James Hammond, The Brand Doctor says:
I’ve never been a great fan of market research. Not because I don’t believe in it, but mainly the fact that I read so much nowadays of how research results have been skewed, flawed, biased…you name it, research appears to be guilty of it.
When it comes to branding and marketing, a great deal of research is undertaken using the self-report or questionnaire method, where participants provide information about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and preferences by ticking the boxes of pre-determined questions. These can take the form of ‘closed’ questions (those that can be answered by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’) aimed at providing quantitative results, or ‘open’ questions that attempt to delve deeper into the whys and wherefores of choices made by respondents – qualitative answers. Alternatively, interviewers with a typical clipboard will ask pre-set questions and do the ‘ticking’ on therespondent’s behalf. Typical results from self-report/questionnaire ‘research’ Continue Reading…
If you’ve watched The Wolf of Wall Street, you’ll remember at the end of the movie how Leonardo DiCaprio moves along a line of salesmen and demands, ‘Sell me this pen.’ Such a direct approach to selling as this may have worked in the days of door-to-door tradesmen peddling their wares. But today, customers are more savvy, have multiple choices and probably know a lot about your product or service prior to you contacting them, thanks to the Internet. Studies show that buyers are often 60% through a buying cycle before engaging with a sales person. 
Successful marketing is crucial for any business wanting to survive and thrive. But it’s tough out there. Fierce competition, globalisation and commoditisation are just three of the issues any company faces no matter how large or small it might be.
Customer communication is a vital part of the overall customer experience. There needs to be consistency in the language employees, especially those on the front line, use to explain what the business and its goods is all about, and do it in a way that identifies the brand’s distinct verbal characteristics.
In it, they stated that the major brands around today were born using public relations – PR – not advertising. The book cites an astonishing number of branding examples, including Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart (owners of ASDA here in the UK), Red Bull and Zara as having been built with virtually no advertising.
Ah, nostalgia. I was interviewed by City Talk 105.9 FM in Liverpool as presenter Roy Basnett was doing a feature on commercials. In fact, the subject moved into jingles and branding, but I managed to get my point about emotions over quite well.
There isn’t an agency, consultancy or design house that doesn’t like working with well established brands. I mean, it’s really a no-brainer if the brand is strong, well-known, liked and has a reasonable budget attached to it.
