People are entertained by ads! Ads are like short films that people want to see over and over again. However, often enough, people can’t even remember which brand the ad is selling. To encourage consumers to buy your brands, you need a process to determine the ‘package of associations’ acquired during the consumers’ experiences. This ‘emotional package’, usually outside awareness, dictates consumers’ relationship with brands. Once this knowledge is incorporated in your communication, it will encourage consumers to buy your brands.

Consider our project for a global food company. The process determined the mindset of ice cream. It identified the triggers and barriers for effective communication. During the final presentation the category manager showed us an ad and asked if it encouraged consumers to buy the ice cream brand. The ad did not fit in with our findings. The director said it had the highest recall in advertising ever. We asked how frequently people bought the brand. The frequency of purchase of that brand was close to zero. That was really odd! People remembered the ad in order not to buy the brand! Later on, the product was renamed and advertised following the ‘recipe’ developed during the Imprint Analysis and frequency of purchase increased.

The only way to successfully differentiate your brand is to identify entry-points for communication that resonate with your target audience. This knowledge is key to differentiate your brand. Our process determines how doctors and patients relate to the condition treated by the brand. By exploring the audiences’ experiences of the ‘condition’ and of the brand, the process reveals the ‘images’ and ‘situations’ to use in order to build and differentiate your brand image.