Susan Fournier, Boston University

Using ZMET to Develop Brand Positioning and New

Irving Oil Limited is a family-owned and privately-held regional energy processing, transportation, and
marketing company headquartered in St. John, New Brunswick with U.S. marketing operations in
Portsmouth, N.H. The company serves customers in eastern Canada and the New England region of the
US, marketing and distributing energy products including gasoline, diesel, home heating fuel, jet fuel, and
lubricants. Irving Oil also provides natural gas to residential and commercial customers in New Brunswick.

Over the past several years, steps have been taken to develop the master brand. These include: update of
the Irving logo and trade dress across the company, updating of physical assets, redesign and relaunch of
the irvingoil.com website, and development and implementation of the “Irving Promise” for all marketing
and business lines. A corporate reputation advertising campaign, “What If,” has also been executed, albeit
at low levels of spend. Research suggests that these activities have improved equity in the corporate
(master) brand.

Still, the corporate brand building task is in its infancy. Much of the early work (e.g., logo and website
development, upgrading of facilities) lays foundations to enable corporate branding versus attending to the
higher-level strategic branding tasks that must be done. Moreover, although a set of master-brand
activities have been engaged, it is arguable whether these comprise a carefully constructed, purposively
integrated, long-term plan for corporate (master) brand development, as based on a data-driven, strong
positioning for the corporate Irving brand. Without this basis and orientation, value creation cannot be
maximized. Customer loyalty and product/brand extension opportunities will escape the brand.

Management at Irving has decided that the place to start is with a strong, resonant, and compelling brand
positioning that can help the firm create and capture value. Recent internal discussions suggest that the
current positioning platform (“Making consumers’ lives easier and simpler”), while effective for the delivery
of operational excellence at retail, does not provide an informed and solid basis for the corporate brand.
While management has a clear picture of the brand’s relative performance on basic attributes (e.g., price,
quality, friendly staff, clean bathrooms), an understanding of the deeper meanings and emotions associated
with the gasoline retail category is lacking. Further, research shows that the brand is low on and losing in
personal and cultural resonance, though an understanding of the causes of this disconnect are simply not
known. Some in the company support a positioning based on environmental leadership; others feel the
price/value game is what the brand should play. In the end, these are just uninformed personal opinions:
there is no meaning-based consumer research to ground a positioning recommendation for the brand.
The Study
Irving Oil conducted a ZMET study to inform development of a corporate brand positioning and
identification of new product/service concepts that can create and capture value while enabling and
supporting the brand positioning itself. The study was conducted at the category level and probed people’s
“thoughts and feelings about buying gasoline.” The logic behind this study design was this: if Irving was to
better serve its customers, it had to first understand and appreciate people’s functional and emotional
needs with respect to the category. An understanding of the brand offering within this context—the brand’s
relative strengths and weaknesses, and its performance against category meanings—would flow from the
foundation that category meanings would provide.

Sixteen participants were interviewed. Half were average buyers of gasoline and half were heavy users,
based on number of station visits per month. Brand loyal customers and brand switchers were equally
represented. Informants were spread across age (less than 30, 30-49, 50+), income (less than $35k, $35-
$74k, $75k plus), and gender categories.

Exhibit I contains respondent preparation instructions for the ZMET study (note well, these are the
instructions to the people (respondents) who participated in the research study. You do not have to bring
any images to class for our discussion of this case). Exhibit II (provided to you in class) contains a portion
of the interview data. These data consist of roughly 120 images provided by consumers in response to the
question: “What are your thoughts and feelings about buying gasoline today.” The exhibit provides a brief
capture of the words informants used to describe the meanings underlying the images they selected.
Exhibit 1: ZMET RESPONDENT INSTRUCTIONS

We are interested in your thoughts and feelings about buying gasoline today.

Imagine that you had to describe to someone without using words, your experience buying gas in
today’s market, and how that experience makes you feel.

To prepare for the interview, we want you to do the following:

Please select 6-8 pictures that express your thoughts and feelings about buying
gas today.

Your pictures may come from any source…such as magazines, newspapers, family albums…or even
photos you take specifically for the assignment.

Please do not bring in pictures of oil refineries or gas stations.

Also, please do not bring in ads for oil companies.

Rather each picture should express an important thought…or an important feeling…that you have
about buying gas today.

This is not a “contest” to find beautiful pictures or the most clever pictures. These pictures should have
meaning to you…and you only. They are to express your personal thoughts and feelings. There are no
right or wrong answers.

For example, in an unrelated project, one participant used a picture of a sleeping child to express the
experience of peacefulness, while another person brought in a picture of a pot of boiling water to
represent their feelings of anger. In another project, a person used a picture of a soldier to express the
feelings of trust and security they felt when dealing with their bank.

One last reminder: It is important that you bring to the interview at least 6 pictures, and no more
than 8 pictures, to express your thoughts and feelings about buying gas today. If you have more than
8, please select the most important 8 pictures to discuss during our meeting.

Note: Please be sure to bring all of your 6 to 8 pictures to the interview. During that
meeting, we will discuss the pictures you selected.
Consulting Assignment to be completed IN-CLASS

Your task is “to make sense of the ZMET data” so as to develop a deeper understanding of the category
from the consumer’s point of view.

Each team will be given data from a group of respondents. Separate the pages so that every person on the
team has one sheet to analyze.

Individually: Create a concise summary of the central meaning conveyed in each image. What concept is
being expressed in the first image? The second, etc? Can you provide a “label” for the meanings
underlying each image?
As a Team: Discuss the individual interpretations as follows.
1. What are the central themes being expressed by consumers?
2. Organize the various themes/ideas based on similarity; in other words, what themes go together?
What themes stand alone?
3. Are there other “higher level” constructs reflected by the themes your team has identified?
4. Is there any structure to the themes you have identified? That is, does one theme result from
another? Are any themes causes of another theme, or consequences of the same?
5. What are people not saying? What can you infer about the functional, psychological, or high-level
emotional benefits desired by consumers in this category?
6. Develop a brand positioning statement that takes into account people’s interpretations and
experiences of gasoline. What is the brand mantra for the Irving brand?
7. What advice/recommendations can your team offer Irving Oil based on your analysis of the
qualitative data?