Five ways research adds value to the branding and design process

Few marketeers would dispute that a strong brand is essential for their company’s success, nor that it has a considerable influence on their customers’ purchasing decisions. A well-designed, well-managed brand generates sales, supports geographic and product scope expansion, pushes price tolerance and secures investment opportunities. Where a company has issued shares, the equity of their brand is a key piece in their evaluation by analysts, investors and industry partners. With this in mind, saying that companies should work hard at ensuring their brand is recognizable, unique and resonates with the audience they want to attract and retain may sound obvious, but in a busy marketplace where competition is fierce and evolving, putting the obvious into practice is not always straightforward.

Recent research undertaken by Arlington Research[1] identified that 91% of marketing decision makers believe their branding has considerable influence on their audience’s purchasing decision and 46% listed increasing brand recognition as one of their primary goals for the coming 12 months. Three in ten (29%) identified differentiating their brand from their competitors’ as of the key barriers to achieving their brand goals. A quarter (26%) named the creation of a clear/distinctive brand identity as a key difficulty, and 25% saw understanding their target audience and/or resonating with customers as a barrier to successfully managing their brand. A little over a fifth (22%) named making their branding and design applicable across different markets/audiences as one of their main challenges. With market trends constantly evolving and technology altering the demographic and geographic profiles of customers, how to make your brand stand out is an increasingly important question.

When it comes to branding, market research is a greatly valued asset for many marketeers. Almost half (48%) of marketing decision makers said that customer or market research was one of the elements they considered most important for their brand and a fifth (22%) said that whether a branding and design service provider used market research as part of their process was one of the most important considerations when appointing a partner. Whereas almost all (89%) said they use market research to some extent during the brand development and monitoring process, with uncertainty still misting up the future brand vision, there is scope to get smarter with how and when research is applied.

Here are five interventions to consider:

1. Brand review

For businesses that are looking to understand and improve their brand recognition, a brand review is a great place to start. It provides an overview of current perceptions of all your brand expressions and will highlight current levels of recognition and understanding of your brand values. In addition, it will identify brand gaps – the blind spots, unheard communications and misunderstandings that cloud the messages you want to communicate.

2. Brand audit

An audit will provide a holistic and in-depth assessment of your brand. Comparing all current brand expressions across geographies and business segments, it will help you to understand how these are perceived by your stakeholders internally and external to your organisation. Aligning these representations with your company’s mission and vision is essential when facing the challenge of appealing with the same brand to different markets and audiences.

Brand audits will involve both internal research – ‘who do we think we are and how do we say that’ – and external research– ‘who do customers think we are and why do they think that’. This delivers an in-depth understanding of the synergies of core messaging and brand expressions with brand intentions and your company’s mission and value statements. The key objective is to identify universally resonant messages and branding elements that can be used for your core brand vocabulary to represent your brand coherently and clearly, wherever your stakeholders are.

3. Brand positioning and mapping

With brand differentiation a key challenge for many companies and the desire to increase brand recognition a goal for almost half of marketing decision makers, undertaking research to map your brand’s position could be a vital driver for a more effective brand strategy.

Research is used to scope the brand space by gathering customer and stakeholder input and comparing it to intended brand reach. Contrasting this with competitor brands and establishing relative positioning of your brand compared to other leading brands will provide the insight needed to position your brand moving forward.

Research can further be utilised to understand drivers of dominance and key attribute ownership, highlighting blank spaces and easy wins, to help map the right path for your brand strategy towards genuine differentiation.

4. Brand evolution

As the name suggests, this type of intervention is about moving your brand forward. It can range from creating a new brand identity to adapting an existing one – whatever is needed to keep your brand fresh, current and aligned with your business strategy. Whereas most marketeers understand the value of using research for at least part of their brand development, it is not always considered as a regular temperature check, yet this is where it can provide ongoing value.

Brand evolution research uses testing with stakeholders, covering brand naming, personality, attributes, advertising and customer journeys, to help you make the next step in your brand evolution.

5. Brand equity model development

Brand equity is all about the value of a brand in the eyes of the customer: essentially, the premium purchasers are prepared to pay for getting a principally equal product from their favourite brand. With virtually all marketing decision makers acknowledging how important their brand is to their audience’s purchasing decision, there is scope for brands to push boundaries if developed appropriately.

Research sits at the core of brand equity development, as it identifies the strengths and weaknesses for key points of brand performance (KPIs) and assigns appropriate weightings to each one point. Calculating the brand equity of a company requires the development of a model delivering against internal and external goals, whilst reflecting the specific nature of the business. Input from key stakeholder groups is very important in coming to an actionable result that can drive improvement in both customer satisfaction and general brand performance.

At Arlington Research, we are excited to help our clients with their brand journey – whether it is the review and rejuvenation of a long-established brand or the development of an entirely new brand entity – and everything in between. Whether it is brand values, naming, recognition, performance or positioning, as a full-service research agency with extensive experience in branding research of all types, we can help you make the most of the opportunities for your brand to shine.

[1] Research took place between 7-14 July 2024. An online survey was sent to 200 Marketing decision makers at manager level and above, working for organizations employing 50+ employees in UK, USA, Germany and Australia. Download the full report here

If you would like to find out more about how we can help you with your brand journey, get in touch with the team