The Art of Naming: A Case in Market Resonance

Challenge

A well-known global fast-food chain was gearing up to introduce a new product in a local market (Denmark). They were deliberating over several potential names, available in Danish, English, or a combination of the two. The primary objective was to settle on a name that would connect instantly with their clientele and subsequently boost sales.

Solution

To navigate this challenge, the chain utilised Sonar’s end-to-end AI-powered consumer insights platform to initiate a name test study. The approach entailed showcasing various naming options to customers, then collating their immediate impressions and understanding the rationale behind their preferences.

Results

One particular name emerged as a favorite due to its undeniable brand association. The study, however, highlighted some potential challenges related to translation and language blending:

• A direct translation of one term into Danish had an unintended negative association for some participants.
• Integrating both English and Danish in the name caused a bit of confusion among a section of the participants who were accustomed to seeing menu items predominantly in English.

Remarkably, the entire evaluation process, from setting it up to gathering insights, was completed in a single working day.

Impact

Choosing the right name significantly influenced the product’s success in the market. The item quickly became popular in Denmark. Furthermore, the naming exercise underscored the essence of sustaining brand consistency, especially in the language representation of their offerings.

Painting the Full Picture: How Jotun Explored Online Customer Behaviour

Challenge

Jotun, the leading Norwegian paint manufacturer, wanted to understand how current and potential customers began their search and found inspiration online when looking for paint.

This study was particularly interesting for the company since Jotun’s website did not have an e-commerce function. Therefore, when consumers visited its website, they would look for inspiration, but would eventually have to move ‘offline’ to purchase their paint.

Solution

Jotun picked a custom-made version of Sonar’s “Website” study, and let Sonar recruit 10 B2C users from its well-established Swedish market and 10 B2C users from the UAE, a new market in full expansion.

The study asked participants to complete several tasks on Jotun’s website. The goal was to better understand how the website met users’ needs in terms of their ability to locate and select specific indoor and outdoor paints, as well as find a Jotun dealer.

Results

The study revealed customers could perform all tasks with ease, and found the website visually appealing, easy to navigate and intuitive. However, they also wanted more e-commerce features – such as price comparison across dealers and the option to buy online, as well as additional customer stories, visuals and editorials for inspiration.

Impact

The company recognised its website had potential beyond being an inspirational hub. As a result, the digital team at Jotun received clear content directions from its customers, as well as the validation it needed to champion the company’s need for a website e-store.

Customer Empowered Marketing: The Strategy Behind Sydbank ‘Favorit’

Challenge

One of the great challenges in customer retention is to make your customers valued for their loyalty, without breaking the delicate equilibrium a new reward system may threaten.

To optimise its customer retention programme, Sydbank worked with Customer Empowered Marketing on its new customer loyalty programme ’Sydbank Favorit’, which rewarded customers depending on their level of financial engagement with the bank.

In order to make sure that the system would be well received and easy to use, Sydbank understood that gaining precious customer insights before launch would have been fundamental for the success of the programme. 

Solution

We helped Sydbank define the objective of its study – to discover if its customers understood the loyalty programme, were interested in using it, and appreciated how important it was for Sydbank to include them throughout the development phase.

Results

Sydbank tested its initiative several times, using the “Loyalty concept validation” study from our Marketplace. Every time, the bank got clear insights from its customers on video within a few days, which it then used to make minor adjustments to its ‘Favorit’ initiative before launch.

Impact

Thanks to real customer insights, Sydbank has had great success in launching its new customer loyalty programme. Almost half of the bank’s customers went through ’Sydbank Favorit’ – and almost 90% of those agreed to be contacted by the bank. Eventually, the programme would be nominated for the Danish Digital Award.

Insights That Matter: How Alm. Brand Boosted Newsletter Signups by 20%

Challenge

When it comes to communicating with your customers, choosing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it is essential. This is especially true for insurance companies: after all, when your job is to ensure your customers’ most valuable possessions, you want to be sure they will read and understand your updates without the risk of finding them irrelevant.

‍But how can you make sure your content is read and understood by all?
‍
‍For Alm. Brand, the answer laid in its newsletter. More in detail, the company wanted to understand what content was readworthy for its customers and use this knowledge to craft a compelling email series.

Solution

Sonar tested Alm. Brand’s newsletter using the ‘Newsletter’ study from its insights marketplace. For this study, Sonar interviewed 10 people from the company’s target group- half existing customers, and half not. This design gave insight into both biased and unbiased interactions and behaviour towards the newsletter, showing what content customers found really valuable.

Each interview was filmed and broken down into qualitative data, then analysed by a team of specialists and aggregated into a set of actionable, customer-backed insights.

Results

Alm. Brand received all full videos, an executive summary, and a report with 3 key takeaways, suggestions for next steps, and 9 concrete optimization points addressing potential initiatives to better reach its target audience.

Impact

With actionable insights from its customers, the insurance company had all the tools to reforge its newsletter and make it more attractive to its target group. The results were immediate: upon implementing some of these insights, Alm Brand increased its newsletter signups through referrals by 20%.

Revving Up Adoption: How Toyota Optimised Its Insurance Service

Challenge

Toyota was offering a new free insurance service named ‘Toyota Relax’ to all Toyota owners that serviced their vehicles yearly in any of its dealerships. The initiative aimed at retaining clients, increasing customer loyalty, and boosting customer lifetime value. However, despite the convenience of this new service, Toyota was not seeing the adoption rate it had hoped.

Solution

Toyota partnered with Sonar to conduct a concept validation test with its Danish customers. Sonar designed the study, recruited and interviewed the participants, and aggregated their feedback into a set of actionable insights on video. To minimize research bias, half the study participants already owned the service “Toyota Relax”, while the other half did not.

Results

The results of the test showed two key insights: existing service subscribers had no knowledge of how to use the ‘Relax’ insurance, whereas other Toyota owners were not familiar with the service at all. These findings gave Toyota a clear indication of the barriers preventing adoption, as well as how to optimize communication to both Relax subscribers and non-subscribers.

Impact

With clear customer insights, Toyota optimised its communication strategy across touchpoints. This led to a higher service adoption, increased customer loyalty and customer lifetime value.

Play to Win: How EPOS Validated Its Brand Strategy for Global Success

Challenge

How can you make sure customers worldwide clearly understand what your brand stands for?

When EPOS entered the gaming scene, it knew effective branding was critical to success. The company wanted to be recognized as a premium, high-quality gaming brand in a market already saturated with established competitors and die-hard loyal customers. Therefore, it began a thorough (and expensive) branding campaign.

After 12 months of intense brand positioning, and with its products ready to ship in more than 160 markets, EPOS wanted to see if its message was resonating with customers worldwide.

That’s when it reached Sonar to check the pulse of its brand perception among gamers.

Solution

Sonar and EPOS began their collaboration by identifying the scope of their research. They identified the main objectives of their research, mapped the target audience, set the screening questions, and agreed on the structure of the study. This led to tailor-made customer research that matched the needs of the audio tech company.

Next, Sonar recruited, screened and interviewed more than 80 participants from EPOS 3 biggest markets. After it analysed their feedback and aggregated them into actionable insights, Sonar provided EPOS with concrete, customer-backed recommendations.

Results

The insights were encouraging. EPOS was already perceived as a top-of-mind premium headset brand, thanks to the high quality of its audio products and its closeness with Sennheiser. In other words, the company had succeeded in its branding efforts, and it has the customer validation it needed to prove it.

However, gamers wanted more clarity on the business relationship between EPOS and Sennheiser. Furthermore, they also wanted the company to sponsor worldwide gaming events to increase its footprint as a gamer headset brand.

Impact

EPOS used the insights to refine its communication strategy, clarify its connection with Sennheiser, and place itself as an autonomous, fully-owned brand. It also began sponsoring multiple worldwide e-sports teams, as well as international gaming events like the FIFAe Finals 2022.

Today, EPOS has a strong presence on social media, with informative and engaging content that caters to the interests of the gaming community.

Thanks to Sonar’s insights, EPOS was able to streamline its marketing focus and strengthen its brand image within the gaming community. The commitment to providing the best audio solutions for gamers has earned them a loyal fan base, and their brand awareness continues to grow.

‍EPOS has found its footing in the gaming industry, and it’s only up from here.

Fuelling Up on Feedback: Circle K’s Customer-Led App Redesign

Challenge

Circle K was planning a major revamp of its main app. With a new prototype ready to be launched, the company wanted to ensure it offered the best navigation experience and communication clarity. Moreover, Circle K wanted to test the effectiveness of its new loyalty programme, and to confirm users would understand and utilise it at launch.

Solution

Sonar tested Circle K’s prototype using the ‘Prototype User Testing’ study from its insights marketplace. To ensure the lowest level of bias on the new prototype, Sonar evenly recruited participants between app users and non-users across different markets. Sonar then interviewed the participants and aggregated their feedback into a set of actionable insights.

Results

The test confirmed Circle K’s doubts about its new program: most customers liked the idea but found the overall message confusing. Additionally, the test showed that customers appreciated the updated features and sections, but suggested making the app more personalised to their needs and improving the readability of the icons.

Impact

Circle K got the customer validation it needed to cut decision time by up to 50%, streamline development efforts and roll out a new app with enhanced navigation and value to its customers.

Beyond Analytics: How Bambo Nature Used Customer Insights to Boost Online Sales

Challenge

Bambo Nature, a skin and eco-friendly baby products manufacturer, was looking for a way to boost conversions from its UK online store. The company’s e-commerce team was already using all of the traditional analytical tools, such as Google Analytics and A/B testing, to optimise conversions. However, it wanted to take it one step further and discover how customers experienced its website.

Solution

Bambo Nature needed rapid insights on video into the customer’s purchase experience. Therefore, the company decided to run a usability test with Sonar, using the ‘e-commerce flow’ study from the Sonar insights marketplace. Sonar then recruited participants in the UK market, interviewed them and aggregated their feedback into a set of actionable insights.

“Sonar’s easy-to-digest format and powerful insights helped us gain internal buy-in and quickly implement changes that benefited our customers.”

Helle Merrild Hansen, eCommerce Manager, Bambo Nature

Results

Sonar provided Bambo Nature with a comprehensive list of insights and customer-backed recommendations. The company was surprised by the results: the test revealed customers found the navigation intuitive, but struggled with confusing terminology and pop-ups interrupting the flow. Furthermore, it gained a clearer perspective on its customers’ pain points and barriers, validating some of its internal assumptions.

Impact

The insights provided by Sonar gave the e-commerce team the authority and validation it needed to make meaningful changes to its website and optimize it for maximum conversion.

A Window to Success: How VELUX Boosted Conversions with Customer-Optimised Webshops

Challenge

Although VELUX’s products are best experienced in person, many customers first interact with them online. Indeed, VELUX offers a variety of digital products including their website, apps, and other digital tools, to help their customers explore their product catalogue and make a purchase. Therefore, delivering a high-quality user experience is a fundamental need for the company.

To bolster online sales and improve the online shopping experience, VELUX renovated 2 of its webshops. The company set as a usability benchmark that at least 80% of its customers should be able to find what they were looking for on the two webshops within no more than 3 steps.

Solution

VELUX tested the two online stores with its customers, using a customised version of the ‘E-commerce flow’ study from the Sonar marketplace. By aggregating VELUX customers’ impressions, suggestions and reactions on video, Sonar compiled these results into actionable insights and recommendations.

Results

VELUX received all full videos, an executive summary and access to our insights dashboard, containing 3 key takeaways, suggestions for next steps and 10 concrete optimization points that described potential initiatives for our client to increase customer satisfaction.

Impact

By implementing these recommendations and taking action on its customer insights, VELUX reached its KPI and increased customer satisfaction and usability, which resulted in quicker customer purchase journeys and higher offline sales.

Breaking the Bank: How Santander Created a Money-Spinning Loan Application Flow

Challenge

As a leading financial service provider, Santander Finland was transitioning its service offering on its online portfolio. But there was a problem: large amounts of customers were dropping out during their online loan application process.

The challenge was clear: to improve the online application flow to reduce the drop-off rate and create a best-in-class online application process.

Solution

Santander first probed its customers to get feedback on its existing flow with a flow optimisation test. After it collected insights from the first testing round, the bank went back to the drawing table, editing its flow and presenting it to a sample of non-Santander clients.

During each testing round, Santander received usability scores, which it used to benchmark the two flows.

Results

Through iterative testing, Santander identified all highly critical issues in its flow and learned how to address them with precision and speed. Furthermore, by presenting it to a new audience, the bank discovered its new flow outperformed the old one in every single benchmark.

Impact

“Your process made usability testing quite easy for us. Before, there was a lot of hassle in conducting user research, but your process and approach were much more useful and easier for us”

Usko Manninen, Digital Marketing Leader (Nordics) at Santander Consumer Bank – Nordics.

Santander launched a customer-inspired flow that made online loan applications much smoother. As a result, online transactions grew markedly. More than that, the bank has now integrated customer insights into its production cycle, helping it make customer-inspired, more successful business decisions in a fraction of the time.