The successful marketing of products and services requires an emotional context.
Our research approaches focus on 3 core areas to help you make your marketing more effective, efficient and emotionally engaging.
EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS
People are feeling creatures that think – we evolved through instinctive responses which are often what we revert to – without even knowing it.
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TRUST
Trust is instinctive, it’s the ultimate shortcut in decision making. Without trust relationships become precarious or difficult to form.
Trust is now in decline in every developed economy across government, business and media.
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RELATIONSHIPS
Engagement, Retention, Customer Value, Loyalty, Advocacy are measures of marketing success today.
They simply reflect that consumers seek a relationship as much as brands and organisations do.
They are dynamic, multi faceted and fragile – so understanding how to manage and maintain them are critical to forming a relationship of value.
READ MORE
EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS
People are feeling creatures that think – we evolved through instinctive responses which are often what we revert to – without even knowing it.
READ MORE
TRUST
Trust is instinctive, it’s the ultimate shortcut in decision making. Without trust relationships become precarious or difficult to form.
Trust is now in decline in every developed economy across government, business and media.
READ MORE
RELATIONSHIPS
Engagement, Retention, Customer Value, Loyalty, Advocacy are measures of marketing success today.
They simply reflect that consumers seek a relationship as much as brands and organisations do.
They are dynamic, multi faceted and fragile – so understanding how to manage and maintain them are critical to forming a relationship of value.
READ MORE
These three elements lie at the very core of commercial success.
Brands and organisations who are focused on them are more talked about, more referred and more likely to be used again – so they also happen to be more successful commercially. Interesting?
These three elements lie at the very core of commercial success.
Brands and organisations who are focused on them are more talked about, more referred and more likely to be used again – so they also happen to be more successful commercially. Interesting?
Brief: Premium Supplier to M&S under pressure to deliver innovation pipeline of iconic desserts and struggling to get beyond production ideas.
Approach: Our approach focused on understanding the emotions around consumption occasions through ethnography and workshops. We found a huge range of different occasions including 6 different types of Sunday Lunch!
Result: Follow up was an Innovation Workshop and Creative Thinking session which focused on products designed to deliver to a mood and a set of emotions not a flavour or style.
Emotional Insight: Emotions were determined by context of the consumption occasion, the mood and who is involved.
Brief: The UK’s largest manufacturer of donuts wanted to see what the future of their category could look like
Approach: We used an online community and consumer workshops to really understand the emotional connections consumers had with this commodity iconic product. Emergent opportunities were then tested using online survey
Result: Highlighted that the emotional value to the consumer far outweighed the retail selling prices and uncovered areas of untapped potential to build on this connection consumers have with the product.
Emotional Insight: Some products due to the role they have played in our lives provide huge emotional value. When tasting a product immediately transports you to moments shared with your grandfather, you see the hidden value behind a commodity.
Brief: Alcoholic Ginger Beer had been a new category when this brand was launched. But the category around it had changed considerably – the brand needed to discover it’s character again.
Approach: Consumer Workshops with drinkers and non drinkers included blindfolded taste experiences to understand the barriers to trial that were believed to exist. Supported by large scale market surveys in UK and US.
Result: Redefined the brand using embellished archetypes developed in the workshops and re-positioned the brand in a new space with a younger and more individualistic appeal.
Emotional Insight: Refreshment delivered by this product went beyond the physical and stimulated taste and ‘intrigue’ as well. Captured in the words of one consumer as ‘new soul in old bottles’.
Brief: Premium Supplier to M&S under pressure to deliver innovation pipeline of iconic desserts and struggling to get beyond production ideas.
Approach: Our approach focused on understanding the emotions around consumption occasions through ethnography and workshops. We found a huge range of different occasions including 6 different types of Sunday Lunch!
Result: Follow up was an Innovation Workshop and Creative Thinking session which focused on products designed to deliver to a mood and a set of emotions not a flavour or style.
Emotional Insight: Emotions were determined by context of the consumption occasion, the mood and who is involved.
Brief: The UK’s largest manufacturer of donuts wanted to see what the future of their category could look like
Approach: We used an online community and consumer workshops to really understand the emotional connections consumers had with this commodity iconic product. Emergent opportunities were then tested using online survey
Result: Highlighted that the emotional value to the consumer far outweighed the retail selling prices and uncovered areas of untapped potential to build on this connection consumers have with the product.
Emotional Insight: Some products due to the role they have played in our lives provide huge emotional value. When tasting a product immediately transports you to moments shared with your grandfather, you see the hidden value behind a commodity.
Brief: Alcoholic Ginger Beer had been a new category when this brand was launched. But the category around it had changed considerably – the brand needed to discover it’s character again.
Approach: Consumer Workshops with drinkers and non drinkers included blindfolded taste experiences to understand the barriers to trial that were believed to exist. Supported by large scale market surveys in UK and US.
Result: Redefined the brand using embellished archetypes developed in the workshops and re-positioned the brand in a new space with a younger and more individualistic appeal.
Emotional Insight: Refreshment delivered by this product went beyond the physical and stimulated taste and ‘intrigue’ as well. Captured in the words of one consumer as ‘new soul in old bottles’.
Brief: A train operator was bidding for the UK’s most well known franchise and wanted to know what sort of brand values they should focus on if successful.
Approach: Involved 12 creative workshops with existing and non users to understand the current franchise’s brand character and where this should move to. The workshops used storytelling and role play to develop emotional connections to a disconnected service experience.
Result: A desire for a very different set of brand values to the existing operator. Expectations were very unexpected but very consistent, suggesting the brand should adopt an archetype like a coach / mentor / guardian – totally different to the incumbent.
Emotional Insight: It is possible to get deep emotional involvement even from unengaged consumers with the right sort of approach. Successful brands sometimes have little depth – if starting again it is integrity and small successes which build trust.
Brief: Deep understanding of victims of crime required to act as a framework to design a new support service across the region.
Approach: Detailed multiple depth interviews and paired interviews with recent victims across the whole range of crimes from petty to serious. Great sensitivity in approach required to balance between finding insights and damaging the victims recovery .
Result: A service design built around need. Recognising the emotional journey the victim may experience and being able to flex the service to reflect emotional need as well as practical advice and assistance.
Emotional Insight: Crime is unexpected and shocking when it happens – the way you are managed impacts the way you cope and recover. When disruption hits, we need sure, careful and steadfast communication to guide us.
Brief: This NHS region had the worst attendance rates for first stage cervical screening in the UK. It had to understand how to turn this situation around.
Approach: Multi stage approach started with audience analysis to show that non attendance was tightly focused in specific demographic groups. This became the subsequent focus of understanding the barriers in focus group and depth work and then later workshops to dismantle and rebuild the current delivery model.
Result: Figures 2 years later showed a 38% improvement in attendance and a 55% improvement amongst the target demographic.
Emotional Insight: Cultural, familial influences build misplaced beliefs which become unchallenged. Confronting these for the least empowered groups can bring better service design to a much wider group as well.
Brief: A train operator was bidding for the UK’s most well known franchise and wanted to know what sort of brand values they should focus on if successful.
Approach: Involved 12 creative workshops with existing and non users to understand the current franchise’s brand character and where this should move to. The workshops used storytelling and role play to develop emotional connections to a disconnected service experience.
Result: A desire for a very different set of brand values to the existing operator. Expectations were very unexpected but very consistent, suggesting the brand should adopt an archetype like a coach / mentor / guardian – totally different to the incumbent.
Emotional Insight: It is possible to get deep emotional involvement even from unengaged consumers with the right sort of approach. Successful brands sometimes have little depth – if starting again it is integrity and small successes which build trust.
Brief: Deep understanding of victims of crime required to act as a framework to design a new support service across the region.
Approach: Detailed multiple depth interviews and paired interviews with recent victims across the whole range of crimes from petty to serious. Great sensitivity in approach required to balance between finding insights and damaging the victims recovery .
Result: A service design built around need. Recognising the emotional journey the victim may experience and being able to flex the service to reflect emotional need as well as practical advice and assistance.
Emotional Insight: Crime is unexpected and shocking when it happens – the way you are managed impacts the way you cope and recover. When disruption hits, we need sure, careful and steadfast communication to guide us.
Brief: This NHS region had the worst attendance rates for first stage cervical screening in the UK. It had to understand how to turn this situation around.
Approach: Multi stage approach started with audience analysis to show that non attendance was tightly focused in specific demographic groups. This became the subsequent focus of understanding the barriers in focus group and depth work and then later workshops to dismantle and rebuild the current delivery model.
Result: Figures 2 years later showed a 38% improvement in attendance and a 55% improvement amongst the target demographic.
Emotional Insight: Cultural, familial influences build misplaced beliefs which become unchallenged. Confronting these for the least empowered groups can bring better service design to a much wider group as well.
