A great business understands its strengths and weaknesses.
We help brands unlock this knowledge, find their position of greatest strength and create a plan to move them there.
To successfully position a brand in a new territory, we uncover a clear and unbiased view of an organisations position within the marketplace before identifying alternatives.
This can open up new opportunities, partnerships, audience groups, products, services and more. Change can come in the form relatively simple alterations to messaging, or may require more significant operational and cultural adjustments.
There are many brand positioning tools, methodologies and research activities that can be undertaken when looking to better understand a brand, product or service.
Market research should be a company’s first step in developing and executing brand positioning strategies to grow its business. Well-planned market research will allow you to understand your market, identify opportunities for growth or new markets, as well as any risks involved. This article will explore some of the market research activities that can be undertaken when looking to better understand a brand, product or service.
Competitor analysis is a market research activity that takes a look at the market and attempts to identify, analyse and evaluate your competitors. This can be useful for understanding what is considered strengths or weaknesses in a market. A market analysis is one activity often used within a competitor analysis as this looks into an industry’s overall performance. This is useful as it will provide context to how a certain brand performs against others and within the benchmarks set out in the market analysis. A competitor analysis looks at a wide range of metrics including financial, brand positioning, product and service offering, proposition, USPs, threats, weaknesses, audience acquisition and retention and many more.
Target audience research is another market research activity. This type of primary and secondary research aims to identify and understand the needs that your audience is looking for in a service or product.
Best practice benchmarking is a process through which exception examples of specific activities can be identified. These benchmarks can be drawn from any industry or sector. The core driver here is to look for examples that a brand can learn from and apply to their own industry.
Analysing an audiences’ expectations from a brand can be useful as it helps you deliver what they want; this means you are less likely to lose them to competitors who might provide better service or a more desirable product.
The market research process is a mix of both qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Qualitative market research can take the form of focus groups, in-depth interviews and market ethnographies to uncover insights that are hidden or unarticulated by customers. Quantitative market research often includes customer surveys, polls and questionnaires which measure business performance through more structured means. Some key activities are listed below:
Market research workshops are an excellent way to involve key stakeholders in both understandings and shaping the market research process. They are a useful tool for identifying what types of information is required, who might want it, how they might gather it and how it can be used to improve the business through which they are commissioned.
A market research survey is a device for gathering information from a wide range of participants in order to measure attitudes, behaviours or experiences. A market research poll is the same thing but can also be used as a more general method of asking people which they prefer out of two things.
Focus groups are a useful tool for testing a theory or solution to a previously identified problem. For example, if a brand wanted to find out how people felt about a proposed logo for their brand, they would arrange a focus group where participants discuss and provide direct feedback. Focus groups can also be used to test market research questions, which are then adjusted based on the responses. Another benefit of focus groups is that they can be useful for gathering opinions from people who share particular demographics. For example, a group of young mothers may answer different questions than middle-aged fathers. This information is often presented as qualitative data and can help to shape specific product offerings.
Key stakeholder interviews can be used to gain insight into their roles and interactions with a brand, product or service. These interviews can take place with employees, managers and customers of a given company to find out what they want from the business in terms of products or services. Stakeholder interviews are a particularly focused method of market research and the participants should be carefully chosen. Key stakeholders that traditionally make good interviewees are directors of people with significant influence over decision making within their respective businesses. The stakeholders may be encouraged to provide opinions on products or services as well, which can help a company shape new ideas for the market. This is particularly useful when there is uncertainty about how to progress with existing offerings.
Brand positioning research is a range of activities used to investigate and learn about a topic, such as audience behaviour, competitor positioning or the effectiveness of marketing.
Uncovering a clear view of your market and competition is the first step in developing any successful marketing plan. The data gathered by market research can provide invaluable insights into what customers want from their products and services, leading to strategies that perform better and generate more interest.
Market research can take many forms and usually includes a mixture of primary and secondary research. This often takes the form of competitor analysis, audience research, sector and industry research, competitor benchmarking and a list of audience expectations.
Primary research is the main method of research undertaken by a brand strategist. This involves a mixture of in-person and desktop research, where sources of information are found and analysed directly. This will usually take the form of staff, partners, customers and prospective customers within your target market. The activities and methodologies of information gathering vary greatly depending on the type of client. Some examples of primary research are interviews (online or in-person); surveys; questionnaires; focus groups; site visits; mystery shoppers; feedback requests and many more.
Group workshops, surveys and polls are useful tools in gathering relevant data. This information is then captured and presented back to a client to help them make informed decisions about their business. Focused primary market research activities can play an important role during a strategic audit to help qualify or disprove common beliefs about a brand, product or service. For example, market research may reveal that a certain product or service is outperforming the others in some metrics. This may lead to a rethink in how that product is categorised or marketed.
When a brand agency conducts primary research, they are typically gathering two basic kinds of information:
This research is general and open-ended, and typically involves lengthy interviews with an individual or small group. This can often form the initial stages of a brand audit. When undertaking exploratory market research, we recommend gathering key stakeholders and having an initial discussion to surface core topics of discussion. Some advanced preparation is advised here to establish an agenda and organise some light activities to help facilitate conversation. Exploratory meetings should have an open dialogue where participants can freely share their thoughts.
This type of market research is more precise and is used to solve a problem identified during sections of exploratory research. It involves more structured, formal interviews or questionnaires and can be used to prove or disprove certain assumptions. Specific market research is an essential tool in bringing clarity and a factual basis to any argument.
Primary market research is relatively costly and time-intensive, however, it does give a very detailed view of the topics in focus.
Secondary research is a type of research that has already been gathered and published by another credible group or organisation. This may include reports and studies by government agencies, trade associations or other businesses within your industry or further afield. For the majority of small brands with limited budgets, secondary research is a perfectly adequate form of research due to its fast turnaround and low barrier to entry.
Useful sources of secondary research can be found across the internet, with the Google Research Hub, the World Economic Forum report centre and The British Medical Journal research platform all providing useful insights to previous brand work in recent years.
Brand creation refers to the planning, definition and design of a new product or service, often in response to a new business opportunity.
Many new and established businesses engage in a process known as ‘brand creation’ when looking to launch something new into the marketplace. This process usually starts when a business has identified the need to fill a consumer or audience need, then embarks on a mission to fulfil that need.
This might take the form of an ‘organisational’ brand such as a new company, division or sub-brand with the intention of that new entity living within an existing business hierarchy. Other, more common, examples of new brand creation are with the definition and design of new products and services. As with organisational brand creation, new product and service brands will either need to fit into the context of an existing business model and offering or alternatively create a new model in which it can thrive.
In its simplest form, brand creation is about defining and addressing the specific needs identified during a strategic audit or appropriate market research. This plan will then help to create the proposed new brand’s name, visual identity, values, messaging and other branded content so that it can successfully communicate with customers in a way that makes them want to engage.
Recent examples of brand creation include new product development for Georgina Day, the definition and creation of Heritage for People for Edinburgh World Heritage and the Halley Stevensons development of EverWax.
There are many reasons that business owners engage in brand creation. Primarily, brand creation is undertaken as a response to an opportunity identified during strategic market research.
The hope in this process is that the brand will resonate with its target audience and offer them something new or different from what they already have access to. The brand should be able to attract customers by appealing to their needs and offering solutions through either product, service or brand features. When brand creation is successful, it will help the company to create a competitive advantage in their market and grow over time.
Brand creation is a great way for new businesses to enter a market, or for existing businesses to diversify their offering, whether directly or indirectly. From small online retailers looking to sell specific product lines on the Amazon Marketplace right through to specific geographical releases of existing products, brand creation is a powerful and measured way of entering new spaces.
A common example that we are seeing more and more of is the emergence of the e-commerce brand. These are brands that have been created with the specific purpose of selling on platforms such as eBay, Amazon and Google. When compared to traditional brands, the price-points of e-commerce brand products are generally lower and are aimed at low-budget consumers looking to make a fast purchase. The potential quantities, however, are much higher. As this caters for a very specific need, this method of selling does not often fit into existing small business models, therefore requiring a new answer to fulfil this. Brand creation can play a role here to create a new brand to quickly and easily answer the user needs while retaining a degree of separation from other existing businesses.
One reason for keeping an e-commerce brand isolated from existing businesses as it will not dilute an existing product offering — or its value!
We offer e-commerce brand and website design. For more information, please get in touch directly at hello@lbd.studio.
The design and development of portfolio brand ‘assets’ is a long-established method of creating a broad product range. While many organisations achieve this organically through innovation and new product development, there is often a need to fill a gap in a market more quickly. This might lead to the acquisition of existing brands in this space or a decision to purpose a brand creation strategy.
For example, the alcohol and beverage industry does a fantastic job of creating portfolio brands to satisfy and drive market demand. Successful alcohol brands such as Beam Suntory, Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Proximo have diverse portfolios that look to satisfy consumer expectations. When specific types of alcohol are identified as being high growth, they will act to bring their own product to compete for market share.
We offer a specialist insight into portfolio architecture and the creation of new brands to fulfil a specific need within a portfolio. For more information, please get in touch directly at hello@lbd.studio.
International brands are not always appropriate for specific regions or locations. This may be due to sensitive political or cultural reasons out of your control. This is when new brand creation can play a role in bringing an existing product or service offering to a new area under a different umbrella. This may operate as part of a group or in isolation. Technology brands employ brand creation in this way for various products. Successful brand strategies for local brand creation are built around four key principles:
Product or service value: Does the brand offer something that no other brand in the area does? This could be a design, function, process or customer experience advantage. It is important to understand what makes your product different.
Local market knowledge: A brand needs to understand the market and its customers. What are their wants, needs, desires? Doing this will help with defining a brand strategy that is more likely to succeed in gaining traction.
Distribution channels: The local distribution channel for your product or service is critical as it can determine how far you go, how quickly, and for what price.
Communication: It is essential that this is sensitive to the local area and does not create conflict with cultural or religious beliefs. If there is a conflict that cannot be overcome, then it is likely the brand is not a good fit and should not be pursued.
‘New Product Development’ or ‘NPD’ refers to the process used to create a new product, often in response to the identification of an opportunity or threat found during a brand positioning exercise.
New product development is critical to the growth of most brands. The term ‘product’ can be expanded to include services and content streams — the important thing is that something new is being created to service a need or opportunity that has been identified by a business. This type of investment also shows a company’s ability to adapt and can bring longevity to established businesses. New product development is now considered to be vital to the success of any business that wants to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.
From a brand perspective, this process will often look at how a new product will impact and expand upon a wider portfolio or naming strategy.
Recent examples of new product development work include the creation of EverWax Olive for Halley Stevensons, the 180 Table and 725 Table for Max McCance and the bespoke Duck Down range for The Feather Company.
There are many ways to bring a new product into the world. We use a tried and tested process that places creativity at the heart of any innovation.
There are two main types of opportunity identification; reactive and proactive. Reactive opportunity identification is when a business discovered there is a need within a market for a specific product offer. This may be brought to their attention during customer and stakeholder feedback sessions, market research, a strategic audit or less defined methods such as board meetings or discussions. These opportunities are then weighed up as to whether they are worth investing time and resources in. Proactive opportunity identification is a process of continuous innovation where brands use a mixture of trend forecasting, consumer behaviour analysis emerging technology, big data and other tools to pre-empt when an opportunity might arise in the future.
Apple, Google and Microsoft all have teams dedicated to exploring where the problems of the future might be, then devise possible solutions to try and head these off. A good example of this was the invention of the tablet; Apple identified that consumers had an evolving need for a larger, book-sized mobile device. The trend forecasting they uncovered stated that users needed much of the functionality of a smartphone but without the size and weight limitations of a laptop. Further to this, it was discovered that the large screen area would benefit from direct contact, expanding upon the touch-screen functionality into a drawing surface. New developments such as these are indicative of new product development, which is a continual process rather than a one-off event.
From here, it is important to qualify each opportunity and define how success might be achieved. This gives structure to the next stages, bringing clarity and focus to the creative process and driving positive outcomes.
With a clearly defined brief and a list of consumer expectations, it is time to bring the issue to life. Creative exploration will look at a wide range of ways to solve the issue, using a mixture of technology, innovation and design thinking to look at the problem. A typical new product development team will be made up of a mixture of skills from design, production, user experience and much more. This stage is key in shaping the different possible routes to explore and will help solidify the thinking for further stages. It is important that continual testing is undertaken throughout the creative process to help steer and refine the thinking. It is also essential that ‘bad’ ideas are also explored as you can often learn as much from ‘what not to do’ as with more sensible solutions. At LBD Studio, we always look at a problem from as many angles and perspectives as possible to build a solution that is well rounded and properly considered.
From here, the most effective ideas are selected to progress them formally. There will typically be between 2-5 ideas pursued at this stage, bringing them to a more complete conclusion, before then discussing again. Since new product development is a lot more than just the physical product or service itself, it is also about how the final product will be presented. This might take the form of worked up sketches and can even include print, digital or content examples to show how it may be received by an audience.
At this point, further discussion and review are undertaken to make firm decisions on the direction the company wants to take. It is advised at this stage to go back to the original brief to make sure each idea answers the problem originally presented. The best solution is often the one that most succinctly answers the brief. While the other ideas might also work well in certain situations, it is essential that the creative process remains objective and disregards anything that strays off-brief. This is a common mistake; seemingly good ideas regularly make it to market despite not meeting a brief or satisfying any real consumer demand. We advise that all energy is channelled into the most successful solution, with everything else being parked.
The prototyping stage focuses on the more detailed development of the final concept, bringing it into reality. This may involve extensive technical development and will likely go through several iterations before the final prototype is made. This can then be used to attract funding, sponsorships or other interest. Regular testing should be conducted throughout the prototyping process to ensure good usability with all the accessibility standards considered. These vary from industry to industry so it is always recommended a lawyer is consulted during the prototyping process.
Once the final prototype has been completed, formal testing can be undertaken. At LBD Studio, we recommend a mixture of consumer group testing with your target audiences alongside more formal testing. There are industry-specific companies that will test your product — for example, UserTesting will test digital products from a variety of perspectives and locations.
When the prototype is complete, it can also be photographed or accurately modelled for use across digital applications such as a website, social media and investor presentations.
The launch of a new product should be carefully thought through, making sure that the naming approach works alongside any existing portfolio architecture. Once these decisions have been reached, an appropriate level of brand creation can be explored for the product, bringing it to life for the market and audience identified in the original brief. We also recommend exploring brand identity principles and creating a coherent range of print, digital and content touch-points to keep your message clear.
To conclude, the new product development process begins with research and ends with delivery to the consumer but it really never stops there. New products must be monitored after they reach the market so that their performance can be assessed, and further follow-on work is planned (or scrapped).
A ‘brand strategy’ is defined as a set of plans used to shape and direct how a brand operates. In this introduction to brand strategy, we will look at the definition of brand planning, how a strategy is produced and how it is used.
Like most strategies, these plans vary from business to business and generally consist of a system of goals, shared values and a vision for the future. Each component is typically defined during the branding process, where a strategist will work with brand owners to define the intended direction of the brand. A strong brand strategy should be well-researched, unique and actionable. When explaining brand planning, we often use the analogy of building a house. A builder would never construct a home without an architects plan — the same logic applies when building a brand. A brand strategy essentially acts as a blueprint for how a business is positioned, communicated, and (hopefully) understood by customers.
Before writing a brand strategy, an organisation should always undertake appropriate research. This research may include a company-wide strategic audit, a competitive overview and any relevant market research into their industry. A strategic audit will examine the materials and messages already used, defining the tools and materials that perform well. It will also identify existing issues and gaps in what is currently available. A competitive overview will look into the competitive set — rival brands that compete for your audiences attention. Market research will look to qualify these learnings with data, using direct and indirect methods to define the case for change. In theory, these insights should result in a detailed and unbiased picture of the brand. This picture will also uncover areas of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat.
From here, a strategist will work with the brand owners to disseminate the research findings before translating them into a meaningful set of strategies to be used by the business. Some of the outcomes that form a brand strategy include a single-minded brand proposition, clearly defined mission, vision and values statements, and a coherent naming approach for all products and services. Brand planning will also likely include a messaging framework and a detailed summary of all target audiences.
A strong brand strategy will always act as the ‘Northern Star’ for your brand. Once defined, the brand planning strategies are brought to life using a brand identity system and activated via various complimentary design disciples, including print design, digital design and content creation. For example, a print campaign will use the information found within the planning exercise to decide who to target and what messages or USPs to use. Once the brand planning phase has been completed, the wider brand system includes;
As an established creative practice, we provide our clients with each of the above brand consultancy services. Recent examples of brand strategy work by LBD Studio include the rebrand of Halley Stevensons, sustainability consultation for The Feather Company and brand positioning for mental health charity Back Onside. You can read more on this topic by visiting our Medium account.
A strong brand strategy will help make the day-to-day running of your business much more straightforward. It also has the bonus of uniting everyone within an organisation under one banner, helping to iron out any misconceptions about the direction of travel. When working alongside a well-defined business plan, your brand strategy will help identify areas of growth and potential new sectors or categories in which you can expand.
Regardless of industry or location, successful brands rely on good planning to achieve and sustain growth. Building brand value is an important goal as external opinions and perceptions can directly influence how a business or organisation performs. Engaging in meaningful brand development makes it possible to define a long-term plan to bring it closer to its audience while laying solid foundations for future growth.
The goal of a brand strategy is to unite all teams and departments under one cause. At LBD Studio, we use brand planning to create focused objectives that all parties can get behind. A good brand strategy should offer a roadmap to achieve your brand’s goals by closely aligning with the business plan. Team-specific objectives can, of course, come out of this. However, the main aim is to create a holistic program that helps shape the culture and direction. Actionable ‘brand level’ goals might take the form of new product development, marketing and advertising success, branded partnerships or simply better customer relationships.
Brand strategy is often wrongly compared with advertising or marketing campaigns. While there are similarities, we advise clients that brand planning will likely take 1-2 years before fully embedded. Unlike advertising exercises, a strategy is difficult to measure over the short term. It is important to remember that brand perceptions are not formed overnight, and brand planning aims to create a meaningful understanding of the brand.
To define a successful strategy, we first look at the traits, goals, perceptions and truths already present within the brand. We then compare these to each area of the organisation, breaking down each service and product before agreeing on the commonalities and discrepancies. Stakeholders must discuss these topics openly from the beginning. A good brand strategy must achieve buy-in from senior team members if it is to be successfully adopted.
The first step in creating a brand strategy is to uncover the core purpose of your organisation. This statement is called a ‘brand proposition’ — the story that sits at the heart of all products and services. A proposition does not change every year, and nor should it: the classic example here is Nike’s ‘To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world’. This statement clarifies the type of work Nike is involved in while building a common goal for staff to get behind.
Once articulated, this message will bring perennial focus to all activities. It will inform advertising campaigns, define partnerships and help audiences relate to the brand. The value of uncovering the story at the heart of a business can not be overstated when creating a robust and recognisable brand.
Context is important, and a brand can learn a lot by exploring the competitive environment. It is also recommended to look into companies or organisations from other industries as there is always something that can be learned as the challenges facing brands are often shared. These learnings may take the form of pricing strategy, product naming, branded partnerships or new territories for product development. It can also help to guide decision-making to avoid pitfalls and mistakes made by other brands.
A clear portfolio architecture and naming strategies for products and services are also valuable. Following the brand audit, it often becomes clear that there is confusion or incorrect perceptions around certain products as they have grown or changed over time. By uncovering and using the brand proposition, we can define a clear strategy for how the brand names its various elements. Apple is a good example, having created a clear naming structure for products like the iPhone, iPad and iMac.
We recommend bringing in an external consultant or agency (like ourselves) to help with this process. It is often difficult to have an open and honest discussion free of bias without external advice. We find that an outside perspective will cut through the noise and get to the heart of the matter much more effectively. It can also help alleviate internal conflict if there are competing departments, products or sub-brands at play.
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