Brand Research Can Be Fun
By Levina Kusumadjaja
“What about doing research?” “Ugh.”
That’s how many of my brand strategist friends would respond when I mention the word “research”. Some of my friends dread the research part of brand strategy because they don’t know where to start. Some feel overwhelmed because in their minds, doing research means they have to get at least 150 customers to fill out their survey and conduct maybe 25 1-on-1 interviews with the brand founders and loyal customers. It feels big, heavy, and pressuring.
Have you ever felt that way about research? For a while, I struggled with the idea of brand research too. Because when I think about brand research, I think about statistics and numbers. I think about something academic-related, a difficult task—until I did an accidental brand research for my own business.
When I started doing strategy, I decided to make friends with other strategists. I was hungry to learn and I thought, what better way to do that than to hear stories directly from people who have done strategy? So I actively reached out to the strategists in my community and jumped on calls with them. I would ask them about their journey and struggles. During this time, the word “research” didn’t even cross my mind. I connected with the intention of making friends and learning from their experiences—and that was it.
The fun virtual coffee chats turned out to be an accidental brand research for my brand.
When my Bootcamp partner did brand strategy for my business, we discovered that the people I want to work with are strategists—basically creatives who use a strategic process to solve problems. And because I had spent the past few months before talking to strategists and understanding their pain points, those conversations became super valuable assets for my brand strategy! The recordings of those conversations became our go-to resource in building my brand. I didn’t reach out for research, but spending time with brand strategists to hear their stories helped me understand how I could help them better. The fun virtual coffee chats turned out to be an accidental brand research for my brand.
At the core, brand research can be about talking to people. It doesn’t have to be intimidating and boring.
Now imagine applying this same approach to your client’s situation. Doesn’t that sound a lot more fun than “research”? It essentially just looked like meeting new people, making friends, and listening to their stories. And that’s what brand research really is—because fundamentally it is about talking to people.
A brand research is about talking to people behind the brand and people who encounter the brand (a.k.a. the customers), to figure out who the brand is, who the customers are, and how can the brand serve the customers’ needs.
Through this experience, I realized that doing research for brand strategy doesn’t have to be intimidating and boring. Sure, if you have access to 300 survey results and 30 employee interviews, use them—they are valuable information that can help you understand the brand better. But even if you don’t have access to any of that and all you can reach out to are people in your community and client’s community, you will still be able to get valuable insights from talking to them.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!