Branding research questions pave the way for successful new brand, name and positioning

When a Dallas, TX-based information technology (IT) consulting firm was purchased by Hitachi several years ago, management decided to re-introduce the firm into the marketplace with a new name, brand, and positioning.  Mike Driessen, Executive VP at the firm, and other top execs decided that accurate market research was critical to the endeavor.

“If we hadn’t done the research, we would’ve done what many companies do: gather a bunch of execs in a room and ask, ‘What does the company mean to you, and what do you think it means to customers?’  The problem is, this may or may not resonate with prospects or customers.  There’s tremendous risk and expense when positioning a company, or launching a brand or marketing campaign.”

“Do you have branding research questions on how to discover what’s in the mind of customers and prospects?”

“We couldn’t risk wasting the time and resources it took to re-position the company and brand again and again,” continues Driessen.  “Nor could we risk losing customers in the transition from the old to new company.  It was a practical matter.  If you want a successful, effective market position, you’ve got to find out what’s in the mind of customers and prospects.  Pick the wrong market position and you’re in big trouble.  Fail to pick one, and you’ll acquire an ineffective or dismissible one by default.  It’s far better and more cost effective to position a company, brand, or product correctly from the beginning.”

On Target Research was hired to complete extensive live one-on-one interviews, both in person and on the phone.  Initially, we surveyed the company’s employees to ascertain their view of its perceived strengths.  We then surveyed prospects and customers to discover their needs and wants, and cross tabulated the results with the earlier employee survey to see if the company’s perceived strengths were, indeed, what prospects and customers wanted in the IT consulting marketplace.

“We found the main buttons in the IT consulting market are knowledge and experience and that our core strengths were in alignment with this,” says Driessen, whose firm settled on the name Experio Solutions. “None of our competitors had grabbed this key positioning. On Target Research’s work to help us get into the minds of our customers and prospects really pinpointed – with precision – what our brand should represent.  And the rest fell in place from there.”

“Open ended questioning gave us clear, practical guidance for our branding and positioning.”

“It would’ve been easy for us to pick a name that didn’t resonate with our prospects and customers,” continues Driessen. “But the independent survey process, with open ended questioning gave us clear, practical guidance for our branding and positioning.  We picked a winner based on what the market told us, and haven’t lost a single customer in the transition to the new company.  In this down economy, we’ve continued to do much better than our competitors, who we benchmark ourselves against.”

Driessen plans to do periodic surveying with On Target Research, since he realizes how quickly market conditions and customer “hot buttons” can change.  “We’re constantly trying to keep abreast of what’s needed, new, and going to be needed,” says Driessen.