Assessing brand strength relative to competitors and understanding the reasons behind that strength (or weakness)

"You sometimes feel that researchers are telling you what you want to hear. We know that Solutions Marketing is telling it to us as it really is."
Matthew Moran Associate Manager Corporate Communication, Corporate Affairs (formerly) Pfizer Australia. Now Principal of Corpwrite Public Affairs.

The Situation –

In late November, 2013, Oroton Australia advised that a significant marketing investment increase behind the Oroton brand was planned for second half of the 2014 calendar year. UBS Australia has been closely following the Oroton results but they wanted to provide their investment clients with an understanding of “Oroton’s brand strength, opportunities for improved performance and a framework in which to monitor any turnaround”

How Solutions Marketing helped -

We conducted an online quantitative market research study of n=403 females aged 25-69 who had purchased one or more fine quality leather handbags worth $200+ in the last 12 months. The sample was drawn from Capital cities, Canberra & the Gold Coast. Quotas were set approximating the population in each of these cities

The first part of the survey measured the brand strength of Oroton and competitors (in relation to fine quality leather handbags) via a series of questions covering awareness, purchase, preference, willingness to recommend, willingness to pay a premium, ever bought incidence and buyer disposition.

The second part of the survey measured the ‘underlying reasons’ (namely brand vitality & brand stature) why the brand was thought to be strong or weak. This is the difference between our approach and many other approaches to measuring brand strength, in that we attempt to find these underlying reasons (relevant to the brand being assessed) whereas others do not. Here we developed a battery of 18 questions to get at the underlying reasons. What is the use of understanding what your brand strength is without also knowing why?

Strategic recommendations –

The research was clear as to where Oroton was strong and less strong and also clearly showed the underlying reasons for the result. Our strategic recommendations were strong because they arose out of the underlying reasons.

The result –

UBS Investors were impressed because they gained a deeper insight into the mind of the customer and into the strength, vitality and stature of the Oroton brand.

Feedback from UBS is that Marc Newman (MD of Oroton) was impressed by a number of findings, some surprising but most in line with his expectations. Overall he was impressed with the findings.

Finally, it is gratifying to know that UBS, one of the world’s most successful investment advisory companies can rely on our research findings to add important market and consumer insights to a number of their investment reports