How to discover your brand identity — step two: market research
by Anna Bogdanova, Co-Founder and CEO of Shiba500
So far we’ve explained what verbal branding is, why brand discovery is so important, and how to look inward to find your brand values.
Now we look to our external resources.
Market research, secondary or external research, whatever you want to call it — the purpose of looking outward and analyzing the space in which your company plays, is to begin positioning your brand within its competitive marketplace.
This research allows your company to root itself firmly while growing its wings.
The task may seem daunting at first, with the sheer amount of resources you could pull from and rabbit holes you could go down; it can be hard to know where your research starts and ends.
Time management is vitally important in this process.
For this reason, we’ve compiled a breakdown of what you as a startup CEO, COO, or CMO need to know about your competitive landscape before you position your brand. We’ve ordered the process, step-by-step, to give you a start and endpoint.
Secondary research (analyzing secondary sources i.e. not first-hand) is by no means exhaustive, but it is a fantastic first step for companies that are aiming to work fast. It becomes a blueprint for where the company is now and where it needs to go.
There can be an assumption that “real market research” is all about focus groups, questionnaires and surveys, and deep quantitative and qualitative research from the get-go. While these are all really useful and important tools to consider, they can be VERY labor-intensive, slow and (as a result) expensive.
These costs can be prohibitive for startups.
We propose a different approach: first, use secondary data to develop a hypothesis and establish what you are looking for, and then refine it using real market data.
So, in this initial market research phase, you should aim to look at the following:
#1 Your competitors (direct as well as indirect)
Who are your competitors? Make a list. Do a SWOT analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. What are they doing well and where could they (or you) improve?
Look at your indirect competitors too: do not make the mistake of only looking at direct competitors as you’ll miss a whole minefield. If you do this, you are likely to end up in a position where you say “we are unique and nobody does what we do”.
Sure, your product is unique, but the problem you are solving is not. Research how people are already solving this problem, and not just in your direct competitor pool. How does your brand make this problem for your customer easier to solve?
#2 Your market landscape (and its structure)
Look at the market as a whole: how is it growing and developing, what are the drivers and the threats within this space? What’s trending, what’s losing its luster, what’s promised for next year or in five years’ time? This might influence the way you view yourself and give you an idea of how you should talk about your brand.
For more complicated B2B markets it’s important to look at the market structure, its characteristics, economics, operational mechanisms, etc. It’s important to understand where exactly you fit in and on which companies your fit is dependent.
#3 Your target audience (know them well)
Your target audience is not necessarily who you think it is.
Think about your direct and indirect competitors, it’s not just about what the product or service you are selling, it’s about the problem, or indeed problems, it’s solving. That may go way beyond your current picture of who your target audience/s should be.
How to get to know them? Define the broad range of who they might be. Is your ideal customer an individual or a company? What do they need your product or service for? What are the benefits and solutions you are offering to them?
The ultimate best way to get to know your audience is via primary research, ie. questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews, but we strongly believe that, for startups especially, these things should come second in the research process.
First, broadly identified through secondary research how to best communicate with your audience/s, and then you can get down to surveys and focus groups. But rather than reinventing the wheel, see what data has been gathered already. You can use Google Trends, social media listening tools, and even Reddit as starting points. With this data to back you, then you are prepared for next steps.
If market research seems like a bigger task than your startup or scaleup has the time or resources for right now, it may be the moment to bring in an outside team with experience who can make this positioning process a whole lot easier for you.
Some research tools we use with our clients (and for our own research):
Ahrefs — find out what search questions are trending in your field.
Mention — understand market trends and sentiments right now.
Statista — know the facts about your industry through curated data.
Buzzsumo — see what content is working best for your competitors.
Survey Monkey — for when you are ready to connect with your customer.
#4 Market positioning (for today’s market)
Once you have your secondary research in place, along with your own internal teams’ brand vision, all this information combined should give you a good idea of where your initial positioning should be. Please note, this may or not be the position you thought you would be in when you started out. Be ready to change!
It’s important to remember that positioning is not a monolith, it’s an organic tool. As such, your positioning is likely to adapt and develop. Your early marketing experiments are there to provide useful information that will tell you where you need to go. The changing market landscape will also indicate your rightful place.
Again, allow your internal and external research to provide you with a blueprint for your company and brand positioning, but be open to adapting the more you learn.
Previously in our verbal branding series:
Verbal branding: what do your words say about you?
Brand discovery: why would you bother with that?
How to discover your brand identity — step one: soul searching
In the next post in our verbal branding series, we show you how to create your core messaging through your positioning statement and value proposition.
Shiba500 is a boutique marketing agency that helps startups and scale-ups navigate brand building, storytelling, and growth marketing. We act as a bridge between growth companies and new business opportunities.
