What Drives Brand Affinity for B2B Companies? – Marketing Charts
30 Apr 2021

Provoke Insights’ research on B2B companies is featured in Marketing Charts, an online hub for marketing data, graphics, and analysis

The article details the results from Provoke’s recent Brand Equity 2021 survey, which sought to track and project brand drivers for innovation, equity, and affinity for 19 industries including the B2B landscape. 

After surveying 200 B2B professionals, the results on what builds brand affinity are in:

  • Brand trust (23%) and customer service (23%) are the top most important attributes
  • Price (14%), innovation (11%), and product uniqueness (10%) are also, respectively, strong influences of brand affinity

Marketing Charts’ article also reports on other measures from Provoke Insights’ B2B Brand Equity study. For example, for B2B brands that do measure brand equity, the top three measurements used by companies are

  1. Sales revenue (41%)
  2. Qualitative research (23%)
  3. Quantitative research (20%)

As evidenced by Marketing Chart’s new article on B2B branding, B2B marketing is a growing sector of research. As more B2B companies take note of important measures like brand affinity, brand equity, and brand innovation, other B2B companies looking to retain their customers and better understand the industry should take particular note of this research. Download Provoke Insights’ complimentary Brand Equity 2021 report here for newly-published insights on B2B and 18 other industries.

The Advantages of PR Research
29 Apr 2021

Public relations research or PR research is crucial for brands looking to boost innovation and visibility. It’s one of the most versatile methods of research, as it’s relevant to almost any brand looking to stand out. Fittingly, this thought-leadership research positions a brand as a “thought-leader” in their industry. The brand becomes a voice of credibility, innovation, and brand leadership. Brands that undertake this type of research differentiate themselves from the competition and gain a deeper awareness of their industry. They can also attract new audiences.

Thought Leadership & PR Research Can Be Leveraged

Original PR research rather than recycled data sparks high engagement. As a result, journalists are eager to get their hands on these exclusive insights. The data creates valuable content for social media, blogs, emails, and more.

Studies show that marketing content that includes original PR research receives higher engagement, more shares, and greater exposure than content that lacks research.

The metrics and ROI on PR leadership are proven: 

  • 6X more shares than average articles
  • 30X more engagement on social media
  • Uplift in lead generation

So How Do You Create Successful PR Research?

1. Assess the Landscape

Research potential topics beforehand. Often this step is ignored. This is a crucial component to the success of a content marketing research initiative. This phase helps discover trending topics that have high engagement. It also determines — and steers clear of — subjects that have been overused. Pouring over available research can spark unique ideas or new perspectives on a subject.

2. Develop Headlines to Craft the Questionnaire

Headlines need to excite and interest readers. They should focus on the topics discovered during the secondary research process. These headlines cover topics that have yet to be addressed. Good headlines guarantee a fuller, more exciting picture of your industry. When developing headlines, we keep SEO in mind.

3. Write Multiple Stories

Once the survey is closes, and the data is collected, it is crucial to create more than one story from the findings. Storytelling is an art form; it is essential to keep your audience engaged. Often, researchers hyper-focus on the details of the numbers instead of the big picture. It is critical to write the PR research report in a way that makes the readers want more.

Results of the Research

With the help of robust content marketing, public relations research, and thought leadership research, brands can become more visible, credible, and innovative. Market researchers tailor PR research to your specific brand, giving you a unique boost of engagement and credibility.           

Interested in learning more about thought-leadership and content marketing? Check out our other blogs here. 
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Why Millennials Gravitate to New Brands in Online Investing
21 Apr 2021

Carly Fink, president and founder of Provoke Insights, published a new article in the Journal of Business Strategy.

Companies like Fidelity, eTrade, Charles Schwab, Saxo Bank and Vanguard have dominated the do it yourself online trading platforms since the mid-1990s. What made these platforms so popular is twofold: lower cost of commissions and accessibility. In recent years, there has been an influx of new competitors into this space.

Millennial traders are gravitating to more modern platforms on the market like Robinhood, Acorns and Stash. These platforms provide even lower commissions, more functionality and interactivity. As accessibility, ease and no-fee stock trading are no longer differentiators, but rather barriers to entry, brands need to move beyond functionality.

Carly examines how brands need to understand and research what makes a millennial loyal to a financial institution.

The Pros and Cons of Quantitative Research
19 Apr 2021

What is Quantitative Research?

Quantitative research collects a large sample of respondents to survey a representative portion of a population. This type of research, typically conducted via surveys, is often meant to represent the audience you are targeting as a whole statistically. The large sample size required can paint a detailed picture of your projected market as a whole, but the results may lack the personal, more exploratory benefits of qualitative research. Here are some pros and cons of quantitative analysis to keep in mind when deciding if this route is suitable for your current needs.

Pros

Make Projections about Larger Populations

Imagine making significant marketing decisions or product launches on a whim; that can be detrimental to a company. It is essential before making expensive and timely decisions that you have data to back up your choices. Quantitative research can be used to map out a picture of how a population reacts or behaves. From this information, you can make sales forecasts, determine product interest, or even how your prospects will behave.  

Tracking results

Need to understand pre and post behaviors from an ad campaign or a product launch? Or do you want to know how your brand compares to other products or services out there? Quantitative research allows you to compare results from a tracker or even competition statistically.  

Sub-Segments and Comparing Different Cohorts

America is a melting pot of different beliefs, ethnicities, sexualities, and psychographic behaviors. To reach a larger market, brands must adjust their marketing to appeal to various audiences. Since quantitative research collects data among a large population, you can often determine if sub-groups have different opinions or beliefs compared to the population. 

Cons

Results Lack Emotions

As quantitative research focuses on assessing the population as a whole, results are generally number-based. It can be difficult to use surveys to glean individual consumers’ inner thoughts and feelings. You may have been told that sarcasm can fall through the cracks in a text message. When you are simply considering the written word, you miss out on seeing gestures and facial expressions or hearing the tone in a person’s voice.

As a result, survey results will never be able to provide the level of detail into consumer’s emotions that can be achieved through focus groups or in-depth interviews.  

Gathering Responses for a Niche Audience can be Difficult 

Gathering any large sample can be a lengthy, difficult task. The narrower the target audience is for your survey, the longer it can take to find enough people qualified to enter your survey. Quantitative research may not be the best solution for studying such a specialized segment. These cases may be more suited for qualitative methods, like focus groups or interviews, which require much smaller samples.

Errors Everywhere – Do Not Want to Draw Wrong Conclusions 

With free and low-cost survey tools out there, many companies believe they can conduct quantitative research independently. However, it is essential to have a trained market researcher to run this methodology. From leading questions to sample inaccuracies, there are numerous ways that your conclusions may end up telling you the wrong information. While it may be more expensive to hire a professional research company, you know that the data will be accurate.

Gathering a large enough sample can also be time consuming and costly. 

Interested in learning more about the pros and cons of research strategies? Check out our pros/cons series here. 
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Market Research Among Generation Alpha
08 Apr 2021

Generation Alpha is the youngest generation alive. Born between 2011 and 2025, the cohort is steadily growing, with 2.5 million new Gen Alphas born every week. Though they are young, they have a large, ever-growing digital footprint. Market research on Generation Alpha has never been more important. Their slightly sinister nickname, the “Glass Generation,” refers to the screens surrounding them. 

Marketing Behavior Compared to Other Generations:

Generation Alpha is uniquely positioned for generational influence. Brands must understand the trends of this group’s millennial parents, who are currently spending more on their children than ever before. Millennials are the vessels for Generation Alpha’s spending power, which accounts for billions of dollars in annual spending each year. In 2020, 51% of millennial parents said they planned on spending more to keep their kids entertained during COVID-19 restrictions. This number is likely to increase as the pandemic draws on.

At first glance, Generation Alpha’s relationship with the digital world resembles Generation Z’s – but Generation Alpha’s technology use is much more intuitive. Generation Alpha was born in the age of TikTok, internet privacy debates, and meticulous personalization. By the time this cohort reaches age 8, they have likely already surpassed their parents’ techno-fluency

Market Research on Generation Alpha:

Brands looking to target Generation Alpha should look to seamless integration of social media, intuitive consumer communication, implementing AI, and diversity of products. Generation Alpha is not only the most diverse, multicultural generation alive, but they also look for brand diversity. Though they are young, they are aware and involved in social justice issues, like climate change and racial equity. One in 5 children in Generation Alpha have marched or protested about an issue they are passionate about

While research among Millennial parents will allow brands to access this generation for the time being, it will be necessary for brands to be prepared to research this generation as soon as they have purchasing power. When they grow up, Generation Alpha will bring a collection of new values to the world: diversity, creativity, and community. They are educated, deeply connected to their cultures, and looking for brands representing their beliefs, ethics, and values. 

Interested in learning more about the other generations? Check out our series on generational research here. 
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  • Take a look at our research strategies here.

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