Solutions
Manage, track, and grow your brand with always-on, actionable insights.
Monitor and optimise the long and short-term effects of your marketing efforts.
Measure and track your campaign’s performance before, after, and as it happens.
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Here is a PDF describing Nepa’s thoughts and solutions on how to make sure you have the right tone of voice in your communication.
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Here is a PDF describing Nepa’s thoughts on how to approach market research and opportunities during COVID-19.
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In today’s world, making sure your marketing budget is optimally utilised across all channels and target groups is no small task. That’s why our Marketing Mix Modeling has a modern flair to ensure the best outcome for every campaign.
Today’s customers expect brands to use a personalized approach, catered to their specific needs. This not only means you need to have the correct message, but also need to reach them at the right time, and in the appropriate channels. Given that the number of possible channels have increased dramatically, customers have become accustomed to a higher standard when it comes to corporate communications. It’s hard to get this right every time and for every customer.
READ ALSO: Power-up your Marketing Mix with brand expertise and data science
So how do you ensure that marketing efforts are managed in the most optimal way? Marketing Mix Modeling has been used for many years, but many of these are based on models created in the past. Digital channels made things much more complicated that is why we at Nepa decided to take a new and modern approach.
We built a modern Marketing Mix Model to ensure optimal performance across all channels, not just the traditional ones. Because let’s face it, when you start adding Google Ads, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and Pinterest to the mix of TV, radio and OoH, monitoring and optimizing your campaign performances becomes really tricky.
Well, let me tell you.
Firstly, we have exclusive partnerships with the world’s largest Digital Advertising Platforms – Google, Facebook, and Snap. This means that you get the best available data from your campaign performances, not only traditional, but also digital channels .
Secondly, our algorithms allow you to look at campaign performances for both long-term and short-term perspectives. This enables you to adapt your marketing strategies to drive sales over multiple intervals, not just for your next marketing campaign.
READ ALSO: Benefits och Path to Purchase Analysis
Thirdly, predicting your customers next move is crucial to ensure that you reach your audience with the right message, at the right time. Our prediction algorithms will definitely help you when it comes to understanding what your target audiences are going to do next.
How do I know that I will get a solution catered to my needs?
Nepa is a fully independent company, which means that we will help you find the best mix to reach your marketing goals based on actual performance.
Our system is designed to take both your internal factors (product changes, prices etc.) and external factors (weather, competitor activities, holidays etc.) into account. This ensures that the suggestions our system provides will always have your best interest in mind.
That is an excellent question and here are two suggestions:
We look forward to helping you get the most out of your marketing budget!
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The old saying “out of sight – out of mind” is never as true as when it comes to brand awareness. The brands that consumers are continuously exposed to are the ones that stay top of mind. But how do you know your target audience’s brand awareness, if you don’t use brand tracking?
Brand awareness is the relationship your audience has with your brand. It therefore includes if people recognize your brand, how they relate to it, what their sentiment regarding your brand is and how they convert to purchase. Having a high brand awareness means people respond well to your brand, are more loyal and also more likely to recommend your brand to their peers. Brand tracking metrics are therefore crucial to making the right brand decisions.
READ ALSO: Brand research: What is it & why is it important?
So how do you then measure your brand awareness? The answer is continuous brand tracking! With a good brand tracking method, you are able to understand your audience’s awareness of your brand, and thus know how they interact with it. But your job is not finished by just doing continuous brand tracking.
You probably sell to many different consumers. Not all of your target groups are likely to have the same brand awareness, so you need to break them down to different niche groups. It could be people in specific geographic regions, of different ages and genders, that have varying educational or income levels.
Brand tracking allows you to get a clearer picture of each group. This in turn gives you relevant information of what your goals should be for each. For one group you might want to keep your current level and focus on performance marketing, while for other groups you might need more targeted efforts. You therefore need to track your brand’s performance with regards to these different consumer groups.
READ ALSO: Benefits of Path to Purchase Analysis
Keeping all these brand metrics relevant, accessible and actionable might seem like a lot of work. But when using Nepa’s proven brand tracking system and taking advantage of the many years of experience we have, recurring brand tracking becomes easy, quick, effective and actually really fun. At every turn of the road, you know what lies ahead, how your audiences respond to your brand and how to keep the right balance between your brand awareness activities and your performance activities.
Want to know more about how we can help your company? Contact us and we’ll tell you all about it!
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If you are new to marketing, or have just taken over a brand, then your first order of business should be to start brand tracking. Knowing the health of your and is a fundamental component when making business decisions.
In the field of marketing there are lots of different activities and tasks you should be doing to various degrees. But there is one thing you should never skimp on, and that’s your brand tracking. Knowing how consumers perceive your brand is the basis for all your business decisions, and without it you risk running away from your customers, rather than running towards them.
READ ALSO: Brand research: What is it & why is it important?
Sure, you need to do performance-focused activities – planning your sales funnel, customer journeys and all the things that drive sales. But before all that, you need to understand your customers opinion of your brand, as their opinion lays the foundation for how they prefer to interact with your business. Without that knowledge your performance marketing activities are like shooting arrows in the dark. Sure, you might hit your target, but with brand tracking you turn the lights on and can zoom in for a bullseye.
Many who have worked in the marketing industry for a longer time already know this, and probably already have a well developed procedure for continuously tracking their brand. But starting out, it can be hard to know exactly how to go about it, and what the most efficient and reliable method is.
READ ALSO: What is brand tracking and why is it important?
We at Nepa strive to make continuous brand tracking as easy and cost-efficient as possible for our clients. We want them to focus their efforts on performance based activities, with the assured knowledge that their brand is on track with their customers.
Brand tracking is the basics of brand management, but it should not constitute a major part of your working day. Make sure that you have the results at hand, so you can keep hitting the bullseye.
Nepa Brand Health Tracking drives your business forward.
Want to know more about Nepa Brand Health Tracking? Contact us today to speak with an expert!
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Captain Branson? That’s right – Sir Richard Branson is getting into the cruise business.
Virgin Voyages sets sail in April 2020 offering a unique “Adult-by-Design” experience that allows Sailors to chart their personal course across the great ocean blue. Where tranquility meets curiosity. Restorative mornings or late nights under the stars — it’s all about balance your way. I’m not offended if you want to take a moment and book your sailing at www.virginvoyages.com before reading on!
You all set then? Welcome back!
The offer excites us too – but we also love the importance Virgin Voyages puts on experience to drive a strong and differentiated brand position. I’ve enjoyed a front row seat as the lead Nepa consultant helping Virgin Voyages to build the insights engine to ensure Virgin Voyages delivers on its brand and experience vision.
I recently connected with Christopher Stubbs, Senior Director of Sailor (Customer) Experience at Virgin Voyages – it’s a great chat about travel, branding, experience, targeting and more!
EE – Erik Enecker, MD Nepa US:
CS – Christopher Stubbs, Virgin Voyages:
Virgin is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and challenging the status quo – as many have experienced with our sister brands such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains, Virgin Money and more, we’re continuing to raise the bar, proving that not even the sky’s the limit with Virgin Galactic. Today, our sights are set on the seven seas because there are so many people that would love to cruise but aren’t inspired by the by the current offer. As a result, we spoke to this evolving market and designed a different way to sail. We call it Virgin Voyages and we are on a mission to create an Epic Sea Change for All.
CS: I’d love to. We want our people (our crew) to enjoy a successful, caring and generous place to work. We want the communities in the places we sail to thrive on a true entrepreneurial partnership. We have invested in technology and partnerships to secure a healthy future for our oceans and we want to build a strong, rewarding relationship with our First Mates (travel agency partners).
We want our Sailors’ holidays to be unforgettable, unexpected and unrivaled. We’ve designed each voyage to have a lasting impact on our Sailors, and in turn have curated an experience that will not simply be the best week of their year, it’ll be the best experience of their lives.
CS: First, we are very clear about defining who our Sailor is because Virgin Voyages is decidedly not designed to appeal to everyone by being a mass market experience. We call them Eager Explorers, equal parts curious and craver that represent a mix of high-energy experiences, relaxation and rejuvenation. We welcome all adult Sailors and know that some will be drawn to Virgin Voyages based on age, cruise history, income and other dynamic characteristics. You see this reflected in some big business decisions, like the one we announced last year, when we told the market we are designing an experience for adults 18+, as we all know even Mum’s and Dad’s need a break from the little ones now and then.
Knowing that our Sailors are well traveled and expect authentic, bespoke experiences allows us to tailor everything that we say and do toward delivering them the voyage of a lifetime.
Research has been very valuable in this regard – from initially defining the segment of the market Virgin Voyages will appeal to diving deep into understanding expectations of specific “tribes” within that group. Clearly defined Sailor Segmentation needs is core to our strategy – and we’ll continue to engage our Sailors to learn more about how they find balance and their passion points enabling us to continually evolve and adjust our experience offer to meet their needs.
CS: You’re right – brand and experience are two critical pieces to deliver the voyage we promise our Sailors. So, we are developing sophisticated ways to track both with the appropriate audience.
We have established a brand tracking program that allows us to see how the general public is perceiving the Virgin Voyages brand and analyzing that to be sure that our marketing and communication is resonating and delivering our core differentiation messages to “Eager Explorers.”
As the experience lead, I’m excited about the program we’re building for our Sailor Experience research with Nepa. Like everything a Sailor does with us, giving feedback is part of the experience – so we capture feedback in-moment, through our app, in a short and elegant fashion. We will also follow up with our Sailors’ at regular intervals after their voyage to be sure that we’ve delivered lasting satisfaction. Beyond being respectful in how we collect feedback, we honor or Sailors’ time by committing to act on feedback. Because feedback is integrated in our app, we can ensure that any service failures are immediately addressed and knowing what sailors love, and don’t love enables us to make better recommendations to them about the experiences we have on offer.
CS: Ignore insights at your peril! We all know businesses that thrive have their fingers on the pulse, tracking the ever changing needs of customers, while using their people’s creativity to continually think about how we do things better. Insights are critical to business, a bit like a compass (or perhaps GPS nowadays) is critical to navigating a ship at sea.
We are not setting out to create a great experience just on Scarlet Lady’s Maiden Voyage, but are looking to start the journey of experience creation that will fuel how Sailors experience Virgin Voyages on all four of our ships in the future. This will require continuous innovation that is grounded in understanding what our Sailors need and expect from travel. We’ll continue to evolve our segmentation model and the understanding of the different types of Sailors’ that choose us.
By integrating our experience and operational data, we’re setting ourselves up to be able to prioritize the moments that matter most for creating lifelong memories for our Sailors. We can be very intentional about the experiences that we continue, improve, or create through an understanding of how our Sailors feel when aboard the Scarlet Lady.
CS: I hope they come and check it out – we’d love to have you on board!
Let me start with some industry norms that we’ve crushed: No waterslides (our ship is built for adults, not for kids), No buffets (besides being wasteful, our Sailors will enjoy the same quality food as they expect on land, all freshly cooked to order), No main dining halls (our sailors hate mass experiences), No Broadway shows (our future sailors say they have seen it already and have challenged us to create brand new experiences, not to replicate existing ones), No having to be back on board before sunset (experience destinations after dark!), No Nickel and Diming (we’ve ditched painful gratuities and other pesky charges for things like water and WiFI – after all they are basic human rights!), No forced formality (no stuffy formal dress codes – simply come as you are).
Okay, now to what we are. We like to call our style Rebellious Luxe – a predictably unpredictable experience where diverse experiences exist alongside each other. High energy events sit alongside relaxing moments and glamorous night clubs and restaurants sit next to lounge areas, relaxed eateries and spaces to chillax in.
When sailing with us you can expect a festival of choice at sea. There are too many places to eat and drink and too many other things on offer to see and do on one voyage. There are many ways to experience a voyage with us and each Sailor will make their own personal journey through our festival of choice. That’s part of the fun. Making plans with partners and friends, or simply going with the flow and making spontaneous decisions in the moment. Every Sailor will get off telling a different story as to how they sailed with us and leave knowing there is so much more to do, see and explore when they come back.
CS: My pleasure, Erik. And thanks to you and Nepa for supporting our voyage and helping uncover what our Sailors are expecting when they set sail with us in April 2020.
This article was written by:
Erik Enecker, MD Nepa US
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Understand and increase marketing effectiveness through deeper understanding of the market.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Feb 4th, 2020) – Nepa, a leading Consumer Research and analytics company, providing insight solutions to drive brand and sales by increasing marketing effectiveness, has been chosen by GANT to implement and run a brand tracking program to help GANT understand all their main markets, set goals and drive growth going forward.
“We chose Nepa as a brand insight partner after doing a study with them where they really showed their skills in understanding our brand and our opportunities. Since this is a global assignment, the collaboration will be an important component in our strategy going forward since our brand’s strength is of highest priority for us.” said Eleonore Säll, Executive Vice President of Global Brand at GANT.
“GANT is an iconic brand and we are absolutely thrilled to be working with them with what we do best, brand tracking and advisory on multiple markets as a fundament for effective building of brand and business,” said P-O Westerlund, CEO at Nepa.
GANT is the original American lifestyle brand with European sophistication, offering premium clothing, accessories and home furnishings for men, women and kids. Born in 1949 on the campuses of the American East Coast universities and raised in Europe, GANT enjoys a global presence in over 70 markets, 750 stores and 4,000 selected retailers. Please visit gant.com for more information.
Headquartered in Stockholm, with offices in Norway, Finland, Denmark, UK, USA, and India, we help some of the world’s most reputable brands in more than 50 countries to optimize customer experience investments and get more effect out of their marketing and sales. Nepa has been awarded DI Gasell’s award for organic fast-growing companies six times since 2011. The company is publicly traded at the Nasdaq First North Growth Market stock exchange since 2016. Erik Penser Bank AB is Nepa’s Certified Adviser (phone: +46 8-463 83 00, e-mail: certifiedadviser@penser.se).
Contact
P-O Westerlund
CEO
Maria Skolgata 83, 118 53 Stockholm, Sweden
+46 706 404 824 p-o.westerlund@nepa.com
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In an ever-increasing competitive world, companies need to find their forward momentum in something more than traditional marketing, sales and distribution. We at Nepa found CX Customer Experience to be that competitive edge.
A recent study discovered that companies who have truly embraced customer experience are three times more likely to exceed their business goals, an amazing feat for any company in any industry.
Data from the study also suggests that if two near-identical companies, both offering the same products or services and operating in the same industry, the market leader of the two will be the one with an implemented CX strategy.
READ ALSO: Benefits of Path to Purchase Analysis
If CX is the game changer then what is CX? Well, here at Nepa we define CX, or Customer Experience, as the experiences that matters the most to your customers. By placing a continuous focus on your customers experiences, no matter where or how, you will ensure that the very lifeline of your business is on track. Also, if your business is on track you will have both time and resources to optimize for market growth.
Yes, it can and we have the experience to prove it. Here at Nepa we have CX technology and expertise to deliver customer-centric growth in 4 steps. Furthermore, the companies we work with are well known leaders in their markets.
By following our proven approach, you will optimize your customer experience to drive growth.
READ ALSO: Power-up your Marketing Mix with brand expertise and data science
It is already the end of January and 2020 will not wait for any late bloomers. So contact us today and start your CX journey.
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Brand is back. A strong, sustainable brand is a critical component in generating long-term sales, so companies are investing in brand building communications and marketing.
So, what’s the silver bullet in measuring brand value? Unfortunately, there isn’t one. But there are metrics you should pay particular attention to. Almost as important as the metrics you choose are the frequency with which you review them. Fortunately, this is clear cut – you need to measure continuously. Reviewing your brand metrics once a quarter, or worse, once a year doesn’t cut it. Your brand is the living, beating heart of your organization. Now that that’s settled, let’s get back to the hard part – below, we have outlined six metrics that should be part of a weekly review to have brand impact.
Do shoppers know your brand exists in the market? Do the right shoppers know your brand exists? Measuring if shoppers having general awareness of your brand is one of the first metrics that you’ll want to pay close attention to. Generally, awareness lets a company know if they are breaking through the noise. If your shoppers are not aware of your presence in a category, this may be a good place to shift focus and resources.
Similar to general awareness, media recall tells a company if they are being seen and heard. Where general awareness establishes who knows the brand exists, media recall goes a level deeper. You have a brand message, but is it memorable? You spend millions of dollars to support the brand, and you need to know the marketplace impact. Some channels will create a more memorable experience than others. Knowing which ones are the most productive will allow you to allocate your budget more efficiently. Those channels will change, so to understand what’s working you need to track this metric on an ongoing basis.
READ ALSO: Brand tracking is key to increase brand awareness
This metric is unique from the others in this list that it’s not generated from an overall brand tracking study, but rather from an ad tracking study that builds up from consumer reaction to individual advertising units. Whether as a standalone program or part of a sophisticated brand tracking program, ad tracking is critical to improving marketing and communications tactics to move the overall brand metrics.
As shoppers move along the path to purchase, are they considering your brand? Why or why not? Having a presence during the consideration stage can provide a strong understanding if shoppers see value in your brand. Also, you need to know what drives consideration, and how to influence it. How, when, and where to push the right buttons.
Measuring consideration is a strong metric that can provide insight in a number of ways.
It’s not just shoppers who matter, understanding your position relative to your competitors is vital, too. How do you stack up? On price? On products? On service? – All up, how is your brand experience different than your competitors. If your products are similar, you have to find other ways to differentiate yourself. Building a strong brand is critical to creating a unique position in the marketplace.
A strong brand can translate into a willingness to pay on the part of shoppers as the perceived value of the brand is factored into the cost of the product or service. This is in some ways the end game for brand development – creating a strong shopper preference – and a sense of value – that feeds through into a willingness to accept, or even embrace, premium pricing.
READ ALSO: Brand research: What is it & why is it important?
The final piece – brand preference. It takes the longest to establish but adds major value. Preferred vendors often get the first look from shoppers, and the first opportunity to capture a sale. Those who offer similar products face less pressure to compete on cost, which can contribute to overall profitability. If you have become a preferred brand, you’re ahead of the pack.
If you acknowledge that brand is vital, then you have to measure its impact. Unfortunately, marketing ROI measurement as it is currently practiced tends to focus on influencing short-term sales while the effect of long-term brand investment is either ignored altogether or not taken fully into account.
Understanding the brand Metrics that Actually Matter allows you to measure its impact in the most cost- and time-efficient way. With those metrics in hand, resources can then be more effectively allocated between supporting short-term decision making and longer-term brand support. Your brand building initiatives then become more intelligent and focused, delivering measurably better ROI across the marketing program.
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A key challenge of implementing a CX program is demonstrating its value up and down the organization. To do that, you have to show that it delivers results. There are no shortage of metrics available, but that’s part of the challenge: big data doesn’t always mean big insights. How do you identify the metrics that really matter?
While what matters will differ from company to company and even unit to unit, there are some basic principles that apply. You need to have a 360 degree view of the customer, one that includes both observed and stated loyalty as well as behavioral and emotional characteristics. You want to identify metrics that clearly deliver business value and, ultimately, drive an increase in revenues and a growing customer base.
READ ALSO: Brand tracking is key to increase brand awareness
As a first step, you have to define the most effective KPIs. To do this, you need to understand and define how loyalty drives your business and which types of loyalty are most important. There are stated and observed emotional metrics, and stated and observed behavioral metrics. Each has its value, depending on what you want to do and the audience, but it is generally agreed that from a customer point of view emotional loyalty is more enduring than behavioral loyalty and observed behavior more insightful than stated behavior. Still, each has something to add to the overall picture.
Keeping in mind that there is no real “magic bullet,” what tools are available to help you capture the metrics that actually matter? We have identified six.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has gained huge traction in the last ten years, with the consulting firm Bain and others claiming it’s the only data point needed to predict consumer behavior. This seems to us overly optimistic. The metric divides customers into three categories: detractors, passives, and promoters. The score is determined by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. It’s an important number and can be very effective in change management because it’s easy to understand.
READ ALSO: Brand research: What is it & why is it important?
Repurchase Intent is another good metric. This seeks to measure loyalty by tracking a customer’s intent to stay a customer. It’s especially powerful for subscription-based services as it implicitly incorporates barriers to switching.
Cross Selling is a good number, too. It captures existing customers intent to buy more products or services from a company, an important indication of loyalty and a powerful tool for growing the business.
Price Tolerance is another way to measure just how loyal your customers are. Are they willing to pay more for your product? How much more? The preference for your products versus your competitors at various price points can reveal a lot about their loyalty.
READ ALSO: Benefits of Path to Purchase analysis
The Customer Loyalty Index (CLI) is a standardized measure designed to track loyalty over time. It incorporates the values of NPS, repurchase intent, and cross selling. While this would seem to be an interesting metric, in practice it’s often hard to understand and its value difficult to communicate. Most users will find its constituent metrics more valuable as standalone tools.
Finally, there is Share of Wallet, a metric that measures how consumers divide their spending among various brands in a specific category. This tool works best for fast moving consumer brands and can offer insights into relative strength and market share. It’s less helpful for modelling purposes and, like CLI, can be hard to communicate.
READ ALSO: CX is a game changer – here is why
Few businesses can survive for long without customer loyalty. No one can stay ahead of the competition all the time, and loyalty buys you breathing space, it allows you to experiment with new products and services and to make the occasional mistake. CX is designed to provide insight into how to develop and grow that kind of loyalty.
But simply implementing a program is not enough: you have to prove its value every day. To do that, you have to measure, and to make your measurements effective, you have to have the right metrics. Those metrics, in turn, must be selected for their ability to generate business value.
