RemCal Insights

RemCal Insights’ research has helped a client to embrace opportunities in sustainable consumption and successfully launch a creative campaign.

• Project Context

A design agency was tasked with developing a creative campaign for a coffee brand’s new compostable K-cup. As part of the design agency’s creative process, they brought in RemCal Insights to evaluate the idea with consumers, to ensure they get the creative idea right from the beginning.

Traditionally brands or creative agencies will bring in consumer insights strategists at the end of their creative ideation. What happens if you’ve spent all this time and money on creating an advertising idea and consumers hate it? Some agencies decide to make it work, but others realize they should have started with the consumer in mind, from the very beginning.

• Solution

RemCal Insights recruited and interviewed a panel of 10 consumers to join us on the creative journey to help this brand authentically talk about its new compostable coffee pods. The interviews were 1:1, to avoid ‘group think’ and around 45 mins – 1 hour. Each round of insights would feed into the optimizations which the consumers would see 1-2 weeks later. 

• Value Added

The end result was a series of creative executions / advertisements that not only excited the consumer about the brand [a brand that has been around forever], but also educated them about the importance of composting.

The beauty of doing work this way is that your end product is going to be closer to perfect than if the creative agency or brand had just developed it on their own. By getting a consumer gut check along the way, you’re ensuring campaign/product success. This is also a great way to drive consumer loyalty or to bring lapsed consumers back to the brand.

Some of our clients in the investment sector turn to RemCal Insights to assist with the pre-due diligence process and assess investment opportunities under tight deadlines. Usually, we suggest doing the social media listening projects when a client doesn’t have the resources to launch full-scale consumer research at the moment, or just wants to explore the landscape before diving deeper into qualitative or quantitative research. 

• Project Context

A leading private equity firm was conducting preliminary due diligence on an athleisure apparel company. The brand has seen tremendous growth in the last couple of years, and the client wanted to understand the overall sentiment of the brand and product quality. As a first stage in the due diligence process, RemCal Insights assessed how the brand is perceived by consumers and influencers across social media, if there are any red flags, and what the real opportunity areas are.

• Solution

To approach this project, RemCal Insights did a ‘social media immersion’ and reviewed more than 100 accounts on different social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The target accounts for evaluation were chosen according to their influencer category. The posts were evaluated across key elements: social media platform, number of followers, audience quality and engagement rate, as well as consistency and type of posts. 

• Value Added

Data collected from the social media accounts analysis helped determine the positive sentiment around the brand and revealed the main motivations for customers and influencers to stick with the company. In addition, the results of the research provided the client with an understanding of the ‘customer journey’: from the very first considerations of joining the company to communicating about the brand on social media. Social media immersion proved the investment potential of the brand for the PE client and served as a base for further due diligence. 

Investors spend a lot of time evaluating a brand and its growth potential. Surveys are run, company data is evaluated, financial models are built, the list goes on… One thing that is often missed is the emotional check. Why are the numbers suggesting the brand is keyed up for success and does it have long-term potential? This is where a deeper due diligence is needed.

• Project Context

A Private Equity client came to RemCal Insights to understand the success story of a wellness brand and where are the opportunities for growth (if any). They wanted Rachel, Founder of RemCal Insights, to interview consumers and experts to understand perceptions of the brand and category, but also key trends to look out for.

• Solution

RemCal Insights recruited and interviewed 30 consumers, 8 experts via Zoom to evaluate the real strength of the brand and uncover opportunity areas down the pipeline. Through these 1:1 interviews Rachel saw the products consumers and experts were using and could get a real sense for their emotional relationship with the category and brands.

• Value Added

At the end of the project the key stakeholders had a clear vision of who this consumer is, their relationship with the category AND the brand. This research helped inform their decision to invest in the brand.

Conducting a reputation check is an integral part of evaluating the investment opportunity. In certain situations, a high-growth brand that investors are considering might have undergone bad press. Here the question of bad press’ impact on consumers' perception of a brand arises. Is it still worth the investment opportunity? RemCal Insights helps assess the relationships between a brand and consumers to unveil if a brand can improve its public image. Here’s an example of a recent project:

• Project Context

A client saw an investment opportunity in a makeup brand. The brand had experienced a lot of growth in the last few years, but also some ‘bad publicity’. RemCal Insights conducted qualitative research to help the client understand if this growth is sustainable and how the ‘bad publicity’ had impacted consumers’ perception of the brand.

• Solution

In-depth, remote interviews were conducted with 16 current and lapsed consumers and 8 makeup artists across the US. These interviews allowed us to understand who the consumer is, their motivations to use the products, and the challenges they faced while using the brand. We also got to learn from the experts on what makeup trends are in, and their perceptions of the brand.

• Value added

Although the research showed that consumers’ perceptions of the brand weren’t greatly affected by bad publicity, it revealed other concerns. The research helped to identify the main drivers for consumers to purchase makeup products and found a mismatch between the brand and the needs of consumers and beauty professionals to a greater extent. In addition, consumer insights shed light on brand positioning that made the client decide not to invest in the brand.

• Project Context

A Canadian fair trade coffee company wanted to reevaluate its marketing strategy. The end goal was to deliver a campaign that resonated with consumers and made them feel good about their choice in coffee. RemCal Insights was tasked with recruiting a panel of Canadian coffee drinkers to understand their relationship with coffee, what factors into their decision-making process to help inform the new campaign strategy. 

• Solution

RemCal Insights recruited a consumer panel to take part in the iterative brand strategy process. The panelists were current consumers in the ‘fair trade’ coffee market as regular coffee drinkers [mass produced]. We conducted remote interviews to understand consumers’ relationship with coffee, factors that influence their decision-making process as well as had them evaluate potential marketing campaigns. 

• Value Added

The insights helped inform how the brand should engage with their core consumers as well as potential ways to ‘buy in’ mass-produced coffee drinkers. The iterative research process allowed us to get the marketing ideas right from the beginning, which ultimately saved the brand time and money. 

RemCal Insights may have its headquarters in the US, but we study consumers around the world and develop global brand strategies with our creative partners. Here’s a recent case study for a health technology company.

• Project Context

A global health technology company is preparing for a new product launch in late 2023 and wanted to understand how to talk about the technology in a way that will motivate patients and nurses across the US, the UK, Italy and Japan.

• Solution

RemCal Insights recruited patients in the US, the UK, Italy and Japan to take part in remote interviews to evaluate the ideas. As a first stage, we started in the US to help the team decide which concepts were the most motivating. After a round of interviews, we were able to optimize the ideas to take into the international markets. We worked with our translators to optimize the ideas for each country and then conducted interviews to understand the key similarities and differences across the different markets.

• Value Added

Conducting research across multiple languages means phrases will not translate the same way or images will not resonate across all cultures. After interviews with nurses and patients in Italy, Japan and the UK we recognized the types of images that consumers [patients + nurses] find motivating, are not necessarily the same as they are in the US. We were able to provide recommendations on how to optimize the images and language in an effort to find a universal language for the brand.

• Project Context

A global leading Private Equity firm saw an investment opportunity in a ‘hair wellness’ brand that delivers a holistic treatment plan for men and women concerned with hair loss/thinning. RemCal Insights was set to understand the consumer segments, key motivators for entering the brand, and brand perceptions against key competitors.

• Solution

In-depth, remote interviews were conducted to understand how consumers and experts perceive the value of the brand and opportunities in the hair wellness category. RemCal Insights recruited 24 consumers of mixed categories: current, lapsed, and potential users. Also, 4 experts such as dermatologists and hair stylists across the US were interviewed to explore the context for recommending the brand.

• Value added

This qualitative research allowed us to understand who the consumer is, their relationship with their hair, and triggers and barriers to the category. We identified not only functional motivators to purchase the product, but also less obvious emotional drivers. We also got to understand experts, what they’re seeing when it comes to hair loss/thinning and the products they recommend. These findings helped us evaluate the brand marketing strategy fit with consumers' needs and provide implications for improving brand loyalty.