Consumer research or segmentation traditionally focuses on highlighting differences between consumers. This is important when designing targeted, benefit-focused, short-term activation. But to drive long-term impact on the market where the objective is to increase your reach, you need to switch focus to highlighting the aspects that unite segments, not divide them, whilst still respecting their differences. We need to change the way we view the consumer landscape: targeted activation and brand building need different types of insights and these insights need to be aligned, we call this sophisticated brand building.
A sophisticated brand building strategy is built through the combination of two strategic avenues: Linking the brand to demand entry points to upscale targeting activities thus increasing reach and future growth, and linking the brand truth to human truths to cultivate brand connection with all consumers everywhere.
Broadening your brand’s reach from the center to the periphery helps you win consumers’ future purchases by creating clear associations to a wider space of relevant category entry points. This is the new marketing model adopted by Coca-Cola, who aims to drive profitable long-term growth for its entire portfolio of brands in this way. CEO James Quincey explains that their “new marketing model is focused on adding and retaining consumers. And we’re doing this through an ecosystem of experiences that link consumption occasions with consumer passion points.”This entails identifying common contextual cues, that your brand can own across multiple demand spaces to maximise mental associations and top of mind awareness across a broader consumer base. The objective here is that you futureproof your demand by ensuring that once you achieve saturation in your targeted growth space, your growth is not limited since you have already built associations in the minds of consumers with your other future demand entry points. This ensures that future consumers already know your brand and associate your brand with a broader set of demand entry moments, so when the buying moment arises, they have a higher predisposition towards your brand.
See example
This entails discovering themes that consumers across all segments and communities value, so you can build your brand on messages that deliver a net-positive impact across the market. Insights gained from this process will help you build a brand famous for its purpose and values, by aligning your brand’s ‘Why’ with where consumers see value, to generate a higher brand worth. Our GfK Brand Architect research shows that whilst Brand Purpose and Brand Values have little impact on driving market sales volumes for brands, they do have an impact on consumers price sensitivity, increasing your brand profitability in the long term through the increased profitability that a premium brand offers.
When a brand is built on both these emotional and functional cues you create a subconscious bias towards your brand among consumers at the top of the brand pyramid funnel, ensuring future sales harvest with lower price sensitivity.