Nursery Goes Deeper into Brand Response

In the UK, qual agency the Nursery has launched a new approach which aims to get closer to emotional and intuitive responses to brands.

The service is led by former Hall & Partners MD David Alterman, who joined the firm as a Partner last year to develop the new qual/quant capability. During his career Alterman has also worked at ACNielsen, Audience Selection and RSGB.

Firstly, the firm assesses top of mind associations which are then charted as 'brand clouds' in order to provide an insight into how people regard brands visually.

Then the firm analyses proximity to the brand - how close people feel to it - using drag and drop measures for the brand and its competitors. Recognition (not recall) of brand communications materials is also assessed.

Outlining the new service, Alterman explains: 'We come at the image issue projectively using picture sort exercises that give us a great read on the social context in which the brands are consumed. It's a wonderful way of uncovering what people feel a brand stands for and says about them.'

Respondents are also involved with 'encounter tracking' to alert Nursery when they come across a brand by either buying it, seeing its ads, or having conversations about it. Alterman says that this approach is 'significantly better than conventional research' at picking up more of the influences on brands and the effects of integrated marketing.

Based in London's West End, The Nursery was co-founded in 2001 by Peter Dann, Lucy Banister and Chris Forrest.

Web site: www.the-nursery.net .