A brand tracker can allow you to see a snapshot of how your brand is performing. This might be in terms of how it is performing against direct competitors, within a specific market, or amongst specific demographics. No matter the specific insights you are wishing to gain as a company by performing brand tracking, here are a few constants that a brand tracker should always be able to give insights into.
Brand Loyalty:
This will usually be found out by surveying existing customers of your brand. Specifically, asking existing customers whether they will continue their interaction with your brand, and if your brand is the only one within a given market that they use. This can be measured by purchase intent, it might also consider how likely a customer is willing to recommend a product/service.
Brand awareness:
Brand awareness in itself measures how well consumers are able to recognise your brand, and the level of unaidedness they needed to recognise the brand itself, or what market it is in. However, another important aspect of brand awareness is brand recall. This focuses on whether a consumer is able to recall your specific brand when given a certain market. For example, asking to name brands within fast food and being able to instantly recall McDonald’s. If they recall your brand, it is worth asking whether this is a recollection from using a brand, or only because of marketing of a brand. If it is the latter, it shows a marketing campaign to have been effective.
Brand association:
Brand association is something that occurs over time. It happens as consumers develop their own perceptions of your brand. In other words, your brand begins to independently manifest outside of your marketable control. It is important to keep tabs on how this develops, as you would hope for brand association to be positive ones. If this is not the case, it is important to know that this is so. This means direct action can be taken to change aspects within a brand that has led to specific associations.
It’s not just positive association you want however. As, for example, being one of many brands that offer good customer service is a positive, but doesn’t make your brand stand out by itself. Therefore, if a product offers/is marketed with a USP, brand association is a good area to measure whether this USP is being picked up on by consumers.