Actionaid’s well-known child-sponsorship TV commercials (‘Direct Response TV’) are crucial to their fundraising.  To help future DRTV development KSBR teamed up with brother-agency ‘Cultural Dynamics’, whose annual Value-Modes™ survey segments the public in terms of fundamental values, based on Maslow’s celebrated hierarchy of needs.

Value-Modes™ allowed us to recruit Constructor Groups of ‘inner-directed’ & ‘outer directed’ respondents who shared similar values – not merely the same life-stage or socio-economic status.  This enabled us to provide ActionAid with recommendations to guide the messaging & tone of DRTV campaigns aimed at different values-groups in the population.

KSBR & Cultural Dynamics have worked as close partners on projects across many different sectors where ‘issues & attitudes’ are the central focus and consumer values are the key drivers: Charities, Pressure Groups, Government Departments and Broadcasting.

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Successfully launching a new car means finding a positioning idea which is compelling in terms of consumer need, distinctive within the sector and – crucially – true to the reality of the product itself.  

When Hyundai asked us to input into the launch of probably their most high-profile car since the Hyundai Coupé we faced an additional challenge – that of researching product and positionings in depth whilst also keeping a ‘Top Secret’ lid on the whole process and minimising the risk of leaks to the motoring press.

Our solution was to organise a Qual-Quant, whole-day, ‘360-degree’ car-experience session with around 50 respondents exposed to both the new car itself and a range of positioning concepts developed from a prior round of exploratory KSBR Teleforums™. 

Secrecy and security meant meticulous pre-vetting to weed out respondents with any motoring connections, plus sensitive but firm rules on the day to eradicate all possible security risks.

The resulting consumer feedback helped Hyundai’s agency create a launch campaign which ticks all of the boxes: powerfully motivating, fresh in the sector and credibly rooted in product-truth. 

Hyundai’s new car – the ‘Veloster’ – will be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show in late 2011.

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Rising concerns about the environment – especially climate change – mean that major brands must now grapple with the challenge of doing business on a more sustainable basis.  O2’s ambition is to be the sustainability leader in telecoms, and finding ways to cut down excessive waste in mobile packaging and peripherals is one of the vital first steps in this direction.

KSBR was asked by O2 to explore customer responses to a whole range of green packaging innovations.  Which would be welcomed, which resisted and which could be real ‘game-changers’? To make a solid business-case to the Board of O2, qualitative insight needed to be copper-bottomed with hard, quantified proof - so we designed a fully integrated, two-stage process:

(i) Qualitative concept development: Constructor groups with key mobile user segments right across the age spectrum, to evaluate a range of potential inititatives in the form of concept materials produced by KSBR.


(ii) Internet survey with 750 mobile users: designed to quantify the appeal of the lead concepts from qualitative and gauge the degree to which green initiatives could sway consumers, ie quicken recruitment and enhance loyalty.

The clarity of the findings emerging from an in-tune ‘qual-quant’ process has already led to O2 awarding every handset its own ‘eco-rating’, a key early step in the ‘Think Big Planet’ programme.

Do ethics matter in business?  O2 believe they do – for altruistic reasons and also for the company’s reputation and staff pride. Launched in 2010, O2’s ‘Think Big’ campaign is a major pan-European corporate responsibility (‘CR’) initiative which KSBR is very proud to have worked on.

‘Think Big’ has the ambitious goal of encouraging aspiration and achievement amongst Young People right across Europe, especially those whom life hasn’t showered with advantages.  The search for an inspiring ‘rallying call’ which would resonate across generations, countries and cultures began in the UK - where KSBR Constructor groups and staff workshops repeatedly identified Youth as one of the universal concerns which O2 was especially well-fitted to champion.

Working closely with corporate responsibility specialists ‘Good Business’ and O2’s ad-agency VCCP, KSBR organised pan-European research to test the embryonic ‘Think Big’ campaign concept across six countries: Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland and the UK.  Taking the local O2 marketing teams with us on this journey was crucial, which meant working with mature partners in each country and taking extra care at both the planning and the reporting stages.

 ‘Think Big’ is still in its early stages and has much potential to grow and develop – but the signs are that O2 has found a long-term concept with the power unify and magnify all its CR activities across Europe.

Whitbread’s huge success with their Premier Inn brand is based on superior understanding of customer needs and a strong commitment to keeping these insights fresh.  Our assignment was to uncover potential improvements to the business-users’ proposition, providing both softer customer insights and harder (quantified) data to help management decision-making.

To meet both requirements we designed an integrated, two-stage, qualitative + quantitative process:

Stage-1: Qualitative     In-depth telephone interviews with current & lapsed Premier Inn users to highlight potential improvement areas

Stage-2: Quantitative   Online web-survey & concept test to validate the qual. insights & confirm which of the innovations were most likely to increase satisfaction and drive revenues.

Connected-up, ‘soft + hard’ research like this is increasingly necessary to help clients decide the allocation of squeezed investment resources.  Integrating the two halves so that the qualitative insights directly guide the design and interpretation of the quantitative stage makes the whole process faster, more effective and less costly.

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As one of the media partners in the forthcoming groundbreaking TV service YouView (www.youview.com) TalkTalk wanted to explore consumer reactions to the service. In mid 2010 the company asked KSBR to help them understand how consumers could see YouView fitting into their household’s TV usage and to establish which product features TalkTalk should leverage to create the most compelling consumer offer.

Prior to introducing consumers to the new service in discussion groups KSBR wanted to benchmark the current media consumption of respondents’ respective households by turning the spotlight on their viewing habits across all screens: TV, computer and smartphone, plus delivery mechanisms: broadcast, live streaming, on demand & recorded. KSBR tasked all of the research participants with keeping a detailed record of the TV consumption across their household for the week prior to the research groups – this also included taking a number of photographs of their home, TV viewing equipment and the places in their home that they like to watch TV. The TV diaries and photographs revealed a detailed picture of the segments’ viewing habits thereby enabling KSBR to enter the discussion groups with a deep understanding of the respective respondents’ use of TV in their household. This depth of knowledge allowed a much richer and informed conversation to take place in the discussion groups than would have otherwise been possible – plus the diaries and photographs formed a useful bank of reference material for the TalkTalk YouView development team. 

The YouView service will launch in the first half of 2012. KSBR’s research has and continues to deliver significant insights that are helping to shape TalkTalk’s forthcoming YouView offer. 

“KSBR worked with Unicef UK firstly to explore the perceptions of current supporters - then to develop positioning & communication triggers which might successfully engage both the existing base and the younger audience of potential recruits. The recommendations were put to the test in our ‘Born Free’ campaign, aimed at raising money for treatment to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to babies.  The results of this campaign have exceeded expectations and have demonstrated that with the right communications approach Unicef can indeed generate money and support from a broader, younger audience”   

[Angela Travis - Marketing Manager - Unicef UK]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

 

For Unicef UK as a fundraising organisation in a crowded charity scene, the relationship with the UN parent brand is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand the UN means worldwide scale and enormous influence for good - on the other it can also suggest remoteness, committee-dom and the dubious world of international power-broking. Unicef UK was aware of a need to define a clearer positioning which would provide a core focus for their many different campaign communications. Another key aim was to address the ageing of the Unicef core-supporter base and to get a younger generation supporters into contact with the brand.

KSBR worked with Unicef UK firstly to explore the perceptions of current supporters - then to develop positioning & communication triggers which might successfully engage both the existing base and the younger audience of potential new recruits.

To the customer, booking their car in for a repair or service is still overhung by the dread of an unexpectedly large bill!  This is the relentless challenge faced by Aftersales departments across the land, particularly for brands graced by the stamp of Germanic quality, where ‘out of warranty’ doesn’t necessarily lessen high expectations.

Volkswagen Audi Group are on a mission to improve the aftersales experience; making customers more loyal (even when things go wrong) by empowering retailers to apply greater discretion and fairness in potentially sticky aftersales situations.  With a pilot-programme (‘Retailer Empowerment’) in place, our brief was to gauge both the customer impact and – crucially - Volkswagen & Audi retailer faith in the new initiative. This was about internal culture and trust between brand and retail distributor

KSBR ran a series of immersive half-day visits to interview staff at both Volkswagen and Audi retailers across the UK, establishing exactly how the pilot scheme was being used and identifying the drivers and barriers for further roll-out. It was soon clear that the ‘Goodwill’ scheme that had real potential, but needed time (and some internal ‘celebration’) to build momentum across the network.  The insights from the research encouraged Volkswagen Audi to expand and evolve the initiative, which is now paying dividends in helping to cement customer loyalty.

‘Fixed-price servicing’, you may have noticed, is now an everyday feature for many new (and often used) car sales.  But up until a few years ago, automotive brands were really struggling to convert Sales into Aftersales loyalty.  In fact it was Volkswagen who pioneered this transformation with the launch of their first 2-year fixed price service plan.  

   

With the scheme on-test during its first weeks, KSBR visited Volkswagen retailers across the UK, doing internal research to uncover teething problems and gauging the potential impact on staff and customers alike. Our insight was delivered as a series of actionable recommendations that went beyond ‘rubber stamping’ - highlighting the steps needed to drive the scheme forward, and urging the brand steal a march on its competitors. 

The initiative has been so successful that Volkswagen have now expanded their range of plans to suit vehicles of all ages, and drivers of all marques.

The problem – how could VOSA (the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) deliver a more compliant road transportation industry without investing further in enforcement?  Enforcement action is a costly process, so a research-led programme was needed to understand the drivers of non-compliance and help identify:

a) Potential early interventions that could have the greatest impact and provide the best return on investment

b) How to better empower customers and industry as a whole. To meet this challenge, KSBR designed a multi-stage, immersive program to deliver deep insight with a high degree of stakeholder input.

1) As a first step we ran face-to-face, on-site interviews with a wide cross-section of vehicle operators to understand why they had made certain choices and decisions related to compliance and their relationship with VOSA.  

2) Video-supported insights from the operator-interviews were fed into an ideation workshop with a wide range of DfT and VOSA stakeholders, identifying a range of potential interventions to facilitate compliance.

3) Candidate concept propositions were then designed and used as stimulus in a final round of qualitative interviews for further refinement, along with a focus on improving ‘business as usual’ services.

4) Finally, quantitative testing of the new ideas was included as part of VOSA’s annual customer satisfaction survey, which complemented the qualitative findings. Our recommendations have formed an integral part of VOSA’s business and compliance strategy for the future.

 

Whitbread commissioned KSBR to assist with the strategic plan for Taybarns, its chain of all-you-can-eat restaurants. Whitbread needed to understand how to invigorate the offering in their existing restaurants and how to shape any future Taybarns restaurants to ensure that the brand continues to offer a compelling and differentiated experience in the highly competitive budget restaurant category. 

KSBR developed a three-stage, Quali-Quant methodology to fully understand the issues faced by the Taybarns brand and to evaluate potential new initiatives:

1. Immersion: KSBR researchers spent time in Taybarns restaurants talking to staff, customers and benchmarking the customer experience to help build a highly detailed picture of the Taybarns offering

2. Quantitative exit interviews: to gauge the opinions and usage of habits of customers directly after they have experienced Taybarns


3. Qualitative discussion groups: qual discussions with Taybarns loyalists, lapsed users and rejecters to test new ideas and brand positioning concepts developed from stages 1 & 2.

This study yielded guidance on positioning & communication as well as richly detailed suggestions for enhancing customer experience to help differentiate the Taybarns brand from stiff competition from other chain budget restaurants. 

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