A powerful approach to consumer insights that fuels brand growth

In the marketing tradition we all work in today, we look for consumer problems to solve, pain points to alleviate or barriers to our brand to overcome. Given our standard of living and the over saturated marketplace, these "problems" are becoming smaller and less significant than they were when marketing was developing (post World War II).  To compensate, we ladder brand benefits up to risible levels (snack chips helping solve world peace). Now, there's a more powerful way to look for growth-inspiring consumer insights. Applying the concepts of Positive Psychology to consumer insights shows wide open innovation and growth opportunities for brands.  As our world gets more complex, consumers are gravitating towards brands with a clear purpose that is linked to helping them live more positive and flourishing lives.    I'll be sharing more of this thinking and how to apply it at my next webinar, "Flourishing Brands," on Wednesday, June 20th, at 3 PM CST. Please forward to people you think could benefit from learning a new, more powerful way to find and articulate insights that can power growth.    Email Alexis Oddson to sign up.

How create a flourishing brand

The new theory of Positive Psychology provides some clues on how to develop a flourishing brand and business.


Positive Psychology has expanded the traditional purview of psychology:  from narrowly focusing on a deficit mentality (i.e., how to solve the problems of the mentally ill) to supporting human flourishing.


In today's traditional marketing mindset, we expect our businesses to grow by solving the problems of our consumers. I believe that this mindset or bias only shows half of the opportunities for growth.


Flourishing, iconic brands that most of us envy help their consumers flourish.


Let me back up.


Flourishing is a construct that is made up of five elements.  Each element is pursued by human beings for its own sake.  Here's my understanding of what they are:

1. Pleasure or enjoyable experiences
2. Accomplishment
3. Positive relationships
4. Inner-directed motivations:
• Being in the zone
• Being engaged in an endeavor that is meaningful (i.e., serving something larger than yourself)

Iconic brands (iPhone, Zappos, Southwest Airlines) help their customers flourish by supporting their endeavors in all of these dimensions.  Let's take Apple for a primary example.

First, their iPhones are an absolute pleasure to use.  They are beautiful objects, the packaging is even gorgeous as well as the chargers, screens, corners, etc.  And, the iPhone connects its users to their entertainment of choice: music, videos, movies, shows, photos.

Second, iPhones help users accomplish so much, particularly with Siri reminding you to take the meet out of the freezer, helping you find the closest gas station, etc.

Third, they foment positive relationships with the easy access to phoning, texting, Facebook, etc.

Four, they are so easy to use and intuitive that the technology does not disrupt the user's flow. 

And last, the iPhone user is engaged in a community of hip, creative, digerati.  

How many of these dimensions of human flourishing does your brand support?  My experience is that looking to advance consumers' strengths and their positive experience in life or at the breakfast table shines a light on brand new marketing and product development opportunities.

I'll be sharing more of this thinking and how to apply it at my next webinar, "Flourishing Brands," on Wednesday, June 20th, at 3 PM CST.

Email alexis.oddson@energyinfuser.com to sign up.

Even with a broken back, I'm more attracted to PASSION than pain!

OK, so I got bucked off a horse about 10 days ago.  And the pain meds might have had something to do with why my last email didn't make too much sense. Even in my condition, I'm more attracted to those health care workers who are helping me figure out how to move my body without doing more damage than to those who keep asking me how bad the pain is on a scale of 1- 10. Most consumers respond the same way to marketing messages.  "Show me what's possible, don't remind me of the problem!!" I have observed that brands that tap consumers' PASSION in a positive, relevant way win. Pampers Village taps the passion parents have for raising happy, healthy babies... and by aligning with that shared passion, Pampers takes the high ground over Huggies.  We use private social networks to understand that passion points that animate consumers' conversations with each other... passion points that your brand can fuel, and that can, in return, fuel your brand's growth. I'll be sharing some best practices of using these Social Energy Networks on Wednesday, May 30th at noon CST. Only 20 participants will be allowed to sign up. Email alexis.oddson@energyinfuser.com to sign up.

An eating occasion ripe for innovation

Consumers have one of three basic orientations towards health and wellness.  Some are oblivious (about 32% - mostly young men), some have good intentions but life interferes with their ability to follow through (45% - primarily moms with kids in the household), and the rest are really into being healthy (20% - mostly empty nesters).  Despite these differences, they all feel the least confident about their after-dinner, before-bed snack. The conflict is between consumers' desire to indulge themselves and their need to sleep soundly.  There is really no good solution, currently. I'll be sharing the results of our most recent Change Energy study on Thursday, May 17th. Only 20 participants will be allowed to sign up. Email alexis.oddson@energyinfuser.com to sign up.

Do you think young adults move home because of the economy?

My son Christian graduates from college a week from tomorrow, but I'm in the minority of parents.  He is NOT moving back in with me.

The majority of parents with "children" 18 - 29 have at least one of those young adults living at home with them.  And brushing the situation off with "well, it's the economy" is superficial.

The parents find it confounding.  Over 60% don't understand this at all.  They agree that when they were young adults, they couldn't wait to separate from their parents.  That they were eager to take life on, make their mark, experience the world.  They don't understand why their kids don't seem to want to separate (even if the can't, shouldn't they at least want to?)

And 75% of them find the whole situation incredibly stressful.  As one mom said to me, "When I tell her that I think she's drinking too much, she tells me it's none of my business - that she's all growth up.  But when there's no milk in the fridge, she complains."  The very definition of stress:  having responsibility without authority.

To learn about how this phenomenon affects household dynamics and product purchase decision making, please send me an email.  kay@energyannex.com.

Sticky Finger Parents

23% of US households have more or one young adult "child."  And over half of those households have one of those kids living at home!!  56% of these households have a 19 - 24 year old living at home.  41% have a 25 - 29 year old living at home. And, that doesn't count those households in which the kids are living on their own with mom and/or dad footing the majority of the bills. We call these parents Sticky Fingers Parents because they're stealing the experience of creating an adult life from their adult children.  Most of them are shocked that their adult kids are still so needy. What are the implications for marketers? For more details, sign up for our next webinar on 4/17 at noon CST.  I'll be introducing this concept more fully. Email alexis.oddson@energyinfuser.com to sign up.  Space is limited.

New survey results: routines separate the healthy from the, well, not so

Most Americans are Health Intenders.  You know, they WANT to be healthier and make better choices, and they intend to make those choices, but life interrupts and they get side-tracked.


This is 45% of all of the people we surveyed.  They tend to be parents with kids under 18 at home.  Interrupted sleep and other priorities (read: "Mom, my book report is due tomorrow.  Do we have any poster board?") derail their best intentions.  


This group is also most likely to get in trouble once they start eating something they've designated as a forbidden food.  They strongly agree that, "Once I start eating one particular food, I'm off to the races."  


Many a healthful intention is wrecked in the DANGER ZONE between dinner and bed.  This is when these Health Intenders want something to help them unwind and be ready to sleep, but their current routine is to start snacking on something that's calling their name from the kitchen.  And, once they start, they find it next to impossible to stop eating that chocolate, or that ice cream, or those chips...


This DANGER ZONE is crying out for a new healthful routine to substitute for the destructive eating routine.  What could your brand offer?

Passion Point Marketing provides a new look at opportunities

Remember Copernicus?  He was the visionary who declared that the sun didn't revolve around the earth.  In fact, it's the other way around.


In the same way, innovation opportunities appear when we look at the marketplace through the consumer's perspective rather than from the manufacturer/marketer perspective.


Looking AT consumers (rather than seeing the world through their eyes) falls short.  This perspective, all too often grounded in assessing pain points, only reveals opportunities for incremental growth.


Seeing the world with the consumer at the center, rather than the brand, illuminates consumers' dreams, intentions and passions.


The game-changing opportunities come from three places:

1. Fueling consumers' passions.  Pampers Village does an awesome job of sharing a passion for raising happy, healthy babies with their consumer audience.  This kind of perspective creates the possibility for creating a platform for sharing this passion, not just creating content that runs on somebody else's platform.
2. Filling the gap between reality and the ideal.  The ideal is a concept like the horizon.  You never actually reach it.  Once you get close, something changes.  Closing the gap, however, is a powerful platform for step-change innovation.
3. Resolving dreams that conflict with each other.  For example, wanting to create wealth and being home most of the time.  Or wanting kids to like their lunch (so they'll eat it) and getting in some of the nutrition they need.  Or even wanting to lose weight and eat chocolate.

Align your ideas with your consumers' passions and their passions will fuel your growth.

Are you selling a product or a routine?

Consumers who are successful in achieving their goals have established beneficial habits, patterns or practices.


According to our recent Change Energy study, what differentiates the "Health Successful" group (20% of pop) from the Intenders (43% of pop) and the No Worries group (32% of pop), is their routines.  Working out and choosing health-promoting foods and beverages are part of their daily habits.  For the other groups, making health-promoting choices was a clear intention (for the Intenders), but life's other demands come first OR they have a more hedonistic, live-for-today kind of approach to life (No Worries).


We've identified places where those healthful routines do not exist. 


More on that tomorrow.  Or if you'd like a private look at the data, email kay@energyannex.com

Get a Reaction

Ever wish you knew in advance what kind of stimulus your consumers will take viral?


Private social networks are like science experiments.  You can add marketing elements and see what kind of reaction you get without the risk of widespread exposure.


Private social networks also allow you to learn what kinds of topics consumers want to talk and share about.  What kinds of discussion topics do they start about fabric softeners?  What types of videos will they upload showing their usage of kitty litter?  What kinds of comments about school lunches set off a groundswell of passion?


If you want to experiment, send me a note at kay@energyannex.com.

Passion trumps pain

Marketers are always on the lookout for pain points and problems they can solve.


The problem is that solving problems only yields incremental growth.  It limits your ideas to making "less squeaky buggy wheels" rather than a car.


Fueling consumers' passions trumps solving what are minor inconveniences or irritations.  Understanding their ideal experience, their goals, their ambitions is a great way to tap into what motivates them.


People move towards hope.


What's the hope that your brand offers?

Using Social Media Research as a Science Experiment

Is your social media research an exercise in math or a social science experiment?


Many researchers are using social media as a listening tool, employing web crawlers that monitor all digital conversations about their brands.  They compile statistics that act as an "early warning system" for developments in the market place.  This is the math-based approach to social media research.


Approaching social media research from a science experiment mindset shows new possibilities.


What happens when you give chronic fatigue sufferers information from a holistic sleep expert?  What discussion topics do heavy gum chewers start themselves?  What are the conversations between moms on the topic of how they negotiate with their kids about what goes into school lunch bags?


We create these kinds of provocative experiments via private social networks that we set up and monitor.  


We add different elements together, create a forum and learn what unfolds.


The idea or topic that really heats things up in the social media lab has enough energy to light things up in the larger marketplace.

Are you using social media as a source innovation?

Lots of companies are monitoring the social media conversations that are occurring about their brands and using social media as a marketing vehicle.


That's way underutilizing an amazing resource.


Social media networks can be built to see (through uploaded videos and photos) how your product is really being used... what situations, what the competitive set is in the usage occasion, how the package really works at home, and how well it fulfills in the moment of use in an in-home setting.


By encouraging participants to start their own discussion topics in a private social network, we can see what's engaging to consumers vs. using social media to understand how consumers react to what's important to marketers.


And what an amazing way to crowd-source ideas!

Getting the most benefit from your online panel

If you're only using your online consumer community to evaluate your best ideas, you're way under-utilizing that resource.

There are two types of research:  evaluative (where you find out how many people like each idea the best or agree with a statement) and generative.  Generative research is the kind that points out opportunities for a brand to increase its relevance and to grow its revenue.

Social networks or panels of consumers are a great way to do generative research!

Here are three ideas for using your panel more effectively:

1. See their usage experience first hand.  Ask consumers to make their own TV show (cooking, cleaning, putting together an outfit, whatever is relevant to your brand), showing you where they are and how they work with your product.
2. See what the consumer considers as your competitive set.  Ask your consumers to upload a photo of all of the things they could have reached for in a given situation.  And then ask them to write about each potential choice:  what works, what doesn't.
3. Get at brand perceptions.  Give consumers a set of images to pick from.  Ask them to pick the image that most makes them feel the way they feel about your brand.  Then ask them to give you three adjectives that describe that picture.

For a download of 51 ideas for how to use your panel more effectively, email us at: kallison@energyinfuser.com.

Do you study your consumers' pain points?

Well, then you're consigned to only incremental growth, if that.


If you want to grow your brand exponentially, study their passion points instead.


If satisfying pain points were the road to success, Motorola's MP3 player would have rocked the world.  Steve Jobs tapped into people's PASSION POINTS with the iPod, something beautiful, sleek, fun to play with and use, and created a phenomenal success.


Which road would you rather travel?


Now, the danger here of course is to get too esoteric.  To try to link your brand of facial tissues to world peace.  


Consumers ain't buying that.


However, we can teach you how to attach your brand to the role it plays in your consumers' passion points.  


Send me an email to find out more.  kay@energyannex.com.

Forget Brand Promise; Focus on Brand Purpose

The problem with the idea of Brand Promise is that it's so self-referential.  It's focused on the BRAND rather than being focused on the consumer.  Brand Promise can also be brand-aggrandizing.  The very notion can trap the brand team into way overstating the brand's importance in their consumers' lives.  Last, I've seen Brand Promise statements that are very static, such as:  "Brand X is THE brand that is the most stylish."


Brand PURPOSE, however, focuses on how the brand helps consumers realize their aspirations and intentions.  It's consumer-centric rather than being brand-referential.  It makes the brand in service to the consumer's intentions, where most marketing is focused on ensnaring consumers and their loyalty in the brand's orbit.  It's ACTION-ORIENTED rather than a passive statement of fact.


Think of it this way.


If your consumer's intention is to lose weight to be more desirable,  more energetic or live longer, their REAL intention is to be happier on some level.  Their intention is multi-dimensional.  There's a practical, tangible dimension (e.g., my blood pressure goes down or I can get into my size 8 jeans).  There's the sensory dimension (e.g., what a smaller, firmer body looks like) and an emotional dimension (e.g., happiness, joy, success, relief, confidence).  The key is to for the brand to satisfy these sensory and emotional dimensions while addressing progress on the practical dimension.  


In other words, the ideal BRAND PURPOSE is to create the sensory experience that triggers happiness while pragmatically showing a path and a plan to losing weight.


So to know your brand's purpose, you must start be uncovering your consumers' intentions.


To learn more about emerging consumer intentions and platforms for brand growth, please attend our webinar at noon CST on 1/18.  Email Alexis.Oddson@energyinfuser.com to sign up.  Space is limited.

What are your consumers' New Year's resolutions?

And are you helping her move closer to them?


Resolutions are the way consumers more overtly state what their intentions really are.  Consumers' decisions are motivated by their aspirations and intentions.  Sure, those intentions are often frustrated.  My dad often says, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."


Rather than shrugging our shoulders, now's the opportunity to align your brand's purpose with your key consumers' intentions and aspirations.  


One common aspiration that's voiced around this time of year is a desire to lose weight and eat more healthfully.  Gyms and yoga studios are jammed this week.  


According to Dr. Robert Maurer, psychologist and author, goals are "totems" for how we really want to feel.  Everybody who wants to lose weight thinks they'll somehow be happier when they're thinner. According to Dr. Maurer, those who happily succeed with their goals are those who find/create ways to feel the desired state WHILE they're working on their goals.


We're starting to hear this more from consumers.  They're looking for healthful foods and beverages that satisfy them sensorially.  Think the beautiful swirl Mio makes when it mixes with clear beverages.  Think the juxtaposition of sweet/tangy pomegranate seeds with bitter arugula.  Or the smell of sweet potatoes roasting.  


So, how is your brand helping your key consumers move closer to their aspirations and dreams?  Don't shrug those dreams off as being unrealistic.  They could be the source of your brand's new growth.


Sign up for our next webinar at which I'll share some more consumer aspirations for 2012.  Please email Alexis.Oddson@energyinfuser.com for more info.  The webinar is scheduled for noon CST on 1/18.

Consumer Motivations in 2012

Based on our soon-to-be-released research, consumers are going to be dealing with the following issues in 2012:


1.  The advent of Dream Deferred Parents.

• As adult-olescents are moving back in with mom and dad, middle aged parents are experiencing a "dream deferred."  Their visions of living happily ever after raising kids are starting to seem like they'll never arrive.
• This is today's child-rearing tragedy.  Today's parents of young adults still have the responsibility for their kids (who else is going to pay the bills if a health crisis or accident occurs?), but they have none of the control (how can they coerce their kids to buy health insurance?)

2.  The demand for foods/beverages that are healthy AND fulfill consumers'  sensory desires.  

• Think frozen dinners with aromatic quinoa, drinks like Mio that enhance boring water in a fun way, and pre-packed salads with a variety of tastes combined (sweet, bitter, salty).
• And there's the exercise corollary: exercise that's enjoyable movement.

Stay tuned for three more over the next week or so.