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A Complete Guide To Online Brand Research

November 01, 2022

Woman, digital tablet and graphic design in studio for creative art brand, online shopping website or e commerce logo. Thinking designer, artist or student on technology for online brand research ideas by window.

Karen Chandler

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Conducting online brand research is an important process to improve your customer and user experience. It can be very helpful to increase the understanding of your audience and their needs, as well as develop positive strategies.

What is online brand research?

Online brand research involves processes that can help identify information and opportunities on a service or product. This can be done through gathering data such as audience demographics including age and gender and analysing or interpreting it to improve the product or service prior to launch. The data analysed can also include behaviour patterns to see what choices your users are making before completing a purchase or making a conversion.

What is the purpose of online brand research?

As mentioned above, brand research can lead to opportunities to build new strategies and improve user experience. It can also identify key demographics that enable you to correctly cater for your market.

With brand research, you’ll be able to identify your competitors and explore how you can do things differently to succeed. When you understand your customer, you understand their behaviour, and by knowing this you can tailor your marketing strategy.

The online brand research processes

There are multiple ways you can conduct online brand research. It’s important to plan out the methods of research in order to get the most out of your study and be prepared for every situation. The two most common methods are primary research and secondary research.

Primary online brand research

Primary research involves a more direct approach to gathering information. Conducting primary research often requires you to have selected your target audience, and using it to create a summary.

Examples of primary research include conducting interviews, distributing surveys and hosting group observations. Interviews can be done over the phone or online via video call, surveys can also be done online on platforms such as SurveyMonkey, and observations can be done through group video calls.

Primary research gathers data that has not been collected before, creating brand new conclusions that you can use to your advantage when creating a marketing strategy.

Secondary online brand research

Secondary research, unlike primary research, involves using existing research to form conclusions. Using public knowledge and primary research sources, you can define your audience and use this information to compile your own summary reports.

This can make processes more efficient by saving time and resources, however, the research might not always be specific enough to the data you’re aiming to collect, so many opt for primary research.

How to conduct online brand research

Research current trends

A good starting point is to research the current trends within your industry. This can help you decide on campaigns and strategies that will attract attention and stay relevant. It will also help you to decide on topics that are at a high point of discussion and answer consumer questions.

Research current competitors

Researching your competitors can be a great way to see what they currently offer and how you can work to stand out by offering more or something unique to your brand. This can encourage you to ask certain questions during primary research in order to see if new ideas will receive positive feedback.

If you don’t know who your current competitors are, try searching for your keywords on Google and see who ranks for the same terms the ones you target. For example, if you are a sofa company, search for ‘Corner sofas for sale’ and see if other brands are ranking higher than you. You can also use tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush to pull up data on competitors.

Work out your intended audience

You might already know who your target audience is, however, once you have researched your competitors you can also determine more specific demographics. This includes factors like age, profession, gender, industry they work in and income. This will help you when designing your user personas when producing campaigns.

Stay unbiased

It’s important to refrain from including your own opinions into the data collected. This is because although unintentional, it can cause the results to be interpreted differently rather than from a neutral perspective. You want to remain objective so that you can accurately analyse the data and use it to improve your product or service.

Prepare questions that will engage the audience

Once you’ve worked out your competitors and your target audience, you can now start to think about questions for your research. These need to be relevant and need to be asked in a way that gets useful responses.

For instance, if you work in the mattress industry, you’ll need to consider questions that may have multiple answers. For example, when asking ‘what type of mattress do you prefer?’ rather than an open-ended response, give participant options such as ‘Firm, medium-firm, soft’ etc. This can gain more specific answers and there’s no confusion to the response.

To make questions more engaging, you can reach out on social media or through other channels for online campaigns. This can include methods such as polls which can get instant responses that are then shared with other users. Again, multiple choice questions can be a preferred method for participants because it’s quicker and requires less effort.

Create a conclusion based on findings from your online brand research

Once you have collected all of the data, you can start writing up a conclusion of the findings. This can be in the form of a summary showing graphs and percentages to see the overall results. You can then road map an action plan to combat any issues and move forward with your brand.

Brand tracking services

Brand tracking is a great part of online brand research. By measuring your current marketing activities, brand tracking can analyse what you need to do in order to meet your customers needs. It gives your the data to identify issues and opportunities, and act on them to rise above competitors..

Market segmentation for online brand tracking

Market segmentation can also improve your brand through online research. Looking at your current strategy and carrying out an in-depth analysis on your audience’s demographics such as age and gender can create a segmentation model that is adapted to your brand. It can also be used to see what is driving consumers to competitor brands through behaviour analysis.

If you’re looking to utilise online brand research to increase your user experience and reach out to target consumers then take a look at all of our services. You can also contact us to find out more.

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Buyer Journey Mapping: How to Create One

October 31, 2022

Karen Chandler

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What is a client journey map?

A client journey map, also called a user experience journey map or buyer journey map, is a name for the process of defining and mapping out the journey or steps that your consumers go through. This process goes from your customer finding your product or service through to purchase.

Why do we need buyer journey mapping?

An effective buyer journey map can help you understand your target consumers’ needs and wants. Understanding their requirements better allows you to improve your processes and identify things that may be difficult or could run smoother.

7 steps of the complex customer journey map

There are many things to consider when creating a buyer journey map and certain factors to take into account. The following things need to be considered in order to cover all problems and examine all types of buyers and possible situations, here are the 7 steps of the buyer journey map.

1. Decide your buyer journey mapping persona type

Creating a buyer persona is essential when creating a product or service, this process puts everyone in the business on the same page, with the same end goal.

You need to have a buyer in mind to effectively target individuals to gain consumers that will need and want your product or services. Creating a buyer persona should be the first step before outlining your buyer journey map; this ensures a seamless and successful end-to-end user journey. It’s also important to add goals and difficulties so you can overcome these potential obstacles.

Factors in a persona type include age, location, gender, job title, events they attend, and interests. One example of a buyer persona type could include:

A female living in London, she is 26 and likes the theatre, cooking, and rock gigs. She works in marketing from home and owns one dog. Her goals include creating engaging and easy-to-understand marketing campaigns, and she struggles with finding one at a suitable price that is simple to use.

From this, you can then work out how your service can overcome these problems, such as having a lower-cost design template to use than your competitors, with tools that are easy and simple to navigate, avoiding complications.

Another example could include more specific traits of a buyer persona. For instance, as well as the basic demographics you can add questions that narrow down your persona into a more specific example. Some questions include ‘What obstacles do you encounter frequently when looking for a marketing tool?’ and ‘What makes you, as a consumer, happiest and why?’. Then you can aim to answer these questions to eradicate any future concerns other consumers may have.

2. Identify what problems could arise from these buyer types

There’s always a risk of problems becoming apparent during the buyer journey map. This could be because buyer personas are specific, and so it can be difficult to suit each buyer’s needs.

3. Work out how we can combat these issues

The great thing about a buyer persona is that once issues have been identified from creating different target consumers, you can tweak your customer journey map to come up with effective solutions.

4. Ask yourself, do other companies compete for this?

It’s a good idea to list other companies that offer a similar product or service, then see what solutions they offer their consumers. You can view their solutions and see how they compare to yours, conduct a competitor analysis, or review to clearly identify differences.

5. Explore what you can do differently

Once you have outlined the differences between you and your competitors, ask yourself some questions your buyer will have when they search for each of these competitors. For example ‘does this company offer a free version or trial?’. Use the analysis conducted to spot gaps in the market that you can offer your consumers as a unique selling point.

6. Map out the buyer’s journey

Now is the time to refer to the 3 stages of the buyer journey map, but what are the three stages of a buyer journey map?

Awareness stage

The awareness stage involves your consumers experiencing issues or problems, however, they are unable to identify what the issue is. The seller’s aim here is to address these problems and identify what can be done to resolve them. This could include visual infographics, informative content or guides, and questionnaires.

Consideration stage

The consideration stage takes place once the individual finds out the problem and starts researching how to solve it. This stage is just as important as the other stages, however often gets overlooked by businesses. It is a great chance to create detailed content that answers all of the questions your consumer might have, this can be created based on the factors learned within the awareness stage.

Decision stage

The decision stage starts once the approach has been agreed upon. You can promote your service or product at this stage and show how you responded to issues and solved them. This allows the person to choose you and make their final buying decision. For example, if someone is looking for a restaurant near them, they may also be looking for a restaurant that has disabled access and vegan options.

7. How to use a customer journey map to create new content

Now that you have successfully identified where your existing content or solution fits into your buyer’s journey, you can now look into fixing any gaps that have been discovered in the previous stages.

It’s sometimes recommended to work backward from the end of the journey to the beginning, this ensures you always have the next step and can spot discrepancies with how the user got to that stage. For example, a user can’t get to step 4 without step 3, and so on, it ensures that for every new step or content piece you create, you already have the next step to direct to.

Always refer back to your client journey map

You should keep referring back to your buyer journey map to ensure each piece of new content touches on all of the questions and difficulties raised when creating the map.

If you need help understanding your journey map and want advice on consumer marketing, get in touch with Nepa today.

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What Is The Value Proposition Canvas?

October 25, 2022

Karen Chandler

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When interpreting consumer data insights, it’s essential that it translates into usable and understandable information. The clearer the information is, the better change you have of understanding what makes your consumers tick.

In 2022, consumers are becoming increasingly complex to understand, and to identify what is of value to them. The success rate of new products hitting the market and failing (estimated to be around 72%) is testament to this. However, one effective method to visually map consumer value is the Value Proposition Canvas.

As its name suggests, Alex Osterwalder developed the Value Proposition Canvas to break down value proposition into distinct parts, such as gains and pains. This enables marketers to address each factor individually and build a comprehensive proposition of value to consumers.

Simply put, it’s one of the best tools out there to interpret consumer data and map your products and services to their values and needs. Keep reading to find out how it can help your business!

What are the benefits of the Value Proposition Canvas?

The Value Proposition Canvas is crucial to a marketing strategy as it makes decision making and positioning much more methodical and easier. Using the canvas, companies can reassess strategy and positioning according to consumer values. But what are the benefits of the Value Proposition Canvas to an organisation?

Focused planning

The Value Proposition Canvas is a visual framework which maps out a consumer’s values right in front of you. Whereas ordinary, with ideas flowing in a creative team, it can be easy to lose track of what is important to the consumer. Keeping the canvas in mind removes these product-killing distractions from the equation and keeps businesses focused on what’s important to the consumer.

Improves marketing outreach

Promoting a product or service takes a lot of effort and resources in marketing and branding. At this stage, it’s essential to build a strong brand image in order to cement your business in the consumer consciousness. The Value Proposition Canvas is an ideal framework for doing this, as it highlights what to focus on and builds an action plan around that. This makes efforts to capture the attention of the desired consumer base much more effective.

Strong customer involvement

To have an effective brand, plenty of customer engagement is needed. To do this requires customer orientation which is only truly achieved from understanding and satisfying consumer needs and values. The Value Proposition Canvas connects these factors together, which can easily be extrapolated into a marketing strategy. Through conveying a strong value proposition, a brand can build strong relationships with the consumer.

Simple and practical

The beauty of the Value Proposition Canvas is that it lays out a simple overview of what your consumers really care about. Because of this, it’s a very effective marketing tool in which conveying true value to consumers becomes simple and effective.

The structure of a Value Proposition Canvas

So now you know why the Value Proposition Canvas is so effective, what does it look like and how is it used? At a glance, the canvas is simply a square, representing the value and a circle, representing the customer. It’s a simple structure but conveys the needs of the consumer and how to deliver them. However, within these shapes lie individual segments which each play a key role in determining value.

The customer profile

The customer side of the canvas is comprised of three segments that enable you to think as the end consumer does:

Jobs

Jobs are classed as tasks that the consumer is looking to solve – whether emotional, functional or social. These can be broken down into their basic psychological elements to determine why a consumer devotes efforts to these tasks. For example, social jobs are dictated by external societal conventions, leading to fear, optimism or aspiration. This would include buying an expensive coat for associated status.

Continuing the analogy, a functional job would be wearing said coat on a cold day for warm.

Emotional jobs would relate to how we feel when using a product. E.g. the feeling when we wear the coat.

Defining customer jobs can be a difficult task as they can often overlap, leaving a large grey area. Asking the right questions is the best way to define the jobs of your customer base. But, which are the right questions to ask?

– What function are the customers trying to perform?

– What social goals do your customers want to achieve?

– What are the emotional goals of your customers?

– Which jobs leave them feeling satisfied?

– How do the customers aspire to be perceived?

– How do the customers feel?

Gains

This relates to the positive aspects the customer wishes to achieve from purchase. A gain can be anything from the ordinary to existential. They are factors which encourage a customer to take up the product or service. What questions should be asked to identify the gains?

To define customer gains, try asking:
– Are time, money or effort factors that make your customers feel happy

– What are the expectations of the customer? How can these be managed or surpassed?

– What factors will simplify the work or wider life of your customer?

– What are the social aspirations the customer is seeking?

– What extras are they looking for?

– How would these gains improve the customers lifestyle?

Pains

These are the factors which prevent customers from finishing a job. These can range from light to severe but always block the customer from achieving their goal. Successful products or services typically unblock the customer’s pains and satisfies their jobs. This is the goal to which to aim for. But what are the questions which identify customer pains?

Questions which help to identify these blocks include:
– What does the customer perceive as costly?

– What makes them feel bad?

– Why don’t the current solutions suit the customer?

– What are the primary challenges your customer is facing?

– What social factors does your customer fear?

– Does the customer have financial, social or technical fears?

– What is stopping the customer from overcoming these fears?

The value map

Once you have completed the portrait of your customer, their values and underlying traits, you can map this into the square part of the canvas, which is where the value proposition is formed. In this, the product features can be constructed around what has been discovered about the customer, including its FAB’s- features, advantages and benefits. Keep in mind that the aim here is to fulfil the profile in the circle. The square is constructed of three distinct areas, products and services, pain reliever and gain creators.

Products and services

What features and products will be provided in order to complete their jobs? This is the section to list all these factors down. This is a good place to map out product or service variants also, including varying packages or trail periods.

Pain relivers

Building on the identified causes of pain to customers, this section focuses on how to relieve those blocks- as the name suggests. These relievers may vary for the various pains identified, so expect to have multiple relievers. It’s important to adopt the KISS philosophy here and keep it simple. The canvas is designed to keep things simple and straightforward. When listing the relievers, short notes are a lot more effective than extensive details.

What questions can guide identification of pain relievers?

– What savings does the product or service provide? Time, money or effort?

– Is the emotional state of the customer improved?

– Does it build on the shortfalls of existing solutions?

– Does it unblock the difficulties faced by the customer?

– Does the product or service allow the customer to overcome the social consequences and fears that hold them back?

– Does it reduce the risk the customer is afraid of?

Gain creators

Perhaps most importantly, this is the part where the value built around the product or service is conveyed back to the customer. Think of how this helps the customer achieve their goals. It’s important to keep this part simple and list everything that improves the user experience.

Questions to ask in this stage of the process include:

– Can the product or service create savings?

– Will this make the customer happier?

– Does it meet the expectations of the customer?

– Is it desirable to the customer?

– Does the product reflect the values of the customer?

– Will it create positive results amongst the customer base?

– Does it exceed the current solutions?

How to fill the Value Proposition Canvas

With an understanding of what each segment of the canvas does to help build a value proposition, the next step is to understand how to fill the canvas to one’s own ends.

1. Begin by choosing a customer segment to focus on. This is something that should already be established with detailed pen portraits.

2. List all the jobs relating to that segment and then rank based on priority to said segment.

3. Identify the segments pains and rank them.

4. Identify the segments gains and rank them.

5. Pick the top 5 most important pains and gains that affect the most important jobs.

6. Moving over to the square part of the canvas, list all the benefits of your product.

7. Based on the benefits, break them down into two lists.

8. List the gain creators

9. List the pain relievers

10. Analyse these creators and relievers, select the top three that make a positive impact to the customer segment.


11. Differentiate yourself from the competition and list all the ways you are better.


12. Combine the produced information to form value propositions that will resonate with your customers, build trust and make them brand advocates.


13. Check that the value propositions are free of any confusing jargon and that the message is easily understood.


14. Test the value proposition with the customer segment. Either with a launch or more methodically with focus groups and other testing methods.

How to get a fit between the Value Proposition Canvas and customer profile

Getting a fit between your customer profile and the value proposition canvas can be a challenge but should never be forced. Instead, the best way to do this is by putting yourself in the customers position to understand their pains and gains. It’s about asking as many questions about said customer to build up an accurate profile. The more accurate the profile is, the closer the fit when mapped on to the canvas.

One this is completed, it’s important to reach out to this customer segment to validate findings and assumptions. From here, businesses can gauge and make adjustments on how their proposition fits to said segment. This process should be repeated until the fit is the best it can be.

How to use the Value Proposition Canvas to identify opportunities for differentiation

Once the value proposition canvas has been mapped, opportunities can be identified to differentiate your product or service. To do so, pick 3-5 of the gain creators and pain reliever from the canvas. Form a proposition around how the benefits will solve the pains and jobs they need solving. Then it’s a matter of differentiating from competitors.

For example, taking Nepa, if a job to be done by our clients is forming a marketing strategy, a pain is lack of data and budget but a gain of purchasing consumer data insights creates gains of higher sales, creating brand presence and generally making the research process easier, this is the basic of building the proposition.

Pain relievers would be quicker, simpler and more accurate data insights and a gain creator would be better connecting to potential customers.

This establishes a clear profile of which customers to be targeting and value propositions can be constructed appropriately.

When to use the Value Proposition Canvas

If you’re not sure what your value proposition is, or if you want to ensure that your value proposition is clear and concise, then a value proposition canvas can be a helpful tool. Additionally, if you’re looking to create a new value proposition or improve an existing one, the canvas can be used as part of the process.

Common occasions when a business may choose to utilise a value proposition canvas include:

– Upon launching a new business

– Upon launching a new product or service

– When revising a product or service that’s not performing as well as expected

– After executing market research for a product or service

Tips and tricks for using the Value Proposition Canvas

Treat each component as a separate entity

The Value Proposition Canvas breaks down purchase factors into separate entities. As such, you can only achieve a full understanding of your segment’s value proposition by completing it fully. Thus, to truly turn this product into a desire, it’s important not to skip any one segment.

Run every customer segment through this canvas

A classic business mistake is to believe that one size fits all, when it comes to value proposition. However, each segment will have their own pains and gains which could trigger completely different values. As such, a canvas should be undertaken for each segment the business has. Furthermore, this makes positioning much easier due to being more specific.

Put yourself in the customer’s position

From mapping out segment pains and gains in this much detail, it puts businesses in a unique position whereby they can put themselves in the customers predicament. To think as the customer does enables a business to know what the customer expects from the product and how it will satisfy them. A good way to start this process is by asking the 5 W’s:

1. What are they doing?

2. Where are they going?

3. What tools are they using?

4. Who is this segment?

5. When do they do this task?

Focus on what the customer needs

It’s important to bear in mind that not all customer pains and gains can be met. I can sometimes be harmful to a product’s success to do this. As such, focus on the top priorities that the business can meet. This helps to set goals when developing the product or service.

Closing thoughts

In conclusion, the Value Proposition Canvas is a powerful tool for any business. By clearly outlining the problem that your product or service solves, you can more easily identify and target your ideal customer.

Additionally, by articulating your unique solution and the results it produces, you can more effectively communicate the value of your offering. Ultimately, the Value Proposition Canvas can help you to simplify and streamline your sales process, making it more efficient and effective.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about how Nepa can assist your enterprise with valuable consumer insights data.

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How can you measure advertising effectiveness?

October 23, 2022

Karen Chandler

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It’s very important that you are able to measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns to see how they match with your marketing and business goals. It allows marketeers to see the impact of their outreach and advertising campaigns identifying how to improve their advertising effectiveness. Being able to measure how effective advertising campaigns are also allows marketeers to see where they can improve, what is currently bringing in results, and new opportunities to explore through marketing campaigns.

But how can you tell if an ad is effective, and what actually is advertising effectiveness?

What is advertising effectiveness?

Advertising effectiveness relates to measuring and evaluating how a specific advertising campaign meets the goals outlined by customers. There are multiple ways in which businesses can measure the success of an advertising campaign, either through sales, the impact on the brand, or awareness of the company.

Methods of measuring advertising effectiveness

There is never one definitive option when it comes to measuring advertising effectiveness. However, there is a process you can use to help streamline measuring the effect of all your marketing campaigns. Even if the goal for each campaign varies. Here are some simple steps to follow.

Set clear goals

Before you start trying to measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns, it’s important you clarify your goals first. What would it mean for your advertising to be effective for your business? It could be to track the conversions and sales of a campaign or to track the effect on brand awareness after an advertising campaign. The choice is completely up to you.

Analyse and collect your data

Before you start your advertising campaign, it’s important that you have the means and the right tools to collect data effectively. You need to highlight how you plan to collect and interpret your data so you can track the progress of your campaign at every step. Having data to start with also allows you to have a good starting point to compare your campaign data to as well and will help define your overarching goals.

Many marketing and sales teams usually use third-party tools to help track the data. Most third-party companies will provide specialised tools to help track specific metrics, whether its sales or over all brand health improvements. No matter how you track your data you need to make sure it aligns with your company goals and advertising goals.

Work out your audience size

Building from you data collection should enable you to work out your audience size. Defining the success of your advertising campaign is a subjective matter and is largely dependent on the size of the audience you are advertising to. Defining your audience size gives you a realistic idea of your potential reach and by extension, ROI.

By knowing the size of your audience, you can also begin to advertise towards the right audience. It’s a great sample size to analyse who is most receptive to your advertisement. From here, you can target and scale campaigns as is required.

Choose your frequency

In an advertisement campaign, frequency refers to the number of times the audience is exposed to said advertisement. It’s important to balance this factor as too little and your audience may not find you memorable enough to purchase. Too much and you risk annoying the audience, effectively becoming spam.

It is suggested that there are roughly 8 touchpoints to a sale in 2022. This is the number to be aiming for initially, however, this can depend on the audience and what you are advertising – that is why tracking frequency is so important. When the data is compiled, it will allow you to find that perfect frequency to advertise.

Decide on your mix

When advertising across various mediums, it can be difficult to track a cohesive overall impact. That’s where MMM, meaning marketing mix modelling, comes in. It’s an analysis method that’s been constructed to bring together the various elements of a campaign. From here, advertisers can determine which elements are contributing the most to the campaign, as well as the inverse.

Typical mediums used in the mix modelling include social media, traditional print ads, TV ads and direct email. The mix can optimise a campaign by showing you which mediums are working. Here’s how to do some marketing mix modelling step by step:
1. Collect audience data on a personal level
2. Check where the data is coming from
3. Choose the most effective medium for your campaign
4. Analyse the data by platform
5. Keep your brand at the forefront of your mind.

Campaign summary and overview

Once the aforementioned steps are completed, it will unlock the information needed to form the campaign’s executive summary. This pulls together all the important points of the campaign into a singular section. An effective summary should be comprised of the following points:
1. A business mission statement
2. The KPI’s of this mission
3. Customer pen portraits
4. How the campaign will resonate with the target audience, via content or other.
5. Don’t forget the omissions
6. Include a budget needed to achieve the mission
7. Who are the competition?

It is important to draw this information into one place for several reasons. Firstly, it’s an easy point of reference for one’s own note, either for reminders or as a solid bench mark moving forward with a campaign. Furthermore, if approval is required for the campaign, this is a sure-fire way to make pitching and justifying its worth a lot more straightforward.

What makes an effective advertising campaign?

Now we can measure advertising effectiveness, what elements make a successful advertising campaign?

There are multiple ways in which you can create an effective marketing campaign that reaches your audience and provides value to them that could lead to increased sales and brand loyalty and increased brand awareness. Here are a few tips to help make your advertising campaigns more effective.

Target the right audience

Make sure you know the demographics of your target audience before you start planning out your campaign. You want to target the correct audience as they will be more likely to respond to your messaging, create a sense of brand loyalty and make a purchase. Carefully analyse the age, gender, location and job roles of your target audience.

Align your ads with your business position

Aligning advertising with the company’s existing position is an important factor in making a campaign effective. By keeping this in mind, it ensures that the correct target audience is being advertised to. Thus, filling advertisements with the right personality that an audience identifies with, which makes conveying product or service superiority much easier.

Keep your messaging simple

Ever had trouble remembering someone’s name? It’s easily done and that is why you have to account for human nature when forming a message. It could be the best message in the world, but if it’s complex, it’s going to be difficult to retain. So, an effective campaign should have a simple message.

A good way to remember this tip is to use the KISS philosophy (keep it simple, stupid!). This applies across every channel of communications also. No matter if it’s digital or print, the messaging should be simple and consistent. Following this tip makes advertising stick longer, creating an internal touchpoint in the buyers consciousness.

Find your style

Think of your brand and what it represents. How does that manifest in its style? What personality would it have? When building your advertising, it’s important to find this personality but secondly, to make it likeable. Perfecting this can take time, but once found it should be stuck to. Changing this can affect the likability of a brand and destroy external image by confusing your target audience and make the overall message less memorable.

Credibility is key

Whilst advertising may secure you a large portion of business and first time buyers, it doesn’t in itself create brand advocates. This comes from the quality of what you are advertising and how it matches up with the expectations you set by the advertisement. That’s why defaulting to labelling your product as the best is dangerous, if it’s not true.

Representing the true nature of your product or service through advertising is essential for this reason. Failing to do so can backfire and turn potential customers to competition. It’s always better to be honest, open, and clear to manage your audience’s expectations.

Make selling easy

Effective messaging is important with advertisement, but this is only half of the job. Effective advertisement will get customers down the sales funnel as quickly as possible. To do this, the audience must be given an easy-to-follow trail that gets them into a purchase position.

Consider the path of the buyer and what they will need to know to keep moving down it. Does this start with a strong call to action? Do they need store hours, a number or email address? Do you need information from them? Making this information as accessible as possible invites them to buy from you and makes for much more effective content.

Check your competition

Competitor analysis is a must when forming an advertising campaign. It’s the only way to know what your competitors are up to, how they are attempting to stand out, and how to differentiate from them. It’s also a quick way to extrapolate what is effective in your field and what to avoid.

As well as using personal judgement, focus groups and split testing are other methods which can be used to measure the competitiveness of your advertising. Some useful factors to consider when comparing advertisement include:
– Uniqueness
– Memorability
– Credibility
– Incentive to purchase
– Repeatability

Professionalism is everything

This is about asking if your ad looks up to the standard of other ads on that platform. Aesthetically, do the graphics or content fit or do they fall short?

If the expertise is available, this is always a good thing to keep in house. That said, if the expertise is not existing, it’s worth going the extra mile and outsourcing this to someone who does, whether that be writing, graphics or artistic talent. When putting so much time and resources into the input of the campaign, Outsourcing aesthetic factors to professionals is a simple way to protect the investment and output of the campaign.

How to apply advertising campaigns to a business in 2022

In 2022, advertising campaigns are more competitive than ever- especially on the digital landscape. Forming and executing campaigns can seem like a lot of effort but ultimately this helps a business to grow in the right direction. As opposed to a shotgun approach, campaigns produces detailed insights into your own customer base. Applying this information to the business can accelerate growth and cement a brand within the target audience consciousness. It’s all about making the right noise to the right people.

How Nepa helps to make advertising more effective

Nepa is a leading consumer data insights agency. Rather than spending vast quantities of time and effort on performing your own research, we have the data already. This helps make forming advertising campaigns so much simpler and quickly gives advertisers the opportunity to nurture and grow their brand by skipping the hard parts.

To find out how to future-proof your advertising effectiveness, find out what consumers demand from brands in the future with our full guide into future advertising insights.

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What is brand value in marketing? A complete guide

October 18, 2022

Karen Chandler

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For many years, businesses focus on building up their products and services to increase revenue. However, global businesses now focus on increasing their brand awareness and brand value through their long-term marketing strategies.

But what exactly is brand value, and why is it so important in today’s marketing and business landscape?

Below is our full guide to how to implement and measure the success of this important metric

What is brand value, and why is it important?

It represents the emotional connection consumers feel with a product or company. It’s what makes them loyal to a certain brand, and more likely to return in the future.

It can be created through various marketing efforts, such as creating a unique identity, developing a strong relationship with customers, and staying true to company values.

Beautiful young mother with her little baby boy at the supermarket, shopping, looking for brand value

When done correctly, these activities can result in increased profits and a competitive edge in the market.

This measurement has become increasingly significant for every business and has changed the way companies conduct their marketing strategy and optimizations. Your brand can now be your greatest asset for your marketing activities, playing a key role in building trust & rapport with a prospect before they make a purchase.

Customers can reflexively judge the value of a product or service based on what they associate with the brand. So, by increasing the perceived value of your brand, you can attract consumers to your services or products.

How brand value has changed business marketing strategies

In the current business environment, bringing more value to your brand is essential. Consumers do not only judge your products and services based on the quality and value they provide, but also on the brand associated with them.

This has driven marketing strategies to focus more and more on brand awareness and customer retention. This could be by demon stationing the vision, expertise, and values of your brand and how it is then reflected onto your consumers. Focussing on value can then lead to better customer retention and most importantly, sales.

What elements make up this measurement?

Many factors. It’s important to understand the components of your brand to inform your marketing strategy, exposing opportunities where you may be lacking.

Some elements include:

The trademark or logo

Advertising strategy

Digital assets

Customer retention

Engagement levels (on social media or through email marketing)

Building your value

So, now that you understand the elements that make up the measurement, how can you start to build it for your business?

Here’s what you should focus on to build your brand equity and therefore increase your value:

Marketing strategy

Marketing strategies help you raise awareness of your brand, as well as the value of your products or services. This then allows you to create a long-lasting impression on your customers and build long-term brand loyalty and equity.

Customer experience

Providing a great customer experience is a powerful way to boost brand equity. In addition to quality products and services, customers increasingly expect a good experience from brands.

Research has shown that many are willing to pay more and choose brands ahead of their competitors when they’ve enjoyed a positive experience.

What is the difference between brand value and brand equity?

Brand value and brand equity are frequently confused for one-another. However, there are some fundamental differences between the two:

Brand equity

Brand equity is part of what makes up the brand value of your business. It measures customer perception of your brand and how their personal beliefs and values align with your business. You want customers to create positive perceptions and assumptions about your brand; this can be done by focusing on strategies that increase positive customer experiences and improve your customer journey.

Brand value

This is a financial gauge of your brand equity. It follows the revenue generated as a result of marketing strategies and brand awareness. Brand equity may contribute to your value through how customers perceive your brand. The more loyal a customer is to a brand, the more likely they are to spend more.

How can we measure this?

There are a number of ways to measure the value of a brand based on customer perceptions and the financial success of the brand. It can be difficult to properly measure your brand value without a solid strategy in place.

The first way you can measure the impact and value of your brand is to gauge what your brand is worth to other companies and get a valuation from companies in your sector. You can get an average of these figures to get a rough idea of where you stand in the market.

You could also execute a cost analysis between how much money you invest in your brand and the subsequent revenue generated. Furthermore, you could also reach out to customers to see how they value your brand and services, and how much they are willing to pay.

Why is it important to measure the value of your brand?

Measuring your value is very significant for a couple of reasons. It can be good to determine the value of your brand, reputation and customer loyalty to compare where you stand alongside your competitors.

Reputable brands have a higher value, not just from a financial point of view but also a higher value to their customers.

Methods of measurement

There are multiple ways in which you can accurately measure your brand value.

Below, we have listed a few ways that can help you to measure the value of your brand and how to track its success:

Measure by cost

You can measure your value by calculating how much it costs to build your brand.

The first thing you need to calculate is all the costs you put into your brand; this mainly includes expenses like third party branding agencies, trademark costs, salaries for employees, marketing activities, and any other costs associated with building your brand.

This will then give you the overall cost or “value” of your brand. However, it’s important to mention that this does not include the qualitative value your brand will have to your customers.

Measure by your markets

You may choose to measure your value by evaluating other brands within their market and comparing their worth to your brand.

The best way to calculate this is to either ask someone to evaluate your brand, or calculate it based on the stock performance of companies in the same industry as you. This will provide you with a good overview of where your brand stacks up to your competitors.

Measure by customer experience

A good way to measure the value of your brand to your customers is to measure and assess qualitative data. By using customer experience data, you can see how your brand is perceived in comparison to your competitors.

This will give you a good understanding of the qualitative brand value of your customers. Loyal customers will also be more likely to invest more in your brand through your products or services.

You can also calculate the cost to your current customers and extrapolate this data for forecasting purposes. This is also known as your customer lifetime value.

By doing this you can predict possible future revenues and profit for your brand and calculate your value this way. Customers are always good to measure and are the key focus of brand awareness strategies.

Measure by income

This is one of the best ways to evaluate the current value of your brand. It looks directly at the income being generated by your brand through multiple different streams and channels from your sales and marketing.

To execute this, look at all the income being generated by your business, and analyse which streams can be attributed directly to your brand; could be brand awareness campaigns or any other outreach you have done for your brand.

Measure by total income

When you measure your value by total revenue, you obtain a very accurate valuation of its worth.

Once you gather the data on the value of your brand and what it means to customers, you can then expand the data and make predictions based on scaled-up data.

How can Nepa help you?

Nepa can help you build your value through our state-of-the-art range of consumer insights services.

We’ve worked with some of the world’s leading brands – including Klarna and Disney – to boost their value by combining actionable data with input from our team of expert analysts.

Our service range includes:

Marketing mix modelling – We continuously optimize your current media investments to measure the impact they can have on your long-term and short-term branding and sales. So we can help you to make the most of your marketing mix model and capitalize on hidden opportunities with your marketing channels.

Brand health tracking – The continuous tracking of customer sentiment puts your brand in context as well as your value. By utilizing your weak points, we make clear strategic moves to ensure you stay one step ahead of the competition.

Willingness to pay – We believe true brand equity is how much consumers are willing to pay for your product or service. The WTP price choice-based modelling approach measures the relative value that shoppers would pay for your products or services compared to competitor brands.

Read more: How to prove marketing is an investment, not a cost

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Generation Alpha – The Start Of Something New

August 23, 2022

Children playing on swings

Karen Chandler

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At Nepa, we understand people. It’s one of our greatest strengths as an insights agency. We are curious to know what people are thinking and why. But how about Generation Alpha? The oldest of this generation were born the year the iPad launched, which means that they are now on the cusp of becoming teenagers, with their own thoughts, opinions, and life values.

“Generation Alpha India : Digital Se Kuch Aage” is an exploratory study that dives into this cohort of the future of India. They have very different ideas on how brands should operate, organisations should function, and brands should evolve.

”We are talking self-dependence, the power of youth, and the next gen potential. The possibilities from tuning in to what our youngest can bring to the table are endless!” said Esha Nagar, MD Nepa India.

To find out more, watch our Generation Alpha trailer!

To access the full report, simply email hello.india@nepa.com.

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How to prove marketing is an investment, not a cost

July 25, 2022

Close up of two credit cards

Karen Chandler

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With global inflation increasing and the cost-of-living crisis dominating the news, it’s not a surprise that some companies are considering cutting their marketing budgets. In fact, the UK Government has even suggested that companies cut the prices for consumers using money they would otherwise use on marketing. For many businesses, both large and small, marketing is seen as a revenue-taking department; something that can be trimmed as and when required.

But this is a very short-term view, with long-term repercussions. The Harvard Business Review has examined these effects in companies that reduce spending in recessions, and come to the conclusion that ”firms that maintain their marketing spend while reallocating it to suit the context – be it in product developing, advertising and communication, or pricing – typically fare better than firms that cut their marketing investment”.

But knowing this, and being able to prove it to your CEO, MD, board of directors, or investors is different. So how do you do this? We can start with cold, hard data!

Prove your ROI.

Marketing Mix Modelling allows you to see which bits of media investment offer the best ROI right now, long-term, and which combinations give the best results. It takes all of your sales figures, media data, and general market trends, alongside any seasonal effects and macro trends. The data is modelled then put into a simulation where you can see what the optimal media mix is for your budget, or even if you should increase it in certain areas. It clearly demonstrates the impact these changes will have on short-term sales and long-term brand KPIs.

Track your brand.

Continuous brand tracking allows you to see exactly how your brand is doing in the wider world alongside your competitors. By understanding your brand’s strengths and weaknesses, you can be better equipped to deal with events such as the cost of living crisis or new market entrants. Brand tracking gives your marketing team the data they need to get your audience to listen. Nepa’s Brand Noise Reduction tools further strengthen continuous tracking to make this as accurate as possible.

Ensure your campaigns are as efficient as possible.

Relying on your gut feelings simply isn’t good enough in 2022. Campaign evaluations allow you to prove that the campaign you have put together will have the impact you want before you print your billboard posters or commit to costly tv slots. It allows you to prove to the budget owners that you’re targeting the right people, at the right time, in the right way.

When your competitors are cutting back, your share of voice will increase if you can maintain or increase your advertising budget, but in the right ways. Want to know more about dynamic marketing intelligence? Get in touch!

Read more: What is dynamic marketing intelligence, and why do you need to know about it?

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How to get the biggest slice of the meat-free pie

June 28, 2022

Close up of an open Aussie meat pie

Alex Provan

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”In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity” – Albert Einstein.

This old adage has never felt as relevant than with the current boom we are witnessing in sustainability that has emerged from the global climate crisis. From climate pledges to EV vehicles, brands are racing to position themselves as ’green’ to win over the growing market of environmentally conscious consumers.

Fridge shelves in supermarket

This is especially true for the rapidly growing meat replacement market, which (unless you have been living under a rock for the last couple of years) you have probably seen appearing more and more on your TV screen, social media feed, and supermarket shelves. This is no coincidence: the meat replacement market has boomed over the last 5 years, with the global market value growing by over 210% since 2016 to $7.7Bn annually, and is predicted to continue this growth (reaching approximately $16.7Bn by 2026)[1].

Unfortunately, big opportunities also mean increased competition. Growing demand has led to an explosion of brands entering the market with their own answers to meat replacement products. From market leaders (including California based Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods) to supermarket private label, everyone wants a piece of the meat-free pie.

With so much competition, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to win the sales of meat replacement shoppers. Knowing where and how to communicate with shoppers has never been so important.

How Nepa got involved

In 2021, Nepa partnered with one of largest meat replacement brands in the Netherlands, who wanted to better understand the omnichannel shopper journey for meat replacement shoppers in the Dutch market. Through our Paths to Purchase solution, we set out to identify and understand how they could optimise their communication strategy at key points of influence across the shopper journey, in order to drive growth within existing and emerging channels.

What did we find?

Tracking more than 1,000 shoppers over a 6 week period, we found that the biggest opportunity to drive penetration growth of meat replacement brands in the Netherlands was actually among the biggest meat consumers! ‘Carnivores’ (shoppers who consumed meat daily) were the consumers most likely to try out a new brand of meat replacement products.

Interestingly, we also found that environmental concerns were among the top factors driving meat-eaters to try out meat replacement brands. This is hardly surprising: meat-free diets are becoming increasingly advocated as an effective way of reducing personal carbon footprint; and with meat-replacement products producing between 30 – 90% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional meat [2], they are often recognised as a sustainable alternative.

What else?

But understanding who to talk to and what to communicate alone is not sufficient to beat the competition (after all, nearly all meat replacement brands position themselves as sustainable). It is equally important to understand where to speak to shoppers.

Through touchpoint conversion analysis we examined which key points influenced consumers most across their shopping journey. The results showed diverse and nuanced shopper journeys: consumers were both exposed to and influenced by brand touchpoints across the omnichannel landscape, as well as pre-shop and in-shop.

Above all, however, we found that shoppers were most influenced by brand interactions in-shop. This is an intuitive finding: the meat replacement market is young and growing, with many shoppers being light category buyers who are yet to settle into routine purchase habits, suggesting that they commonly make brand purchase decisions once in the shop aisle.

What does this mean for the future?

As the lucrative value of sustainable product offerings draws the attention of more brands, they are faced with an increasingly competitive market as contenders jostle for the approval and loyalty among the growing population of conscious consumers.

Understanding who to talk to and what to talk to them about has never been so important in order to stay ahead of your competition.

Want to know more about how Nepa can help you? Contact us today!

[1] https://www.statista.com/forecasts/877369/global-meat-substitutes-market-value
[2] https://gfi.org/resource/environmental-impact-of-meat-vs-plant-based-meat/

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What is dynamic marketing intelligence, and why do you need to know about it?

June 24, 2022

A close up view of the north pole on a globe

Karen Chandler

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If you were alive in the 18th century you would have been aware of ‘the longitude problem’. A huge issue at the time, it meant that without the ability to measure longitude sailors became lost as soon as they got into open waters. Determining longitude on land was fairly easy compared to the task on the ocean. A stable surface to work from, a comfortable location to live in while performing the work, plus the ability to repeat determinations over time made for almost perfect accuracy. But thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations, were dependant on resolving ‘the longitude problem’ at sea.

Fast forward to today and what has the ‘longitude problem’ to do with marketing you ask? Well, right now, most marketeers are lost at sea when it comes to their marketing data. Marketeers make choices and judgements based on incomplete information. Like the seafarers of the 18th century, they are not able to map their true position.

This is because building brands is a long-term effort. You need to know what has gone before in order to set your direction. Companies grow by establishing long-lasting and meaningful connections with consumers. However, most marketing information is based on separate fixed points in time (like the land the sailors had left behind), rather than being a true reflection of the continual ebbing and flowing of a turbulent sea. Just like a boat on the ocean, marketers need to follow the currents and winds for smooth sailing. It is only by understanding the breadth and depth of that sea, in other words by gathering data and adjusting our understanding continually, that we can successfully resolve our 21st Century longitude problem.

Our solution, dynamic marketing intelligence, leverages your data to support informed, flexible, and responsive decisions in a way that is agile and fast moving. It gives your marketing the edge because you are always aware and always ready.

We call it dynamic because we measure data continuously, taking into account the myriad changes that occur in a market on a daily basis. You cannot have a real understanding of what is going on based on occasional measurement. You cannot switch off human behaviour, so why switch off your data? By integrating measures of attitudinal data ongoing, you find the reasons behind changing behaviour, and avoid making expensive mistakes. By constantly measuring your marketing mix and your consumers’ perceptions, we enable you to build a marketing strategy aimed at creating long-term relationships and growth.

The longitude problem was solved by a clockmaker, John Harrison, who spent four decades creating the first clock (chronometer) that was sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea. Like the clock, dynamic marketing intelligence allows you to sail on, make continual adjustments to your route, and progress smoothly to your ultimate destination.

Want to find out how to make your marketing plain sailing? Get in touch!

Read more: What is the value of emotions for a brand?

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Market research consulting services

June 13, 2022

Karen Chandler

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Nepa provides market research consulting services to leading organisations. Our offering encompasses a broad range of consumer insights solutions to help businesses grow and become more profitable.

SPEAK TO A MARKET RESEARCH EXPERT

What is market research consulting and analysis?

Market research consultants are experts at conducting targeted research on behalf of clients. They uncover new opportunities and make data-driven optimisation suggestions to marketing strategies, with the intention of generating a higher return on investment.

Market research consultants use qualitative data – like surveys and questionnaires – and quantitative data to evaluate customer experiences, brand positioning, and the competitive market. They highlight both the weak and strong points of your marketing strategy and make actionable suggestions for improvement.

Why choose Nepa?

We’re proud to have worked with some of the most well renowned global brands, including H&M, Spotify, and Kellogg’s. Here’s what one of our clients say about our market research consultancy services:

Success stories

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.

Eleonore Säll, Executive Vice President of Global Brand
Bordeaux , Aquitaine / France - 11 25 2019 : Gant sign store luxury shop in street boutique

Read more…

Market research consulting services

As a market research consultancy company, we offer a wide range of services to aid businesses with data analysis and strategy.

By partnering cutting-edge data analysis techniques with our team of market research consultancy experts, we empower leading brands to drive profits, growth and sales:

1. Brand Tracking

Our brand tracking identifies what your target market is looking for from your core products, services and processes.

The continuous tracking of customer sentiment through qualitative data puts your brand into context. This data is then used to harness your strengths – and remediate your weak points – to ensure you stay one step ahead of the competition.

2. Marketing Mix Modelling

We continuously evaluate and optimise your media investments, capitalising on areas where your competitors fall short and making the most of your marketing mix modelling.

Ensure you outperform your competitors and don’t miss a chance to increase the ROI of your media activities with the implementation of a clear marketing mix model.

3. Customer Experience

Improve your customer relationships and maximise sales by optimising your customer experience. Uncover gaps that your business can build on to boost CX.

By finding new opportunities through the use of qualitative data, we make new suggestions for your marketing strategy. This allows your business to create positive customer experiences and improve your brand perception.

4. Paths to Purchase

Using our paths to purchase solution, we analyse each of your key online and offline touchpoints. This brings you and your customers together to encourage brand growth along your paths to purchase.

By improving your path to purchase touchpoints and brand reputation, you’ll drive both sales and profitability through a data-driven understanding of the moments that matter in your customer journey.

5. Innovation Acceleration

We establish priorities based on data through our innovation acceleration and market research consulting services. This is to identify key areas of improvement, which are based on current successful marketing strategies.

Want more information? Get in touch!