The Importance Of Brand Research

We live in an age of unprecedented access to information, open peer-to-peer dialogue and freely-offered opinion.

Brands operating in this world are no longer able to control their narrative. Customer feedback and complaints are not dealt with privately behind the closed doors of a customer service department; they are offered publicly for other customers and potential customers to see. How many of us these days have more faith in a hotel’s Trip Advisor rating than what it says on the hotel’s website?

Organisations are coping with this power shift in a variety of ways. Learning to respond quickly to online feedback to capitalise on good reviews, demonstrate how well you are listening and quickly mitigate any potential damage is the absolute baseline. But understanding your customers deeply and working out how to adapt your model to meet their needs and desires better is the real key, and that takes research. Nothing will tell you more clearly what your customers want than asking them directly.

At rbl, we help our clients develop brands that support their business vision and mission, that use language, tone, form and colour to enhance and enrich what they are trying to do for their customers, and for the world in which they are operating.

We don’t believe it is possible to do that properly without first exploring that world for them. And that’s why we developed our 6 stage process, where stage 1 is all about research.  We take the time to listen to what our client’s customers, staff, partners and other influencers say – not just about our client or our client’s product, but more generally about the world they share with our client, and their hopes and aspirations within it.  We use a variety of methods: individual interviews, focus groups, workshops, roadshows and online surveys. Then we get to work to eke out the real gems, the powerful insights from the research that light our way to a more incisive positioning, and ultimately to engaging, relevant and customer-centric brand expression.

If that sounds interesting, drop us a line, we’d love to have a chat about your brand challenges and how we can help.  Read more about our approach to research here.

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