Recently, some brand managers asked what I thought was the best way to test brand positionings. Over these many years, I have found that the best way is qualitatively, usually in mini focus groups (6 participants per group). We conduct enough mini-groups with qualified audience members until we feel confident with the findings.
How do we know the winning idea is right? When one group after the next leads us in the same direction, we know we're on to something. Also, in groups, participants can explain what works and what doesn't and why. And, most of all, we know it's right because it feels right. It makes sense, it's energizing, and all aspects of the brand naturally fall into place. It's exhilarating when suddenly you see participants start to build on an idea and make it their own. Then, you know.
First, let's establish that the positioning idea we are formulating already exists; we just haven't found it. You wouldn't force an artificial consistency on a brand. Authenticity is what gives a brand (or a person for that matter) its magnetic virtue. To uncover this truth, we use what we call positioning concepts, each of which covers a point of interest about the brand. Examining consumers' reactions to these points of interest coupled with in-depth discussion and deep listening leads us to a blinding glimpse of the obvious. It's an invigorating idea that's always been there and serves as the driving force for all the supporting points.
The concepts we use are a means to get our audiences talking and lead us in the right direction. Through a real-time, relaxed, and honest conversation via qualitative, we can work with participants to find the "emotional pay dirt." By being face to face with consumers, we can make sure participants focus on the general idea and not get hung up on the writing of the statement or a short phrase. With focus groups and in-depth interviews, we can detect subtle reactions and pick up on the softer remarks that often lead to something exciting. Once we've found a promising idea, the qualitative sessions allow us to zoom in closer and work with consumers to explore how that idea might come alive. We can probe how the idea might take shape. How should it be expressed? Where and how would you expect to see it, hear it, experience it?
Conversely, testing positioning concepts quantitatively becomes a discrete choice exercise wherein respondents choose the best of a group of statements in a survey. None of the statements is ever the absolute best direction, but because it's quantitative, there's no chance to find "the ideas in-between" that would get us to "pay dirt." In a quantitative survey, people often "satisfice" the study and skim through the concepts, neither really reading the statement nor fully appreciating what we're trying to express. So much of positioning and communication is about subtleties and nuance, which we cannot express in a rigid quant survey. As Einstein said, "everything that counts cannot be counted."
With all that said, quantitative has its place and can be useful for testing aspects of the positioning after the qualitative. Quantitative can yield insight that substantiates the positioning that we divined from the qualitative, but it is not the optimal methodology for locating that exactly right idea.
The following is a piece we give to clients when testing positioning concepts. Perhaps you'll find it useful.
EXPLANATION OF POSITIONING CONCEPTS
The purpose of positioning concepts is to stimulate thinking and elicit discussion to determine what aspects of a brand spark interest. Each concept, which consists of a couple of sentences, covers an idea that could potentially be the basis for the brand's positioning. Sometimes we develop more than one concept for the same idea since one expression can be more effective.
We are not looking for clever phrases or slogans. Instead, we are just exploring general ideas to find the "emotional pay dirt." It's essential to cover all the possible directions; however, we don't labor too much on writing the perfect sequence of words since consumers invariably tell us that what we thought was so great is not entirely on target.
Sometimes we might "stretch" an idea a little bit to see how it plays. If it is wildly successful then, even if it's not deliverable now, the client might want to "swim up to" that direction. Positioning is more than "what is." It is about "what could be." In essence, each concept is a piece of the brand story. We hand these over to consumers to let them reassemble pieces of the brand story in a meaningful way. Invariably, we find that some parts (concepts) are a turn-off, others hold no strong interest, and some are close to hitting the mark. We work with participants on the modifications to the more potent ideas that will take us to the right positioning.
Testing positioning concepts is as much - if not more - a generative as it is an evaluative exercise. We never expect any single idea to be the definitive answer, but the concepts can lead us to that blinding glimpse of the obvious.