Global Concept Optimization Study Clearly Highlights Winning Positioning
Challenge:
A global beverage company conducted a quantitative concept screen with multiple new ideas and one idea clearly rose to the top. The brand team had three different ‘angles’ they were looking at to position the top idea. They needed in depth feedback from four markets around the globe to help optimize the idea prior to further volumetric analytics. And they needed this done quickly.
Approach:
Upwords custom designed a concept optimization online discussion board to run over 3 days consecutively across the four global markets. The Upwords team moderated the English-speaking markets and partnered with our multi-lingual network for the non-English markets.
Impact:
The client hoped the research would help them narrow from three to two concepts which would then be quantitatively tested. The online qualitative research provided such clear, actionable results that the client felt confident enough to forego planned quantitative testing altogether, resulting in considerable cost and time savings. Our research also led them to a very clear optimized concept with an understanding of the key design and communication principles necessary for success.
Not-For-Profit Healthcare Patient Study Guides Strategic Plan; Wins Global Recognition
Challenge:
Crohns & Colitis Canada approached Upwords to help understand patient experiences from diagnosis through to various stages of living with these diseases. The study needed to help the client empathize with ‘A Day in the Life’ of the patients. The client also needed to understand the emotional and informational journeys patients experience throughout their illnesses. The overall goal was the better inform appropriate support messaging and collateral resources.
Approach:
Upwords initiated a 10-day mini online community with 20 patients. Patients spanned various ages, levels of severity and years since diagnosis. Participants completed various highly engaging activities including private journaling tasks that empowered them to have a voice. This community flourished with many of them asking to remain in contact with each other after the project ended.
Impact:
The research helped to validate the direction of some initiatives underway and helped uncover new meaningful opportunities, which resulted in impactful tools for new patients. Upwords uncovered patients’ needs for new kinds of information, empowerment and support along with a framework that helped the organization see what they should start, stop and continue doing. In addition, Upwords’ insights helped inform the foundations five-year strategic plan.
Upwords’ founder and Chief Insights Officer, Layla Shea was recognized with both an international research award as well as an award recognizing research excellence within Canada for this project.
In-Home Ethnographic Research Brings ‘Segments’ To Life As Real People
Challenge:
A company in a newly emerging and quickly evolving industry had a quantitative segmentation done to help guide new product development. They then wanted to more deeply understand the segments as ‘humans’ so that they could better empathize with their attitudes, beliefs and habits with the goal of designing products that would meet their needs.
Approach:
Upwords designed an ethnographic in-home study in key markets across the country with members of each of the predominant segments. The research was designed to provide real life context and highlight the similarities and differences between how people represented the segments.
Impact:
Upwords delivered in-depth summaries of each segment to be used along-side the quantitative data to add colour and context to the data. An infographic was developed for each segment to help highlight the key areas of difference and focus. And a professionally shot and edited short video of each segment brought them to life for important stakeholders. These videos enabled innovation team members to more deeply empathize with their ‘targets’ as the humans they are, developing products that would better meet the unique needs of each segment.
Mobile Online Qualitative Helps Retail Company Refocus Efforts with Key Segments
Challenge:
M&M Meat Shops, a national retail chain selling high quality frozen prepared meals had a desire to better understand and increase relevance with their target markets, thus increasing shopping frequency.
Approach:
To start, M&M Meat Shops commissioned a quantitative segmentation study that identified top attitudinal drivers for key targets. Following this, Upwords was brought in to conduct a qualitative deep dive on needs, behavours, beliefs and perceptions around the brand across segments. We essentially needed to see the segments as ‘humans’.
A multi-phases, iterative qualitative research design provided three levels of learning:
- Online discussion board provided understanding of the category and brand experiences and perceptions,
- Mobile-enabled shopping assignment captured in-the-moment insights as target consumers actually shopped in the stores, and
- Mobile-enabled product trial assignment provided in-the-moment feedback on the preparation and enjoyment of the food that participants had purchased (or considered purchasing) on their trip, as well as post-shopping perceptions of the brand. Family reactions were captured in addition to the main decision-maker.
Impact:
Upwords insights provided clarity around the perceptions that were preventing shoppers from more frequent visits and highlighted winning differentiators for the brand. This research helped pave the way for a complete brand repositioning, with more emphasis in-store on sensory elements of the shopping experience and even a tweak to the brand name (from M&M Meat Shops to M&M Food Market) to better reflect the new way forward.