When a client comes to BrandIQ with a business question about their brand, product or service, we create an immersive experience that uncovers and brings key insights to life. For us, the most successful initiatives have been ones where we actually bring the client’s core team into a custom immersion itinerary we create for them, allowing them to observe, experience and internalize the opportunity that exists in a particular category. By physically exploring the current landscape of our client’s category with them, from food and beverage to automobiles, we inspire bigger picture thinking beyond primary research.
An immersion tour is an opportunity for a client to see how others are currently implementing ideas of interest in cool and creative ways. For example, it is helpful for a restaurant client that wants to leverage its breakfast business more, to experience that meal at some of the most successful and cutting edge locations in the city. BrandIQ plans a structured day-long excursion for the client and accompanies them on the different stops around town. Each location might have a different aspect of the experience that BrandIQ recognizes as a valuable component to consider for a ‘future-state’. Visiting multiple locations provides a more comprehensive understanding of what’s out there and why it’s hot.
We’ve found that conducting these tours in a group setting is always the best way to gain insight. This “co-inspiration” helps propel the learning on a tour. We employ intuition to guide us in these settings to better understand innovative solutions.
Many of our tours start in our own backyard – Los Angeles – an epicenter of style, arts, and culture. As a melting pot of ethnic and cultural diversity, Los Angeles is a natural birthplace of most lifestyle trends in America. The city’s momentum and energy attracts entrepreneurs here to test innovative ideas. Living and working in Los Angeles allows us to have our finger on the pulse of the latest trends in food, fashion, architecture and popular culture at large.
The immersion tour is just the beginning of our process. We consider this another type of research that has proven to be an exceptional way to connect brand teams to ‘future-state’ opportunities both near and long-term.