BRANDING
“Identity is cause;
brand is effect.”
Larry Ackerman
BRANDING
The Point
Breaking through the clutter of today's competitive environment has become increasingly difficult. The ease with which consumers access vast amounts of information is unprecedented, and their perceptions can change in an instant. Today, it is more important than ever for companies to actively evaluate and protect the value of their brands.
The world's most successful brands are built on a careful assessment of the marketplace, followed by strategic planning to develop a compelling position and insightful research to continuously monitor brand performance. Companies must invest heavily to build and maintain their brands, and they don't want to be left in the dark on how the marketplace responds to their efforts.
Knowlegde beyond numbers
Marketing Point, Inc. has a long and rich history in brand research and development and is recognized as an industry leader in implementing brand measurement programs. Over the past 10 years, MPI has conducted over 100 brand equity, positioning, and brand tracking studies. MPI has monitored brands spanning a full spectrum of stages in the product lifestyle, from new products to established market leaders, as well as a broad range of industries including consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, banking/financial services, power equipment, building/construction, telecom and technology.
The Process
The process begins by working with our clients to understand what their brands mean to them and how their brands are positioned in the market. Next, we design our approach to meet the unique needs of our clients' brands given the industries in which they operate. We offer a full range of services that provides key information at every stage of establishing and monitoring brand performance. We apply expert analyses using proven scientific methods to measure brand performance and the dimensions that are most impactful. The final and most important step in our process is to collaborate with our
clients to tell a brand story. It is this step that turns insight into action and delivers on
our promise to provide "knowledge beyond numbers."
PRODUCT/CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”
Steve Jobs
PRODUCT/CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
It is well known that most new product launches will ultimately fail in the marketplace, generally in spite of substantial marketing research efforts conducted throughout the development process. Marketing Point, Inc. believes new product and concept development to be one of the most important applications of marketing research, but one of the most difficult to execute in practice. New products can be concept-driven or product-driven. The methodology that underlies the following paragraphs is concept-driven, but keep in mind that you can also start with a product and work "backward" to build a concept and positioning.
New product development must have focal points to have any chance of success. Focal points include definition of the target market, determination of the product category, and/or definition of the problem to solve or opportunity to exploit. These focal points are largely managerial judgments. Once some of the basic focal points are identified, then MPI can help make the effort successful.
Qualitative Explorations
Once the target audience is identified and some notion of the product category is established, then qualitative research is the first step. The purpose is to develop in-depth understanding of the target consumer—their motivations, perceptions, fears, and preferences. Perceptions of competitive products can be explored. Unmet needs can be identified. New product ideas can be sought. The qualitative exploration serves to identify new product possibilities as well as refine the target-market definition for those possibilities. Qualitative research is also useful in determining the starting points for ideation.
Concept Testing
Concept testing identifies potentially successful new products early on, so that you can focus limited research and development resources (and limited marketing resources) on the new product concepts with the greatest probability of consumer acceptance. Marketing Point provides a suite of concept testing systems and services.
Naming Research
Selecting a name for a new product is an important step in new product development. IDEAPoint is our online system to identify the best names for final evaluation. Typically, final names are tested in the context of package, concept, or product testing, so that all variables are implicitly incorporated into the name test.
Packaging Research
Package graphics and copy are critical to new product success. Marketing Point offers a suite of package-testing services to help develop a winning package that can help generate trial of the new product and project the appropriate brand image.
Product Testing
New products must be optimal to have a reasonable chance for success. Product testing is an essential step in the development of a new product. Marketing Point offers a range of product-testing services to help ensure that the new product will be successful.
Test Market Evaluation
Real-world testing of new products is always recommended, if time and budgets permit. Actual store tests and/or actual test markets provide the most reliable evaluation of a new product. We are experts at designing and executing test markets for new products.
Pricing Research
Pricing strategy is probably the most overlooked of the traditional 4 P's of marketing, even though it may be the most important; price is generally the single biggest determinant of consumer choices. While the other three elements of marketing all require an investment to deliver, pricing is the one that is tied directly to the creation of revenue. A sound, insight-based pricing strategy is critical to profitability, but developing such a strategy is too often a knee-jerk reaction to market conditions or an afterthought to new product development. Approaches to pricing research, too, are frequently oversimplified by applying the same standard research protocols across a range of dissimilar pricing questions.
Marketing Point has a suite of approaches for quantifying the impact and profitability of pricing decisions. We recognize that very different techniques are necessary to address the multitude of pricing challenges a client may face. Whether an organization is establishing prices for a new-to-the-world product class with no existing competitors, refining a pricing strategy in a highly price-competitive category, forecasting the impact of short-term retail price promotions, or trying to measure and capture the value of a new product feature or innovation, our researchers have the analytical expertise and the industry knowledge to identify and implement the optimal solution.