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📣Marketing / AgencyStandard

Brand Perception Research

Discover how your target audience actually perceives your brand versus how you think they do.

Sender: Brand Strategist at Creative agency
Participant: Target Consumer — Purchased 2-3 times in past year
This is an illustrative example showing how Willit could be used in marketing / agency. All names, quotes, and data are fictional. We never use real customer interviews for marketing purposes.
1

The Brief

The sender described what they wanted to learn. Willit's AI refined these instructions into a natural interview flow.

I'm doing brand perception research for a client who makes premium everyday carry goods — wallets, bags, accessories. They believe they're positioned as a thoughtful quality brand. I need to test whether their actual customers perceive them that way or whether the positioning only exists in the marketing deck. This respondent has purchased from the brand a few times, so they have real experience with the product and the purchase journey — not just a first impression. **Gut reactions:** Before we get into anything structured, I want their word association with the brand. Three words. Don't let them overthink it. What comes to mind when they hear the name? **Discovery story:** How did they first find out about the brand? Word of mouth, Instagram, a review, a gift? The discovery channel tells you a lot about the community they've built (or haven't). **How they describe it to friends:** If someone asked them what the brand is, what would they actually say? This is the real positioning test — not how the brand describes itself, but how buyers describe it to others. **Trust level:** Do they trust the brand? What built that trust or eroded it? Packaging, materials, customer service, returns experience — what was the trust signal? **Where it lives in their routine:** Is this a daily-use product or does it come out for special occasions? How integrated is it in their life? **Competitive landscape:** What else are they aware of in this space? Do they see the brand as competing with other quality brands or with commodities? This tells me the real competitive set.
2

The Interview

Willit's AI detective conducted a standard interview with a Target Consumer. The conversation explored 6 topic areas through natural follow-up questions, adapting in real-time based on the participant's responses.

Capture unfiltered gut reactions and word associationsUnderstand discovery channelTest real-world positioning languageUnderstand trust drivers and erosion pointsUnderstand product integration in daily lifeMap the competitive landscape as perceived by consumers
3

The Report

Willit automatically extracted structured insights from the conversation — scores, goal coverage, key quotes, and red flags.

Interview Scorecard

EngagementSentimentDepthQualityCoverageCoherence

Metric Averages

Engagement
86
Sentiment
82
Depth / Accuracy
75
Info Quality
79
Goal Coverage
88
Coherence
84

Summary

The consumer associates the brand with quiet quality and intentionality — which aligns with the intended positioning. However, they primarily discovered the brand through a Reddit recommendation thread rather than the brand's own channels, and describe it to friends as 'the non-flashy option' — a passive positioning that differs from the brand's active identity language. Trust is high but was built through the product itself, not the brand's communications.

Goal Coverage

Covered

Capture unfiltered gut reactions and word associations

  • Immediate word associations: 'clean,' 'considered,' 'expensive' — noted that 'expensive' wasn't meant as a criticism
Covered

Understand discovery channel

  • Discovered the brand through a Reddit thread comparing minimalist wallets — the brand was recommended by multiple commenters as a 'hidden gem'
  • Never seen a brand ad or sponsored post — all exposure has been through organic community discussion
Covered

Test real-world positioning language

  • Describes the brand to friends as 'the wallet company that's not trying to be flashy' — positioning it against status brands rather than for itself
Partial

Understand trust drivers and erosion points

  • Trust was built entirely by the physical product quality — stitching, hardware, material feel — not by any brand communication

Gap: Did not explore whether they've ever had a negative experience or a product issue that required customer service

Covered

Understand product integration in daily life

  • Uses the wallet every day — has become 'invisible' in the best sense, meaning they never think about it
Covered

Map the competitive landscape as perceived by consumers

  • Considers the brand competitive with Bellroy and Ridge Wallet — not with fast fashion accessories or generic Amazon products
  • Chose this brand over Bellroy primarily due to the community recommendation and a slightly lower price point

Key Quotes

“It's the wallet you buy when you're done buying wallet-shaped objects. That's what I told my brother.”
“I don't think about it anymore. It's just there every day. That's a compliment.”
“I've never seen an ad for them. I found them on Reddit. And I trust Reddit more than ads anyway.”

Red Flags

  • Consumer describes the brand with negative positioning ('not flashy,' 'not trying to show off') rather than positive identity language — a risk if the brand ever needs to grow beyond its current niche
  • Brand communications described as 'forgettable' — high product loyalty is masking weak brand communication that won't scale to new customer acquisition

Follow-up Suggestions

  • Map and engage the Reddit communities where brand word-of-mouth is organically happening — this is an underused owned-community asset
  • Test messaging that gives consumers positive language to describe the brand, not just 'not-X' language
  • Run NPS study to quantify how much word-of-mouth the brand is currently generating through existing customers

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