Understanding Brand Platforms and Target Audiences

Challenge

Helping a leading car manufacturer gain a deeper understanding of potential brand platforms to develop a marketing strategy that drives brand affinity and growth.

One of the world’s top automotive companies came to us looking to explore the degree to which consumers connect to a series of brand platforms, each underpinned by a fundamental human truth. The key was to uncover not only which human truth resonated most with people (and the relationship they have with their vehicles) but to gauge which platform best aligned with the essence of the brand.

Approach

Our approach began with a pre task assignment exploring who the audience were as people, the context of their lives, and their relationship with their car. This provided us with the base knowledge needed to fully understand their response to the potential brand platforms. This was then followed by a series of focus groups to deeply explore consumer reaction to each platform (and human truth), exploring key metrics such as: relevance, distinctiveness/credibility, and brand fit.

Outcome

Through this work our client gained a rich understanding of their audience, including nuances amongst several key segments, as well as a thorough description of which platform elements were resonating most and why, to inform future strategy.