Overview

The use of data and analytics in marketing and advertising has increased dramatically over the past few years as technology becomes more ingrained in our everyday life.

This provides marketers the chance to gain insightful information about their audience, product, or competition and make more informed business decisions. This information—or market research—is essential to building long-term success for your brand because it reveals the wants and needs of your target audience.

Before Screenflair—a new smartphone accessory company—launched in the fall of 2017, it asked HenkinSchultz to conduct in-depth market research that would help reveal the target consumer and how to best reach them.

Challenge

Screenflair is a new line of smartphone screen protectors that have fun and stylish designs on them. With an innovative and patented manufacturing process, Screenflair created a one-of-a-kind screen protector unlike anything else on the market.

Wanting to better understand the target market for this product, Screenflair asked HenkinSchultz to conduct in-person focus groups that would give the accessory company beneficial product and marketing information.

The agency gathered its brand strategy team to plan the focus groups that would uncover this key information for Screenflair.

Solution

Having worked with Screenflair on developing the product for months, the HenkinSchultz team had a good understanding of what the client wanted to achieve in this research.

What Screenflair wanted most was to learn what consumers thought about the product, price, and ease of use, as well as receive in-depth opinions from different demographic segments.

The first step in uncovering this information was to recruit participants for the focus group. HenkinSchultz used social media ads–and the promise of a gift card—to find and screen 14 total participants for two focus group sessions held at the agency’s offices.

From there, the HenkinSchultz team developed an agenda that included the initial welcome, introductions, an opening icebreaker to make participants feel more comfortable, and a list of questions the client wanted more insight on.

The main goal of each focus group was to engage the participants in a healthy discussion and make them feel comfortable giving honest feedback. Matt Entringer, Director of Brand Strategy, served as moderator for both focus groups and said creating a quality discussion is the most important part.

To begin, participants were prompted with questions on their last mobile accessory purchase, what influences their shopping behavior, the product samples handed out, and how easy the screen protectors were to apply.

Once it asked the initial questions, the agency let the participants take over—only following up occasionally to clarify feedback or balance out the conversation. The focus groups had interesting conversations on each topic, delivering insightful feedback (both positive and negative) that contributed to the success of the product later.

After an in-depth conversation on a variety of topics, participants were then taken to a nearby room where more than 150 different screen protector designs were laid out on a table.

The groups were asked what screen protectors appealed most to them and if there were any designs they would like to see added to the collection. This conversation revealed important information, including which designs to feature on the website, social media, and advertising.

The hour-long focus groups concluded with gathering final thoughts and thanking participants for their time with gift cards. The agency also gave the group its contact information in case they thought of any additional feedback later.

Results

At the conclusion of the focus groups, the brand strategy team analyzed feedback and put together a report that outlined key findings.

HenkinSchultz was then able to put together a detailed list of recommendations for product and messaging improvements. The list included suggestions on product size, instructional language, pricing, and message prioritization.

As a result of the market research, Screenflair was able to optimize its brand strategy, better understand its target audience, and elevate its messaging to better connect with consumers.

This research was also beneficial later on as Screenflair was able to revert back to the focus group findings, allowing them to make business decisions with greater clarity and confidence.

By conducting market research prior to launching, Screenflair was able to gather valuable insights on pricing and product positioning. This helped inform their overall branding and marketing strategy, and led to a more successful product launch.