Squeezing out the real poop on digestive health
All-Bran & Kellogg
Conversations about regularity and digestive health just don’t, shall we say, flow easily.
So this was the ingoing challenge when the All-Bran team at Kellogg wanted to better connect with consumers’ needs and positively differentiate its brand in the landscape.
We first got a feel for the landscape via a quantitative segmentation, leveraging the anonymity of the online format. We then helped consumers communicate with a very sensitive, in-depth ethnographic immersion that followed consumers hourly and daily to understand what and when they ate and why they made the choices they did.
We found that even among those most concerned about digestive health, taking care of it often ends up at the bottom of the “to-do” list (pun intended). Our work helped All-Bran identify its ideal target consumer, as well as key messages and principles for best communicating with them.
Getting smart about smart phones
Comedy Central & Spike
With smart phone and tablet usage moving faster than an Angry Bird in a slingshot, all the media world is in a scramble to figure out the best ways to use mobile technology to extend their brands. MTVN Entertainment Group saw particular potential for Comedy Central and Spike, and commissioned Insight to make them experts on smart phone users. That we did.
Through an innovative research design that included depriving self-described “tech-geeks”
of their beloved smart phones (gasp!), we uncovered not only behavior patterns but also the psychological needs that compel people to check their Facebook updates and forward the latest Colbert quip. We found that the joy and pain of “always on” connectivity had clear implications for all aspects of media consumption.
Our segmentation and consumer profiles gave the MTVN team clear direction for media development, as well as ways to monetize mobile content in partnership with advertisers.
Contributing to the cultural zeitgeist
Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center
When Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop collectively sought our expertise, we behaved a bit like Cookie Monster in the presence of a snickerdoodle, and jumped at the chance. Common Sense exists to provide trustworthy information about media and technology to kids and families. And the Cooney Center aims to support digital learning tools for kids. Needless to say, we feel quite aligned with their work.
Together we embarked on a study to understand parents’ and teachers’ digital media knowledge and attitudes, providing concrete recommendations to policy makers, digital technology creators, and educators. Our study rocked the conference circuit and helped shape conversations moving forward. Updates have helped to keep current in terms of the technology landscape. So kids can live appily ever after.
Defining creativity, one country at a time
Crayola
Crayola came to us with its innovation doors wide open. A creative juggernaut already, they wanted to shake up the way they think about product development, and understand how to translate their US success to markets around the world.
A chance to globetrot and play? We’re so there. We’ve been partnering with Crayola to dig deeply into the lives of kids across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. We watch kids play, we raid their toy closets, we talk to their parents, and then we validate our findings in each country with a comprehensive survey. Our strategic recommendations have helped Crayola develop highly refined product and marketing strategies and increase momentum in each of these global markets.
Why shouldn’t kids around the world equally enjoy Burnt Sienna and Tickle Me Pink?
Extending a spotless reputation
Electrolux
Despite its retro-sounding name, Electrolux has always been an innovator in the vacuum cleaner category. They sought our guidance as they created a portfolio of products to align with their target segment in France.
French consumers told us they don’t think about vacuum cleaners at all, but we managed to extract a lot of dirt out of them anyway! We looked at their relationship to the category and related brands, as well as the decision process. To help Electrolux set priorities, we used conjoint analysis to pinpoint the exact impact each feature has on purchases.
Our strategic and tactical implications informed positioning as well as messaging and product development, all of which will help Electrolux really clean up in France!
Playing well abroad
Hasbro
Ah, Baby Alive, adorable expert at peeing and pooping, among other talents. She is the top baby doll in the US, and Hasbro came to us to help translate that success abroad, starting with Europe and Latin America.
Passports in hand, we designed what is perhaps our most adorable study to date. Through qualitative focus groups, in-home play dates, online doll diaries, and shop-alongs, we uncovered what drives girls’ and moms’ allegiance to baby doll brands in each market, and also garnered detailed perceptions of Baby Alive.
We delivered Hasbro a unique brand hook for each market, a clear understanding of which dolls would work best, and insights for retail. In sum, we provided an international strategy to go goo-goo ga-ga over!
New era, new journeys
Lonely Planet
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket, and a sense of adventure.
While this may have been the mantra of Lonely Planet thirty years ago, the brand has evolved a great deal since then. Although it maintains its independent spirit, the brand now covers much more than travel on the cheap, and extends its reach beyond books to TV, mobile, and the Web.
With the goal of pleasing global loyalists as well as winning share among US travelers, our ongoing research for Lonely Planet has delved into travelers’ perceptions of the brand and their travel information needs. Varied methods included focus groups, map-a-longs, mid-trip interviews, and international tourist tag-a-longs.
Our getting lost with travelers has really helped Lonely Planet find its way. The work has informed the brand portfolio across media platforms, including product lines, content development, marketing, and merchandising.
Painting the world orange
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon and Insight kind of grew up together. We started working with Nick when they were just a little splat, testing pilots for favorites like The Rugrats, Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Fairly OddParents, iCarly, Drake & Josh, and the ever-porous SpongeBob SquarePants.
As Nick grew from a beloved TV network to a family entertainment behemoth, our projects together became increasingly strategic, tackling topics like gaming, consumer product needs, sibling relationships, social media, and the gigundo, ongoing task of building their united, multi-platform brand, ensuring that each sub-brand has its place in the family, and is headed in the best direction.
We’re very proud of this collaboration, and look forward to an animated future together.
Helping a breakthrough idea click
Nokia
Sometimes consumers don’t know what they really want. This was the case in the early 2000s, when Nokia came to us to assess consumer appetite for putting a digital camera into a mobile phone. Respondents were decidedly against the idea. “I already have a camera, and I already have a phone,” they said.” I don’t need them both together. That’s silly.” Silly!
After digging deeper into consumer needs and behaviors, we recommended the exact opposite to Nokia. Full steam ahead for camera phones! Unbeknownst to consumers, their camera use had changed since the proliferation of digital. Unlike film shots, digital photos were fulfilling the same instant communication needs as texting and calling.
The combo made perfect sense. And the rest is techno-history.
Simple multiplatform is not an oxymoron!
Real Simple
Becoming a multimedia go-to source for women is anything but simple. Yet that is the task the Real Simple team undertook, fueled by our research.
Step one was understanding women’s needs throughout the day, and the platforms and information sources they currently use and trust. Our not-so-simple process involved qualitative and quantitative explorations on multiple platforms, to catch the various aspects of women’s complicated daily lives and distill them into a compelling and differentiated strategy for Real Simple. Our work helped map different types of content on different platforms to archetypes of women who were craving them.
This new authority on women’s needs proved to be quite a boon for the Ad Sales team, and also provided inspiration to writers, editors, and designers.
A promising shot for Cyber-shot
Sony
Synonymous for state-of-the-art, quality electronics, Sony came to us to help them innovate in the digital camera category.
Through in-home Power Forums with forward-thinking digital camera enthusiasts, as well as a quantitative survey, we helped Sony develop a new way of thinking about the digital imaging category. We delved into not only how people were currently using digital technology, but also why, and any frustrations along the way, leading to fresh ideas to meet consumers’ needs.
Our work informed the ideal product offering for Sony’s digital cameras and services. Most importantly, our research helped Sony anticipate major shifts in digital imaging trends, giving them the vision to help shape today’s snap-happy culture.
Lip smacking digital strategies
Sony BMG Music Entertainment & Napster
When Sony BMG Music Entertainment purchased Napster, they were purchasing more than a file-sharing service – they were aligning themselves with a renegade brand known for its daring innovation. They wanted to capitalize on this opportunity with new products, but lacked direction for which direction to move.
In Innovation Labs with tech-savvy consumers, we took a bunch of “wouldn’t it be cool?” ideas and super-coolified them. And then group discussions and a survey among regular ole consumers helped us understand which ideas held the best potential in the general marketplace.
Sony BMG was left not only with a clear direction for moving forward, but also the features and functions necessary to make those products a hit, and the inspiration for future product invention.
Scholastic
Want to know more? Contact us: info@insightstrategygroup.com
Sprout
Want to know more? Contact us: info@insightstrategygroup.com