Segmentation

Not every offering will be right for every customer, nor will every customer be equally responsive to your marketing efforts.  Success requires a targeted approach to achieve efficient use of product development and marketing resources. Segmentation is an informed means to organize customers into groups that allow such targeting. 

ICR offers a customized approach to Segmentation that is tailored to the characteristics of each product or service category and the nature of the insight required.

• Solutions to some marketing problems are found in application of pre-determined segmentations such as grouping consumers by product usage and loyalty behavior or demographic profiles, to better understand what drives various target groups.
• Other marketing problems require discovery of new ways of grouping consumers to furnish strategic insight into consumer-brand dynamics. Consumers may be segmented on their attitudes and perceptions, or on the emotive drivers of brand choice.  
• In multi-modal categories, specific consumption or usage occasions are a basis for segmentations. Consumers will fit into multiple segments depending on occasion-specific needs and consumption behavior.

Segmentation defines the consumer landscape for a category.

Product Concept Tests

Companies produce more ideas for new products and product line extension than they can afford to bring to market. At ICR, we provide tools for:

• Screening ideas to determine which ones are worth investigation,
• Developing ideas into practical concepts,
• Assessing pricing and feature requirements.
• Assessing potential demand to see of the business case works.

Pricing Research

Correct pricing is critical to market success.

At ICR, we have key tools for assessing pricing including:

• "Back of the envelop techniques"
• Van Westendorp models
• Multiple paired comparison
• Discrete choice models
• Conjoint designs

We can advise you on:

• Optimal price strategies
• Marginal pricing value of specific features or improvements
• Promotional pricing and offers (even the optimal sequencing of offers)

Messaging

Messaging is the stimulus you must present to a potential customer to lead them to the internal mental response of your goal positioning. The marketing relationship MessagingPositioning is an example of the more general behavioral relationship StimulusResponse. Therefore, messaging is not positioning, though they are clearly related.

Research to develop an effective message should follow your defining a target positioning. From that point, ICR will create maps of the message elements providing the best proof for the promise of your positioning: what aspects of your offering will provide the strongest, most believable support for you positioning goal?



Taken from a study for a pharmaceutical client, these message elements were devised around an efficacy positioning. These are not the final words that would go into an executable ad, but they do indicate what must be communicated for "Product T" to own an efficacy positioning. One element was the clear leader for strong, believable support; the other would be secondary message elements. (By the way, our method eliminated 18 other weaker elements.)

Positioning

Positioning is the crisp, salient concept that comes to a customer's mind when they hear your brand's name or see its logo-your customers communicate to you where they allow your brand to be placed. You can make efforts to reinforce a positively differentiating positioning, or shift one less favorable, but this means you must know where you stand at present. Perceptual mapping analysis places you in the context of your competition on key product features. And, we can combine such analysis with trade-off techniques to ensure that you move in a direction that will have the greatest impact on your offering's usage.

ICR usually combines Brand Positioning with Segmentation to provide a complete picture of consumer-brand dynamics. Brands are positioned against consumer segments to reveal the forces that drive and differentiate brand usage behavior.

ICR employs Sampling and Weighting designs to Segmentation-Positioning research that furnish results for Segment Opportunity Analysis. Projecting to the total market, this volumetric (units, expenditure or usage occasions) comparison across segments helps brand managers evaluate which opportunities to target to maximize profit or share.

ICR's Segmentation and Brand Positioning research provides a robust view of consumer motivations, perceptions and behavior that can inform and guide brand research throughout the product lifecycle.

• New products are developed and positioned to address specific segments.
• Communications are created to appeal to the needs and attitudes of target groups.
• Brand Portfolio Analysis -client and competitor brands mapped across the consumer landscape
• Brand Repositioning to better address high-value segment needs and attitudes

• Of all these coffee brands, #3 has the most differentiated positioning: it is a unique coffee offering consistent taste and a true cafe experience, and worth the expense.

• Brand 4 is relatively "de-positioned", a weak reflection of Brand 3.

• Brands 1 & 2 are positioned very similarly to each other, though unique from the others. Each may be said to be an espresso specialist, with smooth not bitter taste, coffees for connoisseurs and preferred by culinary professionals.

• Though Brand 6 appears to be in a space all its own, in actuality a careful reading of the map shows it to be seen as similar to Brands 1 & 2 in its freshly roasted, smooth, distinctive taste, a coffee to offer guests.

• Brand 5 is a less clearly defined version of Brand 6.

brandOdyssey™
deep insight for brand strategy

Effective brand strategy optimizes brand positioning by delivering and communicating benefits that span the functional, social-image and emotive needs of consumers. To support effective strategy development, brand positioning research studies should explore all three dimensions.

For generations, Qualitative researchers have used psychological techniques to effectively probe the emotive or unconscious motivations of purchase behavior. But most Quantitative research has employed direct questioning techniques that are merely effective at the conscious layer. They elicit only logical reasons for brand choice-like features satisfying functional needs, brand and user image.

ICR has developed Motivational Research tools that access the underlying emotive drivers of consumer behavior. The brandOdyssey™ system employs psychological interviewing techniques in both Qualitative and Quantitative studies that uncover emotive drivers of choice and unconscious feelings about brands. "Motivational" consumer segments, their characteristics, behavior and brand perceptions together furnish deep insight for brand positioning and communications.

For consumer product and service categories with important emotive or unconscious drivers of brand choice, brandOdyssey™ offers a range of solutions across the product lifecycle:

• Consumer Needs Assessment
• Category Emotional Code and Emotive Brand Imprints
• Motivational Segmentation and Brand Positioning
• Concept and New Product Positioning
• Brand Portfolio Mapping

Advertising Effectiveness

At ICR, we understand the relationship between advertising, brand and market success. Brand is a corporate asset; we offer a complete set of tools for assessing and devising ways to nurture that asset.

Ad Awareness and recall
Brand Awareness (attitudes and usage)
Brand Image
Brand Switching

Ad Awareness and Recall

At ICR, we can assist you in determining how your advertising efforts are affecting your product's or brand's market performance. This is a multistage process, requiring a benchmark study prior to a launch to establish a baseline level of awareness and attitudes. Subsequent studies will determine if new efforts have been successful. An evaluation of the results will determine:

• If advertising elevated the recognition of the product or service
• Where the advertising was seen
• The strength of the media mix
• The value of the message itself
• How the advertising affected your overall image

Brand Awareness (attitudes and usage) -understanding a brand's market power

Whether you're launching a new brand or evaluating the effectiveness of an established one, we can help you understand consumer purchase behavior. Attitude and Usage (A&U) studies, typically conducted for a new product at 3, 6, and 12 months and annually for established brands, will give you information on:

• How and why some brands are chosen over others
• Awareness levels
• Purchase patterns
• The likelihood of brand switching
• Likes and dislikes of your brand
• If customers intend to continue purchasing your brand in the future

Brand image-developing a strategy for your brand

A strong brand image can be a powerful marketplace motivator. It differentiates you from the competition. It can allow you to charge a premium price for products or services. It can elevate the value of your company. At ICR, we can help you understand the personality of your brand and your competitors' brands from the consumer perspective.

The first stage of this work is qualitative research is conducted by a skilled moderator using focus groups or in-depth interviews. The interviews may involve:

• Word associations
• Photo sorts
• Interpretation of visual scenes

The second stage is a quantitative survey of consumers to evaluate the brand's:

• Attributes
• Characteristics
• Personality traits

Finally, we use correspondence analysis to:

• Provide a graphic representation of the relationship between product attributes, characteristics and personality traits
• Show which brands "own" which product associations
• Give you an understanding of where your brand is positioned in the consumer's mind

Brand switching-understanding the competitive landscape

Keeping an eye on the competition-and understanding how it affects your brand-is vital in staying competitive. Brand "fence-sitters"-both yours and your competition's - can be an opportunity. With brand switching research at ICR, we can:

• Help you retain your own vulnerable customers
• Give you information to help entice your competition's customers your way

Since there is no single, direct approach to investigate brand switching, in each case we develop a custom research plan designed to:

• Evaluate the degree of loyalty to the brand
• Determine practical vulnerability such as price points and features
• Determine emotional vulnerability such as relief, enjoyment and confidence in your brand
• Determine aspirational vulnerability such as the status of your brand
• Determine what the brand promise is to the consumer

Brand Equity - Determining the value of your brand

There are two ways to assess brand equity.

1. An actuarial approach to place a specific dollar value on a brand. This is what the economists at our parent company, AUS Inc., do.
2. A market approach examining how the brand itself impacts purchase decisions and how that impact compares to competing brands. This is what we do.

At ICR, we endorse a holistic approach to brand: A study conducted both internally and externally to provide insight into perceptions of the brand among customers, prospects and thought leaders in your company and industry.

The metrics and analytical procedures will provide you with an "equity score" between 0 and 100 on an indexed scale that will give you a rating of your brand versus your competitors based on reasons consumers make decisions.

We use a multistage approach to this work including:

• First stage -Using telephone, in-person, in-depth interviews and focus groups, you will learn:
• The "state of the "brand"
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats
• Whether senior management applauds the brand's direction or not

• Second stage -Quantitative research conducted by phone, web or mail will allow you to obtain measures among key constituencies so that you can:
• Identify what's important about your brand in the marketplace
• Determine the most critical gaps between your brand and key competitors' brands by market, segment, product area
• Identify core strengths you can leverage
• Learn what your opportunities are for brand extensions or expansion

Tracking

Tracking is so much more than understanding how usage of your offering varies over time, because your brand is so much more than its consumption. Loyalty to your brand, consideration of usage, awareness, share of heart, and brand image all contribute to the volume you see. It is as critical to track these over time as "mere" usage, because some or all of these factors can be leading indicators of usage trends. At ICR, our Brand Performance Monitor is a tracking model that assesses the health of your brand over time and allows us to make prescriptions for its continued strength.