Brand Directions
Brand insights also helps create a sense of direction for your brand. As Attest suggests in its blog, “A brief guide to brand insight to improve your brand strategy,” by Elliot Barnard, Customer Research Principal, these insights help you effectively understand brand interactions and consumer behavior. This will in turn help you develop the brand’s creative messaging, connecting the dots to both consumer behavior and on the opposite side of the coin, making sure the internal team is on point as well.
Attest notes that brand insight can be applied in several key ways to the end goals of increasing brand awareness, positioning the brand, and setting strategy:
1. Raising brand awareness: How are you going to get more awareness to your brand if you don’t really know what to highlight, and how, and to the right consumer segments? Tailor your campaigns and messaging and effectively raise brand awareness, while also winning the customers’ trust.
2. Improving brand positioning: From a marketing standpoint, brand insights are highly valuable. You can use them to design ad campaigns that are in line with not just your branding, but also what your brand stands for. This kind of on-brand messaging reinforces the power of your brand.
3. Setting up a new strategy: Strategies need data. Take a look at your past brand insights before you start redesigning your strategy. Brand metrics are powerful insights. Start by gathering data on your current status and use the outcomes to set clear goals, and communicate them to your team.
Investing in the Brand
With brand insights, it’s still important to always keep the customer front and center. In the All Things Insights blog, “Investing Insights into Product & Brand Innovation,” we discussed how customer insights are a key cog in driving brand and product developments. And so, it’s imperative that the insights discipline invests in product and brand innovation. Our H2 2022 Insights Spend & Trends Report actually showcased these results, with the insights function aiming the greatest share of budget accordingly.
TMRE will be held this year from October 23-25, at theGaylord Rockies Event & Convention Center, Denver, CO. In the presentation, “Building Brand Trust with Different Consumer Segments,” Michael Nevski, Director, Global Insights, Visa, will look at how in today’s complex and uncertain market, building trust with customers has become more important than ever. Consumers are facing a wide range of stressors, and they need brands that they can rely on to cater to their needs and improve their overall sense of well-being. By understanding the mindset of their customers and empathizing with their needs, businesses can create a more meaningful and lasting connection with their audience. Ultimately, the session will provide valuable insights into the power of trust in brand building and offer practical strategies for businesses looking to navigate the complex world of consumer stressors while building a strong and trusted brand.
Register for TMRE now to see the session.
Measuring the Brand
In shaping and enhancing brand strategy, brand insights provide valuable information and understanding of how consumers perceive, interact with, and relate to a brand. By leveraging brand insights, companies can make informed decisions that strengthen their brand positioning, improve brand perception, and create more impactful marketing campaigns. Here are some ways brand insights can help brand strategy, according to ChatGPT:
1. Understanding Brand Perception: Brand insights help companies gauge how consumers perceive their brand. Through surveys, focus groups, and social media monitoring, companies can gather feedback on brand attributes, associations, and overall sentiment. Understanding how consumers perceive the brand allows companies to identify strengths and weaknesses, and address any misalignments between the brand’s intended image and its perceived image.
2. Identifying Target Audience: Brand insights aid in identifying and understanding the target audience. By analyzing consumer demographics, psychographics, and behavior, companies can refine their target market segments and tailor their brand messages to resonate with the right audience. This targeted approach enhances brand relevance.
3. Defining Brand Values and Personality: Brand insights help in defining or refining the brand’s core values and personality. By understanding what values and traits consumers associate with the brand, companies can align their messaging and actions accordingly. This alignment builds brand authenticity and trust.
4. Assessing Brand Equity: Brand insights allow companies to measure and track brand equity over time. By evaluating factors such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations, companies can gauge the strength of their brand in the market. This assessment helps in setting brand-related goals and measuring the impact of brand building efforts.
5. Evaluating Brand Positioning: Through brand insights, companies can assess how their brand is positioned relative to competitors. Understanding how consumers perceive the brand’s unique value proposition and differentiation enables companies to refine their brand positioning.
6. Guiding Marketing Communication: By knowing which brand messages resonate most with consumers and what channels are most effective in reaching the target audience, companies can create more compelling and impactful marketing campaigns.
7. Supporting Brand Extension Decisions: Brand insights can aid in evaluating the potential success of brand extensions or brand expansion into new product categories. By understanding consumer attitudes and perceptions of the brand, companies can make well-informed decisions about brand extension opportunities.
8. Monitoring Brand Health: Brand insights enable companies to regularly monitor the health of their brand. Regular assessments of brand perception and performance help companies identify emerging issues, react to changing market dynamics, and adapt their brand strategy accordingly.
9. Enhancing Customer Experience: Brand insights can reveal valuable information about the customer experience with the brand. By identifying pain points and moments of truth along the customer journey, companies can improve the overall customer experience, thereby strengthening brand loyalty and advocacy.
The Brand Journey
Brand insights provide essential information for shaping brand strategy and create deeper understanding of the customer. They help companies understand brand perception, identify the target audience, define brand values and personality, assess brand equity and positioning, guide marketing communication, support brand extension decisions, monitor brand health, and enhance customer experience. By leveraging these insights, companies can create a more compelling and relevant brand that resonates with consumers and drives business success.
When thinking about the goal of a strategist making insights into brand strategy, Emotive Brands, in its blog on “The Role of Insights in Brand Strategy,” notes, “There are probably infinite truths about any brand. The role of the strategist is to figure out which ones are the most important to the brand itself and at the same time resonant with its stakeholders. Good insights make sense both intellectually and emotionally. Once you find a powerful insight, you’re playing in very rich territory for the brand.”
Video courtesy of Brand Master Academy
