The Problem
A global enterprise technology consultancy (MSP) needed to understand where its brand stood in a competitive landscape dominated by well-established giants. With limited visibility into how senior IT decision-makers perceived the firm, and how that compared to key competitors, our client needed objective benchmark data to inform its marketing and positioning strategy.
The Approach
We developed and fielded a survey-based study to evaluate brand awareness, engagement, and satisfaction across the technology consultancy category:
» Recruited director-level and above IT professionals across seven key industries in the United States and United Kingdom.
» Probed aided awareness and acquisition funnel penetration technology consultancies to establish category benchmarks.
» Included questions on consultancy consideration factors and satisfaction/dissatisfaction drivers to support messaging and positioning efforts.
The Results
Awareness Benchmarks
Established clear awareness benchmarks, confirming a significant gap with category leaders.
Geographic Disparities
Revealed meaningful differences in awareness levels by geography, spotlighting where awareness-building investment was most needed.
Consideration Drivers
Identified the top drivers of consultancy consideration, enabling our client to prioritize its messaging hierarchy accordingly.
Brand Advertising Value
Surfaced a gap between stated selection criteria and actual behavior, indicating that brand advertising has a stronger subconscious influence than buyers acknowledged and validating the strategic importance of continued awareness investment.
Did You Know...
B2B buyers often believe they make vendor decisions on objective criteria like service breadth, industry expertise, past experience. But when awareness levels and selection behavior are measured together, a different story emerges. In B2B markets, the brands that get considered most are almost always the ones heard from most often. Research that captures both stated criteria and actual behavior is what separates what buyers say from what they actually do.
