Spotlight: Assessing Reach and Efficacy to Connect with Local Communities
By John Capps
Today’s consumers are discerning and hold brands to a higher standard. They expect to receive high-quality goods and services, but also want to connect with brands they use and appreciate those that support causes they believe in. Think TOMS.
With more opportunities than ever to connect with brands, consumers are doing more research to ensure brands’ values align with their own. Consumers have a wide variety of brand options, creating a more competitive market with less brand loyalty.
So how can brands knows exactly what their customers want? Tracking is a great place to start.
To develop and maintain a strong brand, leading brand continuously monitor consumer opinion to understand their position in the market, ever-changing consumer needs, optimal ways to connect with consumers, and ensure appropriate messaging in place.
This study highlights W5’s role in supporting an energy company to understand consumer attitudes and the impact of its advertising on brand image over time.
CASE STUDY: MONITORING BRAND HEALTH AND AWARENESS
A prominent Midwestern energy company developed a new campaign to promote services and build a stronger positive brand image in the communities it serves. The company and advertising agency engaged W5 to assess and track customer awareness of the campaign and resonance of creative executions.
APPROACH
W5 developed a custom, quarterly advertising awareness and perceptions survey of tracking research to gauge campaign reach and influence. In addition to assessing customer awareness in specific Midwestern/Western cities, W5 explored the advertising’s impact on brand image and evaluated specific aspects of the creative executions. Between waves of tracking in primary markets, W5 fielded a pulse survey in additional small markets of particular interest, where checking public brand image was strategically important.
RESULTS
The research established a clear and statistically reliable channel of insights on the reach and efficacy of the advertising campaign. W5 tracked brand health over five waves of research, spanning 2-3 years of market, industry, and societal change (including research in 2020).
The client and agency gained valuable strategies direction into the themes, messages, and tones to present in advertising to customers and prospects in relevant markets.