Uncover Unscripted Insights

RBC Enterprise Brand, Metrics & Insights

Context

RBC was launching a program that would provide financial support to Youth to better prepare them for the changing world of work. There were internal debates on the use of ”Scholarship” as the program name. The program was intended to be offered to ALL students, but “Scholarship” might suggest that the program was only for academically successful students. The research was conducted to test “Scholarship” along with a few other potential program names.

Research

We conducted online one-on-one interviews/conversation-style surveys led using inca with 500 Youth across Canada in May 2019. Before we prompted participants with possible associations with each of the names, we asked for spontaneous free associations, and whom they thought the program was for, in their own words.

Prompting users with a list could lead to confirmation bias, as seen in the Rank Order Associations (left). Spontaneous Free Association (below) showed that while “academic excellence” came to mind, alternative associations beyond hypotheses were dominant.

Outcome

The unprompted responses suggested that ”Scholarship” was interpreted as “money”, “funding”, for “students” or “anyone”. Academic excellence was mentioned as well but not dominant. It was a stronger word overall in terms of overall liking, relevance and clarity. RBC moved ahead with the decision of using the word Scholarship as the program name.