How to Work With Research on Brand

When's the last time you joined a user interview?

Oct 27, 2024

Happy weekend! It’s conference szn, planning szn, and basically the holidays already. My writing has slowed down a little as I’m ramping back into full-time work, but I’ve got a lot of goodies coming your way (including more Notion templates for paid subscribers—welcome to all you new folks ❤️).

Notion had a huge release this week: Brand and product teams should look at them as a role model in terms of how to strategically build up and share product releases to build hype—but moreover, brand love. I’m a Superhuman superfan, but did anyone else freak out when they saw Notion is making EMAIL?!

One other thing—I hosted a live session last week on how to brand your AI product or feature, with a bunch of fresh real-world examples. Catch the recording here (requires a free Reforge account). This space is evolving fast—don’t blink!

Today’s post gets into the power of research for brand teams. Keep reading for Q&A with Alec Levin, co-founder and CEO of Learners. He’s an expert in UXR and an all-around all-star human.

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Today’s post is hyper-relevant as we head into planning season (seriously, do not attempt planning without it). Planning, unless you’re really lucky and everyone’s already miraculously aligned, is usually where the most contentious topics get pushed to light—and brand operators, continually living in the realm of subjectivity, need all the evidence they can get to make their priorities objectively understood by the rest of the org.

That takes us to the powerful ally that brand teams may overlook: their research teams. In some orgs, this might be called User Experience Research (UXR) or User Research (UR). In others, simply Research or Insights. I’ve also worked in orgs who haven’t had formal research teams (but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a partner to help you conduct research, like Wynter). Research is often part of the product org, but some lucky teams have dedicated researchers within marketing.

Brand operators need to forge strong cross-functional relationships with pretty much every single team in the org—sales, customer support, legal, finance, product, etc., but the research x brand collab is a special one, and one that is essential to developing a brand that measurably resonates with your audience.

I saw this in full-force back when I was leading Brex’s rebrand. Research was the “secret weapon” that got us buy-in with executives to even kick off a rebrand in the first place; it played a major role in getting the alignment we needed, and it gave credibility to my intuitions as an emerging brand leader.

When to leverage Research

You might be wondering “At what stage of a branding project is research involvement most important?” Well, you’ll benefit at every stage. But if I had to pinpoint the most critical moments, I’d say there are two:

The discovery phase: Before you even think about logos or color palettes, Research can help you understand your audience’s perceptions, needs, and pain points. This foundational insight is invaluable in shaping your brand strategy. Definitely start with this whenever you can.
The evaluation phase: Once you’ve developed your brand concepts, Research can help you test them with your target audience. This ensures that your brand (and key messages or imagery) resonates and achieves its intended impact.

Leveraging Research in decision-making

Research is also crucial at inflection points, when you have to make decisions. Maybe you’re in an org with a Research team, and trying to figure out how to build the partnership beyond diligently attending any share-outs they put on the calendar. Some strategies I’ve found effective:

Create a feedback loop: Don’t treat Research insights as a one-time input. Establish a continuous feedback loop where Research findings inform brand decisions, and brand concepts are then tested and refined based on user feedback.
Visualize the data: Work with your Research team to distill big ideas and create visual representations of user insights. This can help make complex data more digestible for stakeholders (key for short attention spans).
Involve Research in brainstorming: Include Research team members in creative brainstorming sessions. Invite them to brand and campaign briefing meetings and kickoffs. Think of them as an informed third-party perspective to gut check you on whether your creative ideas are grounded in user needs.

Avoiding Research misconception traps

Don’t get caught up in these misconceptions about working with Research:

“Research will slow us down/Testing is too expensive” While it’s true that research takes (some amount of) time, involving Research early is likely to speed up the overall process by reducing the need for major revisions later. This. Is. Huge!
“Users don't know what they want” While users may not be able to articulate exactly what they want—or may present a say-do gap (see my post on why we need to kill “all-in-one”), skilled researchers avoid leading questions and uncover valuable insights about user needs and preferences.
“Research is just about usability” If that’s all you’re leveraging your Research team for, you’re losing out. Research can provide deep insights into user emotions, perceptions, and behaviors—all crucial for brand development.

The benefits of Research in Brand Strategy

Research in brand strategy and development is the Q to your James Bond (lol). They’re your gadget guy, arming you with what you need to face know-it-all decision-makers with questionable taste. 👅

Data-driven decision making: Research gives you concrete data to back up brand decisions, making it easier to get stakeholder buy-in. If they can’t hear it from you, you’ll up your chances of moving forward by having it come from a customer/prospect.
Brand-product consistency: If your Research team sits on Product, or centrally, and shares learnings cross-functionally, then you and the Product team are more likely to be working off the same learnings and assumptions. In turn, it’s more likely that you’re each building experiences that will be consistent with each other instead of shipping your org chart.
Better brand-market fit: Research is a critical input to product-market fit and especially brand-market fit. They help you figure out the emotional needs and motivations of your customer so you can create work that not only resonates but is differentiated from competitors who’ve also found PMF.
Risk mitigation: Testing brand concepts with users before full implementation can help avoid expensive mistakes. (Though if you’re involving research from early on in the process, it’s less likely you’ll make them in the first place.)
Competitive advantage: A brand informed by robust user research is more likely to stand out in the market—when you know how you’re going to differentiate, you aren’t blindly following trends or getting swept up in flavors of the week.
Increased ROI: A well-researched brand is more likely to connect with its audience, duh. And a brand that does this = better busine$$ outcomes.

To make this post even more tactical, I reached out to Alec Levin, a top voice in the tech/research field and co-founder of Learners (along with Maggi Mitchell), a community and education platform connecting researchers, designers and product people at top tech brands.

🎙️ Q&A with Alec Levin

KK: First, what do you primarily call research? Research? UXR? UR? Any thoughts on its place in the org chart?

AL: Personally, I just call it research. I think the broader term “Research,” rather than a subset like “UX research,” speaks to where I think the function is going: a centralized insights/research team with an executive leader reporting to C-suite.

KK: What’s misunderstood/what are some misconceptions about research as a field?

AL: Research is a unique part of the business because it doesn’t create any value for the organization directly. It’s mechanism of value creation is indirect, by helping others make better choices for the business. One of the reasons I believe in a centralized research function is that it allows for a research executive who can build close relationships with other executives. With those relationships in hand they can identify areas of risk and mystery that are critical to understand and resource a team of mystery-solvers (read: researchers) to sort it out.

KK: What advice would you give to brand teams looking to establish a stronger partnership with their research colleagues?

AL: My #1 recommendation is to regularly reach out to your research colleagues and say “Here are the big questions I have or problems I’m trying to solve, what do you think?” A great research team will be excited about these big questions and respond with two things. First, they’ll say, “Here’s what we already know about those questions and problems that we think can help.” Second, they’ll tell you how they can incorporate your questions into future research (either as a new project or attached to existing ones) to bring new information to address your questions. So the bigger the question or problem, the more excited a great research team will be.

KK: How can research teams help brand teams better understand and connect with their target audience?

AL: Please, please, please ask to join their user interviews. There’s so much you know as a brand or marketing professional that a researcher doesn’t, and you’ll be able to find value we’d likely miss. For example, you might hear a story that’d make for a great launch video, or some words that would be great to leverage for a brand campaign. Join in the sessions and you’ll not only get those benefits, but you can also ping your researchers to ask your own questions you’re interested in.

KK: How can research help brand teams avoid common pitfalls or biases in their decision-making process?

AL: Start early. Build a trusted connection. This is a relationship game, so spend time together. Researchers are only as helpful insofar as they know your goals and concerns.

Join me in saying thanks to Alec in the comments! Learners puts on incredible events and hosts an excellent podcast, which ✨ yours truly ✨ was on this month.

Listen here