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Market research is all about supporting the brand. Companies with a defined brand strategy are better suited to dealing with the vagaries of the marketplace. In a recent article by HubSpot they identified seven core practices necessary for developing and maintaining a strong brand. They include:
- Purpose – brands should have a defining purpose – not just an understanding of your brand promise, but an in-depth knowledge of what separates your brand from the competition.
- Consistency – actively avoiding talking about things that do not relate to or enhance your brand.
- Emotion – understanding the “irrational” or otherwise emotional attachments consumers have with your brand.
- Flexibility – having the space and freedom to adapt your identity programs, within the limits set out by point number two, in order to keep the message fresh.
- Employee Involvement – employees are the biggest proponents of the brand and they need to be versed in how they should be communicating with customers.
- Loyalty – show your brand ambassadors the love they deserve. Best done when it is genuine and not contrived.
- Competitive Awareness – stay on top of what the competition is doing and saying. This can be easily done if you are leveraging a social monitoring application. There is no shame in tailoring your brand positioning on the successes of the competition.
Market research can be employed to provide actionable insight for each of these seven principles. One principle where both qualitative and quantitative research comes in very useful is in measuring the emotions attached to a brand. Harley Davidson is a prime example of a brand that understands the emotional component. There are motorcycles that are equally well-made and less expensive than Harleys, but they just don’t offer the sense of connection that Harleys do.
Harley is known for its community HOG (Harley Owners Group) which serves both as a means of conveying information and providing insights from an impassioned group of consumers. Communities such as HOG fulfill an innate need to belong and build relationships. Savvy market researchers will leverage these communities for quick consumer reads as well as more in-depth analysis, which is often needed to understand customers on a more emotional level.
