Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea. Leah McTiernan, Ipsos ASI Page 2 Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea. Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea. Indexed to Total: Top Two Box. ... Brand marketers are looking to stake a claim – searching to find that special territory they can occupy and claim that is unique to their brand and their brand alone. Identifying that territory and ensuring it has a credible connection with the brand is the mission of big idea research. To be effective, big ideas must be: • emotionally engaging • ownable • impactful • campaignable Insight & Role of Brand Integrated in Consumers Minds First, let’s acknowledge that big idea development is tough. There are examples of very successful big ideas in the marketplace (dare we utter the words ‘real beauty’) but there are far more examples of not-so-big ideas that never reached that pinnacle of success. In our experience many good ideas are actually hampered by missteps in the development process. Based on Ipsos ASI’s extensive research of brands and advertising, here are five steps to uncovering your brand’s big idea: 1. To engage consumers, show that you truly understand them. Of course, the goal is to create emotionally engaging and contagious ads. To do this you need a piercing insight that connects with consumers instantly: revealing to them that you understand something about them that they thought you didn’t know. 2. Make sure you can credibly ‘own’ the space you want occupy. Qualitatively, in our research, we’ve heard it explained this way in a study for a beverage ad: ”All of that can happen without this beverage. I thought it was for something that would teach and nurture, not for a beverage.” If consumers cannot interpret the connection between the insight and your brand, no matter how much they appreciate the thought, your idea simply won’t take root. Without the connection, the idea cannot take shape in their minds and your brand cannot own it. And, of course, be realistic. When the connection is not made, the insight can feel too grandiose for the brand. One consumer puts it this way: “It’s beautifully written, but it makes this beverage sound like a miracle thing. How does it make your senses ‘in tune’? How does it do this to you?” The fact is your brand needs to play more than a sponsoring moment. If consumers cannot interpret the connection between the idea and your brand, no matter how much they appreciate or relate to the message, it just won’t work. Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists 119 Insight & Role of Brand NOT Integrated in Consumers Minds 70 0 50 100 150 Advantage / Differentiation Indexed to Total: Top Box. … this idea is Insight & Role of Brand Integrated in Consumers Minds 133 Insight & Role of Brand NOT Integrated in Consumers Minds 71 0 50 100 150 Ownable for the brand 3. To motivate consumers, tout something compelling that makes you unique. Consumers want to know why they should consider your product or service over another. And while engagement and ownability are critical to the development of brand impact, it is the ability of the big idea to differentiate the brand that ensures the greatest success. Too often, consumers have this reaction: “Their bottled water is just like the next guy’s, but what makes them different or unique? You have to show they’re not the same.” We couldn’t agree more. And, the good news for more established brands in established categories is that staking out a territory can actually bring ‘new’ news – giving you fresh things to say – and can carve out a space that leaves your brand emotionally differentiated. 4. Those little taglines make a big difference. The brand sign-off is small but mighty and plays a key role in bringing the big idea to life. In big idea development, it is important to understand the underlying perceptions that a brand logo or brand icon might have, and whether those perceptions are positive or whether there are hurdles that must be overcome. The brand sign-off is described qualitatively by consumers as the ’wrap up,’ and as something that helps them ’remember it.’ Page 3 Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea. 5. Contrary to popular belief, visuals just make execution more difficult. While images can contribute to a consumer’s perception of clarity, believability and relevance, this can have a detrimental impact on understanding whether the big idea has potential or not. Ultimately consumers react to the images themselves and not to the actual words on the page: they do not consider the big idea holistically. As a result, they ground themselves in the images and cannot ’imagine’ what an idea could become without them. This results in lack of clarity for the brand team, agencies, and research teams as to what images are and are not an executional imperative moving forward. The net result is that images can make a weaker big idea test more strongly. In the words of one consumer: “The pictures guide it. They bring you to a happy point so you feel different about what you’re looking at.” Conversely, the wrong images can weaken a potentially strong big idea: “I wouldn’t be as interested. I look at the pictures first and these pictures aren’t me.” As you’ll see below, consumers are no more accepting of big ideas that have visuals than they are of those that don’t. Indexed to Control Concept: Top Box. 100 Control Control + Images 99 0 25 50 75 100 Purchase Intent 100 Control Control + Images 92 0 25 50 75 100 Change in Opinion about the Brand Indexed to Control Concept: Top Box. 100 Control Control + Images 99 0 25 50 75 100 Competitive Advantage / Differentiation 100 Control Control + Images 93 0 25 50 75 100 Ownability of Idea 100 Control Control + Images 90 0 25 50 75 100 This is a unique way to think about the category When you’re developing your big idea stimulus keep it ‘raw.’ If you say or show too much you actually limit yourself. Stripped down big ideas allow consumers to explore and dream for you – ultimately delivering guided creative freedom as opposed to executional imperatives. Conclusion As media environments become more fragmented, more complex, and the number of touchpoints that consumers are exposed to increase exponentially – the path to brand communication success is to discover one platform that can engage consumers and create lasting brand affinity. That platform is the big idea – a compelling truth that guides communication across all media and harnesses a unique power to propel your brand. A big idea is not an ad. An effective finished ad, working on its own, should create a short term response, impacting an increase in sales volume and on brand equity. A big idea is far more than this; it is the backbone of all your brand communications. It isn’t always easy to uncover – but when you do find that gem your brand will shine – guided by strong, consistent, compelling creative across all media – for years to come. Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists Page 4 Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea. Appendix Research Methodology This research was designed to understand what elements contribute to the consumer understanding and acceptance of big ideas, so that we, as researchers, could provide effective insight, recommendations and executional imperatives. Big Ideas for five packaged goods brands were selected for testing: all five were for commonly known brands to ensure reasonable levels of awareness. Each was executed in 5 variations. Variation 1 – Control [contained Piercing Insight, Role of Brand, Brand Sign-Off] Variation 2 – No Piercing Insight Variation 3 – No Role of the Brand Variation 4 – No Brand Sign-Off Variation 5 – Control with Images Online interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of female grocery shoppers (minimum 50% had kids) who were non rejecters of the brands being researched. One hundred respondents viewed and evaluated each of the five rotations; all respondents saw only one variation of each big idea for a total of 500 evaluations for each variation. Variations and big ideas were randomized to control for order bias. In addition to the quantitative research, we conducted three qualitative focus groups with target consumers (one for each category tested) to probe the specific role of each of the elements based on the results of the quantitative. Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists About Ipsos ASI Ipsos ASI offers marketers state-of-the-art advertising research built on more than 40 years of experience using measures predictive of in-market performance. We offer a full-range of solutions across all media – at any stage in the creative process – from equity assessment to strategic development, advertising testing, and tracking. Our research is backed by a dedicated team of advertising research specialists whose mission is to deliver the answers that will add value to your business anywhere in the world. About Ipsos Ipsos ASI is a member of the Ipsos Group, a leading global survey-based research company. Ipsos member companies offer expertise in advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, and public affairs research, as well as forecasting, modeling, and consulting. With offices in 55 countries, the Paris-based company was founded in 1975. For general information, contact us via email at: [email protected] For regional information on North America: [email protected] For regional information on Latin America: [email protected] For regional information on Europe: [email protected] For regional information on Asia-Pacific: [email protected]
© Copyright 2024