News/Blog

Measuring Brand Success

As a brand delivery agency, we are often asked by clients to help them measure brand success – we have produced the following notes which we often use to help clients think about this in the right way:

Measuring Brand Success – The Basics

Talk to potential customers. Some companies hire professional consultants to conduct market research on how successful a brand is. However, small businesses on a budget can easily conduct their own research by making use of social networking websites and by contacting people on their mailing list. Businesses can ask those contacted if they are aware of their product or service and if they have tried it or would consider trying it. You can also measure brand success by asking these same questions at social and business networking functions.

Assess brand recognition. This is the level of public awareness of a product or service. Increased brand awareness is reflected in a company’s market share of a product in relation to competing brands, as people tend to buy products they trust and feel familiar with or that have been recommended by other people. Businesses can assess their brand’s recognition by conducting research in their customer target area.

Monitor sales. Advertising and marketing campaigns should, ideally, result in increased sales, which bring increased brand success. Companies measure brand success by carefully monitoring the impact advertising campaigns have on sales revenue. This also helps businesses to identify the strengths and weaknesses of advertising and marketing strategies.

Focus on your brand’s identity. Brand identity differs from brand recognition because a strong identity also impacts on staff motivation and performance. Brand identity incorporates a company’s culture, business strategies, investment value and financial performance. Businesses that continuously assess and monitor their brand’s identity gain a good overall perspective on how successful a brand is.

Measuring Brand Success – Benchmarking

Prior to the undertaking of any rebranding campaign (project) data should be gathered via a benchmarking study on at least the following:

• Brand definition – both internal & external

• Brand recognition – both internal & external

• Brand effectiveness – degree of reliance by marketplace on your
“branded” materials

• Response rates to your “branded” materials

Without the information from a benchmarking study, you have no reliable data that shows where you started from prior to a rebrand and you will have nothing to measure against after your branding initiative launches.

Don’t expect immediate returns. Brands take time to build and develop influence.

Set expectations early with your management team that the amount of time it will take to see any measurable results will depend on how much the firm has budgeted to promote the new brand after it has launched. Generally you should allow at a minimum 3-6 months internally and 12 – 18 months externally to see any real difference in your recognition and recall value.

Take your findings and establish a set of goals that can be tracked and measured covering at least the areas noted above.

Do a Trend Analysis – Given your current rates of growth, marketplace, etc. where might you expect to be without any rebranding campaign using the same set of measures (metrics).

Track and measure in a manner that allows you to compare to pre-campaign data and against your goals.

Analyse, compare and discuss the findings, explaining deviations while keeping in mind that effects due to changes in the marketplace are valid and beyond your control.

Measuring Brand Success – Audiences

1. Investors: These are people who have invested in the brand, and have a non-executive role to play in the strategic direction of the organisation. In listed companies, these are traditional shareholders, who will often have no contact with the organisation beyond their perceptions of the brand driven by the annual report, board reports, and financial analyst opinions.

2. Employees: These are all the people who work for the brand or organisation. From the executive leadership team, to middle management to general employees. This segment can also be extended to represent partner organisations that supply products or services to the brand. Each of these people will have built their own relationship with the brand based on their personal experience in the work environment, internal communications and how
they are treated by their line-management and peers.

3. Customers: These are the end users of the brand, whether product or service, in either the business to business, or business to consumer environments. These are the people that we focus most of our marketing and brand building activity around as they will ultimately drive demand-led growth for our offerings. Their relationship with the brand is driven
by the full mix of brand communication that they come into contact with, the branded product or customer service experience and the visual identity of the organisation. These people need not use your brand exclusively, but they should be aware of your existence.

4. Communities: This is probably the most difficult segment to define as it relates to both the communities that your organisation operates within, as well as those that your brand impacts upon. It could be represented by environmental interest groups or community organisations, it could also include many of your customers, however, their relationship with your brand in this context is fundamentally different.