Our previous article (How to research a brand) underlined the importance of writing a clear brief for the research team. A good brief makes your life much easier, because it makes sure that the research will give you the insights that you need to make decisions.

When writing a brief, try not to use business jargon. (Sometimes, people are guilty of hiding their uncertainty and lack of clarity behind pompous language, and this always results in a lack of direction.)

The brief should include six things:

1. A brief overview of any background that the research team might find useful
2. What you want to find out (the objectives of the research)
3. Who you want them to ask (your target audience)
4. Your budget
5. When you’ll need the research to be completed
6. What decisions the research will help you to make.

Here’s an example. It’s based on a fictitious pet food company. (But having written this brief, we quite like the concept. If you’re a venture capitalist with deep pockets, feel free to get in touch.)

Brand research brief – pet food company

Background

We sell premium pet food. But our brand is much more than that.

We’re all about treating your pet to something special. We believe that pets are family, and deserve to be treated like the mini-celebrities that they are. So we create retail spaces where the food and pet treats are displayed like the food hall in Harrods, and we invite our pet carers (we don’t call them ‘owners’) can browse and get recommendations from our pet treat sommeliers.

We know that a brand positioning, and a retail proposition like this invites controversy and sometimes, ridicule. We’re fine with that. We positively revel in it. Our brand is sufficiently self-aware to be slightly tongue-in-cheek: we know that the whole thing is a bit over-the-top, but that’s what our clients love. Our central belief is that in a troubled world, being able to indulge and luxuriate in your absolute love for your pet is a source of deep comfort and pride. Our Insta-ready retail outlets are featured in hundreds of selfies, and our social media team handles the haters with sass, wit and defiance.

What we want to find out

We want to find out whether our brand values would credibly support an expansion into a ‘pet spa’ proposition, in which pets and their carers would stay at prestige rural locations for a day’s pampering. We also want to find out whether men instinctively reject the brand as being too feminine, or whether we can appeal to a male audience.

Our target audience

We know that our brand is loved by younger women with a strong sense of fun. They tend to be pre-kids. They have a child-like side which they love to indulge in public, and their social media activity reflects this. Their disposable income is sufficient to permit affordable luxuries for both themselves and their pets.

(For details of our target audience, see our brand strategy document.)

As detailed in the ‘what we want to find out’ section above, though, we also want to find out what men think about the brand. We are specifically interested in younger, wealthier, city-dwelling young professional men aged 20-35.

Our budget

Initially, £15k

When we need this work to be completed

We need a full debrief of this research to be completed by September this year.

What decisions this research will help us to make

We want to find out whether our target audience’s perception of our brand would allow us to expand into new areas, including pet spa treatments and pet designer clothing.

We also want to find out whether we can appeal to a specific male audience, or whether it would be better to concentrate our brand on women and to limit our advertising channels to female-orientated outlets.