P&A Insights 2016 Conference Paper: Cultural Psychological Market Research for KIK

Markets Brands Methods. This was the title of the Insights Congress 2016 organised by Planung & Analyse at the start of June. Rochus Winkler (concept m) and Lars Niersfeld (KIK 24) contributed to the conference by speaking on the experiences they have gained from research on the KIK brand.

Successful retail companies like KIK are very customer-oriented by nature. As a retailer with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, KIK is always in direct contact with customers and keeps abreast of the latest trends. However, examining the cultural psychological methods of concept m in more detail opened up new prospects to the company. The concept m trend radar was a key element in helping KIK to make a precise and actionable assessment of what the retail brand means for its target group and how the company allows its customers to share in cultural trends. KIK used this as the basis to develop target group personas which gave a boost to its business operations.

To begin with, the concept of cultural psychological research may sound a bit abstract to pragmatic marketers. But this research is founded on the following rationale: retail companies are successful when they harmonize the shopping culture they stand for with their own internal corporate culture and with the general social trends impacting overall culture.

In the ensuing panel discussion on “Creation or market research – who has the lead?”, Rochus Winkler put the idea to his researcher and agency colleagues of how far market research can be a source of inspiration. Ideally, creative market research and research-assisted creation should complement each other in a multi-stage process. However, how cooperative and coordinated the creation processes actually are always depends on the distribution of power and money too.