each remaining concept and its component parts – including pricing. 

Any grey areas can also be addressed at this point. 

The remaining concepts may be submitted for final Concept Approval or pushed back in to Concept Development to be developed further.

Stage 5: Concept Approval

The concepts are now ready for executive approval.  Their potential should now largely a given, due to the nature of the development process they have undergone, and the likely involvement of Executive stakeholders at different points along the way.  

At this point, decision-making is more likely to be based on financial modelling which should clarify the short-term cost of launching and supporting the new product or service, as well as the longer-term ROI.

Brandspeak innovation specialists

Brandspeak has years of innovation research and workshopping experience, across a wide variety of B2C and B2B sectors.  If you would like help developing your new product development process, running creative workshops or undertaking new product development research, please call Brandspeak on 0203 858 0052 or contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

This article

The pandemic has had a fundamental effect on the retail landscape in the UK. 

In this article we take a closer look at:

• The ways in which COVID-19 has changed the behaviour of UK shoppers
• The implications for the retail brands that must adapt to survive  

We also provide important tips for retailers looking to develop a competitive online presence. 

The COVID consumer

The term New Normal has already become part of the vernacular, despite many senior marketers and industry commentators dismissing COVID-19 in the early days as just a virus that would do little to alter the retail landscape. 

How wrong they were. Since that time, retail market research has shown that UK consumers have made far-reaching changes to their shopping behaviour – not just in terms of what they buy, but also when, where and how they buy.  

And because there is every indication that the pandemic has actually just increased the speed with which the retail landscape was already changing, there is every reason to believe that many of these changes will not be reversed when the pandemic recedes. 

The ways in which COVID-19 has changed the behaviour of UK shoppers

Online shopping

One of the main developments affecting retail has been the explosion in online shopping.  

Bazaarvoice reveals that 49% of consumers admit they now shop online more frequently than they did before the coronavirus pandemic, with that figure rising to 62% for Americans and 58% for UK shoppers.

At the same time, the number of respondents that choose to visit brick-and-mortar stores has fallen, from 56% to 44%.

Obviously, these changes have been due in large part to the desire to shop from home in order to limit exposure to COVID-19.

However, research also reveals a jump in so-called ‘comfort shopping’,  as shoppers who feel deprived of the emotional fix provided by regular shopping centre visits are strongly attracted to the instant fulfilment and validation that online shopping can provide, as a means of offsetting the feelings of disruption and dislocation that the pandemic has caused.

Online grocery

With regard online grocery shopping, Waitrose’s survey of 2,000 people across the UK tells us 77% of consumers now do at least some of their grocery shopping online, compared with 61% the year before. 

The survey also shows that 25% of UK consumers are now buying their groceries online at least once a week– double the figure in 2019. 

Waitrose confirms a big increase in 35-44 year olds conducting their food shop online, with 32% now doing so at least once a week.  However, the biggest rise has been amongst the over-55’s, with 74% now doing at least some of their food shopping online, compared to 47% in 2019.

The chain comments that the growth in online food shopping had turned in to a trajectory ‘reminiscent of scaling Everest’ and could be ‘irreversible’.

Online marketplace shopping

Online marketplaces such as Amazon and Alibaba have also put in strong performances during the pandemic. 

A recent online survey by Adobe reveals that between March and June 2020, 57% of UK consumers who regularly shop online made a purchase from an online marketplace, compared to just 13% who made a purchase from a dedicated brand website.

Amazon was quick to recognise the importance of convenience in the midst of the COVID turmoil, immediately recruiting additional warehouse staff and drivers to meet growing demand, just as many other organisations were cutting back on deliveries and citing far longer lead times.

Local convenience store shopping

And shopping isn’t just flourishing online.  Mintel reports an 8% growth in sales by local convenience stores, compared to 3% in 2019. 

Convenience stores not only enable shoppers to limit their exposure to COVID, they also support the mental wellbeing of their customers, by acting as a place of social contact for locals who feel isolated as a result of the pandemic.  

And convenience store sales growth hasn’t just been due to an increase in the size of the average shopping basket.  It’s  also the result of an increase in the number of people actually using their local convenience stores.   A recent survey by PayPoint showed that between March and July 2020, 56% of UK adults visited their local shop for the first time, rising to 68% of 18-24 year olds and 59% of 25-34 year olds.  

Of course, a proportion of those convenience converts will revert to their previous shopping behaviour once the pandemic subsides, but a net shopper gain by local stores is very likely.

In fact, the Co-op appears to be betting on this outcome, having recently announced that it will be opening another 50 of its smaller, local stores in the UK during 2020 and 2021.

Retail is fight back

Having been fairly slow to react initially, bricks and mortar retailers have since been investing significant sums to address the COVID-fuelled trend towards online shopping. 

In a survey of senior retailers conducted by Barclays, 26% agreed that COVID-19 has accelerated the technological revolution within the sector as a whole.  

By way of example, 33% of participants had undertaken website upgrades, 32% had started to accept new payment methods, 26% were conducting data analytics for the first time, whilst 15% had created new roles specifically to manage the increase in digital sales and boost online capacity.

Some retail brands have clearly been much quicker than others at realising the full significance of the pandemic and taken steps to bolster consumer engagement.  For example:

Pizza Express found new ways to make the brand more relevant to customers during the earliest days of lockdown by promoting activities to keep children and adults entertained at home, along with messages about which of its products could be picked up in supermarkets.

Meanwhile, Deliveroo partnered with grocery giant Marks and Spencer to provide essentials to households during the initial lockdown. The M&S-Deliveroo delivery service was free and aimed to drop-off orders in less than 30 minutes. 

In September 2020 Marks & Spencer terminated the Deliveroo service and instead began working with online grocer Ocado. Consumers can now have both M&S food and non-food items delivered to their door.  For the first time, M&S customers can now have their eggs and cheese delivered at the same times as their socks, undies and throws.

John Lewis has already seen profound changes to the way it does business – with over 60% of the group’s business already being conducted online.  

Anticipating that Christmas shoppers may not be flocking to the high street this year, the company is now offering them the chance to undertake a virtual tour of it’s instore Christmas display. 

In the virtual tour (pictured), visitors are John Lewis’s largest ever Christmas Tree forest, showcasing seven new festive trends and room sets, as well as a one stop gift emporium.

As online consumers ‘walk’ through the space and admire the displays, they can also zoom in on items, measure them digitally, and then click to purchase, at which point they are sent to the relevant item on the retail site.

On to New Normal – or back to Old Normal?

These are just a few examples of bricks and mortar retailers implementing online initiatives in an attempt to plug the COVID-sized hole in their retail sales.  

Many others though, have been far slower to react, hoping that when the pandemic recedes their bricks and mortar businesses will simply return to the ‘old normal’.  

Chances are, they won’t. Not least because lockdown has forced many younger shoppers to reduce their emotional reliance on retail, whilst older shoppers who were previously unwilling to get to grips with online shopping have been also forced to do so, just as they have been forced to embrace click and collect, online deliveries and returns using QR-codes.

Bricks and mortar must fight back

The question for those bricks and mortar retailers that haven’t yet developed a meaningful online offer is therefore, do they do so, or do they double-down on their existing offer, by investing in strategies to increase the retail consumer’s;

Confidence – in the form of anti-COVID measures that will give hesitant shoppers the confidence to return instore

Level of engagement – by developing levels of shopper experience and interaction that will significantly enhance the nature of the retail experience in a way that online cannot emulate

Whilst some will undoubtedly choose to double-down (particularly the larger retailers with too much to lose), many will opt to invest in developing online strategies instead.  Based on our own experience of helping 100s of organisations develop successful online offers, here are some essential tips for doing so:

Start by undertaking competitor analysis

Your competitors are likely to have the benefit of many years successful online trading, as well as all the data that goes with it. So, make the most of their experience and start by analysing the component parts (e.g. website structure and browsing experience, product range, pricing, ordering and fulfilment process), of their online offers, to identify where they are likely to be strongest – and weakest  Then, conduct market research on those aspects of their individual offers to identify what you should copy, and what you can actually improve upon.

Take your brand with you

When creating your site, makes sure you transfer across those elements of your retail brand and store experience that are so important to your existing customers.  Otherwise, you run the risk of diluting your brand’s identity – and losing loyal customers in the process.  

Again, use market research to identify which elements of your brand are most important to those customers and how best to bring them to life online.

Broaden your customer base – and your offer

Key to dealing with the unfolding downturn will be the ability of your online offer to appeal to as many different types of consumers as possible.  By moving online, you have the opportunity to attract new shoppers to your brand so use market research to identify what else you could be selling – and to whom.   

Analytics

Your competitors may have years of online data to help them with strategy development.  You need to ensure that you start collecting and analysing customer and operational data relating to each touchpoint and area of your online business

Brandspeak

Brandspeak’s consultants are experts in using research to identify and optimise online strategies.  For more information call us on 0203 858 0052 or contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

Brandspeak creates persona-based segmentation models for clients wishing to use them to inform the design of new propositions, marketing campaigns and customer experiences.

What are customer personas?

Customer personas are created by first identifying different clusters of common customer traits (e.g. needs, attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, frustrations and preferences). Each cluster is then used to create a persona or conceptualised individual whose character reflects the traits identified.

Customer personas were originally conceived by an innovative software designer, Alan Cooper, who was trying to bridge the gap between what computer programmers felt they should be developing and what computer users actually wanted.  

He imagined having detailed conversations with individuals he visualised, trying to work out their likes and dislikes, what they needed to help them do their jobs and what really made them tick.  In his book ‘The Inmates are Running the Asylum’, Cooper presented personas as a way of summarising the key attributes of different user groups. 

The usefulness of such an approach was quickly recognised by marketers, who saw that persona-market-research could provide a means of better understanding how customers actually behave and why.

Customer personas and segmentation

It’s important to note that customer personas are not the same as customer segments.  That said, there is typically a strong relationship between the two.  

Customer segments comprise groups of individuals within a business’s overall customer base that have strong similarities (often based on geography, demographics or consumption patterns). They are typically both targetable and measurable.

On the other hand,  customer personas are much more qualitative in nature.  They are built on an understanding of key thoughts and behaviours that are directly relevant to the company and its products or services.  They may or may not be targetable and measurable.

For example, a fitness equipment retailer might have a customer segment that includes professional women aged 30 to 50 who want to improve their health but who generally have little time to spare from their busy working lives.  

A customer persona representing that segment might be given the name ‘Rachel’ and show;

• Her motivations for getting fitter
• Her preconceptions regarding fitness and getting fit
• The emotional and logistical barriers in her way
• Where she looks for advice when thinking about what fitness equipment she needs
• What information she needs to help her decide which piece of equipment to buy – and the rational and emotional messages most likely to sway her

This helps the provider of the fitness equipment develop marketing and communications strategies that will tap directly into Rachel’s underlying motivations and barriers, and ‘speak’ directly to her in a way that is engaging and relevant.  The company’s segmentation model alone would not enable it to do this.

Using customer personas in conjunction with segmentation models to improve messaging

However, personas can add considerable clarity and depth to an existing segmentation model.  For example,  persona market research will reveal the extent to which women included in the same demographic segment actually have different decision-making drivers when it comes to fitness and the potential purchase of fitness equipment – because they reflect different personas within that segment.

By overlaying the segmentation model with the results of the persona research it is possible to identify the different marketing messages that will be required by different customers within and across segments.   This provides the marketer with the additional information needed to turn what would have been a very unconvincing communications campaign in to one that can speak to several personas simultaneously – or one in particular. 

Customer personas therefore provide a powerful complement to segmentation models, deepening understanding of the individual segments and enabling marketing outputs to be refined accordingly. 

Wider uses for customer segmentation models

Of course, it isn’t just about creating more impactful and targeted marketing messages. Companies with accurate customer personas also learn how to interact more productively with their customers, create better products and services for them, and build lasting relationships.  

Customer-facing employees can reference personas to improve rates of sale, retention and satisfaction, through an increased understanding of what is really important to individual customers at key touch points.

Market-research led personas are also very useful during the early stage development of new products and services, as they point to potentially unfulfilled needs, expectations and behaviours that can be addressed through product development.

Customer personas can be at their most useful when used in conjunction with higher value products and services, where buying decisions are more likely to be based on considered (and often complex) System 2 thinking. Persona research will help identify the different thought processes that different personas go through during the decision-making process, as well as the different priorities that are involved.

For less considered purchases involving System 1 thinking, the thought processes involved are carried out so subconsciously that it is more revealing to study generic data sets rather than to develop individual personas.

The use of customer personas in B2B markets

Due to their value in helping to explain complex buying decisions, personas are at least as useful in business-to-business contexts as they are in B2C ones.  

B2B purchases and relationships typically involve several people performing different roles within the client company, each with their own priorities, needs and thought processes.  Developing personas that target job functions provides valuable insights about how to deal with a disparate group of decision makers within the same organisation.

Personas are particularly valuable in the B2B context because transactions tend to be made using criteria that are primarily commercial in nature, with fewer of the subjective, emotional factors that are at play in B2C transactions.  

Companies trying to sell to other businesses therefore often find it difficult to create distinctions between their own product or service and others on the market.  Well-researched B2B personas will tease out the very subtle factors that move buying decisions in one direction or another.

Thanks to the insights they provide, customer personas are being used in a wide variety of contexts.  For example:

• Hotel and restaurant chains use them to understand the different types of visitor they receive, enabling them to tailor their proposition to deliver genuine appeal.
• Companies that have long-term relationships with their clients, such as software providers, use personas to help them develop new add-ons and features that will add the most value for their users and help them to retain and grow their custom.
• The UK financial regulator requires providers to “specify the type or types of client for whose needs, characteristics and objectives” their products are designed, so personas are frequently researched and developed to ensure their product designs stay on track.

How are customer personas created?

It’s possible to create a DIY personas using a mix of demographic data, psychographic information and intelligent guesswork.  The danger of this approach is that it is liable to confirmation bias, and could also miss major personality traits that influence decision-making.   This can – and does – result in marketing and product design being taken down completely the wrong path.

Accurate customer personas are invariably based on qualitative research.  Only by actually asking your audience how and why they make their decisions can you discover patterns that drive that behaviour.  It has been said, quite rightly, that customer personas are discovered rather than created.

One of the best places to start research is with existing customers: you already have the advantage of knowing who they are!  Qualitative persona research can be used to identify their wider attitudes and drivers relating to the product or service in question.  They can tell you about their initial triggers and barriers, how they progressed from actually contemplating a purchase through to deciding what their options were, why they ultimately chose your brand and how they purchased it.  They can then tell you about their needs, expectations and criteria for customer service post-sale.  

Personas developed around existing customers can also show ways to deepen the relationship through the addition of new products and improved levels of service.

Even more revealing can be personas based on potential customers who actually decide to place their business with another brand, or within another category.  Although it may be harder to identify members of this group, it is often clear who your competitors are – especially in B2B scenarios – and finding out why one of those was selected instead of you can point you towards changes you need to make in order to win more business.

It’s possible for companies to do this research themselves, but it may not generate the best results.  Employees tend to have their own preconceived ideas about why potential customers don’t purchase. Also, they don’t usually have the requisite qualitative research skills (or time) to draw the right information from the research subjects.  The subjects in turn may not feel free to be as candid as they would be with an impartial interviewer.  Where possible, then, independent researchers should be used.

What do customer personas look like?

Personas are typically laid out on a single page with various aspects of the persona described under various categories.  Those categories will change according to the context in which the persona is drawn up, but will invariably include a brief profile of the persona including such things as age, sex and job role.  In many ways, the format is similar to – and probably helped to shape – the profile pages social media platforms offer to their users.  

Here is an example, showing a persona representing a customer in one segment of a car manufacturer’s market.

The manufacturer could use this persona to find ways to appeal to Paul’s key criteria and overcome the obstacles to a purchase.  For instance, an extended test drive to enable him to become familiar with the car would overcome the lack of brand awareness and the different impressions formed on paper and in real life. 

How many customer personas do you need?

Ideally, you need as many segments as your research identifies, based on the common themes that emerge, although more than 3-4 customer personas across a segmentation model will make them unwieldy and difficult to apply.  It is not uncommon to end up with more personas for a B2B customer model than a B2C one as there will be different factors in play for people in different roles.  

Even if you don’t have the time or budget to produce personas for every segment, though, it is worth having them for the segments that produce the most business, or which could and should be producing more than they are currently.

How often do customer personas need updating?

Customer personas should be updated when attitudes and motivations change.  In particular, whenever an important new segment is identified or when a new product or service is added, they should be revisited.  

Likewise, they need re-examination if there is a major event or change to the economic environment, such as the COVID 19 pandemic, which has had a massive impact on the physical and emotional behaviour of consumers and how they interact with brands. 

Customer personas that deliver added value to your business

Customer personas that will add value to your business need to be based on expert qualitative research. Brandspeak has many years’ experience of conducting such research to draw out valuable insights that will explain:

• What criteria your customers use to assess the type of product or service you offer
• How they feel your offer and those of your competitors meet or fall short of those criteria
• Who influences their buying decisions and the relative importance of those influencers

Brandspeak specialises in customer persona research

If you would like to find out more about developing customer personas for your business please contact us on +44 (0)203 858 0052 or at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk 

Sources/further reading

Cooper, A. (1999) The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. 

Pruitt, J. and Adlin, T. (2006). The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design. 

Revella, A (2015) Buyer personas

What is behavioural economics? 

Behavioural economics is a method of analysis that uses psychological insights into human behaviour to explain how people make economic choices.

Central to behavioural economics is the recognition that our conscious and subconscious thinking impacts economic decision-making in ways that can appear irrational from the perspective of classical economics.  

Why is behavioural economics so important? 

This quote, from McKinsey, sums it up:

Marketers have long been aware that irrationality helps shape consumer behaviour. Behavioural economics can make that irrationality more predictable. Understanding exactly how small changes to the details of an offer can influence the way people react to it is crucial to unlocking significant value—often at very low cost.

In many ways, this relatively new academic discipline (it first came to the fore in the 1990’s) reflects what qualitative research has always sought to do: identify the relevant thoughts, needs, attitudes, motivations, expectations, beliefs and preferences of the target audience, as well as any actions or behaviours that these may give rise to.  

Where it adds to research is in its identification and analysis of certain key behaviours and cognitive processes, generating insights that are extremely useful.  

Examples of behavioural economics concepts

System 1 and System 2 thinking

This is a major strand of behavioural economics, although it actually goes wider and describes how we take decisions in all aspects of life.  

All of us use both types of thinking and there’s frequent crossover between the two.  

System 1 thinking operates at an unconscious, automatic level.  It needs to: our lives are far too complex to apply logical, conscious thought to every one of our actions.  Most of our thinking is actually done on a System 1 basis, and in general it serves us well.

For example, when driving a car, much of our thinking is automatic.  We don’t actively think about how much to turn the steering wheel or when to brake as that would take far too long.  That doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking while driving, though – we are using System 1. 

System 2 thinking is conscious, considered and logical, although it is influenced by experiences, biases and other subjective factors governed by System 1.  

Therefore, it’s perfectly possible for different people to apply System 2 thinking to the same problem and come up with different answers.  

For businesses, having an understanding of whether customers are choosing or avoiding their products as a result of System 1 or 2 thinking can have a significant effect on rates of customer acquisition and retention.  

Generally, low value, frequent purchases – such as groceries – are decided on a System 1 basis.  We may use some System 2 thinking to decide what products and brands we are going to select at some point, but thereafter we just tend to stick to the same choices – it just isn’t worth our time and effort to expend more conscious thought on them.  

This is the challenge facing marketers of many everyday products: how do we engage System 1 thinking to invoke a decision to switch to our brand?  A snappy slogan or jingle that sticks in the subconscious helps – I defy anyone not to have ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ lodged somewhere in their brain!

When consumers make occasional, high-value purchases such as buying a car, System 2 comes into play.  We pay much more attention to the features on offer and what alternatives are available.  But, even after logically assessing what features a car must have to satisfy our requirements, our final decision of make and model is usually moulded by subjective, less rational, System 1 thinking.

Manufacturers of cars and other expensive items often pack them with features to stand up to System 2 scrutiny, but their marketing is typically aimed at achieving an emotional, System 1 response.  Apple have hit the bullseye in this regard with the iPhone, where millions of devotees would not even contemplate alternative brands – their phones have become almost an essential aspect of their personality.

Social proof

A powerful motivation for many buying decisions is what other people are doing.  Word of mouth endorsements have always been considered the most valuable sales leads, but marketing campaigns can tap into the social proof effect.  One iteration of the ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ theme was the jingle:

A million housewives every day pick up a tin of beans and say ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’. 

The consumer might not know any of those million housewives personally, but that’s a lot of people who have apparently decided there’s no other brand of beans for them!

These days, the power of social proof has been amplified massively by social media.  Who hasn’t checked Trip Advisor or Amazon to see what others have to say before making a purchase?  It is also at the heart of why influencers have become so important, so quickly.

Loss aversion

Where classical economics would assume that investors view a £1,000 gain and a £1,000 loss as correspondingly good and bad, behavioural economics finds that a loss typically weighs more on an individual’s thinking than a gain.  Two leading behavioural economists, Kahneman and Tversky, even managed to put a figure on the relationship, their research showing that the average median coefficient of loss aversion is about 2.25.  In other words, losses count for 2.25 times more than the equivalent gains.  

Aversion to loss includes the fear of missing out, which is targeted by sellers who set time limits on offers, or warnings that only a limited number of a product remain available.  It also helps to explain the use of default options to steer consumer behaviour – they imply the ‘correct’ option, so consumers are less likely to risk defecting away from them.

Anchoring

The first piece of information consumers receive about a product or service is crucial to their decision-making.  It is used as a reference and benchmark from then on, whether logical or not.

This was demonstrated in an experiment by the behavioural economists Dan Ariely, George Loewenstein and Drazan Prelec, when they asked MIT students to consider six products.  

The average price of each product was seventy dollars, but the students weren’t given this information.  Instead, they were asked if they would be prepared to pay an amount in dollars equal to the last two digits of their social security numbers.  Students whose numbers were higher were prepared to pay more than those who had lower numbers, although common sense would suggest there should be no connection.

Anchoring is used extensively in marketing.  Deals which show an original price of £500 but a discounted one of £125 are very persuasive.  The ‘anchor’ of the £500 price-tag implies the product’s true value, even if cold logic suggests the discounted price is probably nearer the mark.

Framing

Concepts like loss aversion and anchoring are subsidiary to the broader one of framing, which looks at how the context in which consumers make decisions directly impacts those decisions.  Even a person’s native language contributes to context, as is persuasively argued in this fascinating TED talk.

The way marketers use messaging to frame choices and set context directly affects consumers’ decisions.Saying ‘8/10 cats prefer this brand’ is logically the same as ‘2/10 cats prefer another’ but only the former cuts it as a marketing slogan!  Context is often physical, too; where products are actually placed on supermarket shelves will impact their sales dramatically. 

One specific piece of context-setting is known as the ‘decoy effect’ or, more technically, as ‘asymmetrically dominated choice’.  It arises when a consumer’s preference for one option over a second changes as a result of adding a third option.  

Dan Ariely described how The Economist used a decoy effect to increase its revenue.  A digital subscription was offered at $59, a print version at $125 and a third option combining the two also at $125.  The Economist never really expected any custom for the print-only version – why would anyone decline to take the online subscription at no additional cost?  But they knew that the mere presence of the decoy, print-only offer would make people lean towards the combined subscription rather than the digital-only one.  

Behavioural economics is useful

Marketers can and do use the lessons of behavioural economics to influence consumer choices, create brand value and increase profits.  

As well as the tactical examples cited, behavioural economics can help with more strategic aspects of marketing.  For example, a segmentation model which is able to accurately takes account of consumer attitudes, prejudices and emotional similarities is likely to be far more impactful than one based demographic demographic criteria alone.  And, when the psychological basis for these similarities is more accurately understood, even more authentic buyer personas can be created.

We can use behavioural economics in very subtle ways to nudge consumers in our preferred direction (remember the McKinsey quote: small changes to the details of an offer can influence the way people react to it).  Indeed, ‘nudge theory’ has become an important driver of many campaigns, including efforts by the Government to steer the public’s behaviour during the COVID pandemic.  

For example, ‘Eat out to help out’ reinforced the financial incentive available with an appeal to social conscience: eating out became a virtuous thing to do.  

But it can also be abused

Critics of behavioural economics have objected to what they perceive as ‘dark arts’ and complain of ‘social manipulation’.  Where exploiting knowledge of consumer behaviour goes too far, lawmakers will move to protect consumers from detriment.  Hence there are restrictions on how price discounts can be presented and requirements for opt-ins rather than opt-outs where personal data – always valuable to marketers – is being sought.  

‘Manipulation’ can work to society’s benefit, though.  The opportunity to impulse-buy sweets at supermarket checkouts can be removed, giving customers a small nudge towards more healthy diets.  

Organ donation schemes can operate by requiring dissenters to opt out rather than relying on a minority to opt in.  

Behavioural economics and market research

I began by noting the similar aims of behavioural economics and qualitative research.  Knowledge of the former is invaluable to practitioners of the latter.  For example, we need to be mindful that the responses we obtain are affected by how we frame our questions.  Our own biases and preconceptions can skew our approach if we aren’t careful.

Qualitative researchers also need to be aware that when respondents are asked a question in a research context, their natural inclination is to give it conscious (i.e. System 2) consideration.  In reality, however, the corresponding situation would may well have been dealt with at a subconscious, System 1 level.  

In sum, what behavioural economics clearly reminds market researchers is that that what respondents tell them will often be at odds with what they would actually think or do in reality.

As a result, have had to develop specific techniques to tap into the System 1 brain in order to understand how respondents think and react subconsciously.   

Contact us

Brandspeak uses insights provided by behavioural economics to inform its research, which helps you get to the heart of how people interact with your brand.  To find out more, call us on +44 (0)203 858 0052 or email us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

References and further reading

McKinsey & Company: A Marketers Guide to Behavioral Economics

Creative Review: Beanz Meanz Heinz

MIT paper by Ariely, Loewenstein and Prelec: Arbitrarily Coherent Preferences

Ariely: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions

Kahneman:: Thinking Fast and Slow

Thaler & Sunstein: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

Common features of top viewing facilities

During the period of the lockdown the UK’s market research viewing facilities have understandably had a tough time.

As we enter July 2020 it appears that the lockdown is easing and that face-to-face, qualitative market research may be able to recommence in earnest very soon.  That means focus groups, co-creation workshops, depth interviews, product clinics and everything in between!

Of course, there are excellent viewing facilities the length and breadth of the country, and comprehensive details of these can be found on the Viewing Facilities Association website (https://www.viewing.org.uk) and on the Association for Qualitative Research (AQR) website (https://www.aqr.org.uk).

Selecting the right facility on a project-by-project basis can definitely make the difference between a good research project and a great one.  That is why we update our list of preferred qualitative research viewing facilities on an annual basis, based on a number of factors including:

Membership of the MRS.  

Like Brandspeak, all the viewing facilities used by us must be MRS company partners, so we can be sure that they are committed to upholding the same research and data protection standards as we are.

Location

Obviously this is a key one.  

If the viewing facility is poorly situated, it can be difficult to recruit respondents who are willing to attend the research session in the first place, or for recruits to arrive punctually – particularly if their session starts close to rush hour.

For groups involving mothers and babies / toddlers, the physical location of the facility is an important consideration, particularly if they are going to be arriving with prams or buggies.  

Ease of access to the building is also a key consideration as flights of stairs can be stressful or even impossible for mums with pushchairs to negotiate.

Access is also an important issue for clients who may be attending.  If they have flown in from abroad, then the venue needs to be easily accessible from the airport (particularly as they may be arriving at rush hour, intending to go direct to the facility).

Space

The proportions of the venue are important for several reasons:

• It is important that both the research and viewing rooms don’t feel cramped as this can have a negative impact on the mood in the room
• If the research requires the use of physical stimulus material the dimensions of the research room need to be sufficient to accommodate and display this with ease
• For longer groups and workshops, mid-session break-out areas are handy to give participants space to relax and catch up with their messages and calls.  Key to this is often a space that allows participants to remain separate from delegates attending other research sessions in the same facility

Service levels

Again, a bit of a no-brainer.  Excellent levels or cheerful service are a must because they:

• Put the moderator, the respondents and the clients at ease.  Sometimes it doesn’t matter how well the research has gone – if the client has a poor experience at the facility, it can reflect poorly on the research agency   
• Ensure that any issues are dealt with quickly and efficiently by the in-house team

Food preparation

Some facilities that advertise themselves as being suitable for food preparation / sampling actually have only limited kitchen facilities.

If required, its worth checking for:

In-house tech

In-house audio and video recording is now taken as standard. 

However, what is likely to become even more important as facilities reopen is their ability to offer streaming services so that clients who are unable to attend can still view proceedings live.

Rather than investing in in-house streaming technology, many facilities prefer to make streaming available via specialist, 3^rd party suppliers such as Stream Team (https://www.stream-team.net), that they will organise on behalf of the commissioning agency.

Costs

Facility hire costs can vary according to location, time of day, the size of the rooms booked and the length of the session(s).

For example, the basic cost of 2 x 2-hour, evening groups held in a Central London viewing facility with standard audio and video recording will be in the region of £950 excl VAT.  

This typically includes tea and coffee and nibbles for respondents – especially important for those who have come straight from work for an early evening group.  

More substantial refreshments for respondents and clients are available on request – and will push the price up.

Outside London and other major cities, facilities tend to offer similar packages at a c. 10% discount to London rates. 

If viewing facilities aren’t required, or are too expensive, then hotel conference rooms can be hired instead.  These cost c. £400 for 2 x 2-hour evening groups, albeit without audio or video recording (this can be arranged separately).

The best viewing facilities in the UK

So, which are the best viewing facilities in the UK?

London

Well, if you are a London research agency like Brandspeak, or simply looking to run focus groups in the capital then these are a few of our favourites:

Spectrum London – centrally located in W1 (just north of Marble Arch), the building houses 5 large studios.  In fact, the largest can accommodate up to 20 respondents and 25 clients! https://www.spectrumview.co.uk

i-view London – located in the Strand and winner of the Market Research Society’s Best Viewing Facility award in both 2018 and 2019. Great location and service and some well-appointed rooms. http://www.i-viewlondon.com

Schlesinger Group (formally The Research House) – another excellent, central location in Wigmore Street, W1.  Well-appointed rooms, great service and one of a handful of facilities to boast their own, in-house chef! https://www.schlesingergroup.com/en/locations/united-kingdom/london/

Bristol

Bristol is a great place to conduct qualitative market research because it tends to be overlooked by many agencies and clients. 

First Sight Studios is perfectly situated in the city centre, right at the end of the M32 and opposite Cabot Circus. 

Despite its central location there is plenty of low- cost, metered parking right next to the facility, which is great if the moderator has to cart around loads of stimulus material.

Manchester

If you are a research agency based in Manchester, or are heading that way to conduct qualitative research then we suggest:

The Talking Shop – a great location, just minutes from Manchester Victoria and Salford Central stations and a few minutes by taxi from Manchester Piccadilly.  

It’s another well-appointed facility with a friendly atmosphere and great levels of service. 

Their Magic Marker gizmo is great too.  It gives the moderator the ability to ‘mark’ any point of the discussion on the MP4 recording using a discretely-placed foot pedal.  

Whilst it shouldn’t be used instead of detailed analysis of the recording, it does give moderators the ability to locate specific parts of the conversation quickly and easily. 

Leeds

Roundhay Viewing – If you are heading to Leeds to conduct focus groups then our favourite viewing facility is Roundhay, situated in the Moortown area of the city.  It has provided consistent levels of excellent service over many years. 

Brandspeak is qualitative research agency that uses viewing facilities extensively, both in the UK and globally.  This is just a sample of our favourite, UK market research viewing facilities.

Please refer to the Viewing Facilities Association website (https://www.viewing.org.uk) or Association for Qualitative Research website (https://www.aqr.org.uk) for other options.

For more information about Brandspeak’s extensive, qualitative research capability please contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk or on +44 (0)203 858 0013.

Kantar has just launched its 2020 Creative Effectiveness Awards, listing its 2019 winners in several categories, as voted for by consumers.  

The winners have been selected from a large number of ads tested by Kantar during 2019 using Link, its advertising pre-testing tool .  They come from 13 different markets across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. 

Link determines each ad’s ability to contribute to brand equity in the long term and driving sales in the short term.

Short term sales likelihood is a validated probability that the ad drives short term sales based on its creative impact and the impressions it leaves behind about the brand.

Kantar describes long-term power as the measure of the ad’s potential to contribute to the brand’s long-term equity, based on on the ad’s creative impact and how strongly the ad positions the brand as being different in the consumer’s mind.

The ads in this category have the power to make people stop what they are doing on their device and pay attention to the ad, but also contributes to the brand in the short and long term.

On the basis of the above, the top 2 digital ads in this section were as follows:

Brand: Milka 

Ad Name: Milka Christmas: Give to Those Who Give The Most 

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam 

Country: Germany 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4M7tsEDhfA

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam 

Country: Germany 

Brand: Google App
Ad Name: Search the Lyrics With Google
Agency: Ambilhati Indonesia Country: Indonesia 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KwVop6GlCw

Print and OOH winners

The ads in this category illustrate the power of creative to make a lasting brand impression in literally seconds

On the basis of the above, the top 2 ads in this section were as follows:

Brand: HSBC

Ad Name: No fixed address 

Agency: Wunderman Thompson 

Country: UK 

Brand: Estrella Damm 

Ad Name: Silja 

Agency: &Rosàs 

Country: UK 

TV winners

According to Kantar, the ads in this category demonstrate the continued sales-generating and brand-building ability of broadcast content.

Brand: BP

Ad Name: Blind Date 

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather 

Country: Spain 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGEVJvIppUc

Brand: Tim Hortons

Ad Name: Ask a Timbits Kid 

Agency: Zula Alpha Kilo 

Country: Canada 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWJunFOw-ng&feature=youtu.be

https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/creative-effective?utm_source=Pardot&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Creative-Effectiveness-Awards-2020

WPP and Kantar retail market research have just launched their 2020 BrandZ Most Valuable Global Retail Brands report, which identifies the world’s top 100 most valuable retail brands. The report is based on extensive insights from 3.9 million consumers worldwide combined with financial data from Bloomberg. It also reflects stock market performance through to mid-April 2020, in order to capture the impact of COVID-19 crisis. 

The rankings reflect brands that are pure retail, fast food, apparel and luxury.

Highlights from the report reveal that over the course of the preceding 12 months the value of the world’s top 75 retail brand has grown by 12% to $1.5 trillion.  To put this rise in context, Amazon alone grew its brand value by $415.9 billion and remains the world’s most valuable retail brand, commanding 27% of the top 75’s total brand value. 

The ranking provides an indication of the brands that are in the strongest position to withstand the impact of COVID-19, as they restructure their businesses to address the numerous challenges the virus presents.

The report emphasises the role of strong brand equity in enabling speedy brand recovery. It states that historical BrandZ data shows brands with strong equity recovered nine times more quickly following the financial crisis of 2008.

The report also asserts the importance of maintaining brand visibility in an appropriate manner during the crisis and details the activities being undertaken by some of the leading brands in this regard. For example; 

• Amazon (positioned at No.1), has managed demand, reduced its speed of delivery and prioritised the delivery of essential products

• Alibaba (No.2) has been using its AI expertise to help Chinese medics shorten coronavirus diagnosis time

• JD (No. 13) has been using its distribution network to deliver essential medical supplies and food

Not surprisingly, the fastest category riser is pure retail, as grocery outlets benefit from consumer stockpiling. Digitally-oriented brands fared well with Amazon, JD and Alibaba up 32%, 24% and 16% respectively.  But stablished bricks and mortar brands fared well too, with Costco, Target and Walmart up 35%, 27% and 24% respectively. 

Other highlights:

• McDonald’s (ranked No. 3 at $129 billion) remains the most valuable fast food brand globally, although other brands in the sector are experiencing rapid growth too as a result of delivery services and other innovations

• Louis Vuitton (No. 5 with a brand value of 152.5 billion) is the world’s most popular luxury brand, with a new, flagship store in Seoul and creative partnerships with major artists

• Nike (No. 6, $50 billion value) heads the Apparel category, as a result of collaborations, product customisation and e-commerce which have driven sales

The 2020 top 10 looks like this:

Graham Staplehurst, Global Director for BrandZ at Kantar commented:

‘Brand value isn’t just determined by financial performance but also by reputation in the eyes of consumers.  How retailers behave now in terms of helping people through the crisis, as well as the way in which they treat their staff and whether they comply with government and health advice, will be important to their survival.  Those that have actively demonstrated their relevance and usefulness and continue to do so as consumers’ lives start to get back to normal, will be best-placed to strengthen customer relationships both in the recovery phase and the long-term’.

For more information on creating the equity required to protect and grow your brand call Brandspeak on 0203 8580052 or at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

The Public’s View on the Government-Imposed Lockdown and how it should be Relaxed

22^nd April 2020

YouGov has just published the results of a survey conducted to assess the public’s view on the current lockdown and how and when the different measures should be relaxed or lifted.

Whilst a minority of the population are still flouting the Government-imposed rules, the survey results paint a picture of a population that is broadly in favour of the lockdown restrictions and the disruption they are causing –  even to the extent of wishing them to be extended.

For example, when asked about whether the Government should start loosening restrictions in c. 3 weeks as has been widely mooted, only 30% agreed it would be the right time,  whilst 26% felt that it would be the wrong time (i.e. it would be too early).  44% said they don’t know.

Regarding the criteria that the Government should use to determine whether or not the lockdown should be relaxed, the public again took a cautious view. 32% felt there has to be a ‘substantial’ fall in daily deaths beforehand, whilst 37% wished the Government to take a harder line and wait until no new cases are being reported.

The public was also clear about what the Government’s priorities should be, once it begins to lift the lockdown.

The reopening of schools and getting people back to work were regarded as the top priorities, whilst allowing people to travel to the UK from other countries and the holding of large events (such as sports or music festivals) were regarded as the lowest.

Finally, YouGov’s survey addressed a commonly-held view in the press that certain groups (e.g. those under 40) should have restrictions relaxed ahead of others. 

The survey revealed that 42% felt this would be wrong, with only 36% thinking this would be the right thing to do. 

On the other hand, 48% agreed that it would be right to both right and fair to loosen lockdown restrictions for NHS workers ahead of the general population.

Overall, YouGov’s survey paints a picture of a nervous public, that wishes to err on the side of caution at this present time.

Introduction

Over the coming months, the COVID-19 pandemic is going to make life very challenging for businesses as they attempt to deal with the economic downturn it is causing. 

However, this isn’t the first downturn most of us have experienced and it is just one of many that organisations have successfully navigated over the last 100 years – going right back to the time of the Great Depression!

There are some very simple, but very important actions that brands can take to protect themselves during recession.  If done well, some will even emerge stronger than they were before.

If in doubt, consider the words of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart.  When he was asked about the recession of 1991 and its likely effect on his company he said:

 I’ve thought about it, and decided not to take part!

In the same year, Wal-Mart went on to become the world’s largest retailer with a net sale of $43.9 billion. 

Below we have identified the top 5 actions brands should consider during a downturn.

1. Maintain or even increase advertising spend

Throughout previous recessions one truism has stood out consistently – those brands that cut advertising spend suffer more in the short term and take far longer to recover once the recession has abated.

Consider this excellent chart from Dentsu Aegis Network:

It shows clearly that during the 1990/91 recession the sales of those companies that maintained advertising spending kept on rising and that, as the recession receded they rebounded quickly.  

On the other hand, those that cut spending remained static during the recessionary years and their recover was much weaker in the years that followed.

Marketing commentator Mark Ritson supports the view that advertising budgets should be maintained. He says:

The reason why you should maintain your advertising budget during a recession is that recessions are always ultimately short-lived.  It will leave you with a stronger share position for many years afterwards, once things settle down.  You should view recession as a tough time, but also as the ultimate time to build brands and grow market share. 

In support of the above, Kantar’s recent COVID-19 survey reveals that only 8% of global consumers feel that brands should stop advertising during the crisis.  

However, the survey results also make clear the extent to which consumers feel that during the downturn brands shouldn’t attempt to capitalise on events but should instead demonstrate a real sense of responsibility both to their employees and to the wider community.

Specifically, the survey revealed:

• 45% of consumers want to see companies putting in place plans to protect the supply of services or products
• 74% of consumers believed brands should not exploit the situation
• 78% of consumers believed brands should help them in their daily lives 
• 75% of consumers believed brands should inform people of what they are doing.  
• Nearly 80% of consumers believed employee health should be treated as a priority 

These numbers suggest very clearly that consumers want and expect brands to step-up, rather than just ‘go dark’ and wait for the crisis to pass.

The emotive nature of these views also suggests that those brands that are seen to act accordingly will win customer favour that can benefit them in both the short and longer term. 

Consider this recent initiative by Scottish brewer Brewdog:

Brewdog has been using its distilleries to manufacture hand sanitiser which it has then been distributing free to charities and hospitals.  

At the same time, the brand has also launched virtual bars where consumers can share a beer online, whilst taking part in homebrew classes and virtual pub quizzes.  

Through these activities the brand has successfully demonstrated that it has a social conscience, supporting both the community and its customers during difficult times.

According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, two weeks after the initiatives were launched consumer perceptions of the brand were up by a statistically significant 4.6 points.

• Focus on your most profitable brands – and be ruthless if necessary

During a downturn its vital to support your healthiest and most profitable brands – the ones that generate the income that will help your business survive.  

If necessary, this may mean that less profitable members of the portfolio need to be  suspended or even cut, in order to free up budget.  

The problem is that, like consumers, companies can become emotionally attached to the brands they own.  

Often, these are the legacy brands that are closely associated with the heritage of the company.  Not only can they soak up precious budget during a downturn whilst offering relatively little in return, they also absorb a disproportionate amount of management time and attention to keep them afloat.

• Remind your core customers why they love you

Its much easier to re-activate existing customers after a downturn than it is to acquire new ones.  

After all, your existing customers know and trust you – they only hit the pause button because of the economic situation.  

Problem is, the longer they have done without your brand, the more they need to be reminded about it – and what made it their product or service of choice in the first place.

Consider a campaign that:

• prioritises your most important segments and reasserts the brand’s core credentials.  This  will remind people what they have been missing

• (re-)establishes emotional connection with your customers.   This helps to ensure that it gains System 1 stickiness and differentiates it from the competition

• Reward your core customers for their loyalty

Re-establishing the (emotional) connection between consumer and brand is essential, but on its may not be enough, as your competitors will also be fighting hard for your customers’ attention.  

All customers want financial recognition and reward from the brands they buy – particularly the ones they have been loyal to, particularly as they are likely to be under considerable, financial pressure of their own.

Correctly positioned discounts, giveaways and loyalty benefits act both as a reward and an incentive to buy.

• Review your brand positioning

Whilst we don’t advocate a knee-jerk reaction regarding brand strategy, conducting a review of your brand’s positioning is essential after a downturn.

This is because:

• The downturn may have caused consumers’ own expectations and priorities to change, at least in the short term,  meaning that your brand may have considerably less relevance and meaning than it once did.  

• Recession typically causes some brands to disappear and new ones to emerge.  Post-recession, the competitive landscape for your brand may well have changed.  This could be either an opportunity or a threat – but either way it needs to be recognised and addressed.

Moving forwards

Of course, there are many other steps that your brand will need to take as it re-establishes its momentum post-recession.    The question is, which steps do you need to undertake – and when?

Carefully constructed and executed market research is likely to be an essential part of this decision-making process.  For example, it can tell you:

• Which consumers have deserted you, why and what you need to do to recapture them
• Which competitors have prospered, why, and whether that has been at your brand’s expense
• Whether your brand’s proposition is still valid, whether it has been undermined by events, if it needs tweaking and how to do so
• If and how you need to rationalise your portfolio to give your fittest brands headroom
• The campaign messages and offers that are likely to resonate most strongly with consumers 

Brandspeak can help. For an informal chat call us on 44 (0) 203 858 0052 or contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk

Introduction

There is obviously a lot of talk about a COVID-19 recession right now, with comparisons being drawn with the economic slumps of 2008/9 and even the 1930’s.  

With startling surveys about plummeting consumer confidence emerging daily, along with dire projections regarding the impact on business and the economy, it easy to understand why.

But just how serious is the situation for consumers, marketers and brands?

Sobering COVID-19 statistics

The emerging figures are certainly stark.

Marketing Week’s COVID 19 survey at the beginning of April suggested 69% of UK businesses had already started to see a drop the demand for their products and services during March.  The figures were even worse for SMEs, with 77% reporting a drop in business.  

Clearly, most sectors are already feeling the impact and will continue to do so over the course of 2020 – and beyond. 

For example, a report by GlobalData on 24^th March suggested that UK retail sales are due to plummet by £12.6 billion over 2020 as a result of COVID-19, with the clothing and footwear sector alone predicted to fall by 20.6% to £11.1 billion. 

However, not all sectors are suffering equally in the short term.

Kantar reports that during March, UK supermarkets saw a 20% rise in sales overall, with corner shops actually recording a 30% sales spike during the same period.  

The organisation also confirms that during the week beginning 16^th March, 88% of UK households made an average of 5 shopping trips between Monday – Thursday of that week – equivalent to an additional 42 million shopping trips for the country as whole.

The result was that consumer spend during the period amounted to an additional £10.8 billion, contributing to Q1 grocery market growth rate of 7.6% – the highest in more than a decade.

Other sectors have also found favour during the pandemic. For example, YouTube reported a massive increase in watch time throughout February 2020. 

Italy, for example, saw a 2,000% rise in the amount of online content viewed during February, with Germany seeing a 1,100% rise. Britain saw a more modest 650% rise during this period, largely due to its lockdown beginning slightly later than many other European countries.

Not surprisingly, the effects of the pandemic on the economy are forecast to be profound – in the short term.

Currently, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is forecasting a 35% drop in the UK’s economic output for the 2^ndquarter of 2020, should the current lockdown remain in place for 3 months. 

The OBR also estimates that unemployment in the UK could rise to 2,000,000, or c. 10% of the working population in the short term, although this figure should ease later in the year.

However, whilst such forecasts are not unreasonable under the circumstances, the fact is that it is far too early to build economic models that can accurately paint a picture of the next 6-12 months. 

This is because so much depends on when lockdown can be relaxed and whether or not the UK then enters a phase of rolling lockdown that continues in to 2021.

Reasons for Cautious Optimism

And there are also some reasons for cautious optimism.  

For example, the 2008-9 recession was caused by a fundamental lack of liquidity.  This time it’s different, with many businesses having reasonable amounts of accessible cash on the balance sheet. 

Also, after 10 years of highly controversial austerity, the  balance sheet of UK PLC is also healthier than it was.  The country is therefore in a better place to offset the worst ravages of the pandemic, through subsidising wages, deferring taxes and undertaking additional borrowing.

In addition, even though the OBD is forecasting a contraction of up to 35% in the UK economy during the second quarter of 2020, it is also anticipated that with a gradual relaxation of the lockdown from May onwards,  the contraction is likely to be followed by a strong bounce in the quarter following.

Lastly, marketers learned a lot about surviving an economic downturn during the 2008-9 slump. The current crop of senior marketers are subsequently far better placed to navigate their brands through choppy waters this time around.

The Role of Market Research in a Downturn

Market research providers like Brandspeak have a significant role to play in helping B2C and B2B organisation’s navigate the downturn successfully .

• We can do this by assessing all aspects of your brand within the context of the changing needs, attitudes and (financial) behaviours of its target audience to address key questions such as:
• Does the existing customer segmentation model work during the downturn, or does the brand need to think afresh about who it should be targeting? If so, which are the ‘new’ priority targets and why?
• Do the brand proposition and positioning still stack up – or does the brand strategy and architecture need to be amended to better reflect the changing market place. If so, where does it need amending, how, and why?
• Is the pricing model still valid, should a new price point be adopted and / or should offers be implemented? If so, what would the new pricing regime look like?
• Is there a need or an opportunity to undertake range extension by introducing a more basic product or service – one better suited to the budget of the both the consumer and the organisation during the period of the downturn? If so, what would the new offer look like and what impact would its introduction have?
• Are the brand’s campaigns and marcoms still valid at the current time, or do they need adjusting to reflect a changing market place.

Please contact us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk for more information.

In the next COVID-19 Brand Snapshot we’ll focus on what else brands need to do to offset the damage that will otherwise be inflicted by COVID-19. 

Introduction

Perhaps you are relatively new to market research and find the research terms qualitative research and quantitative research totally unfamiliar (yet at the same time annoyingly similar).  If so, then this article is for you!

Or perhaps you are a seasoned marketer who makes frequent use of research but is occasionally unsure whether it is qualitative or quantitative data that would best suit your needs.  If so, then read on!

By the end of this article, you will not only know your qual from your quant, you’ll know what qual involves and when each is best applied. 

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative vs quantitative research definition

Whereas quantitative research focuses on measurement of the known, qualitative research typically involves the exploration of the unknown.

And whereas quantitative research is based on a pre-defined survey comprising mainly closed questions, qualitative research is conducted as a dialogue based on a discussion guide comprising a series of semi-structured, open questions posed by a moderator, 

The role of qualitative research

Due to its exploratory nature, qualitative research is perfect for use during the early stage development of brands, products, services and communications.  

On these occasions its role is typically to validate or enhance that development process, by identifying the relevant thoughts, needs, attitudes, motivations, expectations, beliefs and / or preferences of the target audience, as well as any actions or behaviours that these may give rise to.

Qualitative research examples

Qual may be used during early-stage development to:

• Evaluate and refine a new brand proposition
• Identify the defining attitudes and behaviours of the target audience 
• Assess and refine new product or service prototypes
• Assess a number of early stage advertising concepts 
• Review and optimise a multi-channel customer experience 

Examples of relevant projects include:

• Investigating the appeal of a proposed, new high street current account on behalf of a UK bank
• Assessing the appeal of the features and benefits proposed for a new type of insurance product on behalf of a major car insurer
• Reviewing changing attitudes and behaviours of Generation Z towards the consumption of meat and dairy products on behalf of a frozen food producer
• Identifying the ‘must-have’, experiential elements of a high street, automotive store concept capable of acting as a viable alternative  to ‘traditional’, out-of-town showrooms for a major car marque
• Exploring reactions to an online, medical proposition being designed as an alternative to the GP’s surgery on behalf of a new start-up
• Evaluating the potential of a  global, forecourt promotion to increase the consumption of premium fuel for a leading petrol retailer
• Exploring the attitudes and behaviours of business people to a new, online discussion forum aimed at the global business community

Qualitative vs quantitative research

Fine, but surely each the above examples could have been addressed using a variety of quantitative approaches instead?  Well, yes and no!  

All too often, organisations rush to quantify a subject before its parameters have been identified and understood.

When this happens, the quantitative results are likely to be incomplete.  At worst, they will be misleading.

Qualitative research methods and project sizes

Qualitative research is conducted face-to-face, by phone or online and the number of people involved is relatively small in comparison to the sample sizes typically involved in quantitative research.  

For example:

• A ‘typical’ qualitative research project may involve 2-6 focus groups, each lasting up to  2 hours and comprising up to 8 respondents each (making 16-48 respondents in total).  
• An online qualitative research exercise that utilises a bulletin board or community (MROC) may involve up to 30 respondents dipping in and out of the moderated e-discussion over a period of several days or weeks.  
• A qualitative research project comprising 1-2-1, phone or face-to-face depths may comprise no more than 5-10 interviews.  

Ad-hoc versus continuous qualitative research 

Broadly, there are two types of qualitative research project.  

Firstly, an ad-hoc, qualitative research project.  This term is used to describe a single qualitative research exercise, undertaken to address specific research objectives in the form of a one-off study.

Secondly, a continuous or longitudinal qualitative research project.  These terms are used to describe a qualitative research study of two or more stages run over a period of weeks, months or even years, to understand if and how people’s attitudes and behaviours regarding a particular subject are changing over time.

Qualitative research approach

Whatever the approach, some form of unstructured or semi-structured discussion guide will be used to provide a framework for the conversation.  That guide will contain a variety of open questions designed to ensure that:

• The discussion flows
• Subject matter can be is explored in a structured manner
• That exploration is conducted on both rational and emotional levels, using projective techniques to uncover unconscious sentiment.

Moderators may be free to diverge from the discussion guide and go ‘off-piste’, to explore individual comments, issues and ideas as they arise.

Qualitative research sessions are audio-recorded as standard (subject to necessary respondent permissions being obtained) and possibly video-recorded as well.  If the research is conducted in a bespoke research facility then clients may choose to watch and listen to proceedings from behind a one-way mirror.

The role of projective techniques in qualitative research

Any qual research project tasked with exploring the consumer’s reaction to a particular brand, concept or experience has to be capable of accessing the fundamental thoughts, feelings and associations of research respondents.

The challenge for the researcher is that the subject’s top-of-mind responses are likely to emanate from the System 1, conscious mind, meaning that they are also likely to be logical, superficial and potentially even misleading.

The insights that researchers require are typically buried deep within the respondents’ System 2, subconsciousmind and further obscured by the influence of cultural and social norms, heuristics and intuition.

Projective techniques are therefore used as a means of gaining access to the sub-conscious mind and the wealth of insights it holds for researchers.  

Such techniques have their origins in clinical psychology and have been adapted for use in marketing and market research, with both B2C and B2B research audiences 

The simplest example of a project technique is brand personification.   Brand personification enables moderators to probe the respondents’ brand perceptions indirectly, by asking them to consider that brand in human form.  

Questioning might go as follows:

Imagine that Brand X came to life as a person.  What sort of person would they be?

The moderator can then probe on physical characteristics such as gender and appearance, as well as emotion-led issues such as personality,  likes, dislikes, shortcomings and aspirations.

Depending on the degree to which respondents are able to work with this particular projective technique, respondents can also be asked to think even more laterally and comment on where the persona lives, the type of car they drive (this can also be the subject of a separate projective exercise) and the sort of friends that they have.

Projective techniques can also be visual in nature.  A common example of a visual projective is the mood board or collage, where respondents can be asked to express their thoughts and feelings regarding Brand X using different forms of visual imagery.  

Magazines are a great source of such imagery, and respondents can be directed spend time sifting through them identifying pictures, colours, words and icons that all reflect their impression of the brand in some way – even if they can’t think why.

Once complete, the collage becomes the subject of further discussion, whereby the moderator works with the respondents to understand  the significance of the different themes emerging.

Ultimately, the success of any such technique depends on the moderator’s ability to select the right projective in the first place, to introduce it appropriately and then analyse and understand the feedback received, separating that which is merely interesting but ultimately irrelevant, from that which truly adds to brand understanding and insight.

Data analysis in qualitative research

When analysing the research recordings they have made, many researchers will opt to have those recordings transcribed, whilst others will simply listen back to them, making notes on a ‘coding frame’ as they go.  

The purpose of the frame is to cluster responses by question or by theme, so that relevant comments from across the research sample can be quickly and easily isolated and analysed.

Whilst some researchers will then compile a debrief that faithfully reports on the feedback gained in relation to each question (whether it is significant or not), others adopt a more interpretive, consultative approach whereby they will discard feedback that they regard as insignificant, whilst interpreting and adding value to feedback that they regard as relevant and important.

Qualitative research – a final word

Ultimately, the insights delivered by qualitative research that is capable of going beyond the obvious can make the difference between commercial success and failure.  

Brandspeak specialises in providing qualitative research capable of identifying game-changing insights that can turn a so-so brand in to a sector-defining champion. 

More information

For further insights about qualitative research read Brandspeak’s article on The skills and attributes required to become a great qualitative researcher

Or read about Brandspeak’s qualitative research offer on our website.

Contact

For more information on Brandspeak’s qualitative research capabilities please email us at enquiries@brandspeak.co.uk or call us on +44 (0) 203 858 0052.