Overview
Speed Queen
Speed Queen is a leading manufacturer of premium laundry machines, famously engineered to last for decades. To better connect with their audiences, they looked to EPIC for consumer insights.
THE CHALLENGE: PERSONALIZE MESSAGING—WITHOUT GUESSWORK
Established on several social media platforms, each with a different audience demographic, Speed Queen’s Residential segment wanted to evolve its social media content strategy with more personalized, audience-relevant messaging on each platform rather than a “one-size-fits-none” approach. To inform our messaging, we needed a credible, scalable way to understand what actually drives laundry appliance purchase decisions.
THE SOLUTION: AI-MODERATED INTERVIEWS + DATA-DRIVEN PERSONA DEVELOPMENT
EPIC deployed a modern qualitative approach using AI-Moderated Interviews (AIMIs), followed by structured analysis, and integrating additional, Speed Queen-specific audience inputs:
- Primary research at scale: 229 AIMIs were conducted with U.S. participants who had purchased or planned to purchase a washer/dryer within a 12-month window.
- Bias control baked in: Interviews and questions did not mention any brands, ensuring needs and drivers emerged from the respondents organically.
- A rigorous analysis model: Responses were coded by participants’ primary purchase driver, then cross-tabbed across the full interview set to surface persona-specific motivations, challenges, messaging preferences, and user journeys.
- From broad market → brand-specific: AIMI insights produced six general population personas, grouped into three strategic clusters, creating a foundational understanding of the market.
- Speed Queen persona adaptation: EPIC then translated the six full market personas into four Speed Queen–specific personas, incorporating existing Speed Queen audience data and internal knowledge as their social media agency of record.
- Messaging validation baked in: Message testing confirmed which positioning lanes are most credible and motivating to each persona, putting us in a better position to quickly put the personas to work in messaging strategy and content development.
AIMIs let us capture a qualitative depth of information at a scale and cost that wasn’t realistic before. This allowed us to develop personas that use primary research in instances where we previously would’ve had to rely only on secondary sources or skip persona development entirely.
– Zak Becker, Director of Marketing Intelligence & AI, EPIC Creative
RESULTS: FASTER, MORE AFFORDABLE, BUILT FOR ONGOING USE
- Speed + efficiency: End-to-end execution—from discussion guide to final reporting—was completed in roughly one month, delivering faster insight without sacrificing depth.
- Cost impact: By combining the AIMI approach with our existing client and industry knowledge, we delivered actionable results at an estimated 25–40% of the cost of traditional qualitative persona development approaches used in prior projects.
- Activation-ready outputs: Included a full research report, in-depth Speed Queen personas, and a one-page reference guide designed to inform ongoing messaging and campaign development.
- A living framework: Personas were built to be dynamic and are ready for future enrichment through additional research waves, performance learnings, or new audience data.