How Marketing Consumer Research can help in Brand Development

Consumer research is usually viewed in terms of a company’s relationship with its consumers, specifically about its marketing and product. But consumer research can prove valuable for other functions like brand development.

Brands are ultimately a matter of public perception. Your brand is not just the logo and colors, it is about how people at large see you. Marketing Consumer Research focuses on these very consumers. Researchers use various methods, including interviews and observation to understand consumer behavior, their motivations and desires.

Consumer research when applied to brand development can be short term or a much longer affair. Short-term research usually aims to gauge a particular aspect. But, since brand development is a long-term strategy, research must be conducted periodically, especially an evaluation of the brand’s standing.

Some of the specific areas where consumer research is critical for brand development are:
Improving communication: In today’s hyper-connected modern space, communication with the user has become more important than ever before. A brand that communicates frequently and effectively with its market remains relevant and easy to recall. But what is it that people want to hear? How can we link our core product to the information flow all around us? What is the language that your users understand — its nuances and idioms? Not just the language, we are also looking at the right content.

Connecting with consumers: The average consumer today is not walking around looking at pamphlets and hoardings. Chances are they are working on or surfing the internet. So, how do you connect with this new user, yet retain your old base? Researchers are today looking at communication patterns in social media, informal chatter to understand how we can better relate to the average person, whether or not he/she is an existing consumer.

Checking preferences: Often we develop a product with a fairly fixed idea of our market, its drives and motivations. But, in a country as vast as India with its many regional variations, consumer preferences often change from one place to another. This can affect not just product development, but also branding strategy. Consumer preference influences every aspect of how we can develop a brand — from designing a logo, packaging to deciding on communication channels.

Test running Ads: Advertisements are undoubtedly the biggest means of brand promotion. No advertisement today can pass without some basic Marketing Consumer Research. This is conducted before and after a promotional event. Even before you get a creative agency to formulate an idea, you will need some basic data like the average age, occupation, income status.

Once we have the ad, we again use a simple survey or observation to see how the audience receives it. Does it communicate your product and brand effectively? Can people recall the brand hours after they watch the ad? Does the ad confirm to your brand’s core image or does it mark a stark departure?

Understanding consumer behavior: This is the main goal of any marketing consumer research and it is vital for brand development. How your consumer behaves, understanding their motivations, desires and preferences is critical for all decisions we take regarding brand development, such as planning communication and promotion strategy.

Check communication effectiveness: Planning communication is not enough. We must also determine whether it is effective or not. Communication here covers a wide ambit, any form that is used for brand development, such as emails, SEO content and advertisements.

Researchers focus on whether people see the brand either directly or indirectly. Does the SEO content lead the reader to better brand awareness? Are we aligned to the right websites and other content? How effective is our engagement with the consumers? Should we step up our communication channels or is there a risk of over-exposure?

Evaluating brands: As mentioned above, brands are for life and brand development strategy must be devised for a long-time period. This makes it necessary that we evaluate our direction periodically and this is where research comes in.

Marketing Consumer Research focuses on how the consumer sees the brand. Do they recognise the logo and design immediately? How do they place it vis-a-vis the competition? Does it make them feel good, sad or indifferent? How loyal are they to the brand?

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Top 6 Tips on Brand Building Strategy For Small Business

Brands are often seen as the domain of big businesses. Many small entrepreneurs consider it unnecessary and often, unattainable. But this is rather short-sighted and misinformed. Brands may be exclusive, but they are not the domain of only one sector. Every business -- big or small -- has a brand that is its own.

What small businesses often lack is an awareness of their brand. Consequently, they rarely focus on a comprehensive Brand Building Strategy for Business. In addition, brand building is a long-term function and small businesses often find themselves reluctant to make that investment.

But, if carefully planned, brand building is neither expensive nor difficult. These are some handy tips that small businesses can use when planning their strategy:

Define your brand: We start with understanding and defining a brand. We must first find what a brand stands for, what its core idea is and how can we align it to the company philosophy. We have to focus on what our brand will stand for. What is its relationship with its environment -- economic and social?

Find a niche: The only way a brand can make a mark is by finding a niche. This is a unique feature or image that the brand conveys. In a market overcrowded with competing brands, this is the only way to stand out. Once we have defined the brand, we identify what makes it unique. Once we find the value proposition of the brand, we adopt a branding strategy that emphasizes this quality.

By carving a niche, we not only get the chance to exploit a ready market, we can also slowly position ourselves as the foremost brand in that space. A successful strategy is when your brand becomes synonymous with this niche space.

Treat your brand as a human being: Brands are imaginary concepts. We can have a fixed symbol, font and colors, but the concept of a brand is much bigger than that. The trick is to see it as a growing human being. In the beginning, it is like a little baby who must be nurtured in order for it to grow into a healthy robust adult.

We start by personalizing a brand. Name it and give it a distinct shape. We then carefully think and plan the relationships it will form with its environment -- the consumers, press and even the distributors. Just as in the case of human relationships, these have to be nurtured and carefully developed for a long-term.

Don't copy: You will read many success stories of brands that have become synonymous with the product, like Band-Aid or Xerox. But, while these success stories are great inspirations, you cannot copy these blindly for your own strategy.

What worked for one brand at that particular time and space may not work for your own brand. Any Brand Building Strategy for Small Business must take into account the various factors that make its environment. Also, keep in mind that the consumer today is smart with easy access to information. You do not want to be known as a copycat!

Don't overpush it: The problem with many marketeers and business owners is that they tend over overpush their brand when planning a promotion. You will see the brand virtually everywhere -- from company emails, signages, corporate gifts and every other business related matter. This is often counterproductive. Too much leads to over exhaustion.

Be Bold: One of the common features for all successful brand stories is how they took a risk and did something different. It could have been a bold advertising campaign, promotional strategy or an interesting innovation. In a market teeming with competitive brands, an innovative strategy ensures that you will catch the attention of the consumers. If it is really different, they will remember you every time a similar concept is raised.

Use social media: For small businesses the social media has been a huge boon. It is the perfect tool for brand building strategy. You can use platforms like Twitter to engage with the market. Other sites like Facebook can be used to create a constant dialogue and connection with the market.

These tips can help you plan a comprehensive Brand Building Strategy -- from its inception and through its lifetime. Timely evaluation will help you measure your success and course correct when required.

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How Marketing Research Services Can Help the Textile Industry

The textile industry is one of the largest Indian industry that provides employment to both skilled and unskilled labor in India. It is also one of the most rapidly developing industry. Booming trade has helped both the rural sector as well as the urban centers. In addition, we now have sizeable foreign investment and expertise flowing into the Indian textile in-dustry.

Corresponding with this growth is the story of Marketing Research Services in the textile industry. Whether dealing with a B2B company or a consumer services business, market-ing research has made an immense difference in how these businesses are making criti-cal decisions on branding, sourcing, marketing, communication and even business ex-pansion.

As the Indian textile industry becomes more competitive, marketing research will have an even greater role to play. For foreign companies from countries like UK and Sin-gapore, research is even more important, since it helps them to understand the complex Indian market. Some of the ways in which marketing research has made a significant im-pact in the textile industry are:

Consumer segregation: Unlike most industries, the consumer’s preference are the key here. In a country like India where multiple textiles and fashion trends exist and thrive simultaneously, it is important to know just who your customer is. Marketing research will focus on the basics like lifestyle, taste, preference, age and income of the consumer. This helps us to price, expand and plan our entire growth strategy.

Brand development: The brand is a major commodity in the textile industry, especially in retail. Here the brand plays an important role because it helps us carve out a niche and exploit it further. As a long-term research function, brand development focuses on overall strategies to improve brand image. It helps us to pinpoint the brand, whether it is a luxury, cost-effective, exclusive, urban, eco-friendly and so on.

Need-gap analysis: A by-product of a rapid spread has been the over-saturation in some areas of the textile sector. Research focuses on whether the demand actually exists. What is the level of competition and where can your company enter? Is there space for your product? What is the demand and supply in the given market?

This analysis is essential in creating estimates for future demand, which is the critical el-ement in creating strategies. This information will affect all our decisions — deciding on production capacity, demand and supply of products in the B2B area, pricing strategy and promotional activities.

Gauging expansion need: Too many companies go bust for expanding too soon. The two most common reasons of faulty expansion are overcommitting business assets and enter-ing an over-saturated market. Most often this can be easily avoided by timely research. Apart from need-gap analysis as stated above, research will also focus on the company’s own capabilities.

Usage & attitude study: It is important to understand how people and businesses are us-ing textiles. There has been considerable innovation, change in style and preferences of the average consumer. Marketing Research Services study the changing usage patterns as well as people’s attitude towards a brand and its product.

Retail research: For B2C companies the retail experience is a critical part of their busi-ness organization. The customer experience, their feedback and perception can make all the difference between success and failure. Research focuses on the layout of stores, how shoppers make their selection, what attracts them to rival brands and so on.

This research has been instrumental in creating more shopper-friendly layouts at many major stores, innovative retail strategy and better shopper experience on the whole.

Knowing Triggers: Like any industry, there are the triggers that cannot be crossed in a given market. These can be dictated by prevalent social or religious customs, norms and culture. A foreign brand must keep these in mind when entering into the textile business. Even Indian brands often fail to understand regional barriers.

For instance, Market Research Services for a big clothes retail chain that was planning to open a store in small town found little demand for their western women swear range. This was mostly due to local conservative culture. Consequently, the store focused on their ethnic wear with just a select selection of their western wear. This meant less wastage, more judicial use of its inventory and better retail experience.

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