••• brand research

The secret to trading up? Visuals and comparisons

It’s been several years of trading down to store brands and private-label items but consumers are not immune to being convinced to trade up with the help of clever marketing. Consumers are more willing to switch their preference from a low-status brand (e.g., Kmart camping gear) to an extension of a premium brand that isn’t a natural fit for the product category (e.g., Speedo camping gear) when marketers add a picture of the product in question or allow consumers to compare brands rather than judge each brand separately, according to “The Importance of the Context in Brand Extension: How Pictures and Comparisons Shift Consumers’ Focus from Fit to Quality,” by Tom Meyvis of the NYU Stern School of Business, Kelly Goldsmith of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Ravi Dhar of the Yale School of Management.
Visual cues or pictures of the product shift consumers’ focus to the quality of the parent brand and away from the fit of the brand when evaluating a brand’s new product offering while brand comparisons shift consumers’ preference from lower-status brands (e.g., ShopRite cottage cheese) toward higher-status brands even if they aren’t a good fit (e.g., Haagen-Dazs cottage cheese).
Market research studies that mimic a typical shopping environment with visual information and competing brands will reveal greater potential for high-status brand extensions. “New brand extensions are often tested in an abstract setting. For example, what would you think of a Crest facial moisturizer? In this market research context, consumers place too much emphasis on the fit between the brand and the product,” says Meyvis. “As a result, companies may underestimate the value and opportunity of high-status brands extending into a wide variety of product categories.”
Meyvis, Goldsmith and Dhar also recommend tactics for store managers and retailers to promote high- or lower-quality brands in their shopping environments. “A high-quality brand that is introducing a product in a category that isn’t a good fit would benefit from marketing efforts that encourage brand comparisons,” says Goldsmith. “Conversely, a lower-quality brand that is introducing a new extension may benefit from shopping environments where the product is not being compared to other brands, like in an end-of-aisle display.”

••• crowdsourcing

Volvo wants to see You Inside

Volvo has become the latest car company to try to tap the wisdom of crowds, using data gleaned from a new Facebook crowdsourcing app to inspire new innovations and create vehicles that are designed around people.
Dubbed You Inside: What’s In Your Car Is You, the app invites Volvo fans and owners from around the world to post images of the things they keep inside their cars, along with information about their driving habits, vehicles and lifestyles.
According to Volvo, “The more we learn about you, the more we can design around you.” The Facebook page also promises participants that they will “find out something about yourself you didn’t know.”
The photos and information from the participants are uploaded to the You Analyzer, which allows Volvo to analyze the information and create a personality profile for each user based on what they keep in their cars. The app also allows users to view other You Inside profiles around the world.
The data gathered by the app on the social network will be fed into research for vehicle development at Volvo. This project comes on the heels of Volvo’s 2011 brand overhaul to make its car design processes and marketing more human-oriented.