Brand equity audit and tracking techniques

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Developing a Brand Equity Measurement and Management System

Learning Objectives
1. Describe the new accountability in terms of ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment).

2. Create an understanding of analytics dashboards as a tool for monitoring performance and the implications of brand investments.

3. Outline the two main steps in conducting a brand audit and how to execute a digital marketing review.

4. Describe how to design, conduct, and interpret a tracking study.

5. Identify the steps in implementing a brand equity management system.

Overview
The concept of a brand equity measurement system is introduced. Customer-based brand equity is the differential effect that knowledge about the brand has on customer response to marketing about that brand. Two basic approaches to measuring brand equity include the indirect approach (identifying and tracking brand knowledge) and the direct approach (impact of brand knowledge on consumer response).

Implementing a brand equity measurement system involves three steps: conducting brand audits, designing brand tracking studies, and establishing a brand equity management system.

A brand audit is a consumer-focused exercise to assess the health of the brand, uncover its sources of brand equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage its equity. The brand audit consists of two steps: the brand inventory and the brand exploratory.

Tracking studies measure consumer attitudes toward the brand on a consistent basis over time and provide a contemporary picture of the state of the brand. Five key measures can be used to capture the consumer mindset: brand awareness, brand associations, brand attitudes, brand attachment, and brand activity or experience.

Chapter Outline

I. Preview

1. The customer-based brand equity (CBBE) concept provides guidance about how we can measure brand equity:

a. CBBE is the differential effect that knowledge about the brand has on customer response to marketing of that brand.

b. An indirect approach can assess potential sources of CBBE by identifying and tracking consumers’ brand knowledge.

c. A direct approach can assess the actual impact of brand knowledge on consumer response to different aspects of the marketing program.

d. Marketers can and should use both approaches.

2. A brand equity measurement system is a set of research procedures designed to provide marketers with timely, accurate, and actionable information about brands so they can make the best possible tactical decisions in the short run and strategic decisions in the long run:

a. The goal is to achieve a full understanding of the sources and outcomes of brand equity and be able to relate the two as much as possible.

b. The ideal brand equity measurement system would provide complete, up-to-date, and relevant information about the brand and its competitors to the right decision makers at the right time within the organization.

c. Three steps are involved in implementing brand equity measurement system: conducting brand audits, designing brand tracking studies, and establishing a brand equity management system.

II. The New Accountability

1. Virtually every marketing dollar spent today must be justified as both effective and efficient in terms of return on marketing investment (ROMI).

2. It is often hard to link activities that improve brand equity to short-term, incremental profits; it is critical to measure long-term value and impact on consumers.

3. The digital economy has an emphasis on strong, long-term relationships and networks rather than immediate profitability.

4. Marketers need new tools and procedures that clarify and justify the value of their expenditures beyond ROMI.

III. Conducting Brand Audits

1. A brand audit is a comprehensive examination of a brand to discover its sources of brand equity.

2. It is designed to learn how consumers think, feel, and act toward brands and products so the company can make informed strategic positioning decisions.

3. A marketing audit is a comprehensive, independent, systematic examination that takes place at specific time intervals to learn about the marketing environment, objectives, strategies, and activities with a view of determining problem areas and opportunities:

a. First step is agreement on objectives, scope, and approach.

b. Second step is data collection.

c. Third step is report preparation and presentation.

4. In contrast, a brand audit is a more externally, consumer-focused exercise to assess the health of the brand, uncover its sources of brand equity, and suggest ways to improve and leverage its equity.

5. The brand audit can set strategic direction for the brand; management should conduct one whenever important shifts in strategic direction are likely.

6. Brand audits are particularly useful background when managers set up marketing plans.

A. Brand Inventory

1. The brand inventory provides a current, comprehensive profile of how all the products and services sold by a company are marketed and branded.

2. Profiling each product or service requires marketers to catalogue the following in visual and written form for each product or service sold:

a. Names

b. Logos

c. Symbols

d. Characters

e. Packaging

f. Slogans

g. Other trademarks used

h. Inherent product attributes or characteristics of the brand

i. Pricing, communications, and distribution policies

j. Other relevant marketing activity related to the brand

3. Conducting an audit of digital brand assets (images, audio, video, blog posts, sponsored content, and consumer guides) is an important part of the brand inventory.

4. Brand marketers should pay attention to maintaining the consistency of look and feel of a brand across digital and social media channels.

5. A digital inventory of brand assets may provide four types of useful insights:

a. Outdated brand accounts that have fallen into disuse

b. Overlapping brand assets, which can be merged or deleted

c. Existing brand accounts with information that is inaccurate or not up-to-date

d. Particular digital and social media channels where the brand does not have a presence

6. The rationale for using the brand inventory as a first step is as follows:

a. It helps suggest the basis of consumers’ current perceptions.

b. It provides useful information for interpreting follow-up research like the brand exploratory.

c. The brand inventory is primarily a descriptive exercise, but it can supply some useful analysis and initial insights into how brand equity may be better managed.

d. As firms expand their products geographically and extend them into other categories, deviations may emerge in brand appearance and marketing; a thorough brand inventory can reveal the extent of brand consistency.

e. A brand inventory can reveal lack of perceived differences among products that share the brand name like line extensions or other sub-brands that are redundant, which is not desirable because it can confuse consumers or lead to retailer resistance.

B. Brand Exploratory

1. Consumer perceptions may not reflect what the marketer intended.

2. The second step of the brand audit is to provide detailed information about what consumers actually think of the brand by means of the brand exploratory.

3. Several preliminary activities are useful for the brand exploratory:

a. Prior research studies may exist and be relevant; dig through the company archives.

b. Interview internal personnel to gain an understanding of their beliefs about consumer perceptions for the brand and competitive brands.

c. Additional research, which typically begins with qualitative research, is usually required.

4. Marketers must carefully consider which qualitative research techniques to employ:

a. Three criteria: direction, depth, and diversity

b. The more specific the question, the narrower the range of information given by the respondent

c. The more abstract and symbolic the research technique, the more important it is to follow up with probes and other questions to understand motivations and reasons for responses

d. Qualitative research conducted as part of the brand exploratory should vary in direction, depth, and technique

5. One useful outcome of qualitative research is a mental map, which portrays the salient brand associations and responses for a particular target market.

6. It is sometimes useful to group brand associations into related categories with descriptive labels.

a. Core brand associations are abstract associations (attributes and benefits) that characterize the most important aspects or dimensions of a brand.

b. Core brand associations can serve as the basis of brand positioning in terms of how they create points-of-parity and points-of-difference.

c. Brand concept maps elicit brand association networks from consumers and aggregate individual maps into a consensus map:

i. The brand elicitation stage identifies brand associations by providing survey respondents with a set of brand associations used in the mapping stage.

ii. The mapping stage is structured and has respondents use the provided set of brand associations to build an individual brand map that shows linkages and linkage strength.

iii. The aggregation stage is structured and analyzes individual brand maps step by step.

7. A formal digital marketing review can provide input to a brand audit, which could generate useful insights regarding a brand’s online presence, which offers the following benefits:

a. It can highlight whether a brand’s digital efforts are received in online channels, relative to competitors.

b. It can help unlock customer-level insights and industry trends.

c. It can provide useful input to brand strategy development and inform brand positioning.

d. It can act as a health check of the brand’s digital marketing and social media strategy.

8. Ongoing social media conversations can be successfully mined and summarized using the 5 Cs related to brand conversations:

a. Conversation channel

b. Conversation source

c. Conversation content

d. Channel-specific engagement

e. Context

9. The advantages to brand positioning maps that are constructed from natural language processing or machine learning techniques, relative to survey-based approaches, include lower costs, timely information and voluntary posts from consumers overcome typical biases associated with survey responses.

10. The disadvantages are social media data may only represent a segment of consumers who tend to engage with a brand online, so it is more suitable only for those categories where offline consumption is limited and social media posting behavior may be driven by impression or image management.

C. Brand Positioning and the Supporting Marketing Program

1. Moving from the current brand image, as uncovered via the brand exploratory, to a desired brand image typically means adding new associations, strengthening existing ones, or weakening or eliminating undesirable ones in the minds of consumers.

2. The ideal positioning for a brand achieves congruence among four key considerations:

a. What customers currently believe about the brand and find credible

b. What customers will value in the brand

c. What the firm is saying about the brand

d. Where the firm would like to take the brand

3. A number of different internal management personnel can be part of the planning and positioning process, including brand marketing research, and production managers, as well as outside marketing partners (marketing research suppliers and the ad agency)

IV. Designing Brand Tracking Studies

1. To gather information for short-term tactical decisions, marketers will typically college less detailed brand-related information through ongoing brand tracking studies:

a. Brand tracking studies collect information from consumers on a routine basis over time, usually through quantitative measures of brand performance on a number of key dimensions that marketers can identify in the brand audit or other means.

b. As more marketing activity surrounds the brand—as the firm introduces brand extensions or incorporates an increasing variety of communication options in support of the brand—it becomes difficult and expensive to research each one.

c. Tracking studies play an important role by providing a consistent baseline to facilitate day-to-day decision-making.

A. What to Track

1. It is usually necessary to customize tracking surveys

2. Some common measurements include:

a. Product-brand tracking that captures recall, recognition, and image/association questions:

i. Benefit associations often represent key points-of-parity or points-of-difference.

ii. Marketers may want to measure attribute beliefs that underlie the benefit beliefs to better understand any changes in benefit beliefs for a brand.

iii. Marketers should assess key brand associations that make up potential sources of brand equity on the basis of strength, favorability, and uniqueness in that order.

iv. Marketers will also track more general, higher-level judgments, feelings, and other outcome-related measures.

b. Marketers may want to track the corporate or family brand separately or concurrently with individual products:

i. When a brand is associated with multiple products, it is important to know which products the brand reminds consumers of and which products are most influential in affect consumer perceptions of the brand.

ii. To identify influential products, ask consumer which products they associate with the brand on an unaided basis.

c. If tracking covers diverse geographic markets, you need a broader set of background measures to put the brand development in those markets in the right perspective.

V. Big Data and Marketing Analytic Dashboards

1. With the growth of mobile payments and the rise of networks of data-gathering sensors, there are troves of data, which can enable continuous tracking.

2. Social media data has been a source of data that facilitates the trend toward continuous tracking.

A. Marketing Analytic Dashboards

1. Marketing analytic dashboards communicate important metrics and make them available throughout the organization.

2. More than a billion dollars were invested in data analytics from 2015 to 2017.

3. Analytic dashboards are a valuable tool to help in decision-making.

4. Companies aim to align their brand health with financial returns, leading to improved metrics.

5. While the financial return can be high, marketing analytics within organizations sometimes do not reach the right people with the right insights.

VI. Establishing a Brand Equity Management System

1. Firms need proper internal structures and procedures to capitalize on the brand equity concept and the information they collect about it.

2. One of the biggest threats to brand equity can come from within the organization, since assignments are short term and perspectives can be short term.

3. A brand equity management system is a set of organizational processes designed to improve the understanding and use of the brand concept within a firm.

4. Three major steps include the following:

a. Creating brand charters or bibles

b. Assembling brand equity reports

c. Defining brand equity responsibilities

A. Brand Charter or Bible

1. The brand charter or brand bible is a formal document that provides relevant guidelines to marketing managers within the company as well as to key marketing partners outside the company.

2. The document should crisply and concisely do the following:

a. Define the firm’s view of branding and brand equity and explain why it is important.

b. Describe the scope of key brands in terms of associated products and the manner by which they have been branded and marketed.

c. Specify what the actual and desired equity is for brands at all relevant levels of the brand hierarchy.

d. The charter should define and clarify points-of-parity, points-of-difference, and the brand mantra.

B. Brand Equity Report

1. A brand equity report or scorecard of performance measures for the brand should be distributed to management on a regular basis.

2. Brand equity reports can be derived from analytic dashboards and are designed to help decision-making.

3. The brand equity report should describe what is happening with the brand and why it is happening:

a. It should include all relevant internal measures of operational efficiency and effectiveness.

b. It should include external measures of brand performance and sources and outcomes of brand equity.

c. One section of the report should summarize consumers’ perceptions of key attribute or benefit associations, preferences, and reported behavior as revealed by the tracking study.

d. Another section should include more descriptive market-level information.

C. Brand Equity Responsibilities

1. Managers must clearly define organizational responsibilities and processes with respect to the brand.

2. Weak brands often suffer from a lack of discipline, commitment, and investment in brand building.

3. To provide central coordination, the firm should establish a position responsible for overseeing the implementation of the brand charter and brand equity reports, to ensure that product and marketing actions across divisions and geographic boundaries reflect their spirit as closely as possible and maximize the long-term equity of the brand.

4. Some people advocate for top-down brand leadership (a chief brand officer who reports to the CEO and champions, architects, and protects brands).

5. The firm should organize its marketing function to optimize brand equity.

6. Many companies have organized their marketing departments to become more agile and data driven.

7. Brand performance depends on actions taken by outside suppliers and marketing partners; the brand bible can be shared with them so they can provide brand-consistent support.

The Science of Branding
The Role of Brand Personas

Personas are detailed profiles of one, or perhaps a few, target market consumers. They are often defined in terms of demographic, psychographic, geographic, or other descriptive attitudinal or behavioral information. The rationale behind personas is to provide exemplars or archetypes of how the target customer looks, acts, and feels that are as true-to-life as possible, to ensure marketers within the organization fully understand and appreciate their target market and therefore incorporate a nuanced target customer point of view in all their marketing decision-making. Personas are fundamentally designed to bring the target consumer to life.

A good brand persona can guide all marketing activities. Although personas can provide a very detailed and accessible perspective on the target market, it can come at a cost. The more heterogeneity in the target market, the more problematic the use of personas can be. To overcome the potential problem of overgeneralization, some firms are creating multiple personas to provide a richer tapestry of the target market.

There can also be varying levels of personas, such as primary (target consumer), secondary (target consumer with differing needs, targets, goals), and negative (false stereotypes of users).

Maximizing Internal Branding

Internal branding creates a positive and more productive work environment. It can also be a platform for change and help foster an organization’s identity. According to branding expert Scott Davis, for employees to become passionate brand advocates, they must understand what a brand is, how it is built, what their organization’s brand stands for, and what their role is in delivering on the brand promise. Formally, he sees the process of helping an organization’s employees assimilate the brand as three stages:

· Hear It: How do we best get it into their hands?

· Believe It: How do we best get it into their heads?

· Live It: How do we best get it into their hearts?

Davis also argues that six key principles should guide the brand assimilation process within an organization:

· Make the brand relevant—Each employee must understand and embrace the brand meaning.

· Make the brand accessible—Employees must know where they can get brand knowledge and answers to their brand-related questions.

· Reinforce the brand continuously—Management must reinforce the brand meaning with employees beyond the initial rollout of an internal branding program.

· Make brand education an ongoing program—Provide new employees with inspiring and informative training.

· Reward on-brand behaviors—An incentive system to reward employees for exceptional support of the brand strategy should coincide with the rollout of an internal branding program.

· Align hiring practices—HR and marketing must work together to develop criteria and screening procedures to ensure that new hires are good fits for the company’s brand culture.

Davis also emphasizes the role of senior management in driving internal branding, noting that the CEO ultimately sets the tone and compliance with a brand-based culture and determines whether proper resources and procedures are put into place.

Branding Briefs
Sample Brand Tracking Survey

Introduction: We’re conducting a short online survey to gather consumer opinions about quick-service or coffeehouse chains.

Brand Awareness and Usage

a. What brands of coffeehouse chains are you aware of?

b. At which coffeehouse chains would you consider visiting?

c. Have you visited a coffeehouse chain in the last week? Which ones?

d. If you were to visit a coffeehouse tomorrow, which one would you go to?

e. What are your favorite coffeehouse chains?

We want to ask you some general questions about a particular coffeehouse chain, Starbucks.

Have you heard of this brand? [Establish familiarity.]

Have you ever visited a Starbucks coffeehouse? [Establish trial.]

When I say Starbucks, what are the first associations that come to your mind? Anything else? [List all.]

Brand Judgments

We’re interested in your overall opinion of Starbucks.

a How favorable is your attitude toward Starbucks?

b. How well does Starbucks satisfy your needs?

c. How likely would you be to recommend Starbucks to others?

d. How good a value is Starbucks?

e. Is Starbucks worth a premium price?

f. What do you like best about Starbucks? Least?

g. What is most unique about Starbucks?

h. To what extent does Starbucks offer advantages that other similar types of coffeehouses cannot?

i. To what extent is Starbucks superior to other brands in the coffeehouse category?

j. Compared to other brands in the coffeehouse category, how well does Starbucks satisfy your basic needs?

We now want to ask you some questions about Starbucks as a company. Please indicate your agreement with the following statements.

Starbucks is . . .

a. Innovative

b. Knowledgeable

c. Trustworthy

d. Likable

e. Concerned about their customers

f. Concerned about society as a whole

g. Likable

h. Admirable

Brand Performance

We now would like to ask some specific questions about Starbucks. Please indicate your agreement with the following statements.

Starbucks . . .

a. Is convenient to visit for coffee

b. Provides quick, efficient service

c. Has clean facilities

d. Is ideal for the whole family

e. Has delicious coffee

f. Has tasty snacks

g. Has a varied menu

h. Has friendly, courteous staff

i. Offers fun promotions

j. Has a stylish and attractive look and design

k. Has high-quality food

l. Has baristas who prepare excellent coffee

Brand Imagery

a. To what extent do people you admire and respect visit a Starbucks?

b. How much do you like people who frequently visit Starbucks?

c. How well do each of the following words describe Starbucks?

Down-to-earth, honest, daring, up-to-date, reliable, successful, upper class, charming, and outdoorsy

d. Is Starbucks a coffeehouse chain that you can visit at a variety of different times of the day?

e. To what extent does thinking of Starbucks bring back pleasant memories?

f. To what extent do you feel that you grew up with Starbucks?

Brand Feelings

Does Starbucks give you a feeling of . . .

a. Warmth?

b. Fun?

c. Excitement?

d. Security or confidence?

e. Social approval?

f. Self-respect?

Brand Resonance

a. I consider myself loyal to Starbucks.

b. I buy Starbucks whenever I can.

c. I would go out of my way to visit a Starbucks.

d. I really love Starbucks.

e. I would really miss Starbucks if it went away.

f. Starbucks is special to me.

g. Starbucks is more than a product to me.

h. I really identify with people who go to Starbucks.

i. I feel a deep connection with Starbucks as a company.

j. I really like to talk about Starbucks to others.

k. I am always interested in learning more about Starbucks.

l. I would be interested in merchandise with the Starbucks name on it.

m. I am proud to have others know that I eat at Starbucks.

n. I like to visit the Starbucks Web site.

o. Compared to other people, I follow news about Starbucks closely.