Brand Interview and Research Paper
1. Complete 3 one-on-one interviews.
- Using the interview questions below as a guide and your own twist on them, identify 3 people (family, friends, classmates in other courses, people you meet social distancing at Einstein’s) who likely fit the target market for your chosen brand and its product. e.g. say your brand/product is Adidas Gazelle running shoes, you may not interview your 90 yo great-grandmother unless you know for a fact she wears running shoes because she’s either 1-a distance runner 2-ex-European football queen who’s always had a sporty style or 3-likes comfy footwear and to look cool playing Jeopardy. This way, you don’t waste your time with respondents who give you nothing (you’re looking for insights to develop a campaign strategy later.) Also, as partly joking above, you can isolate target segments for your brand right away (here were three possible segments already).
- You’re ultimately trying to get insight to the brand/product: how/why people use it, what they know about it, what attributes (features) and benefits that matter to them, brand perception, how they shop for it (path to purchase, purchase decisions),
2. Interview questions.
These questions are a guide based on the Adidas example above–they may not fit the brand you’re researching. You’ll need to adapt them and write your own. [Suggestions are in brackets as “fill in the blank” words for you to replace]
- Name some [cool/fashionable/desirable/favorite] [your client’s market/category] brands.
- What do you think about [product, don’t mention brand yet]?
- What brands come to mind?
- What do you think about [brand]? Tell me about it.
- What words or images come to mind when you think of it? (you’re probing here for brand associations like Tony the Tiger, milk, cartoons associated with Frosted Flakes.)
- What makes [brand] [adjective from above you already used, cool/etc.] or not?
- What do you like best about [the brand]?
- What don’t you like?
- What makes it different or unique from other brands? (you’re probing here for brand perception and positioning, how is the brand differentiated in the consumer’s mind?)
- Do you own [product]? What brand/s? When do you wear them/it?
- What feature/s do you like best about them/it?
- What does/do that/those feature/s do for you?
- What benefit do you derive from [brand/product]?
- What does this benefit do for you? How does it make you feel?
- What is your perceived value of this [brand/product]? (let them describe in their own words, this helps you with strategy later because they may say something insightful.)
- How do you decide to buy a product like this? Is the brand a factor? What are other purchase factors? (let them answer then you can probe if they are stuck, Price/color/style/retailer/availability/etc.)
- How often do you buy this/these? Do you prefer new/vintage/limited edition?
- How long would you keep [brand/product]?
3.Find insights.
Insights are what you discover from research that the client needs to consider for strategy, the Big Idea or maybe even disruption of the market. Insights are Aha! moments, often something the brand/the client isn’t leveraging, doesn’t think about or doesn’t know, for example:
- Brand insight/s: is there something you found that the brand should be doing or something it hasn’t deployed in its marketing? Maybe relevant behaviors the brand can affect. What factor or benefit or feature can you identify that is a game-changer for the brand? A primary determinant for the success of the category.
- Consumer/audience insight/s: analysis of consumer behavior (what type of consumers buy this type of product, this brand, motivation, perceptions/assumptions?) and usage?
- Category insight/s: What is the formidable competition doing that your brand needs to jump on or counteract? Is it meaningful? We have enough lame issues. Is the brand a leader, disrupter, copycat, loser?