In today’s marketplace, every business can and should be doing research to help grow its brand. Research is one of our 4 R’s of Brand Building that any business can do while still focusing on their major revenue-producing activities. 

Research is broadly defined as systematic investigation and study of information to establish facts and reach new conclusions. With respect to building your brand, we can define it as the process of gathering specific information that helps your brand strengthen its connection to customers and gain or maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Brand building research involves more than just the acquisition of information however; it also carries with it the idea that the brand will meaningfully implement the information discovered. The most helpful research of this nature revolves around looking at 4 key areas: your own business, your customers* (current, past or prospective), your competitors and the current cultural and marketplace landscape.

There are many readily available and accessible sources of information that can help grow your brand, so many in fact, that it can seem overwhelming. The good news is that to be good at research that helps build your brand, you need only be curious and committed. So, here are 3 types of brand-focused research that every company should be doing. 

Research focused on what is happening on your website and social media

There are numerous analytical tools that provide info about activities related to a brand’s website or social media. This is helpful because as you monitor and measure your content and its performance, you can gauge its relevance and value to your audience in real time. Without the data that these channels provide, you would not know what people like and respond to. By doing more of what your audience finds valuable, you can increase the perceived value of and engagement with your brand’s digital channels. 

All search and social companies are now heavily invested in content curation, that is, your ability to collect and tailor content suited to your specific purposes. It’s a big reason why these channels exist, and they want to make it even easier for you to find exactly what you want and need quickly and easily. 

There are really two levels here to consider: what is happening in terms of activity on your own channels and the relevance and reach of the content you share; and also the idea of observing and interpreting the macro trends that social media puts at our fingertips. Social media channels know that they are increasingly being used as information sources. Just follow the #tiktoktaughtme hashtag or watch the “What Will You Learn?” Youtube commercial to understand how users are leveraging social media for learning.

Research focused on what is happening with my customers

Conducting research regarding the experience of your customers with your process, product or service has always been important. I find it to be of increased importance in our fast-paced, digitally-forward marketplace. You want to always be gathering data on how you acquired your leads and customers and trying to understand this data. Conducting regular listening and feedback sessions with your clients/customers to better understand their experience with your brand is incredibly important, now matter how successful you are. It’s important that you hear from them and find out from them directly what they appreciate about your process or product/service and possibly what can be improved. 

There are numerous ways to conduct research to measure and learn about customer experience. This applies to prospective customers who engage but do not buy as well as those customers who purchased only once. Of course, current and repeat customers provide a trove of key data points for consideration. Knowing why these customers/clients buy and (perhaps) why they look elsewhere will help you better tailor your products and services. The reality is customer needs and desires change, and our offerings need to as well. The better you can respond to changes in customer sentiment, the more you can gain a competitive advantage.

Some of the approaches that work well to gain this type of research are onboarding questionnaires and surveys, project post-mortem surveys, focus groups and shadowing sessions observing customer behavior. Which of these tools have you used to learn about your customers?

Research focused on what is happening in the marketplace and society/culture

The last area where we can conduct meaningful brand research is in the marketplace.We want to think about the marketplace in two ways; the first meaning the marketplace inclusive and in light of your direct competitors. Your business shares the same market as other companies that you may compete with for the same customers or offer similar products and services. The second sense that we use marketplace is here is to mean the whole landscape of businesses, society and culture at large that is at the backdrop of all business activity, not just the niche that your business operates in.

Competitor Research

Competitors website and social media/marketing content. Run searches for these things to see how they perform. We’re including competitors here. It is common to do keyword research on the keywords that your competitors are doing. It is also helpful to see how they have framed their key products or services. There is a story to be told, it is instructive to consider how others have told it, particularly if you are trying to attract the same customers. Are they using lead magnets and other marketing tools to attract customers? It can be helpful to make sure that you are doing the digital activities that allow you to be competitive when prospective customers are looking for your products or services. 

Marketplace Research

Observing and researching what is happening in the marketplace at large is one way to stay a step ahead. You can start with current events and trends. Every social platform pushes trending information to the forefront, whether it’s through breaking news alerts or trending hashtags, etc. They want to keep you engaged on the platform so as soon as news becomes available, it is distributed. They also have tools to help you curate the content you want to see, training its algorithms to supply you more of the information you have deemed relevant. I make use of Google Alerts and Google Trends, free tools to curate brand-relevant content.

Conclusion

Research is a key brand building strategy that business owners can use in a number of ways to gain the information and insights they need to keep their brand a step ahead in this fast-paced, digitally-driven marketplace. Every business and brand can benefit from strategic, brand-focused research and every business should be engaged in it as part of their brand building efforts.

Enthuse Creative Can Help

Enthuse Creative can help your brand better leverage the power of research to help it grow. Reach out to us today for a free consultation.