The Volvo XC60, Highland Park scotch, Lululemon apparel, Costco and, in Quebec, Brault & Martineau and La Cordée: what these brands all have in common is that they offer a brand experience that delights the very consumers who love to shop, who find the shopping experience and using the products they buy highly gratifying.
In addition to conducting traditional brand-image studies, we, at CROP, believe that brands must go beyond merely offering excellent products and services. Brands must also appeal to consumers’ emotional and cultural needs, what we call their “hot buttons.”
For example, the consumers who feel the most in control of their lives find that RBC Investments, Harry Rosen, Macallan scotch and even the antacid Maalox provide them with a highly satisfying brand experience in their drive for personal autonomy!
What hot buttons does your brand appeal to? Or rather, what hot buttons could it appeal to in order to better meet your consumers’ needs?
The brands below do a good job of responding to certain specific consumer trends:
Maintaining a positive image of your brand. Raising awareness. Understanding your customers’ impressions of your brand’s attributes and value proposition. Forging a strong emotional bond with your audiences. Increasing the value of your business and its recognition among your consumers. These are the primary objectives of our branding exercises.
CROP helps brands create an identity that sets them apart from the competition and makes them leaders in their field. And, when they are leaders, we make sure that their brand capital continues to grow.
An integrated approach
Focus groups, surveys, benchmarks (databases of relevant industries for comparison purposes) … we use a combination of tools and methods to uncover exactly how consumers perceive your brand.
Awareness, understanding, attributes, perceived strengths and weaknesses, market opportunities and threats … no stone is left unturned to fully understand every market situation.
We also employ our proprietary tools – Jam, Panorama, Milieus – to investigate the sociocultural and emotional connection that consumers have with your brand. With this data, we can ensure that the values of your brand and those expressed by your target customers are perfectly aligned.
Case Studies:
Revolutionize the consumption habits of your target markets
A North American car manufacturer wanted to attract a younger, more modern clientele to its brand. (Before the car manufacturer came to CROP for help, its customers bought the same make of car as their fathers.) To accomplish this, the manufacturer needed in-depth knowledge about the values, needs, lifestyle, desires and characteristics of the new markets they wanted to conquer.
Over a period of about 10 years, CROP has monitored the evolution in the profile of the customers attracted by the various marketing efforts deployed by the car company. We have watched as new cohorts of consumers have been added to what used to be a highly conservative customer base. These new customers display the modern characteristics of the target markets that CROP and its client had identified.
