Brand Equity Market Research: Develop an integrated research program

This is the third eTip! on brand equity market research. The March issue provided an overview of brand equity and how research can be used to improve performance, and the April edition highlighted common objectives and methodology considerations of brand equity market research. This eTip! explores components of an integrated brand equity market research program.

The benefits of researching your product’s brand equity—either as a stand-alone or ongoing study—were explored in the first two issues of this eTip! series. Essentially, understanding what motivates healthcare decision-makers to choose your brand over alternatives helps you make better decisions about your brand and product portfolio.

Yet isolated studies rarely generate the perspective required to sustain a competitive advantage. Market conditions are complex and dynamic. So whether you’re managing a well-established brand or launching a new product, your research program should be ongoing, and it should integrate a series of studies—each addressing a particular component of the market. This holistic approach unifies the brand management loop that includes developing strategic positioning and communication plans, implementing them, evaluating their effectiveness, and refining strategies as the market evolves.

Research models that often dovetail with baseline brand equity studies include:

• Exploratory Research on Clinical Trial Data

Prior to entering the market, qualitative interviews with relevant thought leaders can uncover perceptions related to the results and science of clinical trial data. This exercise is designed to generate a list of findings and issues related to clinical trials that matter most to academic professionals, well-published practitioners, and other recognized thought-leaders. This information can be used to design focused research on brand equity.

• Market Segmentation Study
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Understanding which market segments have the greatest impact on your brand will further sharpen the focus your subsequent brand equity research study. A segmentation study will identify your product’s most viable markets based on a set of pre-defined variables. For example, physicians can be grouped by awareness levels, prescription volumes, attitudes, or prescribing patterns. Segments might include high, medium, and low prescribers of a brand or categorized as early adopters, skeptics, and wait-and-see types. This stage of research will also uncover hot buttons for your key market segments.

• Message Testing

When used in conjunction with brand equity research, message testing can help you maximize the impact of your communication executions. For a brand in the pre-launch stage or being re-positioned, exploratory interviews can help pare down your collection of possible campaigns to those with the most potential. Quantitative research will then identify the most effective message for your desired brand identity and market position. Post-launch, an ongoing timed assessment or tracking study that measures message uptake will help you keep a pulse on the power of your brand message as the market evolves.

• Timed Assessments
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Tracking studies—such as awareness, trial, and usage (ATUs), patient chart, message uptake, and others—provide a series of snapshots about your market. By monitoring a consistent set of variables in regular intervals, you’ll know how your brand’s value is developing in response to advertising and other marketing activity. Timed assessments will warn you when competitive activity is impacting your brand’s equity and will identify threats and growth opportunities for your p