Brand Energy: Powering your way to market success

Calling all brand managers! Please consider for a moment this seemingly simple question:

Would it be true to say that the more consumers come across your brand in market, the more positively they feel towards it?

Well if you're investing significant amounts of money into marketing support, you'd certainly hope for this to be the case ...but can you be so sure?

The reality of the marketplace is complex.

Even a single consumer's feelings towards a given brand will depend upon the nature and context of the many encounters they experience e.g. an annoying TV commercial seen at a bad time, followed by some great "word or mouth" from a friend, will have dramatically opposing effects.

The overall likelihood to purchase the brand is then seen as being the net result of these multiple encounters.

Brands can transmit their energy via many channels...

And "multiple" is the keyword - so much is happening in market these days!

Multi-media campaigns, above the line support, below the line support, online chat, offline chat, viral marketing, experiential-marketing... the list goes on and on.

How can we be sure to capture all of these touchpoints with a brand and to measure their influence on the target audience's purchase decisions?

As a result of conducting numerous Touchpoint-ROI projects, JMI's partner agency MESH Planning, has both developed a methodology to address this challenge and a related concept of "Brand Energy".

In a typical Touchpoint-ROI study, 500 consumers are asked to be researchers for two weeks. The study starts and ends for these respondent-researchers with Internet surveys. In the time between the Internet surveys, respondents are then asked to complete a short questionnaire by mobile phone, each time they encounter one of the brands being tracked.

This "hot housing" of consumers provides a detailed record of all the brands' touchpoints, together with precise data on timing, reactions to these brand encounters and measures of "Brand Energy".

Brand Energy is a new way of understanding the likely future direction in which your brand is traveling. If the ways your brand is currently interacting with people positively changes their perceptions, then your brand is said to have positive Brand Energy. If the reverse is true it has negative Brand Energy.

In Touchpoints-ROI the initial consumer attitude, usually based on an accumulation of experiences over a number of years, is measured in the pre-interview and the final attitude in the post-interview, after participants have actively observing the brand in market.

The overall shift in attitude (Brand Energy) can then be explained using the results of the mobile tracking. This takes into account the latest communications by the brands in the market and allows for a breakdown of the contributions coming from various brand activities and interactions. This is called "Touchpoint Force".

In the case below, Brand D has somewhat weak but positive Brand Energy. The Touchpoint Force analysis shows clearly that the brand is being held back by very poor 'word of mouth' among consumers, despite the positive impact of various marketing activities.

As well as evaluating overall Brand Energy, the same exercise can be used on each image dimension. In a recent study for a client, it was noticed that whilst their above the line activity, such as TV, newspapers and posters were impacting on one set of image dimensions, 'word of mouth' and 'seeing others using the brand' were impacting on another set of image statements.

The client was therefore able to see that their new advertising campaign was working to add excitement to the brand, whilst their new product and packaging was bringing credibility to it. So in this case all elements of the brand were dovetailing well by working in a complementary fashion.

In other studies, the most effective marketing touchpoints needed to correct weak Brand Energy have been identified. This supports targeted campaign planning across various media platforms to ensure maximum impact on brand performance.

Touchpoints-ROI is today providing marketers with the insight necessary to generate the positive Brand Energy required to ensure future success. So be sure to light up your brands!

For more information on Touchpoints-ROI in Japan contact Jeff Matsui:

MESH Planning and Ogilvy & Mather UK recently presented a co-authored paper on Touchpoints-ROI and Brand Energy at the ESOMAR WM3 (World Multi-Media Measurement) Conference held in Dublin, 3-6 June 2007.

The paper was nominated for the 2007 ESOMAR Excellence Award.

For more information, contact Fiona Blades at MESH Planning: fionablades@meshplanning.com