The Problem
A performance footwear and clothing line was ready to move into a more mainstream market. As they geared up to launch a multi-channel advertising and marketing campaign, they wanted to not just measure the overall efficacy of the campaign but whether or not certain approaches would be more or less valuable in driving brand awareness.
The Approach
We designed a two-phased survey-based research project that would allow our client to not just measure if their efforts lead to material brand awareness improvements but also if certain efforts were especially effective.
Dual Market Set Up
Upon learning that our client was executing their campaign differently across two markets, we set out to survey relevant individuals in those markets. We held recruitment criteria steady so we could measure each market separately and compare if awareness changes improved more or less in any given market.
Multi-Phased Awareness Measurement
We fielded the study in two phases. Phase one ran just before the campaign went live across both markets. Phase two ran just as the campaigns were ending. We measured brand awareness of several category brands, including our client’s brand, in both phases to objectively measure brand awareness shifts across both markets.
Marketing Funnel Penetration
We also included questions to understand how far down the purchase funnel customers were for each brand. In particular, we gauged not just awareness but also familiarity, purchase recency, and likelihood to consider. In doing so, we knew we could use the study to see if the campaigns were able to move consumers down the funnel in one or both markets.
The Results
Pre & Post Awareness Benchmarks
Measuring brand awareness in both markets across two phases afforded our client a clean read on how awareness changed based on the different campaign executions. In particular, they were able to measure a statistically significant improvement in the market with the more robust activation while only a directional improvement in the market with the limited approach.
As a whole, it validated the more robust effort and ad budget used in the better-performing market and helped the marketing team continue to make this recommendation in upcoming plans.
Competitive Behavior
Additionally, because we made a point to measure awareness levels for other key brands, we also uncovered unexpected brand awareness improvements for a smaller category player. This enabled our client to explore and uncover unknown in-market activities leading to these competitive evolutions.
Did You Know...
Brand awareness studies are an excellent way to not just see how your brand is performing but also competitive brands. They can be “canary in the coal mine” tools to identify competitive behavior before it materially impacts sales performance.
