How often have you scanned the store shelves looking for a product, and a particular one caught your eye, making you stop, do a double-take or spend a few additional seconds focusing on that one product before moving on? Well, those few seconds and that additional glance are products of visual research.

They were largely caused in part because of brand research performed by a market research team, much like the one at Addison Whitney. Among the many roles they fill within the organization, one of them includes visual research for logo and product design – which yields compelling insight to the visual aspects of a brand.

Increasing your consumer insight through visual research

Whether it was the packaging design or the brand’s logo that caused you to stop, the fact is brand research has ensured that each visual aspect of a brand has been fine-tuned to the consumer’s taste and painstakingly tailored to achieve maximum appeal across the largest base of potential consumers.

One of the goals of our visual research is to see the previously unseen. We want to uncover something that nobody else has seen, or discover the underlying trend in the data that often times comes up as a surprise to all parties. These findings allow us to crack into the mind of the consumer to increase our top-of-mind opportunities for visual branding.

Optimizing your visual brand through visual research

How does market research find out what makes the eyes of a consumer stop and remember a certain logo or package design?

Two areas of focus when performing research are color associations and image connotations:

When conducting research for visual branding, questions are designed to help the researchers understand what comes to the forefront of a consumer’s mind when they view a potential product. Often, unanticipated associations can open doors down the road with respect to creative that lead to a more granular approach in secondary research, and other times doors can be closed due to the findings of a study.

The most successful brands hit the market only after extensive planning, research and data analysis to ensure that the brand is set up on the right path from the beginning. Brand research is the driver behind properly preparing a brand, especially its visual aspects. Those few seconds might not seem like much, but to a brand, they are the reward for proper preparation.