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Audience Identification and Profiling research paints a detailed picture of a core market―their demographics, basic category behaviors and attitudes, psychographics underlying those behaviors and attitudes, and opinions of the marketplace. This method is a critical step when introducing a new brand or product and can be a cost-efficient alternative to a segmentation.

Beyond basic statistical profiling, W5 explores the relationship of consumer lifestyles, life stages, beliefs, and habits to define their potential engagement with the brand and/or product.  Audience Identification and Profiling is best used to identify a target audience for a product, service, or message. This strategic market insight will help you:

• Identify a core market within a broader target
• Estimate the scope of opportunity for a brand or product with that target market
• Inform strategic brand or product positioning
• Develop meaningful and resonant messaging

Attitudes and Usage (A&U or AAU) research answers essential questions of “what?,” “where?,” “why?,” and “how?” around consumers’ decision making within and across market categories. W5 A&U studies provide a robust and reliable snapshot of consumer sentiment and behaviors at a moment in time but can also be conducted to inform future strategy. They are a valuable tool for market hypotheses, exploring brand and product appeal and opportunity, and identifying the impact of recent or forthcoming marketplace changes.

Attitudes and Usage research can help you:

• Identify nuances of consumer behaviors in the category
• Understand consumer rationale for category perceptions and decisions
• Gauge your competitive positioning
• Resolve hypotheses and assumptions of consumer behaviors and mindsets

Product and Positioning Concept Testing provides insight on how a product, service, or branding can cut through competitor offerings to fit consumers’ needs and desires. Thorough and strategic testing of proposed concepts will ensure success by identifying consumers’ rationale for specific likes and dislikes.

There are many ways to accomplish a concept test―monadic testing, paired comparison, proto-monadic evaluation, concept screening, etc.―however, not all techniques are applicable in every situation. W5 builds a custom approach based on the number of concepts, depth of presentation, selected audiences, and needs for comparative insight. A strategically designed research study will reveal resonant winners and relative losers and can help you:

• Understand perceived benefits and shortcomings of each concept
• Determine which concepts should be developed and refined and those to leave behind
• Identify areas of improvement to integrate into an optimized offering

The Message Testing process begins with creative stimuli and copy and ends with a refined message. Quantitative research plays an important role to ensure message effectiveness by eliciting consumer feedback on appeal, relevance, and call-to-action. 

W5’s approach to Message Testing provides multiple viewpoints on stimuli through a proto-monadic survey design where copy variations are assessed independently and randomly before comparative questions are asked. The result is dual perspectives on clarity, appeal, relevance, and call-to-action of each stimulus providing context and support for winning concepts.

The goal of Message and Copy Testing is to illuminate the best path forward for marketing and advertising. Armed with this insight, you are better positioned to:

• Select a message or set of messages that will resonate based on a reliable, robust analysis of a large set of target consumers
• Inform nuanced creative decisions around specific copy, imagery, media channels, etc.
• Address hypotheses and outstanding questions about how best to communicate brand strengths, differentiation, and relevance

The identification of different consumer groups in the market is a powerful tool for identifying target audience characteristics beyond basic demographics and category behaviors. W5 views Segmentation as the study of consumers’ responses to specific attitudinal, behavioral, psychographic, and category- and brand-related questions. During analysis, consumers with similar attitudes and thought processes are bundled together to create an audience ‘segment.’ 

Segmentation is beneficial for those seeking a reliable understanding of consumers based on stable, real-world criteria. W5 leverages a mix of applied approaches to ensure resulting segments are actionable and capable of informing product/service refinement, brand positioning, and communications strategies.

W5’s approach to custom, strategic segmentation research will:

• Determine which consumer segments exist and reveal the relative size of each 
• Evaluate the potential economic value of each segment
• Identify the behaviors, attitudes, needs, and underlying psychographics of each segment and how these differ from one another 

Read our White Paper on Segmentation 

Read our Case Study on Segmentation

Conjoint Analysis explores the value consumers place on your products or services and their features. Through a series of conjoint (two or more parallel) questions in an online survey, consumers evaluate different sets of attributes (and the various attribute options, or levels) and make “trade-offs” between services or features. Response across scenarios generates a robust data set processed using sophisticated modeling techniques. W5 can then gauge your consumers’ priorities, identify optimal bundles with market relevance, and explore demand and price sensitivity related to variations in marketplace offerings.

Conjoint Analysis can help you:

• Understand the unique contribution each attribute and level of that attribute brings to a product or service 
• Determine minute differences between a series of nuanced product offerings
• Inform development of customized product offerings to specific target audiences
• Model and explore consumer demand and price sensitivity based on a robust and reliable primary research data set

Strategic Tracking research monitors a brand’s perception and strength over time through industry-specific metrics. Through a periodic or continuously-fielded quantitative survey, consumer insights are measured and compared to track changes and guide decisions based on past activity and predictions for future activity. Strategic Tracking supports decision making by examining market changes from one measured period to another.

W5’s approach to Strategic Tracking goes beyond measuring brand and advertising awareness to explore an evolving marketplace, bringing depth and context to consumer behavior and attitudes. Strategic Tracking research reveals understanding of the relative health of your brand and scratches below the surface to determine its fit in the marketplace.

This in-depth ‘state-of-the-brand’ understanding can help you:

• Measure and monitor brand health (awareness, consideration, usage, advocacy, etc.)
• Understand which brand strengths contribute to overall performance
• Understand brand positioning and opportunities relative to competitors
• Assess the impact of branding initiatives, advertising campaigns, and other marketing communications
• Profile different audiences’ relationship with your brand and advertising 

Read our White Paper on Strategic Tracking 

Read our Case Study on Strategic Tracking

Shopper Insights reveal how consumers interact with products and brands within retail environments, both online and in-store. It focuses on every aspect of the shopping experience, from store selection to purchase decision. W5 views shopper insights as a nuanced and complex study of the retail environment, in-store behaviors, in-aisle decisions, and messaging.

Understanding shopper needs and motivations can transform your approach to products, packaging, displays, promotions, experiences, and interpersonal interactions for both brick-and-mortar and online/mobile shopping. W5 leverages a mix of ethnographic techniques to capture insights throughout the consumer journey.

Exploring Shopper Insights can help you:

• Better position your products within the retail environment
• Create new value propositions for your brand(s) 
• Overcome barriers to product adoption and consideration
• Build loyalty post-purchase

Read our Case Study on Shopper Insights

Online Discussions are comprised of relatively new qualitative research tools that can provide broader access to participants (over both time and geographic areas) without limiting the quality or type of feedback.

These conversations can take place as Bulletin Boards, Online Journals/Diaries, or webcam-enabled IDIs or Focus Groups. The online platform incorporates rich response and reaction tools that allow participants to communicate via text, simple surveys, images, or video. This enables W5 to employ an activity-based approach to asking research questions where participants not only tell you, but show you how they behave and think.

Clients can also be more involved by observing responses in real-time, suggesting follow-up questions as they happen, contributing to an ongoing discussion among observers, and tagging responses to highlight in reporting.

Online discussions can help you:

• Leverage longitudinal responses to better understand behavior and attitude in the context of real life
• Gather frank and honest responses in a largely anonymous forum
• Collect layered, highly personal responses from consumers in the context of their own environments and day-to-day lives

Mobile Ethnography is one of the most flexible research tools available, allowing W5 to connect with a wide array of participants spread across time zones and geography via a smartphone app or mobile platform.

Mobile Ethnography allows researchers to virtually accompany consumers in their natural environment. Throughout the process, W5 integrates mobile-enabled activities to increase consumer engagement and generate insight. This may include exploring product usage, daily rituals, shopping experiences, etc. by capturing media and providing feedback in real-time.

Mobile Ethnography is an efficient and minimally invasive way for consumers to share their thoughts and experiences―a multi-sensory landscape of a consumer’s world that can help you:

• Identify fallacies in reported versus observed behaviors
• Capture first impressions of new products or services
• Facilitate understanding of how, when, and why a product or service is used in its natural environment
• Chart the moments a consumer engages with a product or brand on a daily basis
• Identify pain points and moments of delight in the in-store or online environment

Read our White Paper on Ethnography

Before your brand messaging meets the market, qualitative research can provide valuable feedback to ensure relevance. Message Development research can be conducted throughout the process to develop initial ideas, test individual ideas/campaign concepts, or evaluate campaign material or concepts for consistency.

W5 uses both online and in-person approaches to evaluate messaging. In-person approaches benefit from a flexible forum for developing ideas or exploring initial reactions, while online approaches can incorporate evaluation tools such as heat mapping that identify positive and negative associations with specific elements.

Message Development research can help you:

• Ensure a message or campaign remains consistent in various media (i.e., web banner, print ad, television spot, etc.)
• Identify essential, need-to-know information for communication about a product, brand, or service
• Create a unique and memorable voice that rises above digital and visual clutter
• Assess the clarity and resonance of specific messaging elements

In-Depth Interviewing (IDI) is an intimate conversation between a moderator and an individual or small group of participants. It is a preferred approach when research topics are sensitive or more detailed feedback is needed.

Semi-structured, the approach allows conversations to flow naturally, with the spirit of the conversation guiding the questioning and its order. W5 views IDIs as offering several methodological advantages including building a strong rapport and leading to more detailed and evocative feedback. The approach is often direct and focused, with minimal distractions, allowing for more genuine, thoughtful responses.

In-Depth Interviews can help you:

• Explore individual concerns for a product, concept, or idea
• Assess independent decision making and behavior among a specific consumer audience
• Connect with unique, specialized populations to discuss a specific subject in-depth
• Explore sensitive or emotional topics inappropriate for community discussion
• Understand complex elements of a client product or service from the experience of a sophisticated end user

Focus Groups, a moderated discussion held with pre-recruited participants, are the most widely used and familiar qualitative research tool. They are especially powerful for conducting exploratory research, messaging evaluations, product development, or brand positioning and strategy research.

Their familiarity does not mean they are a tired approach. W5 incorporates creative exercises and activities to challenge participants to think critically and creatively about research questions. New technologies feature a host of multimedia tools that further creative thinking.

Focus Groups can help you:

• Conduct a broad exploration of consumer opinions
• Inspire initial ideas to develop into more cohesive concepts
• Test products, concepts, or campaigns to receive nuanced feedback

Executive Interviews are in-depth, one-on-one discussions with professionals, often in specialized industries or roles. Unlike consumer interviews, they require qualitative researchers attuned to industry language and practices who can approach the conversation with an understanding of their specialization and tie their perspectives back to the research goals.

W5 approaches executive or professional interviews by staying flexible in both timing and means of communication, conducted via telephone, webcam, or in-person to accommodate participants’ schedules.

Executive interviewing can help you:

• Develop branded marketing and communications that resonate with targeted professional audiences 
• Adapt products and services to address pain points and meet market needs
• Design new retention strategies to support long-term customer engagement
• Outline the position of a product or service within the competitive landscape

Read our Case Study on Executive Interviewing

Consumer Journey maps are tools for visualizing how people interact with your brand, most often in the realm of retail and/or online shopping experiences. These maps diagram each interaction with key behaviors, considerations, and potential barriers that lie between an initial trigger to consider and final purchase.

Qualitative research is instrumental in capturing the defining moments of the process. W5 designs Consumer Journey research to be immersive, incorporating in-person or mobile ethnographic approaches to shadow the consumer during each step in the process. The learning that comes from better understanding the experience as a whole can help you identify specific pain points and barriers and create a strategy to connect with consumers at the most opportunistic touchpoints.

Consumer Journey maps can help you:

• Understand the myriad of touchpoints consumers encounter in an often complicated journey to purchase
• Highlight opportunities to increase consumer satisfaction and drive future consideration

Read our White Paper on Consumer Journeys 

Read our Case Study on Consumer Journeys

Ethnography is a qualitative research approach that produces a real-world understanding of how lifestyle, culture, behavior, subconscious motivations, and social context influence product selection and brand interaction.

Ethnography is immersive, putting researchers in the consumers’ world to observe how they behave and interact with their environment and how they feel about the experience. W5 ethnographers can expertly evaluate consumer behavior in detail, identifying meaningful patterns and themes that emerge from their explicit and implicit attitudes and needs. Ethnographic research can take place anywhere (home, store, restaurant, etc.) and employs a mix of virtual and in-person approaches.

Ethnography can help you:

• Understand a specific culture or subgroup of consumers in great detail
• Observe and identify new contexts for product use, branding, or communication
• Identify uncommon consumer insights that are simply inaccessible without closer access and engagement with your audience

Read our White Paper on Ethnography 

Read our Thought Piece on Video Ethnography 

Concept Development begins with an idea and ends in your consumers’ hands as a product or service. Concept Development research ensures the final result meets their expectations and needs. 

Initial exploratory research helps create empathy and understanding of consumers’ specific needs. From there, the customer can become part of your development team, providing qualitative feedback with each iteration. By embracing Concept Development qualitative research, you are embracing a customer-centric design process that will make for more successful product launches.

W5’s Concept Development and evaluation research can help you:

• Develop new ideas or technologies
• Better understand why specific products struggle
• Refresh existing products to better meet customer needs

Brand Positioning is a strategy to identify competitive advantages and help your brand connect with the right people, in the right way, at the right time. It assumes your brand and competitors occupy the same “space” based on subtle differences in audiences’ rational and emotional preferences. Exploratory, iterative, and interpretive, qualitative Brand Positioning research is ideally suited for understanding these nuances. W5 can help you uncover both rational reasons for brand preferences as well as hard-to-define emotional factors.

With knowledge of your current position and what’s important to your audience, you can clarify your brand’s meaning and adopt positioning strategies that offer long-term strategic value.

W5 can help your brand:

• Identify its position in the marketplace
• Define and clarify attributes that matter most to your audience
• Create meaningful differentiation from competitors or within a brand portfolio
• Revitalize its presence within the market