Brand Audit
Strong brands are more profitable and increase company value. They enable you to command a premium, ensure customer preference in buying decisions, build customer loyalty which reduces cost of sales and fend off competition.
If your profits are falling and sales are not performing a brand audit will help give you insights into your brand's impact and performance in the marketplace and, most importantly, why it's not delivering.
A brand audit is effectively a health check of the brand to identify and address problems areas with a net result of helping you turn things around and grow your bottom line.
Brands are like living entities with life cycles. They start with much excitement and promise, grow and then eventually plateau. It's at this mature stage of evolvement when they potentially start to loose relevance as customers move on to the latest hot new thing.
A brand audit helps you monitor this cycle so you keep your brand fresh and relevant and know when to reinvigorate or revitalise before sales start to slip.
:: WHAT IS A BRAND AUDIT ?
A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brand’s current position in the market compared to its competitors and a review of its effectiveness. It helps you determine the strength of your brand together with its weaknesses or inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement and new developments.
:: WHY DO A BRAND AUDIT ?
Strong brands make more money. The stronger your brand, the more powerful your business. A powerful brand can inspire, captivate and engage your audience and consequently dramatically increase your bottom line. However, even strong brands need a reality check or health check to keep them on track.
A robust, consistent brand means you spend less money attracting new customers. Your current customers keep coming back to you and you are able to charge a premium price for your goods and services. A powerful brand also encourages referrals, be they online in the social engagement arena or offline in physical form, and are consequently a critical part of the brand and its profitability.
Equally a weak, disconnected, out of touch brand will gradually see its market shrink, failing sales and ultimately put you out of business.
A comprehensive brand audit will often reveal new growth opportunities for your brand, and new ways to make your brand resonate with both existing and a new generation of target customers who will represent your brand’s long term future.
A brand audit will help identify both the company and the customer viewpoint in terms of:
• Business / brand resource strengths
• Value of the brand
• Awareness of the brand in the market
• Deficiencies of the brand
• New trends and market opportunities
• Outside threats
• New product development and future channels of profitability
• Competitive standing in the market
• Perception, image, reputation and attitude to the brand in the market
• Effectiveness of brand management efforts
:: WHAT ARE THE DELIVERABLES OF A BRAND AUDIT ?
Essentially a brand audit will reveal how the customer perceives the brand, how the brand compares to the competition and how the brand has performed. The outputs will typically support the following:
• Improve and refocus brand management efforts and congruency
• Enhance internal staff brand awareness
• Sharpen marketing communications both on and offline
• Provide insight into your brand architecture, business structure and brand portfolio
• Evaluate and refocus your brand positioning
• Ensure your brand collateral is congruent and delivers return on investment
• Provide direction for your brand into the future
• Secure and grow the value of your brand/business through consistent implementation of recommendations derived from brand audit findings
...and more
:: WHAT'S INVOLVED IN A BRAND AUDIT ?
When initiating a brand audit its important to define the brand audit objectives. A brand audit is typically a bespoke service because there are so many different components to an actual audit, all of which may not be relevant or required to conduct an appropriate evaluation of your brand performance.
The depth and extent of a brand audit is largely determined by the size of the brand, organisation, market, timescales and budget together with the size and power of your brand relative to the business and market in which you operate.
Key questions for reflection when considering a brand audit include:
• How profitable is the business at present ?
• How well is the current brand strategy working ?
• What are the company’s resource strengths and weaknesses ?
• What are its external opportunities and threats ?
• How competitive are the business’s prices and costs ?
• How strong is the business’s competitive position in comparison to its competitors ?
• What strategic issues are facing the business ?
The following is a list of the typical elements of a more extensive brand audit. However a brand audit need not include everything but a more abbreviated selection of those listed. An audit of a global brand like Coca Cola, Guinness or Wavin will be very different to a national brand like the GAA or artisan brands like O'Egg or McConnells Gourmet Smoked Foods.
Strategy Review
• Business plans
• Marketing plans
• Brand plans
• Media plans
Market Research & Review
• Brand asset review
• Brand extension research
• New product/service concept testing
• Pricing
• Brand logo recall and recognition testing
• Brand equity measurement: awareness, preference, usage, value, accessibility, relevance, differentiation, vitality, emotional connection, loyalty, associations, personality, culture
Communications & Brand Collateral Review
• Website
• Online engagement: blogs, social media, video content, e-newsletter, apps etc.
• Merchandising
• Advertising and promotion materials
• Press releases
• Sponsorships
• Business cards, letterheads etc.
• Internal communications
• Intranet site
• Employee training programs
• Employee orientation
• Manager training
• Sales force training
• Flagship locations: premises, offices, stores, etc.
External Information Research & Review
• Competitor analysis
• Industry analyst reports
• Customer interview & comments
• Business stakeholder and partner interviews and comments
• Marketing stakeholder interviews
Employee Research & Interviews
• Corporate/senior management
• Marketing personnel
• Sales force
• Customer service employees
• Front line customer contacts
• General employees
Human Resource Reviews
• Mission and vision statements
• Common objectives
• Organisation charts
• Departmental objectives
• Recruitment criteria
• Individual competency benchmarks
• Succession planning specifications
• Planning, resource allocation, systems and processes
:: SHOULD I GET AN AUDIT OF MY BRAND ?
Is your brand profitability shrinking, plateaued or growing ?
Can you answer the following questions in relation to your brand with authority ?
• Vision: Who is your brand and what is it striving to become ? Where is it going ?
• Values: What does it stand for ?
• Concept: What business is your brand in and what niche does it fill ?
• Differentiation: How is your brand unique ?
• Promise: What hopes, needs and desires does your brand satisfy ?
• Solution: What problems does your brand solve ?
• Benefit: What are your core brand strengths and advantages ?
• Position: How is your brand versus your competitors perceived in the market ?
• Motivation: What compels people to buy and use your brands products and services ?
• Expression: What characterizes the way you sell and provide your service ?
Are your answers truly representative of how your brand is perceived, performs and delivers in the market place or are you surmising ? Assumptions are dangerous !
Do you really know what your customers think of your brand together with their needs, wants, loves, hates and aspirations ?
You need to know these answers and more in order to grow your brand. If you are struggling to answer these questions or understand your brands performance in relation to some of the information in this article then give us a call.
We'd love to help you address your brand challenges and support you in growing your business / brand. T: +353 1 8322724