In the ever-shifting sands of the market, brand tracking is what illuminates your brand's true position. It's where data meets intuition, offering a clear lens to view your company's heartbeat and resonance. Curious about the pulse of your brand amidst the bustling marketplace and wondering how you can stay ahead of the curve? This guide will walk you through the basics. Tracking your brand's health could be the game-changer you're looking for.
"You can only improve what you measure" – Tom Peter
Measuring the health of a brand gives marketers the ability to manage the brand and identify the levers to improve its performance. Without measurement, marketers have a limited understanding of how external market forces impact the brand, how consumers respond to the brand, and the competitive context in which the brand must perform if it is to win the battle for consumer minds, hearts and wallets.
Let us start by understanding each of the elements that drive brand health.
First, a brand is a complex concept to which people attach meaning. The strength of the association that people attach to the brand lives in peoples' memories, which in turn drives brand use and purchase. Understanding the health of a brand is the first step in understanding brand performance. It draws upon a range of different sources of information about the brand and the market and how this overall relates to two other important concepts — brand value and brand equity.
The equity in your brand is what the brand is worth as the direct outcome of how much people are prepared to pay, how many they purchase, the size they purchase and how often they purchase the product associated with the brand. Brand equity is measured through financial reporting in terms of sales and share price.
The value of a brand is the strength of meaning associated with the brand, how people feel about your brand and the unique position it holds in the minds of consumers. In market research, we assess brand value by measuring consumer attitudes to the brand, its personality and its positioning.
e.g. A courageous brand, a caring brand.
e.g. A brand for young people, an innovative brand.
Brand health trackers can be short and simple, or lengthy and detailed. The scale of brand health tracking depends on the complexity of the category or market the brand operates in, the depth of information required by the business for decision making, and the budget set aside for tracking.
The types of measures included in a brand health tracker fall into four basic buckets:
Most brand health trackers include the following metrics to create a traditional brand funnel:
Consumer attitudes measured in brand health tracking help to assess the personality and positioning of the brand, and the brand's product attributes (rational and emotional) relative to competitors. The marketer needs to decide what is important for motivating consumers to purchase the brand — for example, brand personality may be more important to measure in high involvement categories such as vehicle purchase (e.g. Mercedes vs. BMW) than in low involvement categories such as packet soup.
Advertising awareness measures are often included in brand health trackers to enable marketers to assess whether exposure to advertising has affected trial, use/purchase frequency, or perceptions of the brand.
From the brand health tracking research, you should expect to get several outputs — for example brand funnels and brand scorecards — depending on what you are tracking.
Brand funnels assess consumer brand awareness, consideration and purchase, so you can understand how to convert their behaviour from being aware of your brand to purchasing. Funnels may also be drawn for advertising awareness to assess whether exposure to advertising has affected trial, brand perceptions, usage or purchase frequency.
A Brand Scorecard is a report card that shows how your brand is tracking against competitors on particular attributes of interest. These can be continuously measured or in waves. Other outputs could include brand perception maps, purchase intent charts and so forth.
We have put together a cheat sheet for designing a brand health tracker that will provide a meaningful framework for decision making for most brands. Get your scribble pad and let's get going.
You and your team need to define a competitive context for the brand that makes sense. A target market definition usually takes into consideration: consumer behaviour (what have they purchased/bought), consumption, specific behaviours, qualifications (e.g. have a driving licence), time related to the behaviour (last 7 days, L4W, last 12 months), intention (e.g. intend to buy a new car in the next 12 months), non-rejection of the category, and the relevant demographics.
The sample size for a wave of brand health tracking needs to be sufficiently large enough so that you can identify significant differences between waves on key measures, undertake analysis on your brand and key competitors, and make meaningful decisions from the research. Where possible, a sample size of n=1000 per wave is a good starting point.
It is important to collect only the data you need — this will save you time, money and improve the quality of the response. Questionnaires that are too long result in respondent fatigue and affect data quality. Identify the measures that define your brand's success and make these the core of the tracker. Questions measuring slower-changing aspects (e.g. brand attitudes) can be appended on a less frequent basis, such as 6-monthly instead of quarterly.
How frequently you track depends on key business considerations: fast-moving categories need more frequent tracking (e.g. monthly) than slower-moving categories with longer purchase cycles (e.g. quarterly or 6-monthly). Your market research consultant can work through how to adjust the research to fit the budget — broader target audience, smaller sample size per wave, shorter survey lengths, etc.
Tracking brand health meaningfully means consistency so that you are comparing apples with apples. Consistent tracking enables the creation of benchmarks over time for your brand, competitor brands and the market so you can reliably understand brand performance. Benchmarks also allow you to assess seasonal changes or the impact of market changes on your brand (such as new competitors entering, or the impact of a pandemic).
A reliable Brand Health measure depends on:
We've already established how tracking brand health is pivotal for grasping your company's standing in the marketplace. Yet, numerous businesses grapple with hurdles along this journey. Here are some common challenges and solutions to overcome them:
Many companies start tracking brand health without a clear understanding of what they want to achieve. This can lead to confusion and misinterpretation of data. The solution is to set clear, measurable objectives before starting any brand health tracking initiative. For instance, a new beverage company might aim to understand its brand's initial perception among millennials in urban areas. By setting a specific target like "Increase brand awareness by 20% among urban millennials within six months", the company can tailor its tracking methods and surveys to this demographic, ensuring more accurate and actionable insights.
While numbers are important, relying solely on quantitative data can make one miss out on the nuances of consumer perception. It's akin to watching a movie in black and white — you get the plot, but you miss out on the vibrant hues of emotion and context. To avoid this, combine quantitative data with qualitative research and insights, such as focus groups or open-ended survey questions, to get a holistic view.
Brands interact with consumers at multiple touchpoints, from social media to in-store experiences. Ignoring any of these can lead to an incomplete picture. For instance, a consumer might see an ad for a coffee chain on Instagram, visit the physical store and then post about their experience. Each of these touchpoints offers a unique perspective on the brand. If the coffee chain only focuses on the positive Instagram engagement and overlooks the critical customer review, they're missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. Companies must cast a wide net and ensure all brand touchpoints are considered in the brand tracking process.
There are a range of DIY approaches to market research, and it is possible, however you run the risk of measuring the wrong variables, or in the wrong way, with the wrong people. You may also lose the benefit of objectivity from the analysis and robustness from the methodology — and it will also mean that you will likely spend a lot of time doing, rather than using. A good market research agency skilled in brand health tracking can help you get the most out of your budget to answer the most important questions you need for decision making. This is a marketing investment, rather than an expense.
Brand health tracking means that you can manage and improve the performance of your brand. Brand health tracking can give marketers and their business leaders confidence to make decisions. Whether you have a niche brand or large mainstream brand, brand health tracking is an excellent investment. Establishing a meaningful brand tracking research program takes time and is not a one size fits all exercise. It is critical to get expert advice and invest in the right solution for your needs.
Ruby Cha Cha has breadth of experience in brand health tracking for small, medium and large businesses and can help you plan and implement a quality brand metrics tracker that will transform your marketing and help you make better decisions.
Interested in elevating your brand's potential? Considering brand health and tracking for your brand? Reach out to us for tailored insights and strategies.
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