Boost online presence and drive results with search advertising

Drive awareness and conversions through social media advertising

Paid Social

Leverage advanced targeting capabilities across smart devices

Increase your brand visibility across top retailers

Retail Media

Maximize visibility and audience engagement through organic search

Target audiences with precision and efficiency across display networks

Programmatic Display

Media

Define and elevate your brand identity, voice and design

Brand Strategy

Futureproof your brand by resonating with diverse audiences

Multicultural Marketing

Marketing strategies based on your audience's behavior to maximize return

Integrated Marketing Planning

Strategy

Derive insights into channels driving the most significant impact

Media Mix Modeling

Understand customers' brand perception and purchasing decisions

Brand Awareness & Preference

Understand customer needs, preferences and behaviors to meet demands

Market Research

Collect, process and store data to inform impactful business decisions

Data Management

Business Intelligence

Bring big ideas to life through strategy, imagination and ingenuity

Creative Concepting

Inspiring design work to help your brand grow

Design

Video content that rivets audiences and compels them to act

Video Production

Creative

Influence, engage and build relationships to influence perception

Public Relations

Partner with personalities who have visibility and trust in your space

Influencer Marketing

Share relevant and valuable content for real time audience engagement 

Social Media Marketing

Create engaging and memorable event experiences

Event Marketing

Communications

Create meaningful and valuable content geared toward target audiences

Content Strategy

Build a reliable flow of content that is relevant for your audience

Content Production

Content Marketing

Maximize your marketing automation platform capabilities

CRM Management

Drive engagement and nurture sales leads through email marketing

Email Marketing

CRM Marketing Automation

Find the technology and database solutions that meet your needs

Web & Mobile Development

Make your site useful, usable, and appealing to your audience

User Experience Design

Bring products to life in ways you never thought possible

Augmented Reality Development

Web UX & Development

What We Do

Marketing Intelligence

Building & Renovation

Solutions

About Us

Our Work

Perspectives

Careers

Active Nav

Discover valuable perspectives from Patrick Culhane, Director of Business Strategy and Development, with 21 years of agency experience.

Perspectives from Patrick Culhane | Brunner

Vice President, Brand Strategy

Patrick  Culhane

Columns

BlogArticle

<p>Based on that success, Crayola is planning even more adult-focused campaigns in 2024, Lozano said.</p><h2><strong>Successful Campaigns Based on Deep Customer Insights</strong></h2><p>Many other brands have turned a customer insight into game-changing and iconic activity and campaigns.&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Coca-Cola was among the first brands to understand the insight that customers expect greater personalization. The company created its <a href="https://www.mrs.org.uk/pdf/US_COCA_COLA_-_FINAL_TWO.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Share-a-Coke campaign”</a> that puts individual names on their packaging. That campaign led to an +11% sales lift and 1.6% growth in share.&nbsp;</li><li>Brunner’s campaigns for YellaWood pressure treated pine are based on the consumer insight that modern homeowners treat their deck as an outdoor summer living room. Brunner developed a category-redefining approach called “YellaWood for Five-Star Backyards” to power messaging and creative assets, including <a href="https://www.brunnerworks.com/perspectives/video-spots-for-yellawood-cold-eeze-win-prestigious-graphis-awards" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">award-winning video spots</a>. Those campaigns are maintaining YellaWood’s position as a category leader, including as the top performer against competitors in all branding metrics. <a href="https://www.brunnerworks.com/our-work/yellawood" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read the YellaWood case study</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Dove based its ground-breaking “Real Beauty” campaign the consumer insight that only 2% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. The “Real Beauty” campaign focused on real women of all shapes, sizes, and ages and encouraged women to embrace their natural beauty. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/jul/29/marketingandpr.advertising1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dove reported a 700% increase in sales</a> in the decade following the campaign’s launch.</li></ul><h2><strong>Three Key Steps to Finding Customer Insights</strong></h2><p>Finding customer insights is driven by curious marketers who explore data and conduct research. At Brunner, we recommend three basic steps to uncover customer insights.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>Step 1: Collect Your Data</strong></h3><p>The first step in finding customer insights is to collect data. Many clients start with their own customer data, which can reveal patterns, trends, and audience segments. Additional data sources include consumer trend reports by industry, search demand analysis, consumer insights from platforms like Resonate, and social media listening like Sprout Social, both of which Brunner uses. Industry news articles and reporting can also provide valuable insights.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The key is to be as grounded as possible in the relevant data from reliable, verifiable, and credible sources. Where necessary, you can round out your data with first-party research, both quantitative and qualitative, such as focus groups, shop-alongs, and surveys.&nbsp;</p><h3><strong>Step 2: Analyze Your Data</strong></h3><p>Once you have collected data, the next step is to synthesize what you have and analyze your findings across your various sources. Look for patterns and trends in the data to help you better understand your customers. Is a new topic starting to appear? Does a certain activity over-index with your core audience? From the analysis, you may be able to segment your customers based on demographics, behavior, or other factors.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The more work you put into step one, the more you can unearth at this stage. Research from Microsoft found that organizations that leverage their customer behavior data to generate insights <a href="https://clouddamcdnprodep.azureedge.net/gdc/gdcrdptsF/original" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">outperform their peers by 85% in sales growth</a>.</p><h3><strong>Step 3: Transform Your Data into Actionable Insights</strong></h3>

<h2><strong>Ready to Find Your Customer Insights?</strong></h2><p>At Brunner, we work with clients to surface customer insights that solve an issue or change your brand in ways they never thought possible. We can fast-track steps one and two, especially if your organization operates in one of Brunner’s areas of strong category experience, such as building supplies, consumer packaged goods and wellness, food service, financial services, and higher education.&nbsp;</p><p>If you’d like to get started, we’d love to learn more about your situation. We can share more examples of brands generating results through customer insights. Please get in touch to begin a conversation.</p>

<h2><strong>Using Data and Research Can Uncover Customer Insights That Can Drive Growth and Change How You See Your Business</strong></h2><p>A true customer insight can transform your brand.&nbsp;</p><p>Just ask Victoria Lozano. She’s executive vice president of marketing at Crayola, a brand whose products have long been considered to be for kids.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Lozano shared the story at this fall’s <a href="https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/ms-anc-oct23" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ANA Masters of Marketing</a> conference of how Crayola identified a key audience insight that has helped the company unlock sales to an entirely new audience — adults.&nbsp;</p><p>Her presentation reinforces a core truth that brands willing to dig into data and conduct research can uncover customer insights that will help them:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>better understand their current and potential customers&nbsp;</li><li>create more effective marketing campaigns&nbsp;</li><li>drive business growth&nbsp;</li><li>change how they see their business going forward&nbsp;</li></ul><h2><strong>Crayola’s ‘A-ha’ Customer Insights and New Campaigns</strong>&nbsp;</h2><p>In her presentation, Lozano shared the key customer insights that revealed a big gap in customer beliefs and helped reshape Crayola’s thinking about who would use its products:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>A whopping 92% of parents believe that creativity has lifelong benefits for their kids&nbsp;</li><li>But only 55% of parents think they themselves are creative&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><p>As a brand with 89% market penetration of households with kids, these customer data points inspired Crayola to pursue sales with adults and educators through campaigns that give those audiences permission to be creative, just like kids.&nbsp;</p><p>Crayola developed a foundational idea that “Kids need a champion.” From that concept, the company launched campaigns including Creativity Week, where Crayola supports educators in making creativity a core classroom focus for that week</p>

Uncover how a single customer insight enabled Crayola to broaden its brand focus and reach new audiences, as discussed at the 2023 Masters of Marketing.

How a Single Customer Insight Helped Crayola Expand its Brand Focus

Masters of Marketing 2023: How a Single Customer Insight Helped Crayola Expand its Brand Focus

Masters of Marketing 2023: How a Single Customer Insight Helped Crayola Expand its Brand Focus

Share to

Good people doing great work for our clients.