Finding “Eureka!”
For nearly every branding effort, a quantitative research methodology such as a telephone survey or opinion poll is a waste.
Why? Any successful brand strategy must rely upon a deep understanding revealing more than the obvious, about the audiences you seek to attract, and about your organization or product. It’s all about finding what you do not know, and mining those insights to your advantage.
Ask the Coca Cola Company. You know the story. Coca Cola relied upon 200,000 blind taste tests, focus groups, and surveys in deciding to launch New Coke in April 1985. Three months later, company president Donald R. Keough admitted, “We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola.”
A quantitative opinion poll is useful if tactical information is needed about an established brand. For example, a brand manager wants to know what others think about a well-known established brand, where little has changed within the competitive environment.
A quantitative approach is NOT useful if information dependent on memory recall is needed, or if the brand manager does not know relevant functional, emotional and affiliation levers behind the decision-making process of audiences she seeks to influence.
Any branding effort should look beyond what is readily articulated, and instead dig beneath the surface to uncover what people don’t know they know. Only then are the important mental levers behind human decision-making identified.
Instead of hosting focus groups or performing hundreds of telephone or web-based surveys, we observe and question people in one-on-one settings and, where possible, as they move through their everyday lives. We spend time conversationally questioning and listening as they reveal everyday interactions and behaviors of import to you and your institution, rather than sitting in a room among a group and asking questions such as, “Tell us, what do you think about this shampoo?”
The result is this work leads to entirely new ways to view audiences you seek to engage and influence – the big insight, the “Eureka!” moment – exposing much larger opportunities for human connection than previously understood. A window is opened to convert people you wish to attract to your preferred point of view, offering a unique and ownable advantage any competitor would envy.
Finding “Eureka!” is where your breakthrough begins.
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