Rating your brand at the beginning of the year or over a period of time can be a very efficient way of taking note of not only where you stand, but where you stand in relation to your competitors.
Below are some questions you should ask based on the top ten traits of the world’s strongest brands. Rate your brand on a scale of one to ten (one being extremely poor and ten being extremely good) for each characteristic and create a bar chart that reflects the scores. As a relatively new brand, Brownie Communication Concepts will be rating ourselves at the beginning of the year, and again after six months. This is also a great way of tracking your progress and growth.
- The brand excels at delivering the benefits customers truly desire. Have you attempted to uncover unmet consumer needs and wants? By what methods? Do you focus relentlessly on maximizing your customers’ product and service experiences? Do you have a system in place for getting comments from customers to the people who can effect change?
- The brand stays relevant. Have you invested in product improvements that provide better value for your customers? Are you in touch with your customers’ tastes? With the current market conditions? With new trends as they apply to your offering? Are your marketing decisions based on your knowledge of the above?
- The pricing strategy is based on consumers’ perceptions of value. Have you optimized price, cost, and quality to meet or exceed customers’ expectations? Do you have a system in place to monitor customers’ perceptions of your brand value? Have you estimated how much value your customers believe the brand adds to your product?
- The brand is properly positioned. Have you established necessary and competitive points of parity with competitors? Have you established desirable and deliverable points of difference?
- The brand is consistent. Are you sure that your marketing programmes are not sending conflicting messages and that they haven’t done so over time? Conversely, are you adjusting your programmes to keep current?
- The brand portfolio and hierarchy make sense. Can the corporate brand create a seamless umbrella for the brands in the portfolio? Do the brands in that portfolio hold individual niches? How extensively do the brands overlap?
- The brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities that build brand equity. Have you chosen or designed your brand name, logo, symbol, slogan, packaging, signage and so forth to maximize brand awareness? Are you aware of the marketing activities that involve your brand?
- The brand’s managers understand what the brand means to consumers. Do you know what customers like and don’t like about a brand? Are you aware of all the core associations people make with your brand, whether intentionally created by your company or not? Have you created detailed, research-driven portraits of your target customers? Have you outlined customer-driven boundaries for brand extensions and guidelines for marketing programmes?
- The brand is given proper support, and that support is sustained over the long run. Are the successes or failures of marketing programmes fully understood before they are changed? Is the brand given sufficient R&D support? Have you avoided the temptation to cut back marketing support for the brand in reaction to a downturn in the market or a slum of sales?
- The company monitors sources of brand equity. Have you created a brand charter that defines the meaning and equity of the brand and how it should be treated? Do you conduct periodic brand audits to assess the health of your brand and to set strategic direction? Do you conduct routine tracking studies to evaluate current market performance?
Harvard Business Review