Consumer Wants and Needs

The key ingredients of a brand that becomes a cultural phenomenon are really quite simple. Think about how a person becomes loyal to another person and why he or she wants to integrate that other person into his or her life. The same process works for brands. That’s because humans have wants and needs that are inherent in all of us and apply to all aspects of life, including brands.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow published a paper about the psychology of human motivation that introduced a concept that is still used today and is taught in every college-level consumer behavior course — Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You can see his theory visually in the image below.

Maslow explained that all humans are motivated by base, physiological needs (like food and water) and safety-related needs (such as health, employment, and shelter) as well as by “higher” needs that are more psychological and emotional. These higher needs focus on the need to belong and the need to be loved as well as the need for esteem. At the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the need for self-actualization, which refers to a person’s need to succeed and reach their potential in all areas of life.

Maslow argued that if a person hasn’t achieved the lower levels of needs, then he won’t be able to move up the hierarchy and achieve the higher level needs. For brands that become cultural phenomena, it’s those higher level needs that matter. Any brand can satisfy base needs like hunger, but not every brand can satisfy higher level needs like feeling a sense of belonging. It makes sense that building brand communities (the second stage of brand growth) is a key stage in a brand phenomenon’s lifecycle.

Emotional Connection

As Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs conveys, higher level human needs are psychological and very emotional. They’re driven by feelings, not physical needs to survive. Therefore, they can vary from one person to the next. However, the fundamental psychological needs wrap up into the need to belong, the need for esteem, and the need for self-actualization.

Brands that can identify the primary and common psychological needs of consumers can better develop and focus on the best target audiences. Using market research (which will be discussed in Part 4 of this series), those brands can create the right messages and brand experiences to evoke the right emotions and connect the brand with the right psychological needs.

Branded Experiences

Brand experiences are the third ingredient you need to build a brand into a cultural phenomenon. As mentioned above, experiences elicit emotions, and they allow communities of brand customers to enjoy the brand together. In simplest terms, brand experiences can easily fulfill two of Maslow’s higher needs — the need for belonging and the need for esteem.

Of course, brand experiences can evolve and serve a variety of purposes, but most importantly, they satisfy inherent human needs. A brand that doesn’t clearly satisfy those higher-level needs will achieve minimal success (if any at all).

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Building a Brand into a Cultural Phenomenon series where you’ll learn about the secret ingredient that the most successful brands understand and you need to understand it, too. In the meantime, if you missed Part 1 of the series, follow the link to learn about the five stages of brand growth.

Image: Laura Leavell, Wikipedia

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Online Posting

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, just 16% of respondents said they have never made a post online. 11% said they have posted information once or twice in the past. 32% said they sometimes create posts. And 41% said they post online often, either through social media, blogs, comments, or similar formats.

Personal Information

12% of online posters said they often share personal information in their posts. 39% said they share personal information sometimes. 19% said they have shared personal information once or twice, but not very often. And 30% of posters said they never include personal information in their posts.

35% of those who have shared personal information said they have regretted sharing some of that information. And 23% of respondents said that a friend or family member has shared personal information about them that they wished to keep private. Respondents under 35 were slightly more likely to share personal information online, but much more likely to regret posts and to have private information shared by someone else.

Sharing Culture

Overall, 81% of respondents said they think people share too much personal information online. 9% said they don’t think people share too much, and 10% had no opinion on the matter. Respondents over 45 and females were more likely to think too much personal information is shared online.

You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: Facebook HQ – The Facebook Wall from Flickr

What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Ask Your Target Market

Results were collected on May 15 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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Before you can understand how brands develop into cultural phenomena, you need to understand the primary stages of brand growth. Not every brand is destined to be a cultural phenomena. While companies can take many steps along the way to position a brand for maximum success, the power is always in the hands of consumers. I’ll discuss that in more detail in Part 3 of this series. For now, take a look at the five stages of brand growth below, so you understand the path that successful brands travel along during their lifecycles.

5 Stages of Brand Growth

An intricate analysis of brand growth would reveal more specific stages, but the five stages listed below give you a good introduction to the most critical stages that you need to know in order to understand how a brand becomes a phenomenon.

Stage 1: Common Brands

After a brand is launched and begins to generate awareness, recognition, recall, and purchases, it could quickly fail. However, if the brand lives up to its advertised promise, it moves to the first stage of brand growth and becomes a Common Brand.

Common brands are a dime-a-dozen. Most brands are common brands. They’re easily replaceable and consumers are more influenced by price and convenience when they choose a product or service within the market the brand operates than they are by brand names and promises.

Certain categories lend themselves to common brands more than others. For example, consumers are typically not sensitive to branding when they purchase milk. If one brand is on sale, that’s likely the brand most consumers will buy. In other words, price elastic categories are filled with common brands.

Stage 2: Brand Communities

As brands consistently and persistently communicate their promise and consumers begin to believe that promise, a growing audience of repeat and loyal customers will develop. When consumers have a place where they can discuss and experience the brand together, communities of the brand’s customers will develop.

For example, a brand’s Facebook Page is becoming a first-stop for brand communities to grow. For technical companies, online user support forums have become the place where brand communities start. In other words, the tools of the social web have made it much easier for brand communities to develop. Smart companies and brands are leveraging them!

Stage 3: Cult Brand

When brand communities grow and get stronger in terms of their integration into loyal customers’ lives, they become cult brands. That means these brands become a part of our culture or at least the culture of a group of people. For cult brands, “cult” means group in a positive way.

Cult brands have succeeded not only in developing strong brand communities but also in building emotional connections between consumers and the brand. Without that underlying emotional connection, cult brands cannot develop.

Because of that emotional connection, consumers look for ways to experience the brand together. The brand often fills a void in their lives and helps satisfy a psychological need. Harley Davidson clubs are the perfect example of loyal members of the “cult” experiencing the brand together and deepening their emotional connection to it.

Stage 4: Relationship Brand

Relationship brands are extremely powerful. They’ve moved beyond the cult brand stage and have developed a large following of loyal customers and vocal brand advocates. Consumers are extremely emotionally connected to relationship brands, and they’ll defend them against naysayers in any situation.

Relationship brands offer a wide variety of branded experiences, so consumers can self-select how they want to engage with the brand. For example, Apple has surrounded consumers with branded products and experiences. The brand has become a vital part of consumers’ lives, so much so that they’re willing to tattoo their bodies with the Apple logo, display Apple logo bumper stickers on their cars, and more!

Stage 5: Brand Phenomenon

A brand becomes a phenomenon when it reaches a completely different stratosphere of popularity and emotional involvement than anyone could imagine. These brands are ingrained in consumers’ everyday lives. Whether you purchase products or services under the brand umbrella or not, you know what the brand promises. In many cases, a brand phenomenon makes its competitors irrelevant in consumers’ minds. There is simply no other option and no need to consider other brands.

Harry Potter is a great example of a brand phenomenon. This is a brand that was built at the hands of consumers and turned into a global phenomenon known by and experienced by people in all demographic segments. In Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Phenomenon, I wrote, “Even if you’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen a Harry Potter movie, the brand’s influence on the world cannot be ignored.” Therein lies the basis of a brand phenomenon — it cannot be ignored.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Building a Brand into a Cultural Phenomenon where you’ll learn about the primary ingredients of a brand phenomenon.

Image: Laura Leavell, David Cintron

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Product Reviews

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 28% of US consumers said they come across product reviews often. Another 46% of respondents said they see product reviews sometimes. 16% said they have seen product reviews once or twice in the past. And just 11% said they have never come across a product review in any format.

Of those who have noticed product reviews, 72% said they have read them on blogs or online news sites. 47% said they have read them in print magazines or newspapers. 45% of respondents said they have seen product reviews in online videos or podcasts. 38% said they have seen product reviews on TV. 12% said they have heard them on the radio. And 12% said they have come across product reviews in other formats.

Impartial and Honest

Only 5% of respondents said they always trust product reviews to be honest and impartial. 35% said they trust product reviews most of the time. 47% said they sometimes trust product reviews. 12% said they do not trust product reviews very often. And 2% said they never trust product reviews to be impartial and honest.

Buying Decisions

58% of consumers said that product reviews have impacted their buying decisions, and another 25% said that product reviews impact their buying decisions often. 17% said that product reviews have never impacted their buying decisions.

You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: Tech 65 Podcaster’s New Gadget from Flickr

What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Ask Your Target Market

Results were collected on May 14 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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According to Microsoft, the products and services that were formerly part of the Windows Live brand family, (for example, Hotmail, SkyDrive, Messenger, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, and Windows Live Mail) are used by over 500 million people every month.

Following are some additional stats about Windows Live products and services from the Microsoft blog post:

• Hotmail: The world’s leading email service with 350 million active users and 105 petabytes of storage
• Messenger: The world’s leading instant messaging service with 300 million active users
• SkyDrive: Over 130 million users with 17 million of those users uploading files every month
• Windows Live Essentials applications: Among the most popular applications in their categories on Windows, including Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker (leading photo management and video editing) as well as Windows Live Mail (second to Microsoft Outlook in mail apps).

The rebranding of Windows Live is Microsoft’s attempt of turning its fragmented product-based strategy to a broader brand-based strategy. It also eliminates some of the disconnect that existed between desktop, mobile, and web-based services. In a video (which you have to download from the Microsoft blog post in order to view it), Microsoft refers to the rebranding initiative as, “Building Windows 8: Cloud services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone aka ‘Windows Live reimagined.’”

Users will use a single Microsoft Account to access all Microsoft products and services through a Windows 8 PC going forward, including services that were formerly a part of Windows Live. Taking the cloud services experience a step further, users will even be able to check billing for services like Xbox Live, Zune, and the Windows 8 app store. Additional services will be added in the future.

Analyzing the Windows Live Rebranding

The real question isn’t whether or not dropping the Windows Live brand is a smart move for Microsoft but rather whether Microsoft is making the right business decisions to be competitive in the cloud services industry. At this point, the Windows brand is likely a detriment more than an asset. When consumers think of cloud services, it’s unlikely that Microsoft or Windows are the names that pop into their heads. As Gavin Clarke of The Register wrote, “It’s classic Microsoft, fretting over how something is perceived internally and externally, rather than simply delivering something that works or is wanted.”

I think Gavin hit the nail on the head with that comment. This rebranding will only work if Microsoft does two things successfully:

1. Creates products and services that consumers want and need and does it better than companies and brands that are already established leaders in the cloud services industry.
2. Repositions the Microsoft and Windows brands so they mean something innovative, modern, and fast-moving in order to “fit” into the cloud services market.

Simply re-imagining Windows Live is unlikely to be enough. For this rebranding to be successful, Microsoft needs to do a lot of research and truly get into consumers’ minds. Furthermore, I’m surprised that Windows 8 is the re-imagined brand name. Tacking a number onto the end of a brand name is an easy way to make it outdated very quickly. That’s a problem Microsoft has had for a very long time. I’d be curious to see some research data related to how that appended number actually helps the brand.

Of course, it could be argued that the brand name “Windows” is antiquated, too. It was cool when Microsoft was the company that led the way in providing great windows-based software, but anyone under the age of 35 has probably never even used a DOS-based application. And for those of us over the age of 35, the name does little more than elicit a yawn. Again, I’d love to see some research that identifies what the Microsoft name means to consumers today. It seems like the move to cloud services would be a fantastic time to rebrand in a totally new and exciting direction rather than just using Windows 8.

What do you think about the Windows 8 brand name? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? I suspect a research study would reveal an overwhelming number of people who are indifferent about the name, and that’s not a good thing for a brand.

Image: Reed Probus

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Third Party Apps

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 79% of respondents said they currently have a Facebook account. Another 3% said they have had one in the past. And 18% don’t use Facebook at all.

Of those who have used Facebook, 26% said they frequently use third party apps such as Farmville or Spotify. Another 25% said they have used these types of apps, but not very often. And 49% have never used third party apps on Facebook.

In-App Purchases

Currently, apps available for use on Facebook are technically free, but users may make purchases within the game or app. 31% of app users said they have made purchases within a Facebook app.

With the new App Center, Facebook will allow some paid apps to run on the site. 11% of Facebook users said they would definitely pay for apps. 37% said they would consider it. And 52% said they definitely would not pay for apps on Facebook.

Facebook App Center

11% of Facebook users said they definitely plan to use the new Facebook App Center when it is released within the next few weeks. 53% said they will consider using the App Center. And 36% said they are not interested at all.

You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: Farmville 91 from Flickr

What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Ask Your Target Market

Results were collected on May 13 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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For a moment, visualize the humble onion. From the surface you can remove layer after layer of the onion, each time getting just a step closer to the core — the essence of the vegetable. Now look at your research results in the same way. At the very core of your findings, there are 4 or 5 key points that you’d like your users to take away from the project. If they remember nothing else, they should remember these.  Those are your key findings — the core of the onion. Are the outer layers interesting as well? Perhaps. But they are not as essential.

Getting to the Core

Our goal is to identify and present a small set of key findings from your online survey project in a way that will stick in our audience’s minds. Here are a couple ideas to help accomplish that.

• Map the results to your objectives. If your original objective for the project was to gather feedback on new product features, then the results precisely related to those features are your key findings.  That’s pretty straightforward.  Similarly if you were testing to see what messages would resonate with your target market, the response to those messages would be your key findings.  Simple, right? But sometimes key findings require a bit more digging.

• Map your results to a SWOT analysis. Here we choose categories — “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Opportunities” and “Threats” — and assign our data points to those categories. This can be done in a spreadsheet or on paper. Now, once you have various data points from your online survey categorized, do you see any patterns? Does this data suggest a recurring theme related to strength of the company, brand or product?  An opportunity, threat, or weakness?  Once you’ve mapped your results into this SWOT framework, you may start to see some patterns. These, then, will help you find your key findings — the core of your research onion.

By the way, SWOT analysis has another key advantage, and that’s context. It’s pretty rare that a single statistic stands alone as a key finding. Knowing that 60% of your respondents prefer feature “X” is good, that’s a data point. Now combine that result with other data to build a key finding. Perhaps 80% of females prefer “X”, and that “X” is twice as popular as the next most popular feature. Combined, that builds a key finding, and you’re getting to the core.

Reaping the harvest of your efforts

People have a lot on their minds, and to some degree, a short attention span. Your job as a researcher is to prune your results down to a form that they can quickly understand, retain and later recall.

Think of it as though you are doing their shopping for them.  You browse the produce aisles of your results, choosing just the right items to highlight the data for their consumption.  But you don’t want to buy too much fresh produce—it will probably just go bad.

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Buying Gifts

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 54% of respondents said they will buy a gift for their mother or other female relative this Mother’s Day. Mothers themselves were just as likely as the overall panel to buy gifts for Mother’s Day. Many stores have been offering Mother’s Day sales or special items for those buying gifts. However, only 20% of consumers who plan to give gifts for Mother’s Day said that these sales and specials have impacted their buying decisions.

Gift Types

So what types of gifts are US consumers buying? 76% said they plan to give cards on Sunday. 45% buy flowers. 20% buy jewelry. 19% buy home items. 14% buy clothing. 13% buy books, movies, or other entertainment. 7% buy technology or gadgets. And 14% are still undecided about their gifts.

Celebrations

Aside from gifts, some Americans might decide to celebrate Mother’s Day in other ways. 38% of survey takers said they don’t celebrate Mother’s Day aside from possibly buying gifts, although those who don’t celebrate were also less likely to buy gifts. 38% said they go out to eat for Mother’s Day. 8% make homemade gifts. 6% host or attend a party. 5% attend another type of event. 3% travel. And 20% celebrate in other ways.

You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: 8” Colorbowls on sale from Flickr

What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Ask Your Target Market

Results were collected on May 10 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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Naturally, pricing strategy is dependent on a variety of factors. You need to cover your costs and make a profit. You also need to make sure the price you set is appropriate given economic considerations and competitor offerings. The final piece of the puzzle is the human element. You need to get into the minds of consumers and determine what price they are willing to pay for your product.

A big part of that decision comes from their awareness of your brand, their experiences with your brand and others on the market, their understanding of your product’s features and benefits, and their emotional connections to your brand and competitors’ brands. Put all of that together and you’ve got the recipe for consumer perception. It’s your job to dive into consumers’ minds and learn what those perceptions are, how they affect consumers’ purchase decisions, how you can massage those perceptions to match your goals, and how to set your prices.

The more you know about the way consumers perceive your brand and your competitors’ brands, the less you’ll have to rely on reactionary, short-term pricing promotions to reach your revenue goals. Instead, you can create the necessary messages and marketing campaigns to consistently and persistently build your brand promise so consumers trust it, depend on it, and become loyal to it.

With that in mind, market research related to pricing shouldn’t be a one-time thing before a product launches. Ongoing monitoring of consumer perceptions is critical to ensure your price is always right, not just on launch day. It’s also important conduct research prior to rolling out any discount promotions to ensure you’re offering the best price discounts to drive an adequate return on your investment. For example, it might seem like a bundled pricing promotion might be a great way to increase per customer unit sales, but research might show you that such a promotion would drive very little interest.

Best case scenario, you can gather both quantitative and qualitative data to better understand consumer emotions, perceptions, and purchase decisions. A single survey or piece of data will never provide the full story and the depth of insight that you need to set prices as effectively as possible. By marrying quantitative data with qualitative insights, you’ll have the complete picture in front of you.

Don’t skip steps in the pricing research process or your ROI will go down. Take a lesson from Netflix, a company that learned the hard way that setting prices requires quantitative data and qualitative insights to ensure the right decisions are made. It might be tempting to raise prices in an effort to boost profits, but the negative backlash from consumers could do more harm than good in terms of negative publicity, lost business, and lost revenue. If you skip any part of the market research process, you’re at risk of setting prices that will hurt sales rather than help sales.

If you missed previous parts of the Pricing Strategies and Brand Value Fundamentals series, you can follow the links below to read them now:

• Pricing Strategies and Brand Value Fundamentals – Part 1
• Pricing Strategies and Brand Value Fundamentals – Part 2
• Pricing Strategies and Brand Value Fundamentals – Part 3

Image: Billy Alexander, Jenny Cestnik

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Making an Effort

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, only 8% of US respondents said they think the government is doing enough to spur job creation. 41% said they think the government is trying but not doing quite enough. And another 41% said they don’t think the government is doing enough at all.

14% of US respondents said they think American businesses are doing enough to create jobs. 40% think businesses are trying but not doing quite enough. And 36% said they don’t think American businesses are doing enough at all.

Supporting Businesses

But there may be some incentive for businesses to try a bit harder to create jobs. 59% of US consumers said they are much more likely to support businesses that create jobs in their community. 35% said they are a bit more likely to support businesses that are creating jobs. And just 7% said they aren’t more likely to support these businesses.

Future Jobs

Only 3% of respondents said they feel very optimistic about the future of job creation within the next two years. 22% said they feel somewhat optimistic. 51% are completely unsure. 17% said they feel pessimistic. And 7% said they feel very pessimistic about the future of job creation.

You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: Jobs Creation 02 from Flickr

What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Ask Your Target Market

Results were collected on May 9 via AYTM’s online survey panel.

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