How Maxio used brand awareness research to transform their marketing strategy

TL;DR: Running 2 consecutive brand awareness studies (2023 and 2024), and adjusting the marketing strategy based on the insights led to a 5% increase in brand awareness.

The Challenge

Three years after a major rebrand (merging two distinct companies into a new brand), Maxio's leadership team needed to understand their brand awareness in the market and justify strategic changes to their marketing spend. They faced several key questions:

• How well was their new brand known in the market?
• What was their brand awareness compared to competitors and legacy brands?
• How could they optimize their marketing budget to drive better results?

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The Solution

They turned to various market research agencies, got quoted $100,000 on the low-end, and $240,000 on the high end.

They ended up using Wynter for it, and got it done for just a little over $10,000.

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"We have to do market research to validate our strategic direction. This is the fastest, cheapest way to do market research" - Andrea Wunderlich, Head of Product Marketing at Maxio

Maxio used Wynter to conduct two comprehensive brand awareness surveys - one in January 2024 and another in November 2024. Working with a data analyst, they gathered insights across multiple dimensions:

• Aided and unaided brand awareness
• Brand sentiment through open-text responses
• Feature preferences and pain points across different buyer personas
• Awareness levels across various company segments (product-led vs. sales-led, pricing models, company size)
• Department-specific penetration and awareness

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Key Findings

The research revealed several crucial insights that shaped Maxio's strategy:

1. Brand Awareness Growth: While Maxio showed incremental improvement in aided and unaided awareness between surveys, they identified a significant gap between their current position and their target market presence.
2. Departmental Penetration: The study revealed that Maxio had disproportionately strong awareness within finance departments but needed to expand their reach across other key departments.
3. Market Segment Opportunities: The research uncovered specific areas requiring attention, such as startups with usage-based pricing models where awareness was lower than desired.
4. Buyer Preferences: Contrary to industry trends, their target audience showed a strong preference for sales demos when learning about their product, providing valuable insight for their go-to-market strategy.

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Impact and Results

The brand awareness research drove several significant changes in Maxio's strategy and operations:

1. Learn how aware ICPs are of the brand 

Maxio was able to take a pulse of Maxio's overall awareness in the market relative to competitors and then relative to the legacy brand names.

2. Marketing budget reallocation

The research data provided concrete justification to the board for increasing investment in brand awareness campaigns while temporarily reducing conversion-focused campaigns.

3. ICP refinement

Maxio completely revamped their Ideal Customer Profile scoring system based on the survey insights, moving away from their legacy scoring model to better reflect their current market position. This led to:

• Updated lead scoring in Salesforce
• Refined list segmentation
• Revised messaging and positioning
• Optimized ad campaigns

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4. Data-driven decision making

The research established a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives, allowing them to track improvements in brand awareness and market penetration over time.

4. Roadmap validation

Maxio validated which new features need to be prioritized.

Historically they relied on input from existing customers to drive roadmap decisions. However, knowing that Maxio's next set of customers likely won't look exactly like the current ones, it was important to seek input on key features/functionalities important to this "new" audience they are trying to capture.

Looking Ahead

Maxio continues to monitor the impact of these changes through metrics such as:

• Quarter-over-quarter demo requests from target segments
• Brand awareness in previously underperforming segments
• Penetration into new departments and business types

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By leveraging Wynter's brand awareness research, Maxio gained the insights needed to make strategic decisions about their marketing investments and focus their efforts on the areas that would drive the most significant impact for their business.

The comprehensive data gathered through these surveys not only helped justify important strategic changes to their board but also provided a clear roadmap for improving their market position and brand awareness across key segments.

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