Emotional-IQ - Testing an Ad Campaign for a Retailer

Challenge

Conn’s HomePlus, a home goods retailer with over 140 stores across the southwest, planned to launch a brand-new television campaign aimed at a higher opportunity consumer target than their established customer base. The campaign had the potential to be perceived as a big departure from their brand image and they wanted to be sure it would appeal to both their existing customer base as well as the newly identified opportunity consumers.

Insight

Advertising testing traditionally focuses on a System-2 approach – likeability, ease of understanding, believability, memorability, etc. But this analytical thought process is much slower than what is naturally activated when someone is watching a 30-second spot. That’s where Emotional-IQ comes into play.

Solution

Level 7 Market Research designed an online approach to address System 1 decision making – the brain’s faster, automatic, intuitive thought process. Our approach, something we call Emotional-IQ, is designed to capture reactions to ads that are driven by emotions and cues that can drive impulse purchases. These reactions are then scored and evaluated to define an ad's effectiveness tipping point.

Emotional-IQ works by first asking respondents to assign each spot with the emotion they felt when viewing the ad, and then they’re asked to rate those emotions for the level of intensity they felt.

Level 7 conducted a 15-state study segmented by credit score as well as a Spanish speaking target. In total, 800 respondents watched four different spots and completed a series of exercises using both Emotional-IQ, System-2, and Forced Choice.

Results

The research showed some surprising results. While the traditional method of the slow, analytical reaction to the advertising showed middling results with very little separation, the Emotional-IQ approach showed a clear and definitive winner across all segments. Not only that, but the wining spot also rated well above the tipping point for a successful ad – making the choice for the new brand direction an easy decision.