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Brand and Market Research
• What is the current image and impact of our brand?
- Awareness
- Relevance
- Loyalty
- Market Share
- Life Cycle
- Logo Recall
- Perception and Associations
- Is our product perceived superior in any specific attribute? (quality, service, design, etc)
• What is the size of the market segment?
• What is the average frequency of purchase?
• In which life cycle does the market currently find itself?
• How is competition positioned?
• What is their value proposition?
• What are their channels of distribution?
• How does my price compare to theirs?
Distribution Channels
• Are the brand’s sales representatives and suppliers working alongside and in conjunction to the brand
guidelines, strategy and objectives?
Design and Standards
• Does the brand have a defined set of guidelines comprised of: logo, tag line, symbols, brand voice and co op branding?
• Are brand objectives consistent with the organization’s objectives?
The Company
• Is the company market driven?
• Is there a defined brand extension?
• Does the company support the brand’s personality and recruit employees consistent with this definition?
• Are current employees aware of the brand promise and if so, are they working towards delivering its
established values?
• What does the staff think about our brand? What strengths and weaknesses do they perceive? How are these
perceptions different or similar to what clients think?
• Is the Sales and Marketing team aligned with and committed to the brand objectives, personality, positioning
and values?
• Are there any internal policies within the company that prevent it from achieving its desired goals?
Brand audits are a great opportunity for us marketers to stop and assess our current scenario and our next steps.
In the fast paced world we live in - and in a work environment filled with deadlines, launches, campaigns – seldom
are we given the opportunity to stop and evaluate our next steps. So what do we do with all this information?
In the end, a thorough brand audit should result in recommendations and conclusions that will effectively lead
to strategies. They must be shared within the organization, and also assimilated by into all marketing, sales,
advertising, employee communication, product design and PR efforts henceforth.
All of this gives us an idea of aspects such as relevance, knowledge, esteem and differentiation, resulting in what
consumers think in terms of perceptions of value based on brand attributes.
Only by keeping track of our brand will we be able to monitor what our status is and define (or redefine in many
cases) how we will get to where we want to be. And even more importantly, brand auditing helps us test if what
we think we are is, in fact, what our clients think we are. Inside and out.