Brand Tracking: What It Is and Why You Need It

Brand tracking, also known as brand health tracking, is a type of marketing research that offers insights into a brand's performance. It helps you understand how many people are aware of your company, its reputation, customer perception, and how these metrics change over time.

Example of a brand health chart. Source: magentaconsulting.org

Why You Need Brand Tracking

Brand tracking reveals your company's strengths and weaknesses, focusing not on sales or profits, but on overall health. Continuous monitoring allows you to:

• Identify how you are different from your competitors;
• Gain insight into the real perception of your brand among consumers.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing efforts.
• Pinpoint weaknesses in your brand image and promotion.
• Increase customer satisfaction.
• Make necessary adjustments to your promotional strategies.

A strong brand evokes positive feelings. It sticks in consumers' minds, stands out from the crowd, and becomes their go-to choice. An unhealthy brand, on the other hand, remains unnoticed.

Brand Health Indicators

Company analysis includes three main metrics:

• Brand Awareness: This metric assesses how well people recognize the brand.

Brand awareness tracking. Source: yougov.com

• Brand Positioning: This indicator evaluates how well the company aligns with the values it represents.
• Brand Performance: This metric measures the customer's willingness to recommend the brand.

Each component includes various aspects. Here are some general points to consider:

• Research customer familiarity with the brand name or logo.
• Look into what customers think about your company and its goals. Reviews and surveys can help you see if your brand positioning reflects how customers actually perceive you.
• Analyze your reputation. Read social media comments and pay attention to the balance of positive and negative reviews. Identify keywords and phrases associated with your brand.
• Track your company's mentions on social media compared to competitors.
• Conduct a survey to understand customer purchase history and their experience with your brand.
• Gauge customer loyalty. Are they likely to buy from you again and recommend you to others? You can offer respondents a list of companies and ask which they trust most.
• Evaluate employee sentiment towards their work, brand discussions on social media, and retention rates.

It's not necessary to track all brand metrics. Prioritize the aspects that will have the most significant impact on improving your brand health.

How to Conduct Brand Tracking

Here are the brand research methods that marketers use:

1. Discussion monitoring

Here, you track what people are saying about your company on social media. Pay attention to blogs, forums, or news sites. With this method, you will understand if users know about you, what they think, what they want you to improve, and where your competitors might be stronger. Use Google Alert or other services for this method.

2. Surveys

If you have specific questions about your brand, surveys are a great way to gather targeted information. You can conduct surveys by phone, online, or even in person. Focus groups are another option, where you invite users to discuss their experiences with your product.

Source: yougov.com

3. Reviews

To get valuable feedback, you can diversify your approach a bit — try a mix of surveys, feedback forms on your website, or emails requesting customer opinions. This will help you understand what people love (or hate) about your brand, why they choose your products, and how their perception changes over time.

Brand Health Pyramid Levels

We can imagine brand health as a pyramid, reflecting how consumers interact with the company at different levels.

Pyramid levels:

1. Consumers are just getting familiar with the brand.
2. Consumers are aware of the brand and might be thinking about buying from it.
3. Consumers choose the product or service they need and make a purchase.
4. Consumers have established a relationship with the company. At this stage, customers buy from you again.
5. Consumers demonstrate high loyalty, frequently purchase the brand's products, value it, and are ready to recommend it to others.

The data is presented in the form of a pyramid, with fewer consumers at higher levels. For example, 86% of people are aware of your company, 67% are considering making a purchase, 39% have already bought something from you once, 24% have made a purchase twice, and 5% are loyal to your brand and recommend it to friends.

If your brand is healthy, customers will not stay at one level for too long.

When to Conduct Brand Marketing Analysis

Regularly check your brand’s health, for example, every 6-12 months. This will allow you to assess the current situation, identify trends, and make sure you are moving in the right direction. This is an ongoing analysis known as continuous brand health monitoring.

Some companies track how their brand performs before and after major marketing campaigns or changes. This helps them see if these efforts are working.

The frequency of brand checks depends on a few things:

• What you're analyzing: Many companies focus on the sales funnel. An annual review can show how quickly customers move through the stages, from product awareness to loyalty. If a company is losing customers or its reputation suffers, checks might be done every three months instead of annually.
• Industry pace: Some markets evolve rapidly. In this case, you might need more frequent brand health checks — monthly or quarterly.
• New competitors: If a major player enters the market, it is wise to assess how customers perceive your brand and whether they are considering switching to the new company.
• Significant changes: Events impacting your brand, like a controversy or a celebrity endorsement, might trigger earlier checks.

In most cases, it is sufficient to conduct brand research every six months or once a year. This provides good control over the market situation and helps you understand the key points.

Choosing the right people for feedback is crucial. They should be users of your product. Use a similar group for future checks to ensure consistency.

Conclusion

Brand tracking is like a medical checkup for companies. Brand analysis shows how your company is performing in the market. You study various aspects, such as people's perception of you, brand awareness, and loyalty.

To do this, you communicate with your target audience through surveys, conduct group discussions, read what people are saying about you, and monitor social media.

Once you conduct brand research, start developing plans for improvement. If there are any problems, address them immediately. All this is to keep your brand on the right track.