Is it time to update your brand´s success metrics

In discussions about brand success, we talk more and more about meaning, content and taking a stand. The cornerstones of the brand’s success are increasingly the ability to speak individually, the courage to take a stand or have an opinion, a superior product and social success. As the means of building a brand change, do the ways of verifying success also change?

From a business point of view, the things that the brand wants to achieve are pretty much the same. We want the brand to continue to stand out from its competitors and position itself optimally in the market. However, in order to influence these issues, we need more understanding than before. To track success, the brand should be viewed from both far and near.

Consumers´expectations of brands are changing

When you look at a brand from afar, traditional brand tracking, where we measure things like awareness, top-of-mind and preference, still works and helps you get started. However, the brand characteristics tracked in Tracking require a new kind of examination, as consumers’ expectations of brands change. It is no longer enough just to find out awareness or preference, but to understand to what extent the brand is known or why it is preferred. Strong consumer understanding is needed in the background so that we can select the most essential factors to monitor and, if necessary, select new features to monitor.

Studies combining different data sources and research methods come to the rescue. For example, by observing consumers, it is possible to create a deeper understanding of what a brand should be like and how it should behave in order to meet the consumer in a way that genuinely speaks to them. From experience, we know that these far-sighted metrics develop slowly, especially for established brands. For this reason, for example, in the case of tracking, it should be assessed how often it is necessary to take measurements and whether measurements can be taken, for example, in connection with campaign measurements.

Read also: The brand promises, will the customer experience deliver? At every stage of the buying process?

Data procides insight into the brand´s situation today

When you look at the brand closely, the menu of means and the number of metrics increase. Data enables completely new perspectives on brand tracking in consumers’ lives. We gain a more detailed understanding of how the brand is doing today. For example, search and conversation data reveals how a brand is encountered in everyday life. Applying for it? Let’s talk about it? Who is talking? In what tone of voice? What are the things the brand is associated with? We will also be quickly informed of the impact of the measures taken.

It is essential that data is utilised as widely as possible; Only by following a single data source can we easily draw wrong conclusions. When there is a lot of data, the challenge becomes its management and practices for utilization. We need a clear operating model that defines where the data is monitored, who monitors it and what kind of decisions the data guides. Many of our customers already have comprehensive dashborads and a process for a data-driven brand.

Read also: How to see your brand affects your sales and marketing affects your brand

The renewed menu of means for brand building challenges us to understand.
Data enables deeper understanding. After all, a pretty easy equation.

Written by

Outi Hämäläinen

Strategy Director, Brand Communication and Media

outi.hamalainen@dagmar.fi

+358405509988

Outi is a Strategy Director, whose own domain involves developing multichannel planning and solving customers’ business challenges. Gaining insights with the help of data, understanding consumer behavior, and learning from everything brings inspiration. After the workday, she stays busy as a mother of three soccer-playing boys.