TELEPHONE 01206 625222What is brand research, and how does it differ from other types of research?
In essence, brand research measures the health of a brand, i.e. how well a brand is functioning for a business. It uses a group of metrics to measure success. Brand is distinct from a business, where sales figures provide the data for how healthy a business is. Instead, brand research will reveal how people think and feel about your brand as an entity or character.
Brand research can identify unfavourable personality traits and future ethical considerations. It can direct your messaging, campaigns, and affiliations with other brands. Importantly, brand health shows you where your brand's strengths and weaknesses are, and can provide insight into whether you should invest in publicity to raise your brand's profile, improve your reputation, enhance your customer service, and other considerations concerning your brand. In short, where is your brand helping you to achieve your business goals, and where is it hindering you?
Mackman Research can measure your brand's health, and diagnose problem areas that are causing damage to your reputation. Without measurement, these problems often fly under the radar until they become serious, which can cause panic and reactive decision making. By focusing on the data rather than 'firefighting' as issues arise, we not only help you to identify existing strengths and weaknesses, but encourage the adoption of sustainable systems of assessing brand health in the future.
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As brands compete in highly globalised and often crowded markets, brand awareness is a key indicator of competitive market performance.
Brand awareness is defined as the degree to which consumers recognise or are familiar with a brand by its name. At its most basic, for a brand to do its job, people must be aware of it. This is along with any elements that make it stand out from other similar brands.
Measuring brand awareness is particularly important for companies whose products or services are situated in a crowded marketplace among similar brands. Unless consumers are loyal to a particular brand, they are more likely to select brands that are familiar to them. This is because they assume a familiar brand will be higher quality.
Brand awareness is made up of two distinct elements - brand recall and brand recognition. Brand recall tests consumers by asking whether they can correctly generate a brand from memory. This is prompted by listing product categories. Similarly, brand recognition focuses on whether consumers can recognise a brand when it is presented to them. For instance, a customer at a supermarket might not be able to recall the name of a product without prompting, particularly when relating to a product that they do not usually buy. However, when presented with multiple options, it is probable that they will have been exposed to one of them and recognise the brand. Healthy brands will have high brand awareness along with a positive association.
Brand awareness can help to increase your brand's health by driving consumers' decisions and distinguishing your offering from that of your competitors. Applying insight from brand awareness surveys can contribute towards crafting more effective marketing messages, targeting marketing campaigns, or selecting the most effective advertising channels.
Brand tracking aims to measure the success of a business's brand building initiatives.
A brand tracking exercise is based both on the impact brand building initiatives have on the consumer and on the business. It is a process of continuously measuring the health of a brand. This is in order to quantify return on brand investment and support brand strategy decisions. In addition, brand tracking benefits businesses by giving them firsthand insights into the behaviour, interests and purchase patterns of their consumers.
A typical brand tracking project is usually comprised of surveys to measure consumer usage of brands and their opinion of them. This is conducted using a sample of respondents to reflect a business's target audience or to replicate a section of the population. Brand tracking incorporates multiple brands that are identified as your competitors. It provides a benchmark and assesses the success of your brand against those in the same sector. As with all marketing efforts, brand tracking should begin with a fundamental understanding of your audience.
Brand sentiment analysis enables you to analyse the thoughts and feelings of customers via the trail of sentiment that they leave online.
Customers are able to express their opinions more freely than ever in a world where the Internet is prevalent in every aspect of life. Poor reviews and negative comments can adversely effect the success of a business; vice versa with favourable feedback. This means that understanding the emotions of customers is essential. Listening to customers through sentiment analysis is one method of keeping a finger on the pulse of public opinion.
A digital footprint may consist of millions of emails, social media conversations, support tickets, articles and online documents, which would be difficult to collate and sift through without expending a great deal of time and effort. This is where sentiment analysis comes in, allowing you to home in on a specific aspect of that digital thread.
Sentiment analysis identifies customers' feelings towards a brand, and its associated personality, through analysis of online feedback. It can be carried out on any text. However, when used on comments, survey results, or reviews on a business's social media and websites, these feelings are classified into categories. Categories are separated by polarity (positive, negative and neutral) or sentiment (happy, sad, angry). Using machine learning, Mackman Research can utilise bespoke algorithms to carry out social media monitoring, brand monitoring, and voice of customer (VoC).
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