What is the brand image of sphere according to consumers?
Bol describes itself as "the store of us all. But do Dutch and Flemish consumers agree? Does the brand image that bol has of itself match the image of its customers? Who is bol according to the consumer? The web store commissioned Blauw to investigate this.
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Challenge
Bol believes it is important to pay attention to its brand personality. By discovering what the brand image of consumers is, Bol gains more insight into what is going on in the minds of customers and what position it occupies compared to its competitors.
- Does bol have a strong position in the online sector?
- Does bol have clear authenticity as an online store?
- Does the image consumers have of sphere match what the online store wants to achieve?
- How can sphere stand out?
Blauw examined all these questions during two different phases.
Vision
Brand image
For this research it was first of all important to get a feeling for what is going on among the target group of sphere. Blauw investigated this by means of a community survey, consisting of 50 active participants per assignment. These participants were diverse online shoppers from both the Netherlands and Flanders, selected by Blauw in order to conduct a broad inventory. These participants went through various modules, including an archetype assignment and our own Brand Growth Architect assignment. Based on the results, Blauw conducted quantitative research among a larger group of consumers. Phase 2 counted over 1,200 respondents per country region.
The advantage of community research is that within a short period of time knowledge is obtained in different ways about the image and brand personality aspects of a brand and its competitors. A community is also very suitable to follow a target group during a certain period of time and to take stock of a wide range of experiences, opinions and concerns.
Solution
Phase 1: qualitative community research
First, Blauw asked the participants a number of open-ended questions. An important question was: how would you describe bol.com? This was used to find out mainly spontaneous associations that shoppers associate with bol. It also asked how participants would describe bol's competitors. In addition, Blauw investigated which archetypes consumers think of when they think of bol.com. The average neighbor? A caring type? The research modules Brand Growth Architect and Brand Archetype also played an important role in phase 1.
Brand Grow Architect
The Brand Growth Architect is a new method of examining brand personality. On a participant's screen, several validated photo sets appear, depicting men or women. The participant was asked to designate the person they think is a customer of bol.com. In other words, participants choose which person they think best describes or portrays the brand name (bol). Combining the Brand Growth Architect with archetypes gives you insights that you cannot obtain with a standard marketing survey. The combination of these modules thus provides, among other things, a clear picture of how the brand is described as a person and what you need to do to pursue a consistent brand personality.
Emotional connection
Emotional connection represents the bond consumers have with a brand, in this case with bol.com and its competitors. How strongly is the brand name woven into the consumer's mind? What associations do participants associate with bol? Which ones to its competitors? Blauw examined the extent to which the participants themselves believed whether certain brands in the market fit them, and whether they experience a certain attachment to them. A key indicator used by Blauw in measuring Emotional Connection included participants' reaction time. This allowed us to see the extent to which participants felt that sphere (or an association) fit them.
Phase 2: quantitative research
Using the modules from phase 1, sphere gained more insight into what kind of image of the brand exists among consumers. Blauw then deployed the key research modules used in phase 1 through quantitative research. These included the Brand Growth Architect and the archetypes. Respondents in this phase could also indicate why they felt an association or aspect fit the brand or why not. By taking the survey to a wider audience, the results became more reliable and representative of a larger group of consumers who regularly shop online.
Result
What did this research yield for sphere?
Blauw collected all research results and processed them in an effective and well-organized manner. As a result, bol received clear insights about the brand image according to consumers. All insights together then led to concrete action points that bol can take in order to grow the brand. This is how a company like bol ultimately comes closer to the consumer.
These types of brand surveys can give companies confirmation that they are on the right path or, on the contrary, offer interesting insights that brands can use to start differentiating themselves uniquely in the marketplace.
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