What do you do if your brand strategy isn't yielding measurable results?

A brand strategy is a long-term plan that guides your business identity, values, and communication. It helps you differentiate yourself from your competitors and connect with your target audience. But what if your brand strategy is not working as expected? How do you measure its effectiveness and make adjustments if needed? Here are some steps you can take to evaluate and improve your brand strategy.

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1 Define your goals

The first step is to clarify what you want to achieve with your brand strategy. What are your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives? How do they align with your overall business goals and vision? Some common examples of brand goals are increasing awareness, loyalty, retention, referrals, or conversions. Having clear goals will help you track your progress and identify gaps or opportunities.

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Nirmal Dayani
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Simply put, brand strategy can be seen as the route seen as best to meet the larger business and marketing tasks. Goals function like the milestones and landmarks on that route that help one monitor if the right direction and pace of progress is being maintained. We have as brand consultants worked on various kinds of challenges - of opening up newer markets, of growing shares in existing markets, driving category penetration and so on. Each of these is further broken down into sub-tasks and corresponding goals are set with the parameters seen as relevant e.g if the task is driving category penetration one would track category awareness, knowledge, adoption, share as key parameters besides others.

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2 Analyze your data

The next step is to collect and analyze data that reflects your brand performance. You can use various sources and methods to gather data, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, social media analytics, web analytics, or customer feedback. You should look for both quantitative and qualitative data that can reveal how your brand is perceived, valued, and engaged by your audience. Some key metrics to measure are brand awareness, recognition, recall, preference, reputation, satisfaction, and advocacy.

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Samuel Sewodo

Founder, Powered | Building WireBrand™ from 0 to $12M ARR | Brand & Digital Growth 🚀| Helping brands grow through proven strategies & systems
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If your strategy isn't generating satisfying results, analyze your data. It will reveal patterns and trends to guide your decisions. Use analytics tools to track customer behavior, website traffic, and campaign performance. Identify successful channels, optimize, and focus on what works. Don't overlook subtle signals because every data point has a story; be attentive to the narrative.

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Clara Carlberg

Senior Consultant @ Bellbird | BSc Retail Management, Strategic Communication
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Brand metrics are always long term, these are difficult to impact in the short term and with quick fixes or instant actions. Be aware of this when analyzing the data, and take the time perspective into consideration. Usually, brand metrics are impacted and changed in 6-18 months. Don't rush into analysis too early.

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3 Compare with your competitors

The third step is to benchmark your brand against your competitors. You should identify who your main competitors are, what their brand strategies are, and how they differ from yours. You should also assess their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and how they affect your competitive advantage. You can use tools like SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, or perceptual mapping to compare your brand positioning, value proposition, and messaging with your rivals.

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Samuel Sewodo

Founder, Powered | Building WireBrand™ from 0 to $12M ARR | Brand & Digital Growth 🚀| Helping brands grow through proven strategies & systems
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Compare with your competitors: You need insights into your position in the market. Evaluate their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Learn from their successes, and differentiate where they fall short. Avoid blind imitation; tailor your strategies to your unique brand identity to ensure authenticity.

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4 Identify your gaps

The fourth step is to find out where your brand strategy is falling short or missing the mark. You should compare your data and goals and see if there are any discrepancies or inconsistencies. You should also look for any gaps between your brand promise and delivery, between your internal and external brand perception, or between your current and desired brand image. You should prioritize the most critical or urgent gaps and determine their root causes and impacts.

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Samuel Sewodo

Founder, Powered | Building WireBrand™ from 0 to $12M ARR | Brand & Digital Growth 🚀| Helping brands grow through proven strategies & systems
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Conduct thorough self-assessments to seek areas of improvement. Fill the gaps strategically, whether in customer service, product offerings, or brand image.

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5 Implement your solutions

The fifth step is to devise and implement solutions that can address your brand gaps and improve your brand performance. You should brainstorm and test different ideas that can enhance your brand identity, value, and communication. You should also consider your budget, resources, and timeline and choose the most feasible and effective solutions. Some possible solutions are redefining your target audience, repositioning your brand, refining your value proposition, or redesigning your brand elements.

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6 Monitor and evaluate

The final step is to monitor and evaluate the results of your solutions and see if they are achieving your brand goals. You should use the same data sources and methods that you used in the second step and compare them with your baseline data. You should also collect feedback from your stakeholders and customers and see if they notice any changes or improvements in your brand. You should measure the return on investment (ROI) of your solutions and see if they are worth the cost and effort.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Anna A Block

Brand Marketing Consultant @Aleph | mMBA in Brand & Marketing Management | Faculty | PhD Candidate | Polyglot
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When not meeting the objectives, consider reviewing them annually and making the appropriate changes when planning the objectives for the next year.

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What do you do if your brand strategy isn't yielding measurable results?

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3

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1 Define your goals

2 Analyze your data

3 Compare with your competitors

4 Identify your gaps

5 Implement your solutions

6 Monitor and evaluate

7 Here’s what else to consider

Brand Strategy

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What do you do if your brand strategy isn't yielding measurable results?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Define your goals

2 Analyze your data

3 Compare with your competitors

4 Identify your gaps

5 Implement your solutions

6 Monitor and evaluate

7 Here’s what else to consider

Brand Strategy

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