B7 has worked with RDSI to create a breakthrough quant. methodology that offers both massive breadth and the tightest precision for brand positioning. The technique allows brand owners to compare every potential positioning, layered with different tones of voice and brand personality, to isolate the most compelling vision. And unlike any existing quant. system, the winning positionings are mapped on one simple graph showing their ‘Golden Score’ – how they performed in terms of consumer appeal, difference and memorability. It’s like having GPS for your strongest possible brand positioning.

The power of this methodology lies in the use of B7’s Adcepts. These are like simplified press or poster advertisements and up to 80 can be shown to consumers in research. Unlike concept statements, the advertising format is familiar to consumers who can quickly decide which ones are interesting and which ones are not. Each respondent sees 30 Adcepts, arranged in five pages of six on a computer tablet. They choose the ones they like in much the same way as they would choose a date on Tinder. Because time is tight, they are reacting in a similar way to how they would in the real world, with emotion at the heart of their decisions, thinking in an intuitive ‘system 1’ mode.

Not only does this technique encourage system 1 thinking, it also allows us to test a much larger number of themes and tones by presenting so many Adcepts. That means that almost any potential positioning can be explored and compared from a variety of angles. This is very different from concept statement testing where typically only six themes can be evaluated. The B7 technique makes every idea compete against every other idea, with the strongest emerging from the pack to produce the most compelling possible positioning for your brand.

As well as showing what ideas work best, the methodology allows for dialogue with the respondents to pick apart why they made the choices they did, to add richness and rigour to the findings and to explore any questions thrown up by the results.

Commenting on the new quant. technique, B7 founder Paul Tidmarsh comments “Modern life would be impossible without the power of GPS. Now the precision and certainty of GPS can be applied to modern brand positioning.”