Tracking changes

Editor's note: Carly Fink is president, head of strategy and research, at New York-based research firm Provoke Insights. 

In today’s saturated marketplace, it is difficult for a brand to be heard. The world is awash in products and services. Private labels are competing for market share. Channels have multiplied exponentially. Media consumption habits have undergone a sea change. 

As a result, tracking brand equity and advertising effectiveness is more crucial than ever. 

Marketers are looking for guidance on how traditional trackers can become more relevant in today’s world, given the following challenges: how consumers are interacting with media and technology; globalization; and big data.

Media consumption. The amount of time spent online has quadrupled in the last 10 years, with total internet usage coming close to the amount of time spent watching TV. Dual-screen or even tri-screen is the new normal. For example, a person often sits on their couch watching TV while typing on their computers and looking at their phone. The average person accesses their phone 96 times a day¹. Not surprisingly, digital usage impacts how a consumer interacts with a brand. The traditional consumer purchase journey has to be reassessed to reflect this online media consumption. No longer is it a simple task to understand what drives awareness, conversion and ultimately longer loyalty. The current brand or ad tracker needs to be analyzed to determine if it reflects the digital behaviors of their consumers and prospects.

Globalization. A brand’s distribution and marketing messages are now more easily accessible across the world, underscoring the need for a unified marketing message. It is vital to understand what resonates across the globe but also assess regional demands. Though a unified brand is essential, there also needs to be a local-specific understanding to build unified ideas. Brands need to take into account individual market nuances, challenges and interpretation into cohesive insights. When it comes to global trackers, separate trackers are often costly and information is slow to capture. Brands are looking for ways to have one global tracker that also takes into account regional differences. 

Big data. With so much information available, it is hard to understand how to interpret all of it and link multiple sources together. Marketers question how trackers fit with their other data sources. 

While brands are so focused on immediate results, trackers provide an outlook of success long-term. Marketers are looking for their tracking initiatives to go the extra mile to help address global initiatives, incorporating additional metrics, and the role technology has in the consumer purchase journey.

To address these concerns when it comes to this type of quantitative research, there are five ways that brand trackers can be more innovative. 

1. Operational flexibility

The first change focuses on how to become a more agile researcher. The No. 1 concern from clients in regard to tracking is that they feel the research is not flexible enough. While flexibility means different things to every marketer, it most often refers to the speed of delivery of results and the ability to change questions based on shifting needs.

Changing survey questions in a tracker should only be done when there is clear communication between teams and a strong rationale for why the questions need to be changed. The goal is only to modify questions if it is essential to the brand. It is recommended to have a kickoff meeting with researchers, marketers and key stakeholders to launch a more flexible tracker that allows the changing of survey questions. Goals of this meeting are to make sure that objectives are aligned and determine what is working (and what’s not) with the current tracker. The meeting should discuss the consumer sales funnel, key trigger points to purchasing the brand and specific shopping behaviors that need to be captured. Often, trackers focus on standard tracking questions vs. understanding the individual needs of a brand. Incorporating what makes a brand unique helps the data become more actionable. Quick weekly meetings are an essential way to make sure that everyone is on board with the status of the project. Each quarter, in response to a quickly evolving digital landscape, the team should discuss what questions need to be continually tracked and if any part of the survey requires tweaking. 

With today’s survey technology, real-time results are an easy way to check the tracker’s status. This lets marketers look at results when needed but there must be a sufficient number of respondents to make decisions that impact communication initiatives and respondents still need to be checked for quality. 

Continual tracking can allow for results to be evaluated at any time throughout the year. This longitudinal methodology is beneficial for brands with significant media budgets or large volumes of transactions. Paired with real-time tracking, continuously fielding results allows for assessment during any given period regardless if it is a week or a full year.

2. Modularity

Wanting research with a smaller price tag and a larger scope is a popular request (and seems like a daunting and unrealistic ask). Creating one tracker for either multiple countries or multiple products or audiences is often a cost-effective solution. However, the key is to make sure the client has realistic expectations. In a modular approach, the tracker needs to be uncomplicated and changes between waves should be minor. Depending on the budget, a way to decrease cost is to limit the number of open-ended questions. 

For example, modularity can be in the form of using one tracker for several countries. If a brand decides to have a multi-country tracker in place, it must use a global synthesis process that incorporates individual market nuances, challenges and local interpretation into cohesive insights. Without these regional changes, results may skew incorrectly.

When it comes to one tracker for global initiatives, having a localization specialist who is also a market researcher is critical. Combining these two (research knowledge and localization) not only ensures work runs smoothly across all countries but also that the research is accurate and takes into account all cultural nuances. This specialist checks that objectives are met and learning is developed with consistency and depth across markets. The process also includes determining and employing survey scales that take into account cultural differences across countries.

The survey is first developed in English with client feedback to make this type of modularity work. Once the wording is approved, the research is then translated into each region’s local language. At this point, any local differences are earmarked to make sure they are accounted for in the analysis phase. To ensure accuracy, it is reviewed by a separate third-party reviewer after translation. When results are out of the field, the localization specialist reviews the data to make sure regional differences are not due to cultural nuances.

3. Modifying the pathway for the digital landscape

As technology advances, the consumer shopping funnel becomes more complex. The traditional shopping behavior has been transformed into a labyrinth of multichannel interactions influencing customer decision processes.

Building a brand that consumers love still includes measuring awareness, emotional association and sales drivers. But brand-building in the digital age also includes tracking how prospects and customers utilize media channels (e.g., search, YouTube, banner ads, TV commercials). It is critical to see how this multichannel behavior of buying impacts brand relevance, experience and visitors’ desire to return to these sites.

The research now needs to break down the decision journey to identify critical points of influence, regardless if they are online or offline. It should show the role of the brand and the competition in these primary areas. Points of influence in the consumer decision journey  include strategic touchpoints, content expectations at these touchpoints, friction points and desired experiences for the customer.

4. Contextualizing tracking (outside information) 

With so much data available, there is more opportunity to connect the dots that the tracker leaves unjoined. Additional information can bring more depth and context to what is happening in the industry. Trackers can help explain the “why” behind the information by also looking at business KPIs, social listening, media data, web and search analytics, industry trends and information featured in press coverage.

For example, if a competitor suddenly had a significant increase in awareness, looking at outside data points can explain the reason behind the change. Did the competition increase ad spend? Did the brand have more press than usual?

5. Correlating outside data

Lastly, when it comes to ad tracking specifically, longitudinal quantitative data can be correlated with ad spend dollars (your brand’s and the competition’s). If marketers have access to the competitor’s media spend, it can be integrated with a tracker.

Using advanced analytics, the difference in media spend can determine if there is any correlation between the difference in awareness, consideration and purchase. Marketers can use this information to determine if their creative and specific media buys are working.

For example, in Q2 a company may have increased its spending on paid search as well as radio. In this scenario, combining media information with tracking results can show that paid search did not correlate to an improvement in brand awareness. However, investment in radio commercials did improve awareness. Results become very actionable to the brand. Now the company’s next steps are to determine if it is using the right targeting or creative for paid search or if perhaps the medium simply does not work. On the other hand, it may want to invest more in radio advertising.

Regardless if any of these innovations are right for a specific brand, the key is to stay in constant communication with their research team so data can be optimized to be as actionable as possible. 

Reference

1 Asurion-sponsored survey by market research firm Solidea Solutions conducted August 18-20, 2019, of 1,998 U.S. smartphone users, compared to an Asurion-sponsored survey conducted by market research company OnePoll between Sept. 11-19, 2017, of 2,000 U.S. adults with a smartphone.