The challenge
A leading luxury goods brand was tracking consumer perceptions and brand health across 15 countries in Europe and North America. Despite a long-standing presence in these regions, they noticed a dip in brand loyalty. Recent monthly brand tracking waves revealed a significant decline in Northern Europe, prompting concern among the leadership team.
When tasked with analyzing each region separately—zooming in on specific brands and demographics—the insights team was disappointed by small sample sizes and low confidence levels.
Consistency achieved using AI
The research team proposed using augmented synthetic respondents to boost both the current and the five previous waves, focusing on five key countries.
By integrating AI-generated boosts into their brand tracking studies, the team enriched their understanding of niche groups, achieving more consistent coverage and reliability in traditionally hard-to-reach regions.
This approach helped clear inconsistencies in the original under-sampled data. Once combined, the data revealed critical insights: the decline in brand loyalty was driven by environmentally conscious adults seeking more sustainable products.
Delivering granular recommendations
The augmented synthetic respondents allowed the research and insights teams to confidently pinpoint a sub-segment in a difficult-to-reach region. They also identified a growing trend: consumers in this group were shifting awareness and consumption to an emerging brand quickly gaining market share.
Armed with this information, the marketing team increased advertising investment in the region and tailored messaging to address the key priorities of this environmentally conscious group.
