Focus on the feedback
It’s important to take a pulse on your branding and marketing efforts, but how often do you poll the end-user? No, we don’t mean tallying your YouTube views. Shares, likes, and unique visitors don’t count either. Rather, we’re talking a combination of qualitative and quantitative feedback; the kind of descriptive data you might get from a focus group that asks about consumers’ emotions, feelings, and egos. On its own, this qualitative data might not hold its own merit, but when paired with the “hard facts,” you’re in possession of irrefutable data that set the framework for a compelling marketing initiative.
It’s crucial to involve consumer opinions in your marketing plan, but for an individual brand, getting in front of a focus group isn’t always a practical or viable route. Factor in consumer habits that seem to change as frequently as Reddit’s homepage, and it’s easy to understand why some brands grapple with the question, “What do our customers want?”
That’s why we have launched a new initiative to collect real-life, qualitative consumer feedback: to help drive more strategic, impactful marketing decisions for our clients in the outdoor recreation and tourism industries.
We spent the winter building a robust community of outdoor recreation participants and recently tapped into a segmented portion of this group, surveying 183 skiers and snowboarders (from “occasional” to “frequent” participants) about specific consumer habits. We asked where they go to consume media, what kind of content inspires them, how content affects their perception of a brand, and other relevant media topics that can offer rich insight for building a better marketing and strategy road map.
As we analyze their feedback, we wanted to share a few AH-HA moments that we've gleaned from our initial study:
- Nearly 60% of participants reported watching a skippable video ad the whole way through, despite having the option of bypassing it.
- Over 50% of those surveyed reported seeing marketing content that has improved their perception of a brand; yet 24% of the survey group has reported seeing marketing content that has decreased their perception of a brand.
- Participants categorized the most successful content types into easy-to-digest content or information-based video content. Interestingly, the highest-rated content was news or documentary videos, with email newsletters sitting in last place.
- Over two-thirds of participants claim to tell the difference between marketing content and non-branded content.
We’ll be analyzing the remaining feedback in the coming weeks and will publish a full white paper when it’s ripe to share in June 2017. In the meantime, be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can be the first to know when it’s live.
