You're leading a brand strategy team. What metrics should you track to stay ahead of the competition?

Constantly checking the Brand Awareness and Recall is something I will definitely do and also how much brand is helping the end business outcomes also matter a lot and a critical metrics.

Brand awareness is more than just a single metric. Here's how to get a well-rounded picture: Surveys: Ask folks if they've heard of you and what brands pop into their mind for your products. Social Listening: Track online mentions to see how people perceive you. Website Traffic: Branded searches and direct visits indicate brand recognition. Engagement: Monitor social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) to gauge interest. Bonus: Track competitor mentions: See how your brand stacks up. Consider brand awareness scores: Services offer a single metric for a general idea. Key takeaway: Monitor these aspects over time to see how your brand awareness evolves. Remember, consistency is key! Try it and let me know! :)

The first step in Brand Awareness is to STOP LOOKING IN THE MIRROR. Brand Awareness starts OUT THERE, not in here. So many companies pay tens of thousands (and even hundreds of thousands) to ask their employees what they think. Why is this backward? Because employees are simply reflecting on what they've seen or heard and NOT a reflection of WHERE BRANDS NEED TO GO. Brand awareness is NOT looking in the mirror. It's AWARENESS which means we are looking OUT THERE in the marketplace. Brand Awareness starts OUT THERE, not in here. Let's collect information first to know where the noise is deafening and where we can be heard.

Brand awareness is about how much people know and remember your client's brand, like recognizing the name, logo, or slogan. It shows how well your team has shared the brand's identity and value. You can check it with surveys, web data, social media, or news mentions. High brand awareness can boost market share, customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Brand awareness is a foundational metric for tracking your brand's health and value. It should be monitored regularly in order to identify the areas for growing your brand.

Brand perception is only as effective as we take inventory of the cliches in our industry. Cliches are what will erode our relevance in the world. Overcome cliches, we win. Ignore cliches, we lose.

It's essential to monitor a diverse range of metrics to maintain a competitive edge and drive the success of your brand. There are some other key metrics other than brand awareness, brand perception, brand equity, brand alignment, brand innovation and brand impact; those are Customer Engagement Metrics (Social Media Engagement, Customer Satisfaction, NPS), Market Share and Competitive Metrics, Sales and Revenue Metrics, Digital Marketing Metrics, Brand Loyalty Metrics (CLV -Customer Lifetime Value), Referral and advocacy Metrics. By tracking these metrics regularly, identify areas of strength and weakness, capitalize on opportunities, and proactively respond to market changes to stay ahead of the competition.

Brand perception refers to how people perceive your brand in the market. It is the image, reputation, or impression that consumers have based on their interactions with your brand. Utilize surveys, focus groups, and social media listening tools to gather data on what people like or don't like about your brand. Analyze consumer feedback, online reviews, and competitor activities to gain a deeper understanding of market trends and consumer preferences.

Evaluate how consumers view your brand in terms of quality, reliability, and value. Tools like customer surveys, reviews, and net promoter scores (NPS) are valuable for gauging perception. Positive perception drives customer loyalty and recommendations.

Adapting Brand Perception: In a constantly evolving market, your client's brand perception should reflect current consumer sentiments and industry trends. Utilize advanced analytics to gauge customer emotions and adjust your messaging accordingly. This includes keeping an eye on shifting trends on social platforms and consumer forums, ensuring your brand stays relevant and relatable.

Assess the value added by your brand to your products or services, as perceived by the market. This involves measuring brand loyalty, perceived quality, and associations. Higher brand equity translates to higher margins and market share.

As a brand strategist, the key measures to determine the strengths of a brand are: top of mind awareness and equity. Top of mind awareness measures how strong the brand is in the customer minds and it is impacted by both “physical” availability and “mental” availability. Overall Equity and the understanding of the equity drivers of a specific category are critical in driving the brand communication and innovation strategic choices. Eg: for baby care products, leakage and skin protection and trust are key drivers for a brand’s equity. This influences what the company should innovate on and what it should communicate too.

Leveraging Brand Equity for Market Dynamics: Evaluate how your client's brand equity stands against newer, disruptive brands. Focus on innovation and customer experience as key drivers of brand equity. In a market where consumer preferences shift rapidly, maintaining a balance between tradition and innovation is key to sustaining brand equity.

It takes time to build brand equity and many elements such as brand awareness, brand perception, brand loyalty, brand experience and image, etc.al., come together to form a strong brand equity.

This is such a huge one, especially for smaller teams. It’s so important that everyone aligns with your mission and vision—that’s something that needs to be done from recruitment onward. But then answering: does your brand reflect that mission and vision? Does your team feel that what they care about, the reasons they joined your business, are actively and correctly being reflected in your brand efforts? If your brand isn’t creating those feelings, then you’ve got some work to do.

Ensure your brand’s values, messaging, and positioning align across all touchpoints. This coherence builds trust and enhances customer experience. Internal audits, customer feedback, and employee surveys can track alignment effectiveness.

Brand alignment is pivotal—it's all about ensuring that every facet of a brand, inside and out, sings in perfect harmony. When everyone, from employees to customers, is on the same page, it builds trust and loyalty and sets the brand apart from the crowd. It's like the secret sauce that makes a brand truly stand out and weather any storm in the market. So, keeping that alignment intact is non-negotiable for me—it's the cornerstone of long-term success and staying power. Something I harp on about is brand internalisation, if you know how to do it, and do it well, you're set for success.

Ensuring Brand Alignment with Evolving Corporate Culture: In a world where corporate transparency is paramount, ensure that your brand strategy aligns with real internal culture and practices. Regularly assess employee perceptions and align these with external brand messaging. This authenticity in brand alignment fosters trust and loyalty among both employees and consumers.

I think this is the North Star of Brand Strategy and the base of all the other metrics. The feeling that a brand and the business behind it are mirroring each other is a thing customers usually have, but don't know how to express. So I would push every team to spend as much time as possible to align strategies, search for the right words and ideas so that they'll encounter less friction during communications & score higher on other brand metrics.

Monitor your brand's ability to introduce new products, services, or experiences. Innovation metrics include time-to-market, market share growth of new products, and customer feedback on innovation efforts. Staying ahead in innovation attracts and retains customers.

Fostering Brand Innovation Amidst Digital Transformation: As businesses undergo digital transformation, your brand innovation strategies should encompass new technologies. Embrace AI, VR, and AR to create immersive brand experiences. This approach is not just about product innovation but also about how your brand interacts and connects with customers in a digital-first world.

Quantifying Brand Impact on Societal Issues: In an era where brands are expected to take stands on social issues, measure your client's impact through social media trends and user-generated content. Track how effectively the brand's initiatives resonate with societal values, creating a balance between commercial and ethical goals.

This is a space that many brands want to be seen in. However, it is really easy to come across as insincere or greenwashing. Although it shouldn't need to be said, you have to ask is your brand actually doing good? Do you have diversity in boardroom, are women being paid the same as me, is the packaging used for your products as sustainable as possible? Building a culture of accountability and strong values should come before creating a story from the marketing team.

Integrating Agility in Brand Strategy: In an age of constant change, agility is key. Share insights on how your team adapted a campaign in real-time to meet unforeseen challenges or leveraged a trending topic to amplify brand presence. Discuss how flexibility and adaptability are now integral parts of any successful brand strategy, ensuring relevance and resilience in a dynamic market landscape.

marketing effectiveness should be considered : to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts compared to competitors in terms of metrics such as return on investment (ROI), cost per acquisition (CPA), and customer acquisition cost (CAC). This can help identify which marketing channels and campaigns are driving the most value for your brand. Product Performance should be monitored To track sales, market share, and customer feedback for individual products or product lines to understand how well they are performing compared to competitors. This can help identify opportunities for product innovation or improvement.