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You love your ad concept but does your target audience love it?

 

Advertising is an omnipresent tool that both small and large brands depend on to build and sustain their business growth. But, if your target audience doesn’t like your ads, you won’t be able to achieve the increased brand recall, awareness, purchase, and repurchase rates you were hoping for.

 

By asking people for feedback about potential ads prior to launching those ads, it’s possible to understand how people perceive them and how they will act as a result of experiencing them.

 

 

What are the benefits of ad testing?

Of course ad testing is fun to do but there are important benefits to conducting this research.

 

Safeguard your brand reputation. Rather than launching an ad that annoys or offends large segments of the viewing audience, conduct ad testing to find and fix unexpected surprises before they become problems in the broader market. Keep in mind that, sometimes, things that are ‘offensive’ to customers or consumers are your deliberate choices and won’t be changed. Either way, ad testing will help ensure the brand is represented as intended.

 

Use marketing budget wisely. Though conducting ad testing can seem expensive, the potential cost of a failed ad can be vastly higher. Ad testing ensures that ineffective ads are identified and improved before they are launched in-market so that they will generate the awareness or trial as intended. Further, ad testing will help identify in which channels an ad will be most effective. Finding the channel that is appropriate for an ad is just as important as creating a great ad.

 

Make a good ad great. As one brand among millions, every brand faces fierce competition. Most people see thousands of ads every single day so it’s important to ensure your ad stands out and is memorable in a positive way. Ad testing prior to market launch creates an opportunity to make small or large adjustments so that good ads are even better. Listen to and act on the perceptions of research participants even when they already like an ad. If likeability, uniqueness, or believability could be better, tweak the appropriate components of the ad to improve those metrics.

 

Understand customer personas. Even great ads are not liked by everyone. Use ad testing to identify which personas prefer which ads so that ads can be presented to the right people in the right channel. If you’ve done segmentation research already, you’ve probably identified 2 or 3 personas that you’ll want your ads to resonate with and you can focus your efforts there.

 

Make data-driven decisions. Sometimes, multiple ad concepts will seem promising and a clear winner can’t be identified. Ad testing takes the guesswork and personal biases out of choosing a winning ad. And, getting formal approval to run an ad with a big budget is much easier when the data supports the final ad choice.

 

 

 

What research design does ad testing use?

There is no single correct method for conducting an ad test but most use one of three methods, each of which have unique advantages and disadvantages.

 

Monadic Tests: In this research design, each participant experiences and rates just one ad.

• No order effects. Because people only see one ad, there is no risk that viewing one ad concept before another will have a negative or positive impact on perceptions of the subsequent ad.
• More in-depth results. Because each person spends all their time considering only one ad, you may have the opportunity to ask more in-depth questions about that ad. Alternatively, the questionnaire could remain shorter thereby maintaining engagement throughout the testing period and increasing completion rates.
• Larger sample sizes. You may need a larger sample size to generate reliable data. For example, you might need to sample 300 people for each of 3 ads for a total of 900 people. This could cost a lot more, particularly if your target audience is hard to reach.
• Match group demographics. You will need to ensure that each group is matched on key demographics. For example, you wouldn’t want to discover after the fact that mostly women experienced ad #1 and mostly men experienced ad #2 such that the results actually reflect a gender difference, not an ad creative difference.

 

 

Sequential Monadic Tests: Research participants experience and rate several ads individually.

• Smaller sample size: In general, the more concepts each person reviews, the smaller your sample size can be. This is advantageous especially when you must test many ads, and even if each participant only reviews 2 or 3 of those ads. For example, if you’re testing 3 ads and each person sees all 3 ads, you might need only 300 research participants.
• No need to match groups. Because people review several ads, each person acts as their own control group. For the most part, this eliminates the need to precisely match groups based on demographic or psychographic characteristics. This makes sampling much easier and potentially much quicker.
• Order bias must be prevented: To prevent order bias, you’ll need to randomly assign ads to each person, and you’ll need to randomly assign the order in which those ads are presented to each person. For example, if there are 4 ads to review, person 1 might review ads A B and C, person 2 could review ads B D and A, person 3 could review ads D C and E, person 4 could review ads C E and D, and person 5 could review ads E A and B. Order bias will still occur but it will be averaged across all of the ads reducing the potential impact on any one ad.
• Longer questionnaire: Because multiple ads must be reviewed by each person in one questionnaire, it may take longer for them to complete and may result in lower completion rates. Do your best to limit the number of ads each person experiences to no more than 3. And, do your best to keep the completion length under 15 minutes.

 

Paired Comparison Tests: Rather than showing ads consecutively as in the sequential monadic design, this method has participants experience and rate two or more ads at the same time.

• Smaller sample size: As with the sequential monadic test, having each participant rate multiple ads means you can use a smaller sample size. If you can keep the questionnaire short, this could result in a less expensive project.
• Order effects are reduced. Because people see multiple ads together, the risk of order effects is reduced. Any single ad simply has to be stronger than its competitive ad. Ideally, ads should still be randomly assigned to sets, and sets should be randomly assigned an order.
• Comparisons create cognitive load. Participants may find they like different features of the ads presented to them and consequently struggle to choose one preferred ad. This can cause fatigue, and decrease engagement and attention.
• Longer questionnaire: As before, asking people to rate multiple ads may result in a longer questionnaire. To maintain engagement and completion, you’ll need to take care to ensure the questionnaire is no longer than 15 minutes. You can also help maintain engagement by ensuring you use engaging question types.

 

 

What are the key metrics for ad testing?

You could ask each person hundreds of questions about the presentation, messaging, and branding of an ad but you’d end up with a two-hour questionnaire and an unnecessarily low completion rate. Instead, identify the key goals of the ad and choose a set of 3 to 5 key questions that directly address those goals. Then, create a secondary set of questions that will support your KPIs and help you identify points of strength or weakness.

 

Potential questions could reflect a range of categories such as the following.

 

 

Questions about the ad overall

• Overall, what is your opinion about the ad?
• How believable is the ad?
• How relevant is the ad to you personally?
• How appealing is the ad?
• How memorable is the ad?
• Compared to other ads about similar kinds of products, how different is this ad?
• How genuine is this ad?
• What 3 things do you like about the ad?
• What 3 things do you dislike about the ad?

 

Questions about the presentation of the ad

• What is your opinion about the images used in the ad?
• What is your opinion about the videos used in the ad?
• What is your opinion about the music and sound used in the ad?
• What is your opinion about the spokesperson / mascot in the ad?
• How well does the ad fit into the Facebook environment? Instagram? TikTok? Snapchat?

 

Questions about the messaging

• What is the main message of the ad?
• How clear was the main message of this ad?
• How did the message make you feel?
• Did you learn anything new from this ad?
• What 2 things did you like about the message?
• What 2 things did you NOT like about the message?
• Which 3 of these words describe how you feel about the message?
• What did the message NOT address even though it should have?

 

Questions about the brand

• How likely are you to buy this product?
• How likely are you to recommend this product to your family or friends?
• How likely are you to visit the website / download the app / connect on Facebook / enter the draw?
• How much do you care about the brand?
• Did the ad change how you care about the brand?
• Did the ad change how you think about the brand?

 

 

 

How to conduct an ad test

 

1. Identify campaign objectives: Rather than simply entertain, most ads attempt to teach, persuade, or invoke a behavior. For example, teach someone about a product feature, persuade them that a product can meet their needs, or cause them to buy something. Be specific, clear, and realistic about what you expect  your ad to achieve.

 

 

2. Identify the target audience: Consider who you intend to target the ad to. Will it be a broad message intended to resonate with a broad range of people, or a very specific message for specific segments or personas? Have a clear idea about the demographics and psychographics of the audience you intend to appeal to. At the same time, you’ll need to confirm that you can actually reach a representative sample of this audience with your ad. If you can’t reach this audience, you’ll need to identify either a new target group or a new channel.

.

3. Identify the key metrics. With the campaign objectives in mind, identify the most important questions that will serve as metrics – your Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. If you’re aiming to build awareness, you’ll want to focus on brand recall. If you’re aiming to invoke a behavior, you’ll want to focus on your call to action, whether that’s purchase intent, connecting on social media, or some other behavior.

 

 

4. Identify success measures. Once you have your KPIs in hand, you can identify the success measures. This could be to generate purchase intent rates over 50%, brand awareness over 90%, or consideration over 60%. Also, make sure to identify specific criteria for how to differentiate ads that perform similarly. Tie-breaking criteria may relate to superior clarity or believability scores. It’s important to identify your success measures prior to running the test to ensure you stick to your principles of what true success really is.

 

 

5. Identify the sample size. Once you know how many target audiences you’re addressing and how many ads you’ll be testing, you can determine an appropriate sample size. Remember, the more segments that will be targeted, the larger the sample size will need to be. For a trustworthy outcome, aim for at least 300 people in each segment to review each ad.

 

 

6. Decide what to test. Ad testing is never an all or nothing decision. Testing could address:

• Several versions of the same ad or several completely different ads
• One or more of the message, image, audio, video, or spokesperson
• General ideas, ad mock-ups, or completely finished ads
• Performance in different channels such as TV, radio, print, OOH, or social media
• Performance against a competitor’s ad
• Performance against an existing or in-market ad

 

 

7. Create 2 to 4 compelling ad concepts. Though it seems like the first step of an ad testing is building the ads, this can’t be done until decisions are made about the ad’s objective, its intended audience, and its intended channel. With those specific details in hand, it’s time to build a set of ads with a clear message that differentiates the brand and speaks to the target audience. Make sure the ads have a clear Call-To-Action.

 

 

8. Create data collection tool: Identify the specific questions that will address the KPIs and allow you to evaluate success. In addition, choose a set of complementary questions focused on the various aspects of the campaign that are most important. This could be related to the messaging, the presentation, the brand, or all of those aspects. Remember, for accurate comparisons, all of the questions should be applicable to all of the ads. For example, rather than asking about the piano in one ad and the violin in the other ad, ask about musical instruments or music in general.

 

 

9. Collect and analyze the data. In addition to evaluating the KPIs to identify an overall winner, review all of the metrics to identify any poor performing aspects. Read through the open ends to identify concerns that weren’t anticipated or were left unaddressed in the questions. Further, review the KPIs within each individual segment. It’s very likely that one segment of people prefers a different ad, or that one ad will be more effective in a specific channel. Take advantage of a data dashboard to help find those unexpected insights quickly.

 

 

10. Fix and retest. A thorough review of the data will help determine whether any aspects of the ads should be corrected or improved before launching. Make those changes and then retest to ensure the ad wasn’t inadvertently weakened. If you’re in a fortunate position that there is a clear winner with minimal to no weaknesses, congratulations!

 

 

11. Launch the test. In order to ensure the results are as reliable as possible, keep the ad test in field for at least one week. This will give a wide range of people within the segment a chance to participate. Closing field after just a few hours might mean that only desk workers contributed opinions and the results won’t generalize to people who work shifts or who can only check their email once or twice per week.

 

 

12. Benchmark the results. One of the great things about ad testing is that a few specific KPIs are generally included in every questionnaire. It’s important to maintain a database of these metrics which serves two purposes. First, when calculating KPIs for a brand new ad, it’s possible to compare it to previous ads for other brands you’ve tested. Those ads will likely be associated with in-market purchase data so it will be possible to predict the financial success of the current ad. Second, since the norms database indicates which ads were successful, it’s possible to create new ads that mirror the attributes of those successful ads. In either case, knowing what success can look like means your efforts can be focused in those areas.

 

 

 

What’s Next?

Are you ready to identify your best ads and improve them to match the needs and wants of your targeted audience? Email your project specifications to our research experts using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. Let’s turn your ad enigmas into ad enlightenment!

 

 

 

Learn more from our case studies

• Benchmarking Brand Awareness and Competitive Brand Space – A consumer food survey case study
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Campaign with Brand and Message Recall – An advertising survey case study
• Tracking Customer Satisfaction Across 8 Countries – A food consumer survey case study
• Discovering Brand Awareness to Identify Effective Channel Development | A technology survey case study

 

Learn more from our other blog posts

• How to conduct a journey mapping research project
• 8 Engaging Question Types to Improve Participants’ Survey Taking Experience
• How to Become an Irreplaceable Quant Researcher: A NewMR Webinar
• A Brand Manager’s Practical Guide to Brand Tracking

What is brand equity?

Think about a brand you absolutely love – a store you can never wait to go to, a product that makes you grin just thinking about it.

 

Now think about brands you absolutely hate – a product or company that makes millions of people roll their eyes and groan with disgust.

 

That’s brand equity! Or lack thereof.

 

Brand equity is a complex construct. At its core, it’s a subjective perception of a brand’s value, quality, performance, and personal relevance. It incorporates consumer perceptions related to the product and its packaging, presentation, mission, vision, and values.

 

An easy way to think about brand equity is that it’s the difference in price and preference between an unbranded (or store brand) product and a branded product. Even though they’re the exact same thing – soda, butter, oil, beef, corn, eggs, many people will choose the brand name version because of the higher value they perceive it to have.

 

It can take a long time to build brand equity but one wrong move and it can be destroyed in seconds.

 

 

Why is brand equity important?

There are many benefits to building brand equity, and collectively their benefits are massive.

• Premium pricing: One of the key benefits of high brand equity is the ability to charge premium pricing. When people believe in and love a brand, they will pay more for it. Coffee is coffee but people will pay more for coffee that comes in a cup with a Starbucks brand on it, a name they know and trust. That higher price leads to higher profits which, of course, leads to greater financial success.

 

• Low price elasticity: When people value a brand, they are more likely to purchase that brand even in competitive situations. High equity brands don’t have to worry as much that competitive brands will ‘steal’ their customers with a great BOGO or intriguing offer. And, they don’t have to spend as much time and money creating offers to convince competitive buyers to try their products.

 

• Customer lifetime value: When brands create high equity, their customers are more loyal to the brand and purchase more of their products over a longer time period. Even better, those loyal customers are more likely to try new products created by the brand, whether in the same or other categories. The trust has already been built and customers don’t have to overcome the fear of trying a new brand. They simply need to determine whether the new product meets their needs.

 

• Market resilience: Products with high brand equity are more likely to endure during uncertain circumstances. When environmental, social, and political events necessitate a change in purchase and behavioural patterns, people will still try to retain consistency in their lives. High equity brands offer consistency, trust, and reliability when consumers need it most.

 

• Market power: As a high equity brand that people trust and desire, you have increased opportunities to attract and demand the best. Your demonstrated power in the marketplace means you can attract the best employees, the best suppliers, the best investors, and also negotiate the best prices and rates.

 

 

 

How to Build Brand Equity?

Brand equity can take a long time to build. However, there are a number of strategies and tactics that companies can leverage to get there. The key is playing the long game.

• Understand consumer needs and values: By understanding what consumers truly want and need, you can ensure your products and services are relevant to them. Take advantage of quantitative questionnaires and qualitative focus groups and interviews to understand customer journeys, gaps and pain points, customer personas, and customer segments. Dig deep to uncover their physical, emotional, social, psychological, environmental, and spiritual needs so that you can discover what might convert them from casual tryers to long-term, loyal advocates.

 

• Understand product differentiators: Not only do you need to understand your buyers and prospects, you need to understand what attributes elevate your products and services ahead of your competitors. Primary and secondary research will help you understand the competitive marketplace, market positioning, innovation opportunities, or opportunities for product optimization.

 

• Fine-tune your messaging: Once you understand your consumers and your products, ensure your messaging is in alignment. Primary research will help you ensure your product messaging and campaign research focus on messages that resonate with your customers and address their key values, unmet needs, values, and pain points.

 

• Deliver on promises: It may sound easy, but delivering on your brand promise is tough. Most brands have many disparate channels, all of which need to present your brand and your products in an unrelentingly consistent way. Whether in-store, on the phone, or online, your brand’s character, values, and vision must drive every customer interaction and business decision in a consistent way.

 

• Foster loyalty: It’s important to foster loyalty among your existing customers. Pay attention to your most loyal customers and create opportunities to reward and encourage them. Give them reasons to continue loving your brand whether that’s special offers or enhanced customer service.

 

• Drive awareness: If you’ve been paying attention to the animated image to the right, you’ve probably been able to name the brand behind every single logo. Despite the fact that not a single brand name is shown. This is brand equity. And this is the level of brand awareness that every brand ultimately strives for. When your customers and prospects recognize your brand colors and shapes, it’s far easier for them to find and choose your brand off the shelf, virtual or physical. Run carefully targeted advertising campaigns on a variety of relevant channels that focus on your benefits, stories, and value to help consumers learn, and connect your messages and your branding. Try a variety of relevant tactics such as influencer marketing, celebrity endorsements, or event marketing.

 

• Create positive customer relationships: Customer experiences are no longer confined to the physical store. Brands need to create positive experience across every physical and digital touchpoint including their own online stores and social media channels like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Pay attention and respond quickly to customers sharing their opinions on review websites like Amazon, Foursquare, and Yelp.

 

 

 

Positive brand equity vs. negative brand equity

When people pay more for a brand even when there are equivalent yet lower priced brands available, that’s positive brand equity.

 

But, when people avoid or ignore a brand, even when it’s pricing is very competitive, that’s negative brand equity. For some companies, negative brand equity can destroy a brand such that consumers quickly forget it ever existed. For others, the negative equity is fleeting and at least somewhat recoverable.

 

Amazon: Since starting up as a book seller, Amazon’s focused effort on meeting customer needs has resulted in amazing brand equity. Because of their unquestioning return policies, unending selection, and ability to get product in hand in mere hours, customers are fiercely loyal. That’s positive brand equity.

 

Apple: Apple is another great example of a company with positive brand equity. Their customers are massively loyal. Even though Apple products are known to be pricey, customers line up every time a new product is released even if their existing product still works great. Customers trust the quality, reliability, and functionality of Apple products and remain loyal customers for years. Why? Because Apple focuses on creating innovative, self-explanatory products that meet customer needs every single time.

 

Chipotle: In 2015, Chipotle experienced a food poisoning crisis which led to a $25 million federal fine. After years of positive growth, that crisis caused the brand value to decline sharply. It was several years before they managed to regain consumer trust, and recover and grow their brand value. This is a great example of positive brand equity turned negative and then reverting to positive again.

 

McDonald’s: Though McDonald’s has been the #1 burger chain for years, they struggle with ongoing negative brand equity. Customers and consumers have complained about unhealthy food options for decades, and that perception seems relenting no matter how McDonald’s tries to head it off.

 

Starbucks: Want some high-priced coffee? Well, Starbucks customers are willing to pay a premium because they love the high-quality product and they love the top-notch customer experience – even when their name is accidentally (deliberately?) misspelled on their cup. Whether you’re a customer or not, everyone immediately recognizes the logo of this high equity brand.

 

Toms: People love the Toms shoe company. Why? Not only do they make a great shoe, they donate a pair of shoes with every purchase. This human centered value makes customers feel good about their purchases, and keeps them coming back again and again to support a company that matches their own values.

 

 

 

How to Measure Brand Equity

Because brand equity is so multi-faceted, measuring it isn’t simple nor templated. It’s important to incorporate a range of relevant quantitative and qualitative metrics, as well as financial and market assessments to gain a holistic view of brand equity.

 

Quantitative metrics: As part of a quantitative questionnaires, there is a wide range of questions that can be posed to consumers and customers to better understand your brand equity. As you’ll seen in the images below, these kinds of questions can be posed not simply as traditional radio buttons and checkboxes, but also as interactive, engaging image style questions.

• Brand awareness: What three brands come to mind first when you think of washing detergent? What other brands have you heard of?
• Brand perception: Which of the following words reflect how you feel about this brand of washing detergent?
• Consideration: On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to buy the following brands of washing detergent the next time you go shopping?
• Loyalty: On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend the following brands of washing detergent to your friends or family?
• Loyalty: How often do you buy the following brands of washing detergent?
• Trial: If this brand of washing detergent were to release a fabric softener, how likely are you to try it?
• Customer experience: On a scale from 1 to 10, what is your opinion about the customer service you received from our online chatbot or our social media or telephone representative?

.

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Qualitative metrics: Of course, there is far more to measuring brand equity than focusing on quantitative questions. Focus groups, interviews, and other qualitative tools like online communities are also excellent ways to measure brand equity.  By combining qual and quant methods, you can gain a more holistic view of this subjective construct. Here is a sample of some types of questions and tasks to incorporate in qualitative research, again with a couple examples of how more qualitative questions can be incorporated into traditional online measurements.

• What is your opinion of this logo and imagery?
• Describe 3 things you love about this brand and 3 things you hate about this brand.
• Why do you buy the following brands of washing detergent?
• Why would you choose one brand of washing detergent over another?
• Which of the following images reflect how you feel about this brand of washing detergent? Tell me why.
• If this brand of washing detergent was a person, how would you describe it?

 

 

Behavioral/transactional metrics: Financial and company metrics are also extremely important for understanding brand equity.

• Company metrics: What is the value of the company, and is it increasing?
• Brand metrics: What is the market share of the brand, and is it increasing? What is the profit of the brand, and is it increasing? What is the price difference compared to generic brands, and is it increasing? What is the purchase volume and frequency for the brand, and is it increasing?
• Employee metrics: What is the cost of employee acquisition, and is it decreasing? What is the average tenure of an employee, and is it increasing? How many applications per open position are received, and is it increasing?
• Customer metrics: What is the cost of customer acquisition, and is it decreasing? What is the average tenure of a customer, and is it increasing? How many customer complaints are receiving during a specific time frame, and is it decreasing?

 

 

What’s Next?

Are you ready to discover top quality insights about your brand and grow your brand equity? Email your project specifications to our research experts using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. We’d love to help you better understand your buyers and your brand to help you turn your enigmas into enlightenment!

 

Learn more from our case studies

• Stretching Brand Equity into White Spaces Using Data Fusion – A pharmaceutical data analytics case study
• Benchmarking Brand Awareness and Competitive Brand Space – A consumer food survey case study
• Increasing Enrollment Through A More Meaningful Brand Purpose – An education survey case study

 

 

Books and Videos You Might Like

• Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity by Kevin Lane Keller and Vanitha Swaminathan
• The Strategy of Global Branding and Brand Equity by Alvin Lee, Jinchao Yang, Richard Mizerski, and Claire Lambert
• Brand Equity & Advertising: Advertising’s Role in Building Strong Brands by David A. Aaker and Alexander Biel

 

What is an insight community?

In the market and consumer research industry, online communities are often called Bulletin Boards, Insight Communities, Market Research Online Communities, or MROCs. Though they can incorporate quantitative activities like questionnaires, insight communities are mainly considered a qualitative research technique.

 

Whether it’s a group of 5 people who chat with each other over several days or thousands of people grouped into segments engaging with each other over several months, insight communities exist within a dedicated digital space to allow people to share their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors about a common topic or goal. These digital spaces normally support the community with features like polls, surveys, image mark-ups, chat rooms, bulletin boards, video/image sharing, and more.

Insight communities aren’t just really large or long focus groups. Unlike focus groups that are often conducted in-person over a couple of hours with 4 to 10 people, communities are nearly always conducted asynchronously and virtually over several days, and with far more participants. (In the research world, asynchronous means that the researcher and the participants aren’t necessarily using the tools at the same time. A participant might share their comments in the middle of the night, and the researcher might respond to them the next day.)

 

Insight communities are generally NOT open to anyone with a pulse and an email address. While E2E Research has a Facebook page and a community that likes to read our posts, that’s not the kind of community we’re talking about. Using Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to listen to consumer and customer needs and opinions, and elicit feedback from groups or individuals doesn’t make a social media network an insight community.

 

There are no written in stone rules about how communities must be run. However, here are answers to some common questions that will help you think through the process more completely and figure out whether a community could be a wise choice to meet your specific research needs.

 

 

What is the purpose of research communities?

Like any market or consumer research project that intends to generalize valid and reliable findings to a broader population, every insight community needs clear planning, goals, and research objectives that lead to specific outcomes. “Signing up” or “finding lots of members” are not acceptable goals, nor is “getting lots of comments every day.”

 

For insight communities, clear goals could include working to:

 

• Understand how the psychological value people place in your brand changes over time
• Learn why some brands become stagnant over time
• Learn how people interpret and act on advertising campaigns and communications from specific brands or in specific categories
• Track detailed perceptions of brands’ marketing tactics over time
• See how the use of a new product evolves over time
• Gain insight into how world events or life-stages affect product usage throughout the year
• Understand how local retailers design their outlets throughout the year
• Gather ideas for new products and gain feedback on a variety of concepts and prototypes

 

 

Why are asynchronous communities valued over synchronous tools?

From focus groups to questionnaires, researchers have many data collection tools to choose from, each with their own benefits. However, insight communities that allow people to log in and out at their own convenience have many benefits for participants. They:

 

• Give shy or anxious people an opportunity to become familiar and comfortable with the research process before having to share their opinions publicly
• Allow people to share opinions as they arise rather than feeling pressured to perform on-demand
• Give people a chance to rethink and change their opinions over time
• Allow people to remain anonymous to the group and share their truths while still remaining known to the researcher
• Are not disrupted when someone has to join late or stop participating early
• Allow people who work rotating, weekend, or night shifts to participate
• Are more accessible to marginalized people who may only have internet access intermittently or at third party locations

 

 

How are insight communities moderated?

Communities aren’t a quick alternative to groups or interviews. Even if a community is planned to run over just a couple of days, it requires extensive pre-planning, moderation during those days, and lots of post-project analysis and identification of next steps. Without planning for this investment of time and resources, everyone’s efforts will be lost.

 

Once participants have been recruited and understand the guidelines they need to follow, moderators are still essential to:

 

• Engage with every participant daily so they know their contribution is desired and valuable
• Introduce daily and weekly tasks and assignments
• Ensure everyone participates in every task and meets all the task requirements
• Prompt and probe participants to share as much detail and insight as possible
• Identify and convert emerging issues into new goals, tasks, and outcomes
• Keep discussions focused on the important topics
• Ensure participants remain respectful to each other

 

 

Who participates in insight communities?

Most insight communities are private and more secure than public communities.  A dedicated community recruiter carefully seeks out participants who have the ideal characteristics and offers them appropriate incentives to complete the agreed upon tasks.

 

This careful recruitment ensures that generalizations from participants are relevant to the issue, category, or brand, and will lead to valid and reliable insights and outcomes.

 

Here is one example of a local government body recruiting for an insight community to better understand the needs of their constituents.

 

In addition to having digital, internet, and email capabilities, participants may be required to:

• Have specific demographic details, e.g., a child under 2 years of age, live in a rural area
• Own, use, or buy a specific brand or product category, e.g., use body lotion, buy Froot Loops
• Demonstrate specific behaviors, e.g., run at least twice per week, attend a music festival in the last year
• Hold specific opinions, e.g., strong feelings about the environment, clear ideas about gender roles
• Have a minimum level of written skills in a specific language in order to accurately express their opinions

 

 

What are insight community members required to do?

Insight communities also have clear rules for participants who wish to join and remain part of the community. They may include requirements to:

 

• Spend a minimum number of minutes in the community each day
• Answer at least one moderated question in detail every day
• Comment on other people’s posts at least once per day
• Participate in at least one poll or survey each week
• Share at least one image or video each week
• Be respectful of others’ opinions and refrain from using profanity

 

How do insight communities benefit participants?

Communities don’t just benefit brand managers, marketers, and researchers. There’s also a lot of good for the participants too. For instance, participants:

 

• Feel pride in knowing their contributions will help other people through the development of better products and services
• Feel a sense of accomplishment for their contributions
• Discover new products that might enhance their lives
• Discover unknown features of the products they already use
• Learn how to use their favorite products more effectively
• Learn innovative, alternative uses for their favorite products
• Learn how their peers have solved problems they might encounter in the future

 

 

How do communities speed up the path to insights?

Insight communities can take many forms. Sometimes, they’re just a few days long and focus on one or two specific products. Other times, they can last several months and focus on broad categories.

 

Longer-term communities offer researchers the capability to ask consumers questions about anything at any time. As such, when an urgent research question arises, there is no need to spend a week or two recruiting a selection of people – those people are always at the ready. Further, such communities run by companies with multiple brands may leverage those communities to learn about different brands and categories throughout the year.

 

In other cases, when unexpected issues arise, perhaps because of societal issues or emergencies, a great community moderator can have new questions and tasks lined up for their members in mere hours and have results flowing in by the end of the day. This speed can ensure that small issues are quickly resolved rather than letting them balloon into huge issues that destroy a brand.

 

 

How do insight communities reduce costs?

Online communities help lower costs in different ways. First, longer-term communities can take the place of multiple ad-hoc projects. This eliminates the need to recruit participants multiple times. Further, participants are already ‘trained’ in how research works and need far less time and guidance to navigate the software and complete the tasks.

 

Second, insight communities have a benefit of allowing marketers and brand managers to understand reoccurring issues customers are having. This early information gives them a chance to understand and fix small problems before they become large problems for their customers outside the community.

 

 

What’s Next?

As with any research technique, there are a lot of intricacies to learn and implement. Fortunately, a good partner will make the process easier for you. If you’re ready to leverage an insight community to discover top quality insights about your buyers, brands, and business, email your project specifications to our research experts using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. We’d love to help you turn your enigmas into enlightenment!

 

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 Learn more from our case studies

• Communicating More Effectively with Insurance Customers | A Bulletin Board Case Study
• Sentiment and Content Analysis of Qualitative Hiring Data | A Qualitative Research Case Study
• Understanding Teenage Needs, Lifestyles, and Communication | An online community case study

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Great Reads About Qualitative Research

Most research methodology books cover online communities as a chapter in more comprehensive books about qualitative research. Here are a few of our favorites.

• Qual-online the Essential Guide: The Essential Guide – What Every Researcher Needs to Know About Conducting and Moderating Interviews Via the Web, by Jennifer Dale and Susan Abbott
• Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design, by Robert E. Kraut and Paul Resnick
• Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging, by Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl
• Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation, by Sharan B. Merriam and Elizabeth J. Tisdell
• Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches Paperback, by John Creswell
• The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research: Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers, by Ray Poynter
• The Indispensable Community: Why Some Brand Communities Thrive When Others Perish, by Richard Millington

 

Conferences focused on Qualitative Research

• Doing Autoethnography Conference: Virtual, January 3 to 5, 2022
• The Qualitative Report Conference: Florida – January 19 to 21 2022
• QRCA: Virtual – January 12 to 13, 2022; San Diego, January 19 to 22, 2022
• WCQR: Virtual – January 26 to 28, 2022
• Qual360: Washington – March 8 to 9, 2022
• International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry: Illinois – May 18 to 22, 2022
• Ethnographic & Qualitative Research Conference: Virtual – March 21 to 22, 2022
• Qualitative Analysis Conference & Couch-Stone Symposium: Newfoundland, June 22 to 24, 2022
• Thinking Qualitatively: July 5 to 9, 2021

 

 

Market research is the foundation of any successful business. Within the healthcare industry, it helps us to better understand perceived strengths and weaknesses of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, gain a better understanding of key stakeholder wants and needs, gain a better understanding of the industry and competitive market space, gain a better understanding of advertising campaigns and promotions, and create fair and profitable pricing strategies. Let’s address each of these areas individually.

 

(Of course, feel free to skip to the end for a list of healthcare/pharma conferences and podcasts!)

 

 

Better Understand the Product Strengths and Weaknesses

At the heart of a successful business is a carefully researched and designed product or service that meets the key needs of its target audience. By conducting well designed surveys and product/sensory tests via IHUTs or Central Location Tests, you can understand:

 

• What needs does your product meet and what unmet needs need additional development?
• What features of the product are unique within the broader, competitive category and can serve as your unique selling points?
• How is the product correctly and incorrectly used suggesting needs for training or redesign?
• How is your product used in unanticipated ways such that new needs or audiences could be addressed?
• Does the memorability of your product require improvements in terms of its features, branding, colors, or logos?
• Should certain product lines be expanded or reduced based on growing or decreasing market needs?

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    Review a product case study:

• Understanding the Relative Importance of Healthcare Imaging Features for New Product Development – Survey + MaxDiff

 

 

Better Understand the People: Patients, Caregivers, Physicians, Healthcare Workers, Payers

While a quality product or service is being build, it’s important to understand the perceptions of all key stakeholders. From users to buyers and those who will be recommending the product, it’s imperative that each group understand the strengths and weaknesses of the product in order to ensure maximum success. Using questionnaires, business intelligence, and secondary research, there are a number of key questions you will need to understand about your key stakeholders:

 

• Who is your target audience in terms of their demographic, psychographic, family, social, economic, and health characteristics?
• How does the patient journey evolve from the onset of symptoms through to diagnosis, treatment, management, and recovery while understanding medical, emotional, financial, and social needs and situations?
• What personal experiences do patients have within the category including adverse events from your brand and competitive brands?
• Which stakeholders come into contact with your treatments, medical devices, or healthcare facilities e.g., buyers, administrators, payers, technicians, clinicians, patients, families?
• What does each stakeholder group need, want, feel, and prefer?
• What drives each key stakeholder group to choose, use, buy, and recommend your brand vs competitive brands, e.g., clinicians, patients, payers, buyers, sellers
• Which stakeholders will influence your target audience to consider using or buying treatments, medical devices, or facilities?

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    Review a stakeholder case study

• Mapping a Patient Funnel to Mitigate Treatment Barriers – Cancer patient surveys
• Tracking Physician Perceptions of Diabetes Pharmaceutical Representatives – Physician surveys
• Understanding Patient Preferences to Inform Differentiation Strategy – Medical device patient surveys
• Face-to-Face On-Site Medical Leader Interviews – A B2B interview case study

 

 

Better Understand the Placement, Industry, and Competitive Market Space

Every product or service exists within a broad ecosystem of competitive brands and companies. By conducting questionnaires or secondary desk research, you can understand a wide range of business problems such as:

 

• Who are your primary and secondary competitors locally, globally, and virtually?
• What product, physical, emotional, social, and economic needs is the market needs failing to address?
• How has the competitive landscape changed over the last year and how might it forecast into the next 3 to 5 years within your country and potential expansion countries?
• Where are the white spaces to develop new products, extend services, or open new locations?
• Can secondary data help us understand how large our existing market is and how large it could be while remaining profitable?

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   Review a market case study

• Building a Strategic Business Plan Grounded in Industry Data – Pharma data analytics
• Stretching Brand Equity into White Spaces Using Data Fusion – Pharma data analytics

 

 

 

Better Understand Promotions, Advertising, and Campaigns

With a great product or service built and the target audience well understood, a marketing campaign is normally required to reach out to the target audience and introduce them to your offering. Using questionnaires or data analytics, a number of key questions can be answered:

 

• Which online and offline information channels do your users and buyers use to learn about new products, gather recommendations, or make purchases?
• What types of messaging would be most successful at reaching your target audience and differentiating your brand from competitors?
• What types of ads would be most effective with each of your audience segments when considering likability, meaningfulness, believability and the likelihood to act?
• What types of healthcare marketing campaigns are more likely to be successful?
• What types of brands, companies, or influencers would your users and buyers like to be incorporated in an integrated marketing campaign?
• Which concepts are most memorable and would generate the most action from your target audience?

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   Review an advertising case study:

• Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Campaign with Brand and Message Recall – Consumer media survey

 

 

Create A Fair and Profitable Pricing Strategy

There is more to pricing than picking a number that will generate profit. A price that is too high can reduce physician recommendations and insurance coverage. A price that is too low leaves achievable profit on the table. A final price can only be determined by understanding your true profit margin, market pricing, and stakeholder needs. To build the most effective pricing strategy for your medical device, pharmaceutical product, or service, conduct the appropriate surveys, interviews, and secondary research first.

 

• Based on secondary research, how are competitive products on the market currently priced?
• Using questionnaire data, what type of pricing strategy is most appealing to healthcare administrators and payers?
• What type of pricing strategy would facilitate product recommendations from clinicians and physicians?
• Which user segment has the least and the greatest revenue potential?
• Based on a Conjoint or MaxDiff questionnaire, which product features drive higher and lower prices?
• Which set of product features would drive the most profit?
• What type of pricing strategy is fair for and accessible versus out of reach to patients?

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   Review a pricing case study

• Optimizing Trade Promotion Spends With A Pricing Simulator
• Identifying Optimum Price Corridors to Predict Volume Share – Advertising price simulator
• Optimizing Treatment Pricing Strategies For Multiple Patient Segments – Pharmaceutical survey analytics

 

 

 

Conclusion

Building a successful medical, pharmaceutical, or healthcare product or service requires a foundation of well designed and executed research coupled with well analyzed and actioned results. Whether you’re tasked with supporting the growth of an innovative new brand or helping a company understand their buyers and their business, our team has more than ten years of experience helping researchers, marketers, and brand managers generate great quality healthcare data and insights for the questions outlined above. Please feel free to email your project specifications to our research experts using Projects at E2Eresearch dot com. We’d love to help!

 

 

Learn at upcoming healthcare industry conferences

• Future of Pharma Marketing Summit 2022: January 25 to 26, 2022
• Pharma Multi-Channel Excellence: January 26, 2022
• Joe Public Retreat: Nashville, February 7 to 9, 2022
• Annual PMRC Conference 2022: Newark, February 9 to 10, 2022
• Medicare Marketing Sales Summit (MMSS): Las Vegas, February 16 to 18, 2022
• Pharma CI: Zurich, March 24 to 25, 2022
• Annual PMRG/Intellus Summit: April
• DTC National: Boston, April 20 to 21, 2022
• Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD): Maryland, May 4 to 6, 2022
• Pharma Marketing Summit: Boston, May 12 to 13, 2022
• Annual PMRC Conference: Bay Area, Summer, 2022
• Annual EphMRA Conference 2022: June 21 to 23, 2022
• Annual PMRC Conference: Europe, Fall, 2022
• Pharma CI: Newark, September 21 to 22, 2022
• OTC National: October

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Listen to some great podcasts about healthcare marketing

• The Medical Marketing Podcast on Google Podcasts
• MM+M Podcast: Medical Marketing and Media Podcast on Spotify
• Healthcare Insight for Marketers True North Custom on Apple Podcasts
• Patient Convert Podcast: Healthcare Marketing on Apple Podcasts
• Healthcare Rap on Acast Podcasts
• Insight Marketing Group Podcast
• Syneos Health Podcast on PlayerFM
• RX Digital Marketing Podcast on PlayerFM
• The Pharma Marketing Podcast on PlayerFM
• Pharmacy Marketing Simplified
• Pharma Marketing 411 on Apple Podcasts