COMBINING Belief3 TOOLS TO UNCOVER NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
Fingercheck is a 10-year-old independent, mid-sized company in the $24B Human Capital Management (HCM) sector. This founder-led organization was looking for explosive growth and tasked their new marketing agency with analyzing the market, gaining deep knowledge of their customer, identifying the market opportunity, and executing a refreshed go-to-market strategy, including rebranding.
Veriphix applied the Belief3 suite of tools in a three-phased approach to deliver deep, nuanced, and action-oriented market and customer analysis in under 6 months and at a fraction of the cost of traditional market research and survey methods. Belief3 delivered these results using small panels of respondents and no Personally-Identifiable Information (PII).
In Phase 1, Veriphix applied the Belief3 Industry-Strategy tool (B3-IS) which used broad panels focused on American Entrepreneurs and their employees to identify key sales inflection points and opportunities for growth in the HCM sector. First, B3-IS tracked HCM-related belief changes and used them to identify the following sales inflection points for the HCM industry: (i) new product acquisition, (ii) replacement products (switching), and (iii) feature upgrades. Then Veriphix applied the Belief3 Industry-Demographic (B3-ID) tool to identify new key economic indicators that correlate to the inflection points, B3-ID was able to divide the HCM market stakeholders into two distinct belief and behavior categories: (1) Knowledge Work and (2) Hourly Work.
This new understanding of the different group belief structures between Knowledge Work and Hourly Work revealed that the HCM market is saturated with products and services built for Knowledge Work. This revealed that most HCM brand names, communications and customer experiences were rooted in Knowledge Work beliefs and behaviors that do not translate well to Hourly Work Small Business Owners.
Veriphix then used Belief3 Industry-Influence (B3-II) to identify nudges that uniquely affect Hourly Work Small Business Owners. For example, the B3-II nudges identified that ubiquitous Knowledge Worker terms such as “software” were believed by Hourly Work Small Business Owners to be products that were complicated, expensive, and not designed for Hourly Work Small Business Owner needs. In contrast, B3-II identified the term “apps” as inducing beliefs of useful business tools that were easy to use, cost-effective, and well-suited for Hourly Work Small Business Owners.
In Phase 2, Veriphix redeployed B3-IS and B3-II but focused on U.S. states with the largest number of Hourly Work Small Businesses, (respectively FL, TX, PA, and SC) to unearth group beliefs that would guide Fingercheck’s rebranding initiative. (The rebranding initiative included naming, brand foundation (Mission / Purpose / Values), product development, messaging, and consumer experience.
During Phase 2 B3-II unearthed a central belief for the Hourly Work Small Business Owner HCM market opportunity identified in Phase 1: Hourly Work Small Business Owners firmly believe that the people they do business with must be reliable and trustworthy. From Covid to supply chain issues, to inflation and conflicts overseas, dealing with uncertainty and seeking stability emerged as constant concerns for Hourly Work Small Business Owners. Security was also a belief central to these target customers: While overt patriotism (e.g., conspicuous “Made in America” branding) was seen as an unsophisticated ploy, subtle American themes around trustworthiness and security were very positively received.
In Phase 3, Veriphix worked with the marketing agency to design the go-to-market strategy, including the product roadmap and rebranding and deployed Belief3 Influence Testing (B3-IT). First, B3-IT tested key product features to differentiate which product features appealed most to Hourly Work Small Business Owners. This allowed B3-IT to identify the core features that drive user purchases regardless of the economic state of the market. B3-IT also uncovered secondary values for features that customers are reticent to admit (e.g., limiting unnecessary communication between employees and management) and identified associated nudges that enable the marketing agency to reinforce those secondary values in marketing material without needing to overtly advertise. B3-IT in combination with B3-IS was also able to optimize the market dependent features which allowed their selective use in sales during favorable economic conditions. This insight was used to re-prioritize products in development and create a simple app-based UI. Launch of the new Fingercheck brand is expected in late Q2, 2023.
AVOIDING THE UNKNOWN DISASTER WITH Belief3
In 2021, a cancer association and a famous Hollywood superhero movie star were in the final stages of developing a major advertising campaign to raise participation in cancer screening (colonoscopies) with the goal of saving 100k lives.
Veriphix’s original task was to measure the campaign’s impact and identify additional actors/artists well-positioned to extend the campaign to underserved portions of the population. Veriphix’s low sample size allows the Belief3 Health (B3-H) tools to be focused into specific demographics ideal for health equity related issues and allows B3-H to screen for individuals with specific medical conditions. Veriphix began with the B3-H tool and the Belief3 Industry-Influence (B3-II) tools to baseline the target population’s belief structure and identify influence metrics with respect to cancer and cancer prevention.
Then something happened: B3-II exposed a negative nudge—a landmine buried in the population’s belief structure.
Colonoscopies are typically performed under some form of sedation in a hospital or specialized outpatient setting. In late 2021 and early 2022, hospitals and medical facilities required all patients to be vaccinated against Covid. Yet this was a time when opinions about the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines were split and feelings about them ran high—especially in some underserved populations.
The B3-II system revealed that “colonoscopy” was a negative nudge connected to beliefs about vaccines and Covid. Encouraging people to get a colonoscopy (1) implicitly pressured people to get the Covid vaccine—a vaccine they were strongly resistant to—and (2) implied that failing to get a colonoscopy would result in almost certain death. In other words, the planned campaign would have a Hollywood movie star putting marginalized people in, what they would perceive to be, a no-win situation. (Someone may have muttered “F—ing coastal elites!” when Veriphix shared its findings.) That landmine did not surface in any prior research or in any of the meetings preparing and planning for the campaign.
Had that unknown-unknown remained buried, the adverse impact on the well-intentioned movie star’s reputation and on marginalized people’s willingness to get a colonoscopy would have been measurable, but not in a good way. You have not seen the movie star’s campaign yet. Due to the Belief3 results, its release was delayed and it is being re-written and re-filmed.
Which just goes to show that even superheroes need superheroes.
GETTING THE MESSAGE RIGHT WITH Belief3
One of the largest international media networks had a very important question: Should brands advertise during LGBTQ+ events? They came to Veriphix for help. Why? Because their current tool set, which included surveys and focus groups, was simply unable to answer the question. Social signaling and the need to conform often skews research. Humans also suffer from one key flaw that introduces error in traditional research: They tell you who they want to be, their aspirational self, and not who they actually are. By focusing on population-level belief (inter-subjective), the Belief3 tools are able to bypass the filtering and aspiration. We got to work. For this problem, Veriphix unleashed Belief3 Industry-Strategy tool (B3-IS) and Belief3 Industry-Influence (B3-II).
The client had a very specific request, so Veriphix used six (6) different B3-IS panels segmented into racial demographics (i.e., Asian, Black, Caucasian, Hispanic, Multiracial and General population). After baselining the panels, Veriphix applied Belief3 Influence Testing (B3-IT) and amplified the same message to half of each panel using an integrated testing feature in the panel interface.
The results? Don’t be a poser. Across all panel demographics the same result emerged. If a brand does not have an honest and constant relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, advertising during events such as PRIDE has a negative impact on your brand. The Belief3 results reinforced the importance of having an honest and meaningful relationship with your future market segments. Knowing how and when to interact with those new market segments is what increases revenue and makes your brand standout. We can help with that.
