Nowadays, more and more businesses agree to the significance of branding objectives in marketing efforts. As such, it becomes very important to understand ways to measure brand power with brand tracking. Emphasis on branding is becoming more pronounced, and this must be understood in the context of its various benefits. Findings by McKinsey state that having a powerful brand will result in higher earnings before interest and taxes.
Businesses will benefit from executing campaigns and activities that aim to uplift brand power. Hence, evaluation is needed to learn how effective those campaign strategies are in building the brand. This can be done through brand tracking: a market research study to track various efforts and strategies which a business has executed to uplift brand power, then to measure their actual impact on sales and conversion.
Aspects to Measure
In performing brand tracking, there are various aspects that need to be measured. Below are some of those aspects.
- Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty is one of the most important things for a brand. High brand loyalty means higher probability of a consumer repurchasing a brand’s products or services. The opposite effect is observed when a brand’s loyalty is low.
To measure brand loyalty, feedback from previous consumers can be a valuable reference. This method can be effective in reading consumers’ probability to make repurchases. As such, consumer feedback is very much required. Businesses need to ensure that they receive feedback after making sales of products or services to consumers.
- Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is measured in order to understand the results of brand campaigns that have been executed. In this aspect, there are two things that can be observed: awareness and recall.
Awareness can be measured by consumers’ ability to identify the brand. When assessing this, businesses can show the brand logo or products. However, there is also the option of not showing those supporting stimulus. Consumers’ response towards either of the two methods can be a measure in brand tracking.
In addition to awareness, brand recall is just as important to measure. This is consumers’ ability to recall or remember a product/service that they have previously used. Strong brand recall reflects on strong brand awareness as well.
- Brand Association
Brand association is consumers’ perception towards a brand. Resulting perceptions should align with what has been communicated through the brand’s campaign. Hence, brand association is a core measure to evaluate and needs to be included in brand tracking.
A brand needs to understand if the image it is trying to build aligns with actual consumers’ perceptions. For example, Brand A claims its positioning as a low-price product with quality. Measuring brand association seeks to prove if consumers actually think of Brand A as affordable yet high in quality.
Setting Targets From the Outset
When setting out to do brand tracking, a clear target needs to be determined. Brand owners need to know what aspects they want to measure from the outset.
These measures need to be customized to reflect the brand’s uniqueness and positioning. This is important in ensuring the accuracy of brand tracking results to each individual brand. Keep in mind that all brands in the market will naturally aim for strong brand awareness, high loyalty, and positive associations. As such, custom-building the brand tracking is important, and uniqueness of the brand is an aspect that cannot be overlooked.
To optimize brand tracking results, ask consumers to give feedback on their perception and experience with the brand. This will provide a complete picture of consumer feedback, which will become advantageous in learning about the results of a brand’s campaign.
Brand tracking should be deemed mandatory by every business. Tracking continuously will furthermore give valuable insights in building and growing a brand. From brand tracking, businesses can learn consumers’ behavior, consumption pattern, and interest towards certain brands.
A complete understanding of these things is a crucial source of analysis and evaluation. Not only will this help in improving lacks and shortcomings, brands can also develop new products or services based on the feedback they receive. So is your business ready to begin brand tracking?
