Logo Focus Group

Focus groups are a very powerful tool to gain information to help bring more attraction to a company’s website or business. It allows feedback and insight from the targeted consumers perspective, which is mainly what a business wants because they are the target market. Below is a list of what I’ve learned about creating a focus group to re-branding an existing identity.

• Normally re-branding an existing identity means something isn’t working with their current identity. Seeking the opinion on the existing logo will help determine why the logo doesn’t work and a possible redirection for the brand.
• The target market should be a mixture of business and personal associates. It’s also good to ask family members and friends.
• Questionnaires are great for collecting data that’s relevant to your logo design project. Because the same questions are asked to everyone, comparing data is made easy. Most importantly, greater insight into your target audience is received.
• Close ended questions that leads to a yes or no answer doesn’t really give insight. Do not discuss existing logos because it may be answered with brand loyalty.
• Keep questions concise and relevant to what you want to know about the habits of the target market.
• Focus group testing with logo designs is very important if entering foreign markets where there’s no idea about culture and customs. The reason for the focus group is because some words may be offensive when translated in different languages. Simple images and shapes may imply something negative or rude.
• Print out initial logo design concepts, and pass to the focus group. This gives a good return on investment, which means being able to understand how the logo concepts affect people with different backgrounds.
• Use open-ended questions to unlock insights. This is to understand the reason and emotions behind their reasons. Ask why a statement is being s aid, and take notes of first impressions as well as any changes in reactions.
• Find out associations with the brand  attributes. Find out what’s missed out. The stronger the connection of the logo to the businesses purpose the better. Ask questions on what to improve. Just listen to the ideas.
• Compare logo against your main competitors. Find out where the logo stands relative to existing brands or businesses in your industry. Find out if it’s distinctive enough to get recognition amongst other logos.