Brand market research audit components:

BRAND INVENTORY:

This part of market research programme aims to gather which elements of the brand your target audience pointed out.

Read more »

BRAND EXPLORATORY:

This part of a programme is to understand what consumers think and feel about the brand and its corresponding product category to identify sources of brand equity.

Read more »

BRAND MATRIX:

The entire brand positioning strategy might be based on the carefully prepared recommendations. To make it perfectly clear we are able to prepare shortened picture and recommendations based on:

Brand leadership matrix – this is a concise document formatted similarly to BCG Matrix.

Full scope of brand mapping – this is the extended document where you could find clear and extend picture and recommendations of any element of your brand in one or many Eastern European countries including the correlations and variables between the brand equity in particular countries.

Read more »


Brand audits by Investzoom Market Research

CRUCIAL ELEMENTS OF ANY BRAND

Before you would step in to brand audit it is vital to be aware that there are three elements common to every brand. One could easily distinguish the unique combination of the features that aloud to separate prominent and prospective brands from ones on the bottom of marketing crowd.

These features are:

  1. The brand picture: visible attributes of any brand such as logos, packaging, ads, and of course product itself.
  2. The brand promise: this might be two issues: the promise the brand makes to customers or what customers think the brand promises itself – usually those two promises are based on the quite delicate nature.
  3. The brand’s value bundle: the tangible and recognizable benefits delivered to the customers (please be aware, that we mean benefits linked to the brand not to the product/service itself)

THE CHALLANGE: COMPREHENSIVE BRAND AUDITS

If you have an impression that your brand is a significant part of your business, it is worth to provide comprehensive brand audits. The significant benefit is that brand audits could be easy composed as the ‘stand alone’ studies or be the integral part of other research programmes (such as e.g. NPD programmes).

However, before you start asking your customers about perceptions and feelings about your brand, it might be vital to draw your attention on benchmark points taken from great and top on the spot brands premises:

  1. Leadership: top spotted brand is a leader – somewhere, somehow, and not necessarily within the entire segment of its industry. More important attribute is; the leading brand has its followers. Characteristically elements might be unique product design, unique marketing picture, and unique way of customer service. Whatever it is, leading brand will come to your mind ever!
  2. Consistency: top spotted brand is 100% consistent (or ideally should be), this mean it create a consistent experience as well as consistent trust and loyalty of its customers. This feature is the most difficult to keep constant through the long period, especially if your brands evaluate over a years.
  3. Concentration: top spotted brands concentrate all their efforts on doing several things well. Customers and brand followers know well what they can expect from the specific brand.
  4. Communication: top spotted brands maintain perfectly organised by providing contacts and communication with their customers and followers. They use every single channel possible: from ‘point of sales’ through ‘world of mouth’ ending up to sophisticated TV spots and adverts.
  5. Connection: top spotted brands are very keen on connecting people, creating unique brand communities, loyalty clubs, sophisticated societies etc. This all aloud brand users to feel more connected with the brand itself as well as enable brand advocates some minor moderation of such connected community.

In light of this it might be very vital to examine and audit the perception of your brand, despite of the level of your business is. Therefore and frankly saying, there might be just several types of business, where you may not need any branding at all, as follows:

  1. Your target market is very niche and specific. In this case, you might be in 100% confident that customers will by your products/services whatever you will name them, whatever you put on your packaging, whatever content and graphics your website will contain.
  2. Your sale is in 100% reliable on your sales forces. In this case, you might be in 100% confident, that your sales’ personnel need their skills and abilities only, to market your products/services properly.

In the all other cases except these mentioned above it is very vital to consider brand audits as an inclusive part of your marketing research programme, even in some limited shape and format.

THE RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

Before you step forward to the specific examination and exercising of your brand, please be aware of the questions, you need to ask your targeted audience:

  • Are the current sources of brand equity satisfactory?
  • Do certain brand associations need to be strengthened?
  • Does the brand lack uniqueness?
  • What brand opportunities exist and what potential challenges exist for brand equity?
  • What is the penetration and conciseness of the competing brands on the other markets?
  • What the brand means for the other markets?

Having above questions in your mind, you should focus on the specific programmes aiming to gather relevant information about brand perceptions among your target audience.

THE ASSESSMENT

In fact the core assessment based on the outcomes gathered from the previous tasks is the crucial element of brand equity study and may be used for:

  • Brand strategy and positioning approaches connected with regular marketing activities
  • Exceptionally and strategic approaches regarding brands and connected e.g. with mergers and acquisitions processes

Feel free to contact us as market research agency for RFQ or further details of this market research programme