Market Research and Fresh Thinking, a Perfect Combination

We are an advertising agency—not a medical lab…why would we conduct research?


A brand is a living thing, an energy composed of thoughts and feelings that are called to mind when you think about a business. At Advertising Savants, our proven process to develop a brand includes defining a core purpose—or the difference a brand is meant to make in the world. How do we go about determining such positioning? We start with market research.


Getting to know you … Getting to know all about you

The first step in our process is immersive in nature. It’s one of my favorite aspects of our business; a real courtship, if you will, where we get to know the nuances of a business. There’s nothing more exciting to me than that time frame between “let’s work together” and “now presenting: your company’s brand strategy.” That period most often contains a deep market research phase.


Case in point, a new client came to us a few years ago from a category we had no prior experience in. We jumped in headfirst in all six of their markets, conducting what turned out to be a two-month whirlwind of interviews—gaining insight through conversations with staff, consumers and the trade alike.

  • Internal interviews with the staff gave us a firsthand look into the heart of the company—the people that keep operations running and are at the forefront of interaction with customers.
  • Consumer insights garnered an interesting aspect into what makes them tick—why a customer may purchase our client’s product, or what may cause them not to.
  • Meetings with the trade gave us an in-depth look at the workings of the industry—the nuts and bolts, trends and new knowledge of industry advancements.


Given the fact that each of these groups lent themselves to a very different set of insights, it was quite necessary to conduct this far-reaching research phase to allow us to develop the most effective positioning possible. And in the end, we created a vision for the company, an image for the public and successfully brought the brand to life.


Types of Market Research

If you’re wondering about how to conduct market research, one of the first things you need to determine is exactly which types are going to be best suited for your brand. Depending upon the objectives we’re trying to accomplish, we typically start with a combination of 4 different types of market research.

Brand research

Brand research allows you to gain a better understanding of the perspectives and thoughts that various stakeholders and consumers have about your brand. This type of market research explores things like brand loyalty, brand perception, brand positioning, brand value and brand identity.


​​Customer research

The aim of this research is to know your customer inside out, and continuously learn about how they interact with the company. This includes what makes customers happy, why they stay loyal and what behaviors and characteristics they all have in common. Oftentimes some of our initial customer research involves simply their location — helping define which geographic areas you are winning and which have room for opportunity. 


Competitive research

This type of market research is to discover ways to make your business stand out from others and planning for the future. Understanding a competitor’s strengths and weaknesses can be an invaluable tool. 


Product research

When conducting product research, whether for a future product or an existing one, you want to gather information about how people are using your product (or similar products) and what their attitudes are about it. By going through this market research process, brands are able to guage customer satisfaction and begin identifying area for improvement and/or competitive edge. 

Research Methods

Some paid and free market research reports and insights can sometimes be found online, which can be super helpful in learning about industry perceptions. But we strongly suggest you dig in a bit deeper and look at your business individually. There are so many tools available nowadays, including things like SurveyMonkey and Userlytics that allow brands to employ a variety of research methods, including:

  • Qualitative market research
  • Quantitative market research
  • Primary market research
  • Secondary market research


The importance of market research

To help you appropriately identify and position yourself, you need to understand where you stand in the marketplace and in relation to your competitors. Doing so enables you to carve out a niche for your brand—and do something original that will connect with your current and future customers.


Plus, today’s consumers expect brands to understand them and the problems they’re trying to solve.


As you can see, if your brand is in need of some fresh ideas, the best place to start is with market research. We’ve been generating strong, award-winning creative ideas for more than 30 years…and they all start with the same thing: market research. It just works. Reach out if you’d like to learn more about our process.

Post published on

November 8, 2017

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