Performance Institute Vol. 7

Understanding art from a branding point of view

With Erik Hallin

About this study

The purpose of this study has been to measure quantitatively what our readers perceive about Erik Hallin (@erikhallin25) art. By measuring 13 key components distributed along 5 sections it has been possible to understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of Erik’s art according to our readers. This research has been based on the following 9 photographs.

Research question

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Erik’s art?

In order to comprehend what our readers think and perceive about Erik’s art, 14 questions were used. The questions were grouped in 5 sections. Each section had a main research question:

Section 1. Reach

Main question:

How many of our readers think that they know the name of the artist based on 9 photos?

Subquestion:

1. I know who captured these photographs. YES / NO

Section 2. Art

Main question:

What do our readers think about the 9 photos from an artistic and technical point of view?

Subquestions:

2. I have seen these compositions already. YES / NO

3. The colors used in these images are appealing to the eye. YES / NO

4. These images have been well exposed. YES / NO

Section 3. Charisma

Main question:

To what extent do our readers think that the 9 photos represent a charismatic artist?

Subquestions:

5. These images inspire me to travel and go outdoors. YES / NO

6. Based on these photos, I can say that this artist can tell a story visually. YES / NO

7. Based on these photos, I can say that this artist has a unique style. YES / NO

Section 4. Brand

Main question:

What do our readers perceive about the 9 photos presented from a branding point of view?

Subquestions:

8. These photos stand out of the crowd. YES / NO

9. This artist is a professional photographer. YES / NO

Section 5. Future

Main question:

What do our readers think about the future of the artist based on the 9 photos presented?

Subquestions:

10. This artist has more than 10k followers. YES / NO

11. I would like to hang at least one of these photographs in my house. YES / NO

12. I would like to follow this photographer. YES / NO

13. The word that best describes the art of this photographer is…

14. If I could give an advice to the artist, I would recommend her/him to…

Methodology

14 questions were asked to our readers via “instagram Stories”. This is a new format that allows researchers to ask questions to a specific segment of the market – composed by the most devoted users of the Instagram account. The responders are normally strongly attached to the corporate brand.

Initially, each reader had 15 seconds to answer each question. This is an ideal timing for them to provide an instinctive and spontaneous answer. Yet, they could go back to the previous question in order to read it again (if necessary) and provide a meaningful and trustworthy answer.

The first question was answered by 213 readers. However, question number 12 (the last multi choice question of this survey), was answered by 179 readers. Some of our readers did not provide an answer to all the questions, reducing the reliability of this study.

Results

Erik is a 25 years old photographer based in Gothenburg, Sweden. He works for STS Education (a student travel organization) as a content producer and his mission is to inspire young kids to go abroad and travel the world! In order to give him a little push in his career as a visual creator, our readers shared with him valuable feedback to understand better his work and brand. Here are the highlights!

From an artistic point of view, our readers evaluated Erik’s work pretty well. Even if the compositions could be more original (as most of the responders have seen these compositions already), the colors used in these images are appealing to the eye (86%) and have been well exposed (82%) according to the results.

Furthermore, we could say that Erik is a charismatic artist and this feature is one of Erik’s strengths as a creator. This is because these images inspire our readers to travel and go outdoors (86%) and they also think that Erik can tell a story visually (81%).

On the other hand, the responders don’t think that Erik has a unique style (51%) and according to the results these images don’t stand out of the crowd (54%). But, they do think that Erik is a professional photographer (71%). Within this question and among the 7 surveys we have done so far, this has been the highest point of agreement.

‘Moody’ is the word that best describes Erik’s art according to the results. Interestingly, most of the recommendations to Erik suggest him to use more color, apply softer shadows, or add more light for instance.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Erik seems to have a bright future as an artist! According to the results, the 70% of our readers think that Erik has more than 10k followers, most of them would like to hang at least one of these photographs in their house (65%), and a great number of the responders (69%) would like to follow Erik’s work in the future!

Subquestions – Results