Mostly, explicit measurement methods are used in market research, for example to measure the opinion and attitude towards a product or a brand. But consumers unconsciously learn much more about brands and products than they are aware of and can explicitly name. And deliberate, conscious answers about one’s own attitude are often distorted by social desirability and social norms.

To account for these intuitive and automated decision-making processes from System 1, implicit measurement procedures are often used in research. Implicit measurement procedures minimise these effects of social desirability by requiring respondents to give their ratings spontaneously, leaving them no time to consider whether or not their statements are socially conforming. In addition, they allow for the elicitation of intuitive and unconscious opinions and attitudes.

intervista has a reaction time-based method that has been tried and tested over many years and which enables the measurement of such spontaneous and automatic reactions in the millisecond range. We integrate this measurement method into our online questionnaires and can thus link the classic explicitly collected survey data with such reaction time-based data. The reaction time-based measurement can also be used on mobile devices. Since, in contrast to academic research, filling out online surveys is not a controlled laboratory situation, a lot of experience is required in setting up such a measurement and in evaluating and interpreting the reaction time-based data.

Our reaction time-based measurement can be used in many ways: For example, in advertising effectiveness measurement, product research or even sponsorship fit analyses. We often use it in the context of brand positioning and image research, because the image of companies is largely based on such subtle attitudes that have been learned over many years and are not conscious.

We present the results of the reaction time-based image measurement in the brand space. This shows all the dimensions that are important for the company. For each dimension we can calculate a so-called fit index, which shows how the measured brand is mentally linked to the dimension among customers (or non-customers). In cooperation with you, we define the relevant brand values and the competitors to be included in the measurement. Depending on the specific question, different analyses can be carried out:

• A company can develop a TARGET profile in internal company consultations or by means of a survey of the target group, which is then compared with the ascertained ACTUAL profile in the brand space. In this way, differences to the TARGET profile can be quickly identified.
• ACTUAL profiles can be presented separately for different groups of respondents, e.g. for customers versus non-customers of a company. This helps to identify “gaps” and provides indications in which direction communication and assortment should be optimised in order to arouse interest among previous non-customers.
• ACTUAL profiles of different companies can be compared with each other. In this way, it is possible to quickly find out where the Unique Selling Points exist compared to the competitors and where, on the other hand, the company is performing worse. This also provides indications of “gaps”, i.e. image aspects that need to be improved in the benchmark.