Taylor McKenzie Research & Marketing

Market Research, Fieldwork and Viewing Facilities

Strategic Insight Services

Insight to Action

Our approach is collaborative and our strategic insight is always actionable. Let us provide you with a solution to match your budget and needs.

Consumer Insight

Every project is different and we design each insight process with your specific needs in mind. Our end goal is always the same – to provide rich insights into how your consumers feel about your brand and how to most powerfully connect with them.

Segmentation

With consumer segmentation the most successful personas are those you have always known, you just haven’t fully met them yet. Our approach will bring your audience to life in a way that will allow all stakeholders to invest their full attention.

Brand Development

Whether you work for a large established brand that’s looking to adapt, or a start up looking to unlock a route to market, we have the strategic insight tools and experience to ensure you have the insight you need to drive change.

Brand Tracking & Satisfaction

Knowing how your brand is performing among its competitive set and being able to measure progress via your brands own KPIs can become a reality with our brand tracking services. Using our expertise and in-house tools, we can become and integral part of your business insight team.

Innovation

Concept testing and New Product Development is at the heart of a lot of work we do and we’ve become trusted innovation partners with many clients who understand the role strategic insight can play in helping to create desirable and differentiated product, membership or service experiences.

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We are proud to host two of Scotland’s premier viewing facilities

The Glasgow View

The Glasgow View

A relaxing and professional space, allowing researchers and clients to focus purely on the research in hand

The Edinburgh View

The Edinburgh View

A contemporary space, 2 minutes from Haymarket station

Vets Now - Pet Owner Segmentation

The Challenge:

48% of households have pets but Vets Now as a business knew very little about who owned them. They asked us to build a comprehensive and workable consumer segmentation that would help inform decision making within the business and inspire development of the brand positioning and visual guidelines for the brand.

What We Did:

Using both qualitative and quantitative insight we created 8 mind-set personas, defining their attitude to veterinary care, their key drivers of choice and key needs across different brand touch-points. We also engaged the Veterinary profession to test the consumer approach and how it might be delivered.

The Result:

This strong consumer and vet professional insight has driven the overall brand direction and planning for 2017/2018. It has helped revitalise the brand and provide a clear pet owner positioning and brand architecture encompassing new brand guidelines, toolkits and assets.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society - Membership Segmentation

The Challenge:

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) is the world’s foremost whisky club but in recent years membership has slowly declined. The SMWS wanted our help to define their audience,  understand the key drivers and barriers to membership and how the society could grow members globally.

What We Did:

Qualitative and quantitative insight identified 6 key whisky member ‘types’ and their key drivers of choice within the category.  Qualitative work in the UK revealed the role whisky played and how each member type wanted the society to engage with them. Quantitative insight helped to size the opportunity of each segment and identify which whisky types dominated in each of their key markets globally.

The Result:

This work has helped the society redefine membership product, proposition and benefits by mind-set type, improve the membership renewal process and communications and aid creation of a new visual brand identity.

Glasgow Subway - Brand Tracking

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The Challenge:

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) is the largest of Scotland’s seven regional transport partnerships running the Glasgow Subway and a host of specialist bus services. In 2010, SPT approved plans for an extensive upgrade of the subway network. As a result of these plans SPT wanted to commission research to measure and understand customer satisfaction across a broad range of issues to feed into the modernisation programme.

What We Did:

A series of quantitative usage and satisfaction surveys supplemented by qualitative mystery shopping trips and focus groups. We gained a detailed measure of satisfaction, identifying key drivers and detractors and measured the effectiveness of various marketing initiatives, customer service standards as well as understanding different passenger profiles.

The Result:

The Glasgow Subway is currently undergoing its biggest modernisation programme in more than 30 years and research carried out from 2009-2017 for SPT has informed many of the initiatives and improvements undertaken both on the sub-way system and bus services.

 

VioVet - Consumer Insight

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The Challenge:

Founded by vets, VioVet were one of the first online pet pharmacies but they were little known outside their local area. Working in partnership with creative agency MadeBrave we embarked on a programme of research and brand development to help VioVet become the national household name it is today.

What We Did:

Quantitative research to assess brand awareness and gauge consumer understanding of the VioVet offering. Qualitative work to further explore the competitive landscape, identify new opportunities for the brand and evaluate some new positioning territories and brand identity visuals.

The Result:

A more coherent and consumer friendly positioning and brand identity. Since the work in 2015 the brand has gone from strength to strength and is now the UK’s leading on-line supplier of pet food, pet medication, pet accessories and equine products.

Disney Kitchen - Innovation 

The Challenge:

Lightbody Ventures asked for our help to assess the market opportunity as they transitioned their Annabel Karmel and Disney products range into the Disney Kitchen Range.

What We Did:

An on-line survey to test appeal and propensity to purchase from the Disney Kitchen range including how the new design would impact perception and sales. Qualitative interviews and NPD taste testing with over 90 consumer across three new product ranges aimed at the healthy toddler snacking market.

The Result:

An understanding of the UK market,  purchase pathway and key drivers for this product type as well as clear direction on the packaging design route and characteristics that appeal most to their target audience. Watch this space...

AG Barr

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The Challenge:

Established in 1875 AG Barr owns some of the UKs best-loved and iconic soft drinks. Over the years we have developed a close partnership with AG Barr as part of their ongoing research and programme of NPD.

What We Did:

We have completed a variety of different innovation projects across AG Barr’s portfolio of drinks brands. Projects have included product trials, new concept testing, response to product prototypes and packaging design as well as more exploratory brand stretch opportunities.

The Result:

We continue to work with AG Barr as an NPD partner, as they investigate alternative categories to broaden their existing product portfolio and achieve a presence for Barr Soft Drinks within other segments of the soft drinks market.

AXA Female Entrepreneurs

The Challenge:

AXA were looking to significantly increase the proportion of female entrepreneurs on its books but they didn’t know how… They enlisted our help to understand the challenges women in business face, identify and build different entrepreneurial profiles and develop new insurance propositions to target this audience.

What We Did:

Building on previous quantitative insight we conducted some exploratory qualitative workshops with female entrepreneurs across different industry segments. We helped develop and refine a number of positioning territories to target this audience and provided guidance on brand Tone of Voice and content to aid targeting and communications development.

The Result:

Research has helped shape/develop a number of different ways in which to target this growing audience. Recently AXA  launched a mentoring program for women entrepreneurs in collaboration with “Global Invest Her”, an organization dedicated to helping women secure the funding they need to make their business ideas a reality.

Innis & Gunn - Innovation

 

The Challenge:

Innis & Gunn wanted a new visual brand identity but were unsure of which direction to take. They asked for our help to understand how a new re-design would impact on the their positioning in the craft beer market and to provide guidance on the most relevant design route to appeal to their core target and provide consistency across its core range.

What We Did:

Qualitative insight with beer drinkers in the UK to understand the changing dynamics of the craft beer landscape, perceptions of I&G, new packing design and brand architecture review.  An online study in their core markets UK, Canada & Sweden to understand overall impact and appeal of the different bottle and label design routes.

The Result:

This year I&G launched the new look across its core barrel-aged and craft-brewed beers range, helping to unify the brand and fuel its growth ambitions in the craft beer world.

Tennents - Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP)

The Challenge:

In uncertain times within the drinks industry in Scotland, Tennent’s wanted some clear strategic direction on the impact of MUP based on strong consumer insight. They wanted to understand the implications of MUP on their brands in order to maximise the opportunity it presented to the business as well as supporting a position of thought leadership within the industry.

What We Did:

Extensive quantitative work using a scenario based approach to understand consumer intention and a series of ethnographic interviews, accompanied shops and video work with our key target audience. This work allowed a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the impact of MUP on Scottish consumers and how their purchasing and consumption behaviour would change as a result.

The Result:

Guidance on opportunities for Tennent’s across the portfolio where product re-engineering could help grow their brands in terms of pack formats, ABV, vessel sizes. Understanding the hierarchy of brand attributes from a consumer perspective has also helped shape how Tennent’s could innovate further in a post-MUP landscape.

Scotland Supporters Club - Consumer Insight & Segmentation 

The Challenge:

Jock Stein famously said ‘Football is nothing without the Fans’ and the Scottish Football Association agree. They recognised that fans should be at the heart of what they do so they enlisted our help in 3 key areas – develop a new segmentation model to define different fan profiles, understand their football journey and how they interact with the SFA and feedback from fans on their membership packages.

What We Did:

Qualitative depth interviews and ethnographic sessions to develop an in-depth understanding of each fan profile bringing them to life through video and diary work. Quantitative segmentation to validate each profile and size their potential in order to identify how we can target them more effectively across membership and media channels.

The Result:

This work has helped develop and reinvigorate the new 18/19 membership packages and the new segmentation model will inform and guide the SFA’s communication, marketing strategy and commercial focus going forward. Take a look at the Scotland Supporters Club

SCEL - Usability

The Challenge:

The Scottish College of Educational Leadership (SCEL) have recently relaunched their online learning platform, The Framework for Educational Leadership. Despite a growing user base, traffic and activity on the site have remained low so SCEL wanted to understand how they could improve the site to make it work more in

What We Did:

We conducted a series of usability testing sessions with SCEL’s target audience of GTCS registered teachers. Using qualitative interviewing techniques and our desktop usability setup, we were able to explore the user journey in detail, understand how well each part of the site was understood and identify improvements to be made to the layout and functionality of the site.

The Result:

We were able to identify the main barriers and stumbling blocks that were stopping teachers engaging fully with the CPD resources that SCEL has on offer. We were able to  recommend changes to help drive users towards the site and make it easy for them once they arrive.

The SSE Forums - Consumer Insight

The Challenge:

Dedicated to delivering the best customer service experiences in the industry, SSE wanted a means to connect with their customers over an extended period while also engaging senior stakeholders in the business.

What We Did:

We developed the ‘SSE Forum’ which has been running for the past 6 years.  Held quarterly across 4 different locations across the UK it takes the form of a workshop-style session with a regular panel of customers and invited industry experts to chair and debate current issues within the business. It offers the chance to review customer service experiences and explore new product and service propositions.

The Result:

We have developed a strong partnership with SSE over the years and the forums now form an integral part of their business used to address various strategic issues. This customer-centric approach has paid dividends as SSE regularly top independent league tables for high standards of customer service.

Tennent's Pints with Punters - Brand Development

The Challenge:

Tennent’s wanted a fresh way to interact with their core target audience and engage key stakeholders on a number of ‘hot topics’ facing the brand and broader category.

What We Did:

We developed a new methodology ‘Pints with Punters’ – fast-paced, co-creative sessions with punters on-trade. Sessions involve several moderators, client teams and key stakeholders working together in groups or individually in ‘speed date’ scenarios with punters. They flex and evolve to suit the needs of the research and allow punters to creatively share, debate and own the problem and solution for the client.

The Result:

Stakeholder engagement and regular touchpoints with core target helping to provide direction on big issues like MUP,  guidance on packaging, new comms or product testing.