soulsight®

Finding out what your consumer believes in isn't always easy. Focus groups can provide wonderful insight but they also harbor the innate pitfalls of observing people when they know you are watching. But observing consumers in their element, living the brands they are loyal to, provides us with such rich data.

This past weekend, our Soulsight team ventured out into the remote wilderness of Wisconsin to participate in the Warrior Dash. Billed as the most challenging and rugged terrain in the world. The experience was fantastic.

Our team purposefully entered this race with the intent of observing and participating in the revelry as an exercise in brand experience. Our mission was to not only have fun competing in one of the most grueling obstacle course races in the world but to uncover what drives participation in such tests and to see what brands people associate and interact with when they are there. We wanted to live the brand experience.

In the end, we had a terrific time and it helped further cement how important sense of community is to brand development. Loyal consumers have great passion for the brands of which they choose to hold the flag. Brand loyalty can be achieved in a variety of ways, but one common thread is that the consumers believe that the brand stands for what they stand for. That the brand's ethos reflects their own.

Our observations this weekend will help fuel our strategy and creative for a number of our clients. We observed over 6,000 people eating snacks, drinking beer and soda, dancing to music and washing off a ton of mud. What did they choose? Why did they make those choices? All great fun for those of us who love the world of consumer insights. We were as happy as pigs in slop.

Read more about the Soulsight Warrior t-shirts we screenprinted specifically for the event.