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Another rock or a real gem?
How to uncover your
brand’s big idea.
Leah McTiernan, Ipsos ASI
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Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea.
Another rock or a real gem? How
to uncover your brand’s big idea.
Indexed to Total: Top Two Box. ...
Brand marketers are looking to stake a claim –
searching to find that special territory they can
occupy and claim that is unique to their brand and
their brand alone. Identifying that territory and
ensuring it has a credible connection with the brand
is the mission of big idea research. To be effective,
big ideas must be:
• emotionally engaging
• ownable
• impactful
• campaignable
Insight &
Role of Brand
Integrated in
Consumers Minds
First, let’s acknowledge that big idea development is
tough. There are examples of very successful big
ideas in the marketplace (dare we utter the words
‘real beauty’) but there are far more examples of
not-so-big ideas that never reached that pinnacle
of success. In our experience many good ideas are
actually hampered by missteps in the development
process.
Based on Ipsos ASI’s extensive research of brands
and advertising, here are five steps to uncovering
your brand’s big idea:
1. To engage consumers, show that
you truly understand them.
Of course, the goal is to create emotionally engaging
and contagious ads. To do this you need a piercing
insight that connects with consumers instantly:
revealing to them that you understand something
about them that they thought you didn’t know.
2. Make sure you can credibly ‘own’
the space you want occupy.
Qualitatively, in our research, we’ve heard it explained
this way in a study for a beverage ad: ”All of that
can happen without this beverage. I thought it was
for something that would teach and nurture, not
for a beverage.” If consumers cannot interpret the
connection between the insight and your brand, no
matter how much they appreciate the thought, your
idea simply won’t take root. Without the connection, the idea cannot take shape in their minds and
your brand cannot own it. And, of course, be realistic. When the connection is not made, the insight
can feel too grandiose for the brand. One consumer
puts it this way: “It’s beautifully written, but it makes
this beverage sound like a miracle thing. How does
it make your senses ‘in tune’? How does it do this
to you?” The fact is your brand needs to play more
than a sponsoring moment. If consumers cannot
interpret the connection between the idea and your
brand, no matter how much they appreciate or relate
to the message, it just won’t work.
Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists
119
Insight &
Role of Brand
NOT Integrated in
Consumers Minds
70
0
50
100
150
Advantage / Differentiation
Indexed to Total: Top Box. … this idea is
Insight &
Role of Brand
Integrated in
Consumers Minds
133
Insight &
Role of Brand
NOT Integrated in
Consumers Minds
71
0
50
100
150
Ownable for the brand
3. To motivate consumers,
tout something compelling
that makes you unique.
Consumers want to know why they should consider
your product or service over another. And while
engagement and ownability are critical to the
development of brand impact, it is the ability of the
big idea to differentiate the brand that ensures the
greatest success. Too often, consumers have this
reaction: “Their bottled water is just like the next
guy’s, but what makes them different or unique?
You have to show they’re not the same.” We couldn’t
agree more. And, the good news for more established brands in established categories is that staking
out a territory can actually bring ‘new’ news – giving
you fresh things to say – and can carve out a space
that leaves your brand emotionally differentiated.
4. Those little taglines
make a big difference.
The brand sign-off is small but mighty and plays a
key role in bringing the big idea to life. In big idea
development, it is important to understand the
underlying perceptions that a brand logo or brand
icon might have, and whether those perceptions are
positive or whether there are hurdles that must be
overcome. The brand sign-off is described qualitatively by consumers as the ’wrap up,’ and as something that helps them ’remember it.’
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Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea.
5. Contrary to popular belief, visuals
just make execution more difficult.
While images can contribute to a consumer’s perception of clarity, believability and relevance, this
can have a detrimental impact on understanding
whether the big idea has potential or not. Ultimately
consumers react to the images themselves and
not to the actual words on the page: they do not
consider the big idea holistically. As a result, they
ground themselves in the images and cannot ’imagine’ what an idea could become without them. This
results in lack of clarity for the brand team, agencies, and research teams as to what images are and
are not an executional imperative moving forward.
The net result is that images can make a weaker big
idea test more strongly. In the words of one consumer: “The pictures guide it. They bring you to a
happy point so you feel different about what you’re
looking at.” Conversely, the wrong images can
weaken a potentially strong big idea: “I wouldn’t be
as interested. I look at the pictures first and these
pictures aren’t me.”
As you’ll see below, consumers are no more accepting of big ideas that have visuals than they are of
those that don’t.
Indexed to Control Concept: Top Box.
100
Control
Control +
Images
99
0
25
50
75
100
Purchase Intent
100
Control
Control +
Images
92
0
25
50
75
100
Change in Opinion about the Brand
Indexed to Control Concept: Top Box.
100
Control
Control +
Images
99
0
25
50
75
100
Competitive Advantage /
Differentiation
100
Control
Control +
Images
93
0
25
50
75
100
Ownability of Idea
100
Control
Control +
Images
90
0
25
50
75
100
This is a unique way
to think about the category
When you’re developing your big idea stimulus keep
it ‘raw.’ If you say or show too much you actually
limit yourself. Stripped down big ideas allow consumers to explore and dream for you – ultimately
delivering guided creative freedom as opposed to
executional imperatives.
Conclusion
As media environments become more fragmented,
more complex, and the number of touchpoints that
consumers are exposed to increase exponentially –
the path to brand communication success is to
discover one platform that can engage consumers
and create lasting brand affinity. That platform is the
big idea – a compelling truth that guides communication across all media and harnesses a unique
power to propel your brand.
A big idea is not an ad. An effective finished ad,
working on its own, should create a short term
response, impacting an increase in sales volume and
on brand equity. A big idea is far more than this; it
is the backbone of all your brand communications.
It isn’t always easy to uncover – but when you do
find that gem your brand will shine – guided by
strong, consistent, compelling creative across all
media – for years to come.
Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists
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Another rock or a real gem? How to uncover your brand’s big idea.
Appendix
Research Methodology
This research was designed to understand what
elements contribute to the consumer understanding and acceptance of big ideas, so that we, as
researchers, could provide effective insight, recommendations and executional imperatives.
Big Ideas for five packaged goods brands were
selected for testing: all five were for commonly
known brands to ensure reasonable levels of awareness. Each was executed in 5 variations.
Variation 1 – Control [contained Piercing Insight,
Role of Brand, Brand Sign-Off]
Variation 2 – No Piercing Insight
Variation 3 – No Role of the Brand
Variation 4 – No Brand Sign-Off
Variation 5 – Control with Images
Online interviews were conducted with a nationally
representative sample of female grocery shoppers
(minimum 50% had kids) who were non rejecters of
the brands being researched. One hundred respondents viewed and evaluated each of the five rotations; all respondents saw only one variation of each
big idea for a total of 500 evaluations for each variation. Variations and big ideas were randomized to
control for order bias.
In addition to the quantitative research, we conducted three qualitative focus groups with target
consumers (one for each category tested) to probe
the specific role of each of the elements based on
the results of the quantitative.
Ipsos ASI – the Advertising Research Specialists
About Ipsos ASI
Ipsos ASI offers marketers state-of-the-art advertising research built on more than 40 years of experience using
measures predictive of in-market performance. We offer a full-range of solutions across all media – at any stage in
the creative process – from equity assessment to strategic development, advertising testing, and tracking. Our
research is backed by a dedicated team of advertising research specialists whose mission is to deliver the answers
that will add value to your business anywhere in the world.
About Ipsos
Ipsos ASI is a member of the Ipsos Group, a leading global survey-based research company. Ipsos member companies
offer expertise in advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, and public affairs research, as well as forecasting,
modeling, and consulting. With offices in 55 countries, the Paris-based company was founded in 1975.
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