Great Brand Research in Store

Marketing communications has been revolutionized. It is no longer just a television spot that draws consumers to your brand. With so many ways to connect and communicate with consumers, it is a bold and sometimes daunting world out there. Finding the right mix of communications methods is a tough call. No matter how much you understand the media and technology.

A leading electronics retailer came to Ipsos looking for insight into how their brand's touchpoints performed. With a complex marketing strategy in play, they needed to know how everything worked together. Making their brand stand out, connecting with consumers, and sitting top of mind in the sector was a priority. Finding the best way to do that and ensuring they were making the right investments in communications was paramount.

Setting it up

To effectively reach and impact their audiences, the client employed a multi-level, multi-media mix of communications. Television was part of that mix, but other elements had to fit. Flyers were a long-standing tool for promoting sales, as were radio spots. And of course, there was the web.

For this client, the idea of sponsorships was also intriguing. Only recently did they start to invest in sponsorships, an area that offered a significant risk, with performance that had yet to be proven.

The ideal would be an overarching methodology that measured each touchpoint, assessed the success of each element, and identified the ones that delivered and the ones that did not. But did such a model exist?

Seeking answers

That's where Brand*Graph 360 came in. Brand*Graph 360 takes a holistic approach to measuring brand strategies. Understanding that brand touchpoints extend beyond one or two executions and media, Ipsos developed this tool to examine the entire brand experience and measure the performance of each element in a multi-media communications campaign.

For this retail client, Ipsos ASI worked closely with them to measure the performance of all of their communications and brand touchpoints. Setting out to evaluate the success of their efforts, they needed to know which touchpoints rang up at the register and which ones were returns.

Delivering results

A multi-media marketing campaign is a significant brand investment. Knowing which elements deliver allows you to allocate resources to the elements that truly build the brand.

In this case, Brand*Graph 360 helped deliver a sound understanding of the landscape, and an actionable analysis to drive future activities. Best of all, it identified a number of specific areas that were not as strong as expected and pinpointed others that had greater performance potential.

One of the key learnings in this case was the impact of flyers. Flyers represented a big part of their marketing spend but were proven to be not as effective as thought. On the radio side, it was also clear that the spots did not perform.

In this case, the client's website proved to be an important tool for consumers to gather information, but it wasn't necessarily driving them into to the store. Instead, consumers were using the site to explore options, inform their decisions, and give them a clearer idea of what they wanted and expected when they did arrive at the store with purchase intent. The research also uncovered that their investment in sponsorships was having a very positive impact on their brand!

With this knowledge, the client was able to make some critical decisions. Radio spots were cut back and the investment in flyers reduced. Web strategies were re-examined. And despite only recently dipping their toes into the sponsorship pool, the company made a corporate decision to develop and expand the depth of their sponsorship portfolio - an area that is providing new opportunities to strengthen their brand equity.

Each brand was different and each communications element works differently for different brands. Brand*Graph 360 worked for this client to answer key strategic questions on their specific communications strategies. And the result is an actionable framework that helps set a vision for the future and builds an even stronger brand.

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.