Brand tracking is a key element of market research that allows a business to regularly see the health of their brand in the public domain. In this article, we’ll explore what the aims of brand tracking are. From this we will be able to break down some of the specific areas of brand tracking; such as understanding what is meant by brand warmth, brand momentum and brand attributes. Breaking brand tracking down into these areas will hopefully show how much of a useful tool brand tracking can be for an expanding business.
In short, the aims of brand tracking shows how a brand is progressing on a macro level, and see what can be done to improve this. In other words, it looks at how a brand is doing across the whole market which it is placed in, either nationally, or internationally; depending on the specific market and/or size of the business. This information is often very detailed and precise, meaning key business decisions of how to improve the brand’s positioning can be undertaken with more concrete support than something such as sales figures which demands a lot more guesswork
Brand warmth is the emotional attachments customers have to a given brand. This concept is therefore removed a bit more from more rational ways of understanding how a brand is performing as its basis is an emotive response. The score for brand warmth as a result do not change too much, due to this emotive pull that is somewhat void of logic. Thus, it is a useful thing to know, but cannot be expected to change as easy as other areas of brand tracking.
Brand momentum is a more simplistic public perception of a brand. It gages whether, at a specific moment in time, if the public perceives a brand to be on its way up or down. This is a good acid test, in terms of how your brand is performing, as it very quickly tells you if you’re heading in the right or wrong direction. While other areas of brand tracking can help show the situation in more detail.
Finally, brand attributes are characteristics that are commonly associated with a brand. These characteristics can be what makes a brand stand out from its competitors within a certain market. It’s in this area you are most likely to find a brand’s unique selling point/s (USP). If these can be defined, and accurate public perceptions of these USPs can be identified, then this is a way that brand tracking can help the individuality of a brand become a strong asset to the business.