Brand Research to Bank On

Your marketing investment is as important and daunting a decision as your own personal financial investments. The portfolio of options is broad, complicated, and offers different kinds of payback. Which options do you select? Which are the stars? And which don't hold interest?

In a very competitive market with players big and small, making a financial services brand stick is a challenge. In the expansive world of communications and media, how do you invest your resources for optimal performance?

A financial services company came to Ipsos with those very questions. They needed their brand to stand out in a crowded field and wanted it focused on a very specific target. They had to make sure that their marketing investment hit the target and paid off.

Setting it up

Reaching their target audience required a marketing strategy that encompassed a lot of different media. While traditional television and print advertisements are vital parts of the mix, these alone no longer have the fortitude to build the brand. Our client had been open to trying newer and bolder techniques to extend their brand, including guerrilla marketing type tactics, community sponsorships, new media advertising, and direct marketing to existing customers.

Their primary marketing focus was to reach both existing and potential customers - to build and measure their brand with the people who already supported them and with those likely to support them in the near future. Their need to communicate, build, and connect their brand to a wider audience required a wider set of strategies and measurements.

Moving beyond traditional tactics took them into uncharted - and unmeasured - territory as a brand and as an organization. To implement a broad and extensive method of communicating and engaging with audiences required an equally broad and extensive methodology to measure all aspects of the strategy and to set key learnings for their organization. The client needed a holistic view of their marketing approach, but where could they find that?

Seeking answers

That's where Brand*Graph 360 came in. Brand*Graph 360 takes a holistic approach to measuring all elements of a communications strategy. Because brand touchpoints hit on multiple executions across multiple media, the Brand*Graph 360 tool was developed to examine the complexities of the overall strategy. It studies the entire brand experience and measures the performance of each communications element.

In this instance, Ipsos ASI worked with the client to measure the performance of all their marketing activities - traditional and non-traditional - and supplied information for each element. Our client needed to evaluate their efforts to find out which elements paid dividends and which weren't worthy of credit.

Delivering results

A multi-media marketing campaign on a tight budget leaves little room for error. Add some significant organizational changes to that mix and you need answers that are on point and aimed in the right direction.

Brand*Graph 360 was able to deliver the information needed for all of their campaign touchpoints. The findings pinpointed the elements that worked best, and helped them to understand which activities had impacted their two prime target groups.

The research showed that paid media - especially that which focused on a specific and unique service offering - was having a tremendously positive impact on the overall brand performance. They also found their community sponsorship program was having a substantially positive impact on their brand equity. The two flowed well together, with one touchpoint leading into the other. This ultimately met their goal: they were successfully connecting both new and existing customers to the brand.

For an organization poised for important changes, our findings brought a lot of valuable information to the table - information that offered both a competitive advantage and an information base to expand their brand. By knowing what strategies worked best, the client could make informed decisions about their future activities and shape the next phase of their brand evolution. With relevant and fresh information in hand, they can go where their audiences are, armed with knowledge of the techniques, messages, and strategies that put them on the right path.

About Brand*Graph 360

Brand*Graph 360 tracks the in-market reach, impact, and cost effectiveness of all your communications. A powerful consumer mix model shows you the contributions of POS, packaging, sponsorship, even uncontrolled communication like word of mouth, in addition to each part of your ad media mix. By analyzing the effect of each consumer touchpoint on brand equity, purchase intent, and other measures, we can help you to focus your messages in the mediums that work best.