A case study on how agencies can optimize new campaigns through customer profiles.

The goal of any brand audit is straightforward: gaining insight into the competitive environment of a brand’s industry. These audits are most vital when it comes to investing in new campaigns. Internal audits are a strategic activity which enable agencies to accurately develop campaigns which will ensure customer satisfaction.

However, brand audits require a precise methodology to generate actionable information regarding:

• Interests, needs, and lifestyle of target segments
• Issues most important and relevant to the brand
• Brand image and campaign ROI

This article will outline the processes implemented by a Digimind client in generating consumer insights on one of their top customers in order to successfully develop new campaigns.

The Business Challenge

The agency’s client, an international beer brand, requested a new marketing campaign aimed at positioning brand image in a way that created an association between the brand and music fans. The brand had already focused on sponsorships and campaigns related to music culture, sponsoring events like concerts and rock festivals, tattoo events, and street art festivals.

The request originated from a preliminary quantitative analysis which showed a highly polarized brand perception between highly enthusiastic fans and consumers who strongly disliked the brand. From this data, the brand defined the following business challenge:

Generate consumer insights by intercepting and profiling public opinion and interest in order to support campaigns relating to the newly defined market positioning.

The Project

To meet their client’s needs, our customer employed Digimind Social to easily compile brand mentions into consumer segments categorized by interests, lifestyle, brand values, and business opportunities.

To make this segmentation more feasible, the agency focused their attention on:

• Volume of product mentions and their associated sentiment, further segmented by demographics and by social media channel
• Themes associated with brand image and the success of previous campaigns and sponsorships
• Commonly used Instagram hashtags among customers and associated consumption patterns

With these guidelines in mind, the agency created 4 highly delineated profiles of the consumer population.

The Solution

The brand audit revealed 4 primary segments among the current consumer audience:

• Students: characterized by habitual product consumption in the evenings and tendency to attend events with groups of friends
• Fan of Rock and Metal Music: characterized by product consumption during concerts and conventions; additionally marked by the largest volume of brand ambassadors
• Families: characterized by product consumption on holidays and during televised sports events
• Music Festival Attendees: characterized by product consumption during music events

The audit also revealed that all of these segments, with the exception of the family category, valued the brand for its “underground” and “rock” brand image - a success of the repositioning project.

The Results

Based on the data highlighted by the brand audit, the beer brand decided to forgo the placement project to reinforce the current brand image with campaigns targeted at these segments. As such, our customer adjustment the their client’s campaign plans in order to remain relevant to the interests of the target audience, which lead their client to:

• Strengthen and improve community engagement and loyalty
• Optimally involve brand ambassadors
• Align marketing investments with the needs of the target market.

The Best Practices

Validate Business Actions with Profiled Data

The success of a campaign is defined by how closely aligned it is with the interests of the target market. Owned data insights must be supported with analysis of brand related social media conversation.

Advise and Execute

The best method for an agency to communicate its value and stand out among competitors is to act as both a consultant and a competent campaign manager. Our client followed up on their positioning proposal by proactively adapting to consumer preferences revealed through the brand audit.