BABY CARE – IMPROVING BRAND POSITIONING AND PERCEPTION
How to reposition your brand to the premium segment and make it a leader in the category.
The Challenge: Our client wanted to reposition its brand to the premium segment – and in time, to make it a leader in the category. The company improved the functional qualities of the product itself, and planned the future brand communication around three main pillars: premium design, improved safety and flawless performance. The question was what would be the customers’ response to this improved proposition?
The Approach: We designed and ran a quantitative survey: a home usage test to evaluate both the concept and the product, using KANO analysis. The test consisted of two stages: concept evaluation and product placement at first visit and after-usage product assessment at the second visit.
The Outcome: The survey revealed that the concept is well accepted, distinctive, credible and relevant – and in combination, provoking very high purchase interest. The idea of the innovative product materials was well appreciated and the “safety claims” included in the concept were revealed by the KANO analysis as “linear” attributes, directly affecting customers’ satisfaction. The unique product design appeared an excellent “delighter”, offering room for further experimentation, constant refreshment and ultimate differentiation vs. competitors. The actual product met the expectations generated by the concept and our recommendation was to proceed with the suggested re-positioning.
The Benefit: Using KANO analysis in this case provided deeper knowledge and understanding about how does product attributes “work” on customers’ minds and perceptions. It provided an insightful perspective about which product features address the basic category requirements, which ones are considered innovative and delightful, which are in a direct ratio to satisfaction – and which attributes leave the targeted audience indifferent.
ENERGY PROVIDERS – Customer Satisfaction
THE CHALLENGE
The main objective of our client – an energy (liquid fuel) provider was:
to improve its client service in each of its petrol stations, boosting its customers’ satisfaction.
A secondary goal was to find any weaknesses in the provided service and to build a strategy preventing the possible negative effects (if any).
THE APPROACH
We designed and executed a quantitative survey: tablets assisted, 8 minute personal interview at the points of sale (petrol stations) among both individual customers and corporate clients.
THE OUTCOME
The survey results revealed extremely high levels of satisfaction with the fuel and the staff service quality among both target groups.
However, our analysis revealed some small details neglected by the company staff, yet being of importance for the customers.
Empowered by our conclusions and recommendations, our client was able to develop a simple strategy plan for the service staff to follow, thus maintaining its excellent performance and avoiding the possible negative experiences.
SALES GROWTH RESEARCH
Insights about the possible ways of product activation at the point of purchase.
The Challenge:
Our client wanted to get insights about the possible ways of product activation at the point of purchase through:
- understanding the end consumers;
- decision makers and shoppers needs;
- motivation and purchase behavior.
The key question was: how to achieve sales growth?
The Approach:
We designed and ran a three stage survey:
Stage I: qualitative shopper-centric exploration (Focus Group Discussions) to reveal the category habits, consumption occasions, actual purchase decision makers, planning, drivers for selection, brands positioning and perceptions (both emotional and functional). The findings from this qualitative phase served as a base for designing the research instruments for the next research stages;
Stage II: quantitative survey at the point of sale (Shopper Insights) to get information about the place of category purchase, main shopping mission, purchase decision tree (planned vs. impulse purchases), key purchase drivers and barriers and in-store communication effectiveness in both modern and traditional trade;
Stage III: quantitative survey (U&A) to quantify the attitudes towards the category and brands, the needs, the decision making, product switching and loyalty behaviour as well as to describe in detail the specific occasions of product consumption;
The Outcome:
The qualitative exploration proved the product to be cool and trendy, consumed at party, at night and in the morning.
The results from the shopper quantitative survey revealed the leading need of a “cooled” product offer and showed the decision for category purchase to be mostly spontaneous, taken at POS.
The high price of the brand (observed also in the qualitative stage) appeared the key barrier. The U&A phase of the research exposed the product as highly “functional” and strongly related to very specific drinking occasions, which could be easily addressed to trigger higher consumption.
Following the research findings and recommendations, our client linked better the brand consumption with the most typical drinking situations, invested in events and activities triggering these situations and actively promoted the category consumption during such events. In addition, the better positioning in in-store coolers, the different types of price promotions and the cross-selling with other related categories increased the brand value share by 11%.
