Brand building with influencers for market research – This is how you build a brand from scratch in 2026

For a long time, brand building went like this: You have an expensive branding implemented over a long period of time by an agency that, at most, checked whether the path was the right one via a focus group. After months, a product is created that may or may not suit the market and target group. This makes the classic route slow and expensive, and you also lack real-time feedback. By the time you know whether your target group understands your message and needs your product, your competition has already launched the next product.

Social media has completely changed this path. You see in real time what your target group wants, what terms they use and what content interests them. Influencers can become your most important interface: their community reacts authentically to products and ideas and shows you which path you can take. If you use influencers correctly, market research and brand building can be achieved at the same time.

When brands approach influencer marketing agencies, they see campaigns primarily as an advertising medium. At least as important as the increased performance after successful campaigns are the insights they provide. Each individual collaboration provides you with important data from which you can learn:

• Comments & Questions show you unfiltered and in their own language what needs, insecurities and wishes your target group really has.
• Saves & Shares provide information about which content and messages really spark interest and are not simply lost when scrolling.
• A Sentiment Analysis shows how your target group perceives your brand and what values they associate with it.
• Direct community feedback provides you with unfiltered reactions in the form of questions, criticism and enthusiasm that no market research report can provide in such detail.

Influencer campaigns – whether via Instagram, YouTube or Twitch – are generally faster, cheaper and, above all, more authentic than classic studies. You reach your target group in their everyday life and get direct feedback that is not packaged in survey formats.

You can divide brand building with influencers into three phases. Campaigns with companies like HelloFresh or Enpal have shown us that influencers can support you in all phases and help your brand succeed. Of course, different formats, platforms and influencer reach make sense depending on the phase. That's why we'll show you how to best use them and when.

Before you have even decided on a logo or brand name for your company, the very first step you can take is to cooperate with influencers. In the pre-launch phase, campaigns are ideal for product and concept testing. You can integrate these elements in different ways:

• Low-threshold feedback tool: Community surveys via influencer channels
• Analyze trends and language patterns: How does your target group speak? How would she like to be addressed?

Micro and nano influencers can support you particularly well. Although they have fewer followers than Makro or Mega Influencers, they have a particularly loyal community with a high level of engagement. They have a very direct connection to the community and give you similar, meaningful feedback as if you were surveying your circle of friends, but which corresponds exactly to your target group.

In the next phase, you can answer three important questions by working with influencers and influencer agencies:

• Which messages are received?
• Which content style resonates with the target group?
• Which values are spontaneously attributed to your brand?

The first campaigns are now running and the aim is to recognize patterns. A simple practical logic applies: If several influencers consistently describe your brand using the same terms without you having briefed them, you have found your brand positioning. The special thing about it: Your brand identity is created in dialogue with the target group. The previously important whiteboard for planning and design can now gather dust in the office. Instead, you develop your brand directly with the people it is intended for.

Now comes the moment you've been working towards in the first two phases: the launch. You build the campaign strategy from the insights – if necessary, together with your content creator agency. Instead of starting campaigns unprepared, you know in advance which messages work, what your target group needs and how to reach them. We have worked with this rule of thumb in over 10,000 campaigns for the use of influencers:

• Nano & Micro Influencers: Thanks to the authenticity and trust of the community, they are ideal for the early phases and for brand deepening. Their high engagement rates (e.g. up to 18 percent on TikTok)](https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics) also bring direct feedback.
• Macro & Mega Influencer: They give you reach at launch when your brand positioning is set and you want to scale.

Even if a viral video is a great feeling, consistency is much more important. If you communicate with your brand in a credible and recognizable way over a period of months, you will beat every single hype post.

In the end, what really makes the difference between influencer campaigns that advance your brand and those that come to nothing? Marketing agencies pay attention to four factors that you can also use as a guide.

Long-term partnerships instead of one-off collaborations

One-off collaborations can make you visible, but long-term partnerships really build trust. When the same influencers speak credibly about your brand for months, a recognition value is created that is ultimately priceless.

Creative Freedom for Influencers

If you brief influencers too narrowly, you lose important authenticity and thus impact. Give creators enough leeway to communicate your brand in their own language. Your job is to set the guardrails, not to dictate every word.

Evaluate data consistently

Each individual campaign provides you with insights for the next one. If you reliably evaluate engagement, sentiment and community reactions, you will get better with every new campaign. Experience has shown us that campaigns for brands like emma or HelloFresh have shown us that regular optimization based on the data obtained delivers significantly more in the long term than the perfect one-off briefing.

Include target group feedback in product development

Influencer insights are valuable product data. What the community requests, misses or praises in comments can be incorporated directly into further development. This is how you make the difference between a brand that was built for its target group and one that simply hopes that customers like it.

So far, influencers have mainly been a reach tool for you? Understandable – but they can do a lot more when it comes to brand building. If you cooperate with influencers in appropriate places, you can build your brand faster, cheaper and more precisely. At the same time, you have a good foundation of insights through campaigns, rather than just the hope that your product will be well received. Rather, you can develop and launch your product directly so that it meets the wishes of your target group.

Do you want to know what influencer marketing can look like for your brand? Then let’s find out together how influencer-supported brand building can work for you. Get non-binding advice and go your own way together with our creator marketing agency.