Mar 1, 2017 9:08:40 AM
Brand Performance
Brand measurement is all about understanding how the world perceives your brand. Brand performance focuses on how well your product or service actually does the job you purport it to do.
This is the moment where your brand is truly put to the test. You’ve advertised and sold, but does the product or service satisfy the needs and wants of your audience? That’s the true question.
Can Your Brand Stand Alone?
Your customer has an association with your brand. The name, the product, the image will conjure a response of some kind in their mind. Is your brand reliable? Inexpensive? Luxurious? Innovative? Most importantly, whatever the market or niche, does your brand measure up to consumer expectations?
It’s important to set the appropriate expectations for your audience. If you’re marketing a “slightly-more-expensive, but definitely-more-reliable” message, you should be delivering just such a product or service. That’s what you’ve set for your customer to expect, and that’s where brand performance comes in.
Brand performance, above all else, is a measurement of how well your brand is doing what it promises to do, how well it delivers what it advertises it delivers. Brand measurement studies ask your audience to examine specific functions and features, judging in each category how important those functions or features are to them, and how well or poorly your product or service measures up.
If you sell a luxury automobile, you may be advertising a ride like no other, a never-lost navigation system, a sound system that makes you feel like you’re in the audience. What else? Sweeping design profile that makes women swoon? Whatever the brand promise, whatever the message, your brand performance depends on whether you meet those expectations.
Context is the Key to Competition
Still trying to figure out how sports tie in? Competition.
Chances are your product or service is not the only potential purchase option for your target audience. It is likely that there are a vast number of choices available to your customer. In making a final purchase decision, they will ultimately select the brand they feel will serve them best.
In order to fully grasp how you are competing with similar brands, you need to give context to your own data. If I told you I could run a four-minute mile (I wish, right?) without any context at all, that may not sound incredibly impressive, but if you knew the accepted average time for a mile run is between 7 and 10 minutes, you get a clear understanding that I’m faster than a whole lot of people.
This concept also functions in business. To truly understand how your brand is performing in the marketplace, you must have data on competitive brands with which to compare your own. What is the competition doing to earn a piece of their business? To achieve your desired market share, should you be offering additional features? A lower (or higher) price? A re-targeted marketing campaign? The newest, hottest color? By gathering such information, we give context to your run, allowing you to see not just your own lane, but the whole track.
Brand Measurement Data You Can Act On
At Actionable Research we believe research results should be data our clients can act on, hence the name Actionable Research. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do or how brand measurement research can help you reach your goals and objectives, schedule a call with our researchers today.
