Brand growth is always an exciting prospect and a welcomed outcome. And when it’s happening, you’ll feel proud of all the hard work you’ve put into your brand. That said, the emphasis on hard work can’t be stressed enough. Brand growth doesn’t happen out of nowhere. It requires a well thought out strategy with clearly defined objectives. Your strategy is contingent on the data you have and what you do with it. Read on to see why you should measure your brand to help it grow.
It’s tempting to think that some brands were in the right place at the right time and were able to capitalize on whatever luck they found themselves (looking at you Facebook). And while it’s certainly true that some companies have gotten lucky, their success isn’t dependent on luck alone. Successful brands who withstood the test of time put in the work and energy into becoming a household name. They did and do this by measuring and taking action with their brand data.
Your brand’s purpose
Measuring your brand is essential to the growth of your company. Without your brand, your company would have no identity. Your brand is what a customer associates to the service or product you offer and it’s what people will recall and attach themselves to first.
Source: BrandAmplitude
Think about Kleenex. People refer to Kleenex as the name for tissue and not just the brand. To reach that level of branding, analyze and improve upon brand awareness, consideration, and association.
Actionable measurement and what to do
When talking about how to approach assessing or analyzing your brand, know about actionable measurement. Actionable measurement is a process that determines whether or not something can be used, acted, or improved on. Look at your data and answer questions like:
- What is going on?
- Can we make it better?
- How do we improve?
Now:
Before taking your plans into action though, define what growth means to your brand. Start with setting objectives. An objective is a specific task or challenges your brand is actively trying to meet. Some examples are: expanding your market reach, increasing sales by a certain percentage, or addressing a potential product flaw. We took some highly engaging tips from a YouTube speaker, entrepreneur and business advisor Jamie Turner that has helped to understand the process of each segment – check out his channel. Each of those examples can be defined and measured with different types of data.
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Trying to figure out which data matters the most depends on what your growth objectives are. If you want to expand your audience, data about your current audience and who they already are is important. When it comes to increasing sales over a certain time period, you’ll need to look at customer-specific information like what they liked or didn’t like about your product. Or when you’re looking to enhance the product itself you will want data on user experience.
While all three examples require different types of data, the information involves your brand’s health. When expanding your audience you need to know more about brand awareness. If you are trying to increase sales, you’ll need to know about customer brand consideration. And your product or service? Make sure people are having a good experience with it so they have a positive brand association.
Factors of brand measurement
Brand health is an accumulation of a variety of factors that measure how effective your brand is in helping you reach your goals. These factors include brand awareness, brand consideration, and brand association.
- Brand awareness is how familiar customers are with your brand. It’s whether or not they recognize your brand, and if they associate it with a certain product or service. Brand awareness is important because it describes customer behavior, current or potential.
- Brand consideration helps you understand whether or not a customer would purchase your brand when placed with others. This is important when it comes to brand comparison and seeing where you stand next to competitors.
- Brand association is the emotional bond a customer thinks of a brand. This bond can be negative or positive. Knowing how people associate with your brand lets you know what needs working on, like customer service or product design.
Source: Neil Patel
All three are important factors of measurement and provide information that can be acted on. There are different ways in which you can measure your brand’s health such as social listening, Google Analytics, focus groups and surveys, customer feedback, the list goes on.
While it’s good to be in the habit of using those forms of data analysis, having a brand tracking tool is arguably the most effective way to measure data. A brand tracking tool allows you to see data all in one place. See spikes in your brand that correlate to branding activities or compare you against competitors. They help you to make sense of complicated information and understand if your business is on the right track. You can check out some of the best available brand tracking tools listed here.
What to do with your data?
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Once you’ve acquired all the data you need to make meaningful measurements, feed it back into campaigns of growth. Increase brand awareness with new forms of marketing like TV ads, an engaging blog, being featured on an influencer page, or branded packaging. Look at case studies for brand consideration and see what you can do to make customers choose rather than just think about your brand. Encourage customers to choose you with an incentive such as a discount. Create a personal experience for your customers and use email marketing campaigns catered to specific audiences and upsell to clients to increase sales.
Measure to grow
In order to grow your brand, you need to measure it by establishing the right growth strategies. Start the process by first understanding that actionable measurement is a process that determines if a factor can be improved. When it comes to branding, these factors fall under your brand’s health. Guide your analysis by separating brand awareness, consideration, and association. Keep things simple and in one place with the help of a brand tracking tool and use the data you’ve learned in new campaigns of growth.
Step by step, clearly define your objectives and factors. Discover the data you need to reach your goals. Then implement that data with a strategy. While developing your brand, watch your company grow, too.
Read more: How Do You Measure Growth?