Consumer Research and Brand Connection

The Importance of Well-Being

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified concerns about well-being and mental health, topics that continue to be of great interest to consumers. This focus on wellness has boosted the self-care market, valuing beauty and hygiene rituals, and promoting cosmetic products for home use.

How to Understand and Connect with the Consumer

Marketing research is essential for identifying consumer expectations. In the context of well-being and self-esteem, many are looking for products that not only meet their functional needs, but also promote belonging and appreciation. Brands that exalt diversity and inclusion can win over consumers who want to associate themselves with values that resonate with their personal beliefs.

Research Tools and Multidisciplinary Approach

Conducting consumer research allows you not only to assess products in sensory and functional aspects, but also to understand the emotions they evoke. Neuroscience techniques, such as facial coding, help identify emotions during product use and measure the resulting emotional balance. Implicit association tests are also useful to go beyond rationalized responses, indicating the relationship between products and emotions such as well-being and self-esteem.

To get to know consumers better, it is important to use a multidisciplinary approach, combining quantitative and qualitative tools, applied neuroscience, multivariate statistics, semiotics, and semantics. This research planning, based on the client's business problem, generates actionable insights that help companies connect more and more with their consumers. Such actions contribute to the understanding of the emotions that products and/or brands arouse, how much well-being they provide, and what emotional claims can be sustained by them.

Neuroscience techniques can be added to understand emotional responses during interaction with products, or the perception of a brand (in its communication or packaging, for example). The approaches of facial coding and implicit association are two examples among several neuroscience techniques applied to consumer research.

Identifying Emotions and Positive Impact: An ALS Case

Facial coding consists of examining consumers' facial expressions to identify their emotional reactions to various marketing stimuli, such as advertisements or products.

An ALS study with cancer patients showed that after a make-up workshop, the subjects' emotional state improved significantly, highlighting the potential of make-up to boost self-esteem and well-being.

An approach like the one applied in the study allows companies to assess the emotional response to their campaigns and products and adjust their strategies to better connect with the public.

Neuroscience Techniques: Implicit Association Tests and Facial Coding

Implicit association tests are valuable tools for going beyond conscious consumer responses. They can reveal, for example, the connection between a fragrance and the feeling of well-being, or between the use of a product and the increase in self-esteem. These tests also help to identify which stimuli, such as concepts, advertisements or packaging, best communicate a brand's values.

Among the various neuroscience techniques applied to consumer research, facial coding and implicit association enable a deeper and more accurate understanding of consumers' motivations and emotions, helping companies to develop more effective and personalized marketing campaigns.

Market Opportunities and ALS Solutions

ALS uses diverse and integrated methodologies, quantitative and qualitative tools, multivariate statistics, applied neuroscience, semiotic and semantic analysis. All of these tools can be used to achieve market awareness, through:

• Exploratory Research: Used to investigate consumer needs, language, habits and behavior; understand processes and dynamics of purchasing and use of distinctive attitudinal attributes.
• Habits and Attitudes: Allows you to know the market, map brands, raise needs and opportunities (white spaces), aiming at defining business strategies.
• Attitudinal Segmentation: Helps to understand the different groups of consumers and their peculiarities, aiming to develop stratified communication and positioning strategies.
• Conjoint: A technique applied to assess which product characteristics define consumer preference, to guide development.
• Brand Stretch: The approach is used to survey and evaluate possible line extension paths for brands, aiming at innovation and portfolio renewal and future product and service developments.
• Line Optimization: The technique looks for the best combination of products or variants, aiming for the greatest coverage of the potential public and the least line complexity.

Architecture and Brand Positioning: Techniques Adopted at ALS

• Exploratory: Identifies which are the relevant and differentiating attributes for consumers and which are the unmet needs.
• Brand Image Positioning: Assesses the positioning received for all brands in the market and opportunities for positioning and launch (white spaces).
• Drivers: Identifies which attributes truly differentiate a brand, as opposed to those that are fundamental but category-defining in defining the brand's architecture.

Concept and Product Testing

Concept and product tests are essential to assess the potential of a new product, how it is assimilated, considering the perceptions, sensations, needs and desires of consumers. By gathering consumer reviews, it seeks to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the product, as well as necessary adjustments. At ALS, studies are conducted that assess:

• Consumers' perception of products and concepts;
• Sensory guiding of consumers' preference;
• Confirmation of sensory claims.

Create Bonds with Your Consumers: ALS is Your Ally

Connecting with consumers is vital for brands, as this not only ensures that products meet the public's expectations and needs, but also strengthens the bond with the brand, fostering loyalty and satisfaction, thus creating a lasting and meaningful relationship.

Talk to ALS experts and learn more: beauty.usa@alsglobal.com