I’m sure many of you have read about Quill’s new Dunder Mifflin copy paper.
Beyond being a really great idea, and one of those “why didn’t someone do this years ago?” kinds of things, and changing my perception of Quill about 180 degrees, it got me to thinking about the value of co-branding or tie-ins like this one and how the entities involved might use research to measure the impact of the joint effort.
What types of questions would you ask consumers to get at their impressions of the parties involved? How do you ask questions in a way that doesn’t lead the witness, so to speak? For example, I realize you couldn’t ask something along the lines of “Most people view Quill as a venerable, if dull, purveyor of office supplies. How, if at all, does Quill’s Dunder Mifflin paper change your perception of the company?” But are there ways to ask those types of questions without implying that the consumer’s perceptions should have been changed?
Further, is it even worth measuring changes in perception? Is it an “everybody wins” situation? I’m sure there could be some pre/post work done to gauge the impact of such a partnership but would those metrics have any value? Is it more worthwhile to just rely on sales figures and leave it at that?
And, to lob out another question, for those of you on the corporate researcher side, is there a similarly unlikely-but-brilliant pairing like Quill and The Office in your realm just waiting to be exploited?