I need some background; why research matters for your brand
- panasmcinnes
- Nov 17, 2021
- 9 min read
Updated: Nov 24, 2021
You want a relevant brand that people love. Here’s the truth; you can’t get one if you don’t know what’s going on in the world. The good news? We’re here to help you keep up.
Here’s one for you; what do you think of when we say the word “brand”? For some, it will be a logo, others might say it’s about a feeling, and some might even talk about positioning and value propositions. They’re all partially right, but to us, a brand is the thing that people connect with at an emotional level, and it provides them with a mental shortcut that helps them to remember you.
So, if a brand helps people to remember you, how do you make sure that it does that job well? The quick answer: research. Without it, it’s much harder to create a brand which connects with your target audience and even worse, you could miss out on some great opportunities.
Here’s why you should care
You might wonder whether you really need to do research, especially if you’re a smaller organisation. After all, some organisations create amazing brands without doing much – if any – research. Whilst that’s true, there are a lot more which don’t go anywhere, but you just never hear about them because they didn’t get their brand right…
Research shapes everything that comes after it
If you were building a house, you’d want an architect to come and look at the land it’s going to be built on. They need to make sure that it will be structurally sound, will fit in with other buildings around it, and most importantly, that it meets your needs and wants.
In the same way that a house should be built based on the right information, so too should your brand. If you get something wrong, or you don’t do any research at all, your brand won’t connect with people, and that costs time and money to put right.
You need focus
As you learn more about the world around you, you’ll see a natural “way forward” appear in front of you. Knowledge provides clarity and makes it easier to see where you should focus.
Focus not only means that you’ll probably launch your brand sooner, but that you also know when to stop or when something’s not relevant. After all, time is money, and you don’t want to waste it on pointless endeavours or chase goals which aren’t worth it.
The perfect fit
Where do you start in a world with so many opportunities? You might think that you know the answer, but when you start to dig a bit deeper, you’ll discover that there’s a lot more opportunity than you first thought. We see too many organisations try to chase multiple opportunities at once, and it very often doesn’t work because they spread themselves too thin and their brand suffers as a result.
Thorough research means you really get to understand you, your environment, and your customers, and so your ideal opportunity will stand out like a pink elephant (i.e. pretty darn obvious). Simply put, good research increases your chances of success in the long-term because you’re doing something that you’re perfect for.
Play it safe (or at least safer)
Making choices and taking risks is a part of running any business. Sometimes it works out (Netflix bet on streaming) and sometimes it doesn’t (Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix in 2000 because they believed it would be a niche business).
We’re not saying that research completely removes all risk, but the more you know about your environment, the more informed your decision-making will be. Knowledge can help to prevent problems from occurring in the first place, or it can help you to address them before they become a real threat to your brand. In the case of Blockbuster, some good research and a better understanding of younger audiences could potentially have shown them how important streaming would become.
Measure the right stuff
There are some pretty standard KPIs and metrics that every organisation uses, but it can be helpful to look at a few less-obvious ones too. Research can highlight trends in the market which, when tracked and applied to your own business, help you to stay ahead of the competition.
Think about organisations that have tracked their carbon emissions for a while now. They saw that climate change was increasingly important to younger audiences and so decided to track and reduce their impact to appeal to them. Their competitors are now having to play catch-up, while they can focus on innovating and delivering products and services that their customers really want.
This is what you need to know
You recognise the benefit that research has, but where do you start? After all, we live in the information age, and there’s not exactly a shortage of data.
We’ll start things off by saying that the data you gather will vary according to your goals and circumstances, but generally speaking, you need information on four key areas: your customers, your competitors, your general market environment, and finally, your own internal capabilities.
Give people what they want
The customer’s always right. No really, always; and to know whether you’ve met their requirements, you need to understand what they wanted in the first place.
It’s essential that you know what your target audience need and want, what they think about your market category in general, and if possible, how they view your specific product or service. This is your chance to understand where there’s a gap in the market and it’s a perfect time to get a feeling for how easy it will be to win people over.
Remember that you also need to have a clear idea of who your target audience is. It’s essential that you’re specific and creating a user persona is a good place to start. It should be based on what you’ve learned from real people, and it must be valid and offer a good commercial opportunity. Don’t create a user persona which is either unrealistic (“we only target people who have wings”) or which is too limiting (“we only target bald men called Tobias with one eye that’s green and one that’s brown”).
Do you know what you’re up against?
Competition is everywhere, but when you know what you face, you can work out how to beat it, so make sure that you consider all the competitive forces that impact your organisation.
Look at what direct competitors are doing, who they target, and how they’re perceived by that target audience. When combined with the knowledge of your target audience, you can see where there are opportunities, but also where there’s a brand that has such a solid market share, you’re unlikely to be able to beat them (Virgin Cola, anyone?).
Remember that competition comes from all around you; people only have a finite amount of cash to spend, and you’ve got to persuade them to spend it on you over someone else. Brands must also compete with other indirect forms of competition like attitudes and misconceptions. For example, for a long time, many women didn’t like to drink beer because they perceived it as a “drink for men.” It’s only more recently that brands have started to change that perception, and in doing so, tap into a larger market.
What about “everything else” going on around you?
Knowing what your customers want and what your competition is doing is critical, but you need to be able to put that information into context. How will all the other “stuff” going on in the world impact you?
As you look at the general market environment, think about what could affect you, your competitors, and your audience, both now and in the future. Forecasts and trends can be useful and give a good insight into potential opportunities which you could take advantage of, and threats that you’ll need to avoid.
It’s what’s on the inside that (also) counts
As well as gathering information on your external environment and stakeholders, you also need to look at yourself (sort of sounds like we’re telling you off; we promise we’re not). This process helps because it’s how you understand which opportunities you’re best suited for and perhaps more importantly, which ones to avoid.
You might think you already know everything about your own organisation, and even if that’s true, getting it written down helps you to see things clearly. However, as organisations grow, it becomes virtually impossible for one person to know everything, and your team will have valuable insights which could reveal a huge opportunity that you might have missed.
Where do we even start?
With so much information available these days, you might not know where to start, but there are a few places that will give any organisation a good grounding. Of course, the process should be tailored to your needs, and there might be things that we don’t mention which would be great for you. What’s important is that you do some type of research which allows you to make informed decisions.
Focus groups, interviews, and surveys
These are great for collecting data on your target audience, including their needs, wants, and attitudes. The value of the information collected depends on the selection criteria and methods used to gather data, but when it’s done well, this form of primary research can reveal great insights into the minds of your audience.
Market reports and forecasts
Nearly every market you can think of will have had some form of research done on it; you’ve just got to find it! These reports are great for understanding what’s going on in the market in general and they often highlight trends which might reveal the perfect opportunity for your brand.
Competitor websites and sales material
This might seem a bit shady, but we promise, as long as the information is publicly available, it’s not!
When you know what your competitors are doing and saying, you can create a brand which positions you more favourably in the minds of your target audience. Plus, we guarantee that they’ll be watching their competitors, which includes you…
The internet
There’s a reason we’ve put this last and that’s because (as you’ll almost certainly know), the internet is full of some pretty questionable “facts.” However, it can also provide really useful insights which you might not otherwise find. For example, public online forums which are relevant to your market can be a good place to get unfiltered views from members of your target audience.
When it comes to the internet, just remember to treat it with a degree of scepticism (for example, people aren’t always who they say they are), and use sources which are generally considered to be reputable (we’ll leave you to judge that one!).
A few things to keep in mind
Research can seem pretty daunting if you’re not used to it, and people can be so eager to get into the main strategy and design phase of a brand project that they don’t want to spend much time on it. With that in mind, and given we do a lot of brand research for our clients (not to show off, or anything…), here are some tips which can help to give you the best possible chance of succeeding.
Keep this all proportionate
The amount of research that you do will depend on your unique circumstances, for example your size, the number of countries you operate in, and what you sell. Before you begin, think about what you want to achieve; clear goals reduce the chance of doing too much (which increases cost) or too little (which increases risk).
Don’t make assumptions
When it comes to a brand, assumptions aren’t good. There might be times when you have to make an informed guess, but even then, you should base it on something, however vague or incomplete it might be.
For example, Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Brothers assumed people wouldn’t want to watch movies where they could hear the actors speaking. After all, silent films were popular, so why would they need to change? It was only when he saw how popular movies with dialogue were that he realised it presented a great opportunity. The Lord of the Rings’ movies were hard enough to follow as it is; now imagine them without any dialogue…
You don’t have to believe everything you find
Just because you find something that says people prefer to buy juice on a Tuesday doesn’t mean it’s correct. Dig deeper and question what you find; it might be that people tend to buy more juice on a Tuesday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they prefer to buy it on a Tuesday.
Research helps you to make better decisions but it doesn’t make the decisions for you. You’re always in control, and it’s better to fact-check something that doesn’t seem quite right than to simply accept it.
Models and tools can help keep things organised
The amount of information from even a small amount of research can quickly add up, but there are tools and models which can help to organise what you find into sensible categories. They’re also a great place to start and help to make sure that you cover off the main considerations.
There are entire books dedicated to various research models, but as a starter, take a look at:
Porter’s Five Forces for competitive considerations
PESTEL for general environment analysis (some now use a model known as DEEPLIST)
McKinsey’s 7S model when you review your internal environment
Models provide a good starting point for research, but don’t feel constrained by them. If you think that there’s something else which needs to be looked at, go ahead and include it!
Finally…just make sure you do it!
If, after reading this article, you still don’t think you need to do any research, we’re begging you to rethink that decision. Research forms the absolute foundations of any brand strategy and brand identity, and not doing it (or doing it wrong) puts you at a massive disadvantage and means you’re much less likely to get the success you deserve. It’s also often much more expensive to correct a problem than to do something right first time, so you don’t want to do research once your brand strategy is written.
Research can put any organisation in a much better place to capitalise on the opportunity that it’s perfectly suited for. It might seem like overkill now, but we guarantee that you’ll be glad you did it when your brand’s outperforming your competitors!
Want to keep this conversation going?
It’s impossible for us to put everything about research into one article, but luckily, we love to talk about it. Every day, our innovative advice helps organisations to understand more about their world; explore our Insights services here or if you’d prefer, contact us and we’ll be happy to tell you everything you want to know.
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