fbpx

Brand Tracking: How To Do It, Metrics, Tools & Examples

You work tirelessly to understand your customer, market, and competition so you can differentiate. Voice-of-customer (VoC) research, user research, competitor research, and insights on jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) can inform your marketing strategy. 

Brand tracking is how you measure if those efforts are paying off.

Brand tracking provides both qualitative and quantitative answers to crucial questions:

  • How do your customers perceive your brand?
  • Are your campaigns driving conversions?
  • Do consumers know who you are?
  • Does your messaging at each touchpoint match customer intent? 
  • Is your brand part of most consumers’ consideration set?
  • Have you built perceived value?  

In this article, we’ll share key brand tracking metrics and methods for how to measure and optimize your success.

What is brand tracking?

Brand tracking refers to the measurement of the performance, growth, and success of your brand, including monitoring your brand marketing efforts and brand awareness.

Key brand tracking metrics 

Brand tracking measures the changes in your brand perception, and provides some insight into branding investment ROI. But branding spend (and thus tracking) can’t be measured in a vacuum. 

Unlike conversion rate formulas that produce statistically significant results, the ROI of brand awareness is less obvious and quantifiable. But that doesn’t make it any less valuable. 

Qualitative data is a powerful indicator of positive changes in your brand awareness and customer sentiment. To efficiently track brand awareness growth, you need to draw out both quantitative data and qualitative insights.

NPS & CSAT

NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) are both methods of quantifying customer sentiment and satisfaction.

Use NPS to track improvements in customer experience against baselines and competitor data, and to make predictions for future growth (NPS and loyalty are highly correlated):

Net promoter score graph

CSAT asks customers to rate their satisfaction with your brand on a scale from 1 to 5.

Use this to measure customer satisfaction at each touchpoint to identify points of friction and opportunities for improvement.

For example, you could deploy CSAT surveys at various parts of the buyer’s journey (distributed across leads so as not to bombard a single customer with multiple questions). You might find that, on average, your CSAT score is lowest at the handoff point between sales and service.

This would show you exactly where your brand experience needs work.

Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty is a quantitative brand tracking measure that often relies on purchase intent data.

Supplement brand loyalty metrics with qualitative measures such as brand associations and perceived quality, as these can give you insight into why customers intend to repurchase.

Brand equity components

(Image source)

For example, if a significant portion of customers intend to repurchase simply because you offer the lowest prices, give less weight to brand loyalty in the final analysis. In this case, you’ve captured customer loyalty, but perhaps not brand loyalty.

Brand usage

Brand usage metrics provide insights such as:

  • Frequency of purchase
  • How customers purchase (when and where)
  • Purchase quantity/amount (how much)
  • Share of wallet (percentage of spending in the sector that your brand receives)

Use this data to understand consumer behavior and to develop targeted messaging strategies.

Market share

Market share is a good measure of your brand position relative to your competitors, as it’s a zero-sum game.

Unlike metrics such as brand awareness, which can rise across the board, growth in market share means a decline for competitors.

For example, as some of the largest providers of cloud computing (Microsoft, Google) experience an increase in market share, we all see a significant decline in competitors’ share:

Statista Cloud Market share infographic

(Image source)

To give context, compare market share changes with objective measures such as changes in total industry spending and company revenue, and strategic changes.

For example, if your market share has declined, but the industry overall has grown, this can be an indicator that your competitors are doing a better job at picking up new market entrants.

Brand momentum in the marketplace

Brand momentum is a brand tracking metric that walks the line between qualitative and quantitative.

It’s possible to create a quantitative metric in order to track progress, but this will be rooted in qualitative measures, meaning it’s a useful metric for internal measurement but not to benchmark against competitors.

Brand momentum can be calculated similarly to physical momentum (mass x velocity):

Brand momentum = brand mass (your company’s size, reputation, and relevance) x brand velocity (speed of growth, agility in keeping up with industry changes).

Take BYD and Tesla. They tick all three boxes in the “brand mass” department:

  • They have a strong reputation in the market (as evidenced by continuous stock price growth)
  • They’re incredibly relevant (there has never been a time when renewable energy was more important)
  • They’re a giant in their industry, owning more than 80% market share

(Image source)

Tesla’s not only able to navigate industry changes. It could be argued that they are driving these changes). This is demonstrated by an exponential speed of growth:

Tesla growth by year

(Image source)

Brand awareness and recall

Qualtrics, a leading customer experience management company, breaks brand awareness into three categories:

Brand awareness categories

(Image Source)

Brand awareness metrics should also be broken down by segment, to understand which audiences your messaging is resonating with most, and to identify areas for improvement.

Take Headspace, a meditation, mindfulness and mental health app. Through a comprehensive brand awareness study, they discovered that although they were reaching their target audience in Germany, Spain, and France, in Spain and France where no brand campaigns were running, there was a significantly smaller lift in brand awareness. 

(Image source)

Results such as these can be diving off points for future brand marketing, and can be interpreted in different ways, depending on your brand strategy.

For example, Headspace might decide that since they already have strong brand awareness in Germany, they’ll focus branding efforts on less aware audiences. Or they might take the opposite approach, and double down on what is working.

Similarly, understanding that awareness is growing across the industry might prompt Headspace to team up with a similar company (a non-competitor, but a relevant industry leader) to launch a dual campaign. This partnership would leverage both audiences and the rapidly growing awareness of the vertical.

Brand consideration

Brand awareness is a measurement of whether consumers know who you are, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that they’d consider you for purchase.

Brand consideration tells you how often your brand is part of a customer’s initial consideration set, and this metric isn’t always consistent with awareness measurements.

Take Chanel. Of all luxury jewelry brands, they have the highest brand awareness:

(Image Source)

But when it comes to consideration, Chanel falls short. This is evident as it falls into fifth place when it comes to popularity and tenth place after top competitor brands like Pandora and Tiffany’s and Co.

(Image Source)

The implication is that not all press is good press. 

Brand awareness can be influenced by negative factors such as scandals, product recalls, and even affordability, and while a brand can be well-known, this doesn’t necessarily mean they have a strong reputation.

Brand association tracking helps us to qualify this.

Brand associations 

Brand association studies help you determine how customers feel about your brand.

You can use this brand tracking metric to understand terms and emotions that customers associate with your brand (such as trustworthy, sustainable, and affordable) and use them to further differentiate brand messaging.

Take reBuy, a marketplace for high-quality used electronic goods. By undertaking brand tracking studies in customer associations, reBuy discovered that their primary association was ‘price value’. They also identified a growing trend in associations with ‘sustainability’ in the younger demographic:

(Image Source)

Before conducting this brand tracking study, reBuy had no idea that ‘sustainability’ was a brand association, and they certainly weren’t pushing this concept in any brand marketing activities.

This new learning allowed reBuy to reinvent how they were positioning their brand with younger consumers and grow that segment of their audience.

Brand perceived quality

Perceived quality gives you an understanding of the overall opinion and sentiment toward your brand.

Low perceived quality can be the reason for discrepancies between awareness and consideration metrics (such as in the BMW example).

To understand where opportunities for improvement lie in perceived quality, break this metric down into seven sub-measurements:

  1. Performance of the product
  2. Features offered
  3. Frequency of defects/conformity with specifications
  4. Reliability of the product
  5. Durability of the product
  6. Service system competence, efficiency, and convenience
  7. Fit and finish of the product

Brand visibility

Brand visibility is a measure of how frequently consumers see your brand through channels such as search, social, and email.

Visibility is an upstream measure and has a positive influence on awareness (the more you’re seen, the more likely you are to be recognized).

Take Zoom. From the moment the world turned to remote work, Zoom’s name was everywhere.

They were in front of 300 million people per day at their peak, and that’s not accounting for other visibility avenues like media coverage and meme culture.

In short, their visibility skyrocketed.

And as a result, they came out on top for growth in brand recognition in 2020:

Fastest growing tech brands list

(Image Source)

How to choose brand tracking tools

Brand tracking tools are your eyes and ears in the market. So, if you’re not keeping tabs on how your brand is doing, you’re flying blind. They give you the data you need to stay responsive and adjust your strategy when needed, keeping your brand ahead of the competition. Here’s why they matter:

  • Track market penetration: A good tool will show you how much of your target market you’ve captured or how well your brand is doing in your target market. Are you gaining ground, or is it time to tweak your strategy?
  • Understand customer behavior: Customer preferences are constantly changing. (Remember when everyone suddenly wanted oat milk?) Tracking tools help you stay ahead of these changes so you can spot these shifts early and are always in sync with what people want. 

But with so many options, how do you pick the best one?

9 key features to look for in a brand tracking tool

Not all brand tracking tools are built the same. Here are some key features to add to your checklist:

  • Real-Time Insights: A good brand tracking tool should give you up-to-the-minute data, so you can make quick decisions. Plus, having historical data lets you see how things have changed over time.
  • Data accuracy: Reliable data is everything. If the data isn’t reliable, what’s the point? Look for tools that pull from trusted sources and update in real-time.
  • Customizable dashboards: Your business has unique goals. Pick a tool that lets you track what matters most—whether it’s penetration rates, customer demographics, or sales trends.
  • Competitor analysis: You can’t measure success in isolation. Opt for tools that show how your performance stacks up against competitors.
  • Measure Campaign Effectiveness: Brand tracking tools dig deeper than just tracking reach and engagement. They show you how your marketing efforts are shaping consumer opinions and behaviors. Select a tool that allows you to link your campaigns to changes in how people feel about your brand, allowing you to make smarter, more targeted adjustments to your strategy.
  • Spot Trends and Opportunities:  Whether it’s discovering a niche market or spotting a shift in values that aligns with your brand, being able to predict shifts in consumer preferences and market changes gives you a competitive edge. Choose a tool that offers insights to help steer your strategies in the right direction.
  • Audience Segmentation: Breaking down your market by things like demographics, location, and behavior helps you focus on the right target groups and adjust your positioning.
  • Brand Sentiment: It’s important to understand how people feel about your brand, both in the moment and over time. The tool should track customer emotions through social media, reviews, and surveys, helping you gauge public opinion on a micro or macro level.
  • Integration capabilities: If your tools can’t communicate with each other, you’re wasting time. Ensure compatibility with CRMs, analytics platforms, or other software you already use.

Picking the right tool

When selecting your tool, it’s pertinent to be clear about your goals and budget—what exactly are you trying to track? Whether it’s online engagement, customer acquisition, or competitor performance, knowing your objectives will help you narrow down your options. Once you’ve defined your goals, look for a tool that fits within your budget. 

But, before committing, why not take the tool for a test drive? Demos and free trials are perfect for getting a feel for how it works before committing. 

Finally, keep the big picture in mind. Your business will grow, so choose a tool that can scale with you as you expand.

5 tools that get the job done

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console dashboard

Want to track your online brand presence? This one’s a classic. Google Search Console is a powerful tool for brand tracking because it provides valuable insights into how users discover your brand online. It shows search queries that lead to your website, highlighting brand-specific keywords, and user intent. It also tracks website performance metrics like impressions, clicks, and rankings, enabling you to measure the visibility of your brand in search results and optimize for greater reach.

Key Features:

  • Performance reports: Monitor search queries related to your brand, including impressions, clicks, and average position for brand-specific keywords.
  • Search appearance Insights: Understand how your brand is represented in rich search results, including structured data or sitelinks.
  • Coverage and indexing reports: Ensure brand-related pages are indexed and discover any issues preventing them from appearing in search results.
  • Backlink data: Analyze websites linking to your brand, helping you assess your online reputation and authority.
  • Mobile usability and core web vitals: Optimize user experience to strengthen brand credibility and trust.
  • Referral link tracking: Analyze backlinks and referring domains to understand how external websites drive traffic and influence your brand’s online reputation.
  • Campaign performance monitoring: Assess the impact of branded campaigns by tracking relevant keywords and traffic spikes related to promotional efforts.
  • Search appearance insights: Evaluate how your brand appears in rich search results, like structured data or sitelinks, to improve visibility and engagement.
  • Behavior tracking: With behavior reports, you can analyze how users interact with your website, including which pages they visit, how long they stay, and what actions they take (like clicking links or watching videos). This helps you identify popular content and areas where users drop off.
  • Conversion tracking: Google Analytics allows you to set up goals and track key conversions, such as form submissions, purchases, or newsletter signups. By monitoring these actions, you can measure the success of your website and marketing campaigns in driving desired outcomes.

Budget: The best part–It’s absolutely free! Google Search Console also offers training courses.

2. Qualtrics

(Image Source)

Need direct feedback from your audience? Qualtrics is a powerful experience management platform that makes it super easy to gather insights straight from the source, offering a variety of features for collecting and analyzing customer feedback. It works with over 18,000 brands as well as 75% of the Fortune 100, including Under Armour, Hilton, BMW, IBM, Spotify, and Goldman Sachs.

Key features:

  • Survey creation and customization: Qualtrics allows users to design detailed and highly customizable surveys with a variety of question types, logic, and skip patterns. You can tailor surveys to meet the unique needs of your business and target audience.
  • Advanced analytics and reporting: The platform offers robust data analysis tools, including real-time reporting, sentiment analysis, and statistical tools, to help you uncover insights from customer feedback. It helps in making data-driven decisions by presenting data in clear, actionable reports.
  • Automation and workflow integration: Qualtrics automates survey distribution and data collection processes. It integrates seamlessly with other tools like CRM systems and analytics platforms, streamlining workflows and improving operational efficiency.
  • Multichannel feedback collection: With Qualtrics, you can collect feedback across various channels, including email, web, social media, and mobile devices. This helps ensure you’re capturing data from your audience wherever they engage with your brand.
  • Real-time data and actionable insights: Qualtrics provides real-time data collection and analysis, allowing businesses to respond quickly to customer feedback. It also offers actionable insights, so you can take immediate steps to improve customer experiences, boost engagement, or address concerns.

Budget: Qualtrics offers demos as well as products and full suites. Pricing is available on request and may vary based on industry security requirements.

3. Attest

These are heavy-hitters for tracking sales growth and customer acquisition. Attest is an enterprise-level platform offering quantitative and qualitative research. Bonus: they’re great for scaling businesses. Industry giants like Bloomberg, Shark Ninja, Uniqlo, and Fujifilm all leverage this brand tracking tool for high-value insights.

Budget: Brandwatch offers demos for its 3 subscriptions: Basic, Standard, and Elite, with prices on demand.

4. Brandwatch

(Image Source)

Want to know what people are saying about you online? Brandwatch is a social listening tool that pulls in mentions, reviews, and trending conversations about your brand. From consumer intelligence to influencer marketing, this tool is an all-in-one suite for social channels used by the likes of glocal brands like Unilever, Carlsberg, GSK, and Toyota. Not to mention winning multiple G2 awards in 2024 as an industry leader.

  • Social listening: Brandwatch allows you to monitor and analyze online conversations about your brand, competitors, and industry across social media, news sites, blogs, and forums. This feature helps you understand public sentiment, emerging trends, and customer opinions.
  • Sentiment analysis: The tool uses advanced AI to analyze the tone of social media mentions and other online content, providing insights into how people feel about your brand or a specific topic—whether positive, negative, or neutral.
  • Competitive benchmarking: Brandwatch enables you to compare your brand’s performance with competitors. You can track share of voice, sentiment, and audience engagement, helping you identify strengths and weaknesses in your strategy.
  • Custom dashboards and reporting: Brandwatch offers customizable dashboards where you can track the metrics that matter most to your business. You can also create detailed, visual reports to share with your team or stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned on key insights.
  • Influencer identification: Brandwatch helps you identify key influencers who are talking about your brand or industry. By analyzing their reach and engagement, you can build strategic partnerships with influencers to boost brand awareness and market penetration.

Budget: Brandwatch offers free demos with pricing is available on demand.

5. Brand24

(Image Source)

Brand24 is a popular social listening and brand monitoring tool that helps businesses track their online presence. It leverages AI to access mentions across various platforms like videos, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and more. Brand24 is the choice of heavyweights like Samsung, Uber, McCann, and Stanford University, to name a few.

  1. Real-time social media monitoring: Brand24 allows you to monitor social media platforms, blogs, forums, and news websites in real-time. This helps you stay updated on brand mentions and track conversations about your business or industry as they happen.
  2. Sentiment analysis: The tool analyzes the sentiment behind mentions (positive, negative, or neutral), helping you gauge public perception and respond to customer feedback effectively.
  3. Influencer identification: Brand24 helps you identify key influencers who are mentioning your brand. This is valuable for building relationships with influencers who can amplify your message and improve your brand’s reach.
  4. Customizable alerts: You can set up alerts for specific keywords, mentions, or topics relevant to your brand. This ensures you never miss important conversations or mentions that could impact your business.
  5. Analytics and reporting: Brand24 provides detailed reports and analytics, helping you track the performance of your brand’s mentions over time. You can measure reach, engagement, and sentiment trends to better understand how your brand is being perceived.

Budget: Brand24 offers a 14-day free trial, with packages ranging from $119 (Individual) -$399 (Enterprise level)

How to track your brand 

You’ve got three options when it comes to brand tracking studies.

The first is to outsource everything to a third-party research firm. 

This is the most affordable approach as it requires minimal resource investment. You’ll have to sacrifice flexibility, however, as you won’t have the same command over which data gets recorded and analyzed.

The second is to swing the other way and build a custom brand tracking program.

The advantage here is that you have complete control over all aspects:

  • What questions are being asked
  • How audiences are segmented
  • Which brands are included in the study

The downside is that going the DIY route can involve more upfront investment, both in resources as well as building a system for data collection and analysis.

If you take this approach, use a brand tracking tool like Latana to leverage AI-powered insights, and to tackle aspects such as audience segmentation.

Using Latana, mobile banking brand N26 was able to identify highly segmented groups and establish a baseline for metrics such as brand consideration and associations:

(Image Source)

With data in hand, they were able to design hyper-targeted branding campaigns to influence key goals and drive audience growth by 20%.

The best path forward to reap the full benefits of brand tracking is a hybrid model, which is option three. 

You can use a third-party research firm to establish baselines and to handle large-scale consumer panels. And complement this data with ongoing research such as in-app surveys, social media listening, and customer retention metrics.

No matter which method you choose, follow these six steps to effectively track your brand:

1. Establish your goals and baseline metrics

Are you looking to boost your reach and generate leads? Do you plan to rebrand, and subsequently need to know what’s resonating so you can double down? Or are you concerned more with customer retention and cross-sell opportunities?

Having more than one goal is fine, but make sure to note these down and draw clear dividing lines so you can ask appropriate questions and segment answers accordingly.

Take L.L. Bean, an outdoor goods retailer, as an example. Being a 100-year-old brand, L.L. Bean had been experiencing a long period of zero revenue growth. So, they set a goal to break the cycle.

They determined that targeting customer growth in the outdoor family enthusiast segment was the most appropriate goal, tying key metrics to that objective.

This allowed L.L. Bean to segment in-store survey responses, and analyze improvements in customer experience based on designated customer categories:

L.L. Bean qualitative customer survey

With clear goals established, determine which metrics to track and establish baseline measures.

You should also establish the scope of your brand tracking measures. 

Advanced brand tracking studies can include inputs from digital advertising efforts, social listening tools, and other operational data. This may be overkill for some brands, so consider starting leaner with a more focused survey—at least to establish your baseline.

Qualtrics provides a good matrix for scaling brand tracking complexity:

Brand tracking maturity model

(Image Source)

Following this model allows brands to start with what matters most, and access tangible insights faster without getting bogged down in technical analysis.

2. Test by target audience and target segments 

Brand tracking research should be designed to help you understand how your brand resonates on the whole, but also by segment.

This is where large-scale market research firms deliver a major benefit: the ability to survey thousands of people, giving you a workable sample size to analyze within each segment.

These findings then inform your brand strategy. You may find, for example, that your messaging is resonating more powerfully with one segment than another, and thus it may be worth investing more resources into that segment.

Or, if the segment that you’re not resonating with is the one you want to grow the most, a marketing strategy that is differentiated by segment may be required. From there, you can track the impacts of subsequent marketing campaigns using your brand track.

This is just how Holvi, a digital banking service for freelancers and small business owners, approached brand building.

Knowing that their current marketing activities were falling flat, they leveraged Latana’s Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) algorithm to track super-niche audience segments, using customer insights to fuel targeted brand campaigns.

This hyper-segmented brand tracking survey is empowering Holvi to drive brand recall and perception metrics, and better reach key stakeholders within their desired target audience.

3. Choose competitors to test against 

If winning customers from the competition and growing your market share is a key goal, consider which brands you want to test against.

Recall the problem that Chanel has. They rank number one for brand awareness in the luxury jewelry segment in the U.S. but fall to fifth and tenth place when it comes to popularity and ownership.

Given that brand consideration and actual sales data are highly correlated in this vertical, it follows that if Chanel can influence brand consideration, they can forecast a lift in future sales and possibly market share:

Recall that the best way to understand discrepancies between awareness and consideration results is to dig into qualitative findings such as brand associations.

In this case, Chanel should survey and track associations for both their own brand, as well as key competitors, Pandora and Tiffany and Co., to understand what customers think about each brand and how this influences purchase decisions.

4. Pick data collection methods

There are several methods to choose from in determining how you’re going to collect brand tracking data:

  • Custom consumer panels
  • Generic consumer research surveys (not ideal, but you can still leverage some high-level data)
  • Online sentiment analysis (such as social listening platforms)
  • Survey-based brand trackers 

A survey-based approach will allow you to monitor and track key brand metrics on an ongoing basis. And allow you to analyze trends over time, rather than static increases in quarterly increments (such as in consumer panel studies.)

Sample questions to use in your surveys include:

NPS & CSAT

  • NPS – On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [your company] to a [friend/family member/colleague]?
  • CSAT – On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate your experience at [your company] today? 

Brand loyalty

  • On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to purchase [product] form us again?
  • For how long have you been buying [your product]?
  • On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to switch to a competing product in the future?

Brand usage

  • When was the last time you used [your product]?
  • How often do you use [your product]?
  • Do you use our products exclusively, or do you switch between brands?
    • Why is that?
  • What do you use [your product] for? (for more comprehensive offerings such as software packages)
  • When you purchase [X product] how often do you buy [your product]?

Don’t get too complicated with these questions. Customers should be able to answer from top of mind and too much cognitive effort tends to lead to less reliable answers.

Brand awareness

  • When you think of [X product or service], what brands come to mind?”
    • If they mention your brand: “What stands out to you about our brand and why?”
    • If they mention another brand: “What stands out to you about [competitor brand] and why?”
  • Have you heard of [your brand] before?
  • On a scale from 1 to 10, how familiar are you with [your brand]?
  • Which of the following brands have you heard of? (list your own + competitors)

When surveying brand awareness and recognition, let customers tell you which brands they’re aware of.

Achieve this by asking open-ended questions such as:

In-depth customer survey

(Image Source)

Brand consideration

  • How likely are you to purchase from [your brand] next time you go shopping for [X product]?
  • If your favorite brand in this category isn’t available, which brands are you likely to consider instead?
  • Which of the following brands would you consider purchasing from in the next X months? (List your own + competitors.)

Brand associations

  • When you think of [your brand], what feelings/words come to mind?
  • On a scale from 0 to 10, how much do you trust [your brand]?
  • What did we do to earn your trust?
  • What can we do to keep your trust?
  • What are some positive associations you have with [X brands]?
  • What are some negative associations you have with [X brands]?
  • How well does this statement apply to [your brand]? [Your brand] is
    • Trustworthy
    • Reliable 
    • Friendly
    • Fast
    • Convenient
    • Approachable

These should be based on the associations you’re aiming to form as a brand.

Brand perceived quality

  • Based on what you know about [your brand], how well does it compare to other [category] brands?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the quality of [your product]?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the reliability of [your product]?
  • How valuable is [your brand] to you?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was cheaper?
  • On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was more convenient to purchase?

Brand visibility 

  • When was the last time you saw [your product]?
  • How often do you see [your brand] on social media?
  • When was the first time you heard of [your brand]?
  • In the last month, how often have you heard other people talking about [your brand]?

5. Run your tests and analyze the results

Having collected all required relevant data, analyze the results to identify trends and customer perceptions. Also, compare key brand tracking metrics against the goals you’ve set.

A suitable process for data analysis would be to:

  1. Separate data into qualitative and quantitative results
  2. Compare quantitative results to goals, benchmarks, and competitors
  3. Use qualitative data to explain why you’re ahead of or behind your goals or competitors
  4. Analyze qualitative results and perform a gap analysis (i.e. what desired associations are missing from customer reports, and vice versa)
  5. Use these findings to inform changes to your brand strategy

Brand tracking’s main objective is to understand changes in brand perception across time.

Rather than viewing results in a vacuum, analyze trends across time to gauge the effectiveness of your branding campaigns.

Take global brand Headspace, a meditation and mindfulness app. By analyzing trends in brand awareness and comparing these to brand marketing efforts across regions, they found their efforts in Germany were proving more fruitful than those in France and Spain:

Headspace brand results

(Image Source)

They subsequently diverted more effort to lagging regions, which will help even the playing field.

6. Optimize and repeat 

Brand tracking is best approached holistically, with brand tracking studies undertaken bi-annually or annually.

Where other forms of marketing tests (such as A/B testing) can be done fairly rapidly, brand tracking studies require much more time to effectively analyze results, trends, and causes.

Short-term changes in brand awareness and perception are common. Mistakes, scandals, and bad PR happen, and they can influence results drastically in the short term, as can positive events such as going viral.

However, these changes are not statistically significant.

Think of brand tracking like stock investment. Though short-term changes should be paid attention to, what you should really be interested in is long-term growth or decline.

These macro shifts are what fuel your investment decisions, as well as your brand marketing decisions.

You should still use data from feedback you receive daily (response to marketing initiatives, social media engagement, A/B tests on messaging, etc). But this data should be viewed from a big-picture perspective.

Set your cadence for brand tracking studies (quarterly, bi-annually, or annually) at the outset, and optimize brand marketing strategies at each interval based on progress toward goals.

Conclusion

Brand tracking studies are crucial for gaining an in-depth understanding of how the market views your company.

They give you some insight into whether your brand marketing efforts are paying off, and whether you’re effectively avoiding the sea of sameness.

Use data collected in brand tracking studies to draw insights into customer sentiment and brand performance. Then, leverage your findings to create effective campaigns that improve brand health and drive brand growth.

CXL brand marketing courses provide in-depth, actionable strategies to help you build, measure, and grow a successful brand. With expert-led lessons, real-world case studies, and hands-on projects, you’ll gain practical skills that you can immediately apply to drive business results. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced marketer, these courses empower you to confidently make data-driven decisions and stay ahead in a competitive market.

Related Posts

Current article:

Brand Tracking: How To Do It, Metrics, Tools & Examples

Categories