Your company’s most valuable asset is its brand. Are you tracking it?
What is brand tracking?
Brand health tracking or reputation tracking is used to find out what consumers think about your brand, your products and services. Effective brand tracking will allow you to see which initiatives and strategies are working well, and which need improvement. Strong brands have more recognition than others in the market, usually have more loyal customers and are able to charge a higher price.
The main goal of tracking your brand means marketers are able to work out what has worked and what hasn’t, learn what resonates with your customers, gain new ones and keep them coming back to you time and again. Brand awareness tracking helps developing businesses establish themselves in the market, as well as reinvigorate a brand that may have deteriorated in the minds of consumers and in general sales. An expert market research agency such as Spark can help guide you and use this technique effectively.
Why is brand tracking important?
In such a saturated market, it is vital that companies pay attention to how their brand is perceived. Effectively tracking your brand involves measuring the important metrics and tracking them over time. It’s an ongoing process, and helps make sense of any weaknesses in order to improve their marketing strategies.
- Improves your marketing performance
Tracking your brand is a great way to get to know your target audience better. When you know more about your audience and how they feel about your brand, you can tailor your marketing strategy and bring personalisation to a whole new level. For example, you can find out what social media platforms they use and make sure your brand is active and engaging them.
- Impacts future decision making
Over time, you will be able to adjust your strategy in line with the data you have gathered and the discoveries you have made. You will be able to see what is positively (or negatively) affecting your audience, and it can help you make important decisions in the future based on your findings.
- Track KPIs
You’re putting all this hard work in, so you want to find out if it’s actually working. The most effective way to do this is through monitoring KPIs. They can be anything from brand perception, awareness, consideration and many others. You can even customise KPI tracking – or you can enlist the help of an excellent market research agency such as Spark.
- Competitive Analysis
How do you compare to your competitors? Brand tracking can give you vital data about how you shape up in comparison to other brands in your industry. If there’s a brand that keeps beating you, you can analyse them and see what they’re doing and how you could be doing better.
- Prove brand activities are worth the budget
You want to make sure you’re making the most out of your marketing budget. Tracking your brand consistently over time allows you concrete facts and figures that you can use to show how useful your marketing activities have been in pushing your brand towards success.
Things to consider when tracking your brand
Brand tracking isn’t a one size fits all scenario, as every brand has its own objectives. A small, independent brand would have different needs to a global, household name brand.
Be consistent: Trackers need to be conducted in a consistent manner. Some brands may fall into the trap of only tracking when they feel there is an issue to be looked into. Regardless of what else is happening, tracking consistently is the best way to get the results you want.
Keep it simple: Keep trackers streamlined and simple to stop data getting convoluted and lost. For example, evaluating too large a pool of competitors or asking too many detailed questions is a no-no.
Conclusion
Brand tracking empowers organisations to better understand and serve their audience. Regularly tracking your brand is vital for measuring overall performance, and allows you to make informed decisions to help you reach your goals.
An incredibly useful tool, you may not have the time or the expertise to track your brand effectively using your in-house resources. That’s why it’s worth bringing the big guns in – AKA an exceptional brand tracking agency such as Spark.
Spark Flexi-Track is our dedicated tool for brand equity tracking. We use multiple market research techniques for brand exploration. We will:
- Continually measure brand perception, momentum and awareness
- Stay in touch with users and consumers and learn how they feel about your brand
- Focus on human impact, layering on brand impact to create objectives that will help you achieve your goals
An expert agency with offices in London, Leeds and Dublin, we help clients around the world with their brand tracking goals. Our work spans multiple sectors from entertainment and insurance to retail and health, so it’s safe to say you’ll be in good hands. Get in touch and find out how we can help.
