Bonsai Strategy & Brand
We offer tailored market research methods to precisely analyze the market, your brand, and your target audiences. In this way, we help you make the right strategic decisions—such as positioning your brand, developing communication strategies tailored to your target audiences, or tapping into new market potential. This enables us to lay a solid foundation for sustainable brand and market growth.
In uncertain times, companies need robust strategies for sustainable growth. Social individualization has led to significant polarization, in which values such as freedom, security, and success take center stage but are increasingly the subject of controversial and extreme debate. Digitalization and the algorithm-driven media landscape are causing people to live in subjective perception bubbles, where facts are replaced by personal narratives and fake news. Consumer decisions are becoming increasingly impulsive. When facts become arbitrary, people rely on gut instinct.
For companies, this means that target audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented, and brand management must adapt to very different—and sometimes contradictory—realities. Brand managers face the challenge of identifying relevant narratives and emotional, implicit points of connection for different target audiences and communicating them in a credible way. At the same time, this trend presents opportunities, as brands can build targeted emotional connections and provide guidance in a fragmented world.
Bonsai Strategy & Brand helps companies understand these new “psycho-realities” and leverage them strategically:
Strategic Brand Research
Traditional brand research is reaching a dead end because today’s consumers think faster, act more intuitively, and have shorter attention spans. Successful brand management requires an understanding of both intuitive and conscious decision-making processes involved in brand choice. We help companies …
…to develop nuanced brand messages: Brands must tailor their communication more closely to the respective “psychological realities” of their target audiences. This means developing different narratives and messages for different segments without diluting the brand identity.
…to strengthen their clarity and authenticity: In a world full of fake news and subjective truths, it is essential that brands present themselves as credible, transparent, and consistent.
… to foster cognitive awareness and emotional brand loyalty: Since emotions and subjective perceptions increasingly drive consumer decisions, brands should deliberately create emotional connections and offer experiences that strengthen trust and loyalty.
By intelligently combining the mental availability approach with implicit measurement methods, our brand research enables us to identify those category entry points that are credibly associated with a brand (mental connectivity)—and that become relevant to consumer behavior at the “moment of truth.”
“Mental Availability and the Power of Implicit Associations” – at Market Research Week
We presented our innovative approach at Market Research Week in a presentation titled “Mental Availability and the Power of Implicit Associations” together with our client, freenet: WATCH THE VIDEO
In "Planning & Analysis," we demonstrate the added value that the implicit perspective offers for the Mental Availability model—clearly explained using the specific example of Freenet. It becomes clear that the combination of Mental Availability and implicit measurement can provide companies with a real strategic advantage for their brand management. READ THE ARTICLE.
We combine modern brand research with state-of-the-art methodology—Mental Availability (cognitive brand availability) and Mental Connectivity (emotional anchoring). You can read more about our collaboration with freenet on brand research in the magazine *Markenartikel*.
In p&a: How the combination of mental availability and implicit measurement benefits companies
From a health check for your brand to optimizing your brand tracking, companies can rely on our expertise. Your own workforce must also understand and embody your brand values in order to project credibility to the outside world. Values-based initiatives and internal communication are becoming strategic success factors for fostering employee identification with the company and for attracting talent. Our employer branding research provides clarity in this area and clearly identifies the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s image.
Strategic Target Audience Research (Growth Potential Studies)
We help companies segment target audiences with even greater granularity and analyze the various values, narratives, and perceptual worlds in a targeted manner. Traditional target audience models are no longer sufficient—our Growth Potential Studies represent the state-of-the-art in behavioral psychology-based segmentation.
You can find out more about implementing strategic segmentation using OTC products as an example in this video.
Strategic Pricing
Strategic pricing research is applied psychology and one of the core areas of focus at Bonsai Research. After all, it’s all about what ultimately matters: the optimal price—and thus the profitability—of your products or services. Our dynamic modeling approach takes into account the cognitive and emotional factors influencing pricing decisions and brand positioning, as well as the competitive landscape. We determine the right price and enable proactive (rather than reactive) price management. At Bonsai Strategy & Brand, we research markets and people—both locally and internationally—covering everything from everyday consumer goods to pharmaceuticals and services, all the way to durable goods and capital goods. We do so with cultural sensitivity and methodological expertise.
Strategic Values Research
Brands need a stance—now more than ever. For many years, the Bonsai Values Index has served as a reliable guide to social developments and trends. Our values research continuously monitors shifts in values and emerging narratives, helping companies critically reflect on their own brand strategies. We support the professionalization of crisis and reputation management—a must in today’s polarized climate, which carries an increased risk of social media backlashes and reputational damage.
Would you like to know more?
Prof. Dirk Frank
dirk.frank@bonsai-research.com
+49 1715205067
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