Understanding a company’s brand equity in relation to its market is vital to the successful business. It is essential to know whether it is increasing, stagnating or shrinking, and why it is making these shifts (or the absence of). To have a complete view of your company’s image isn’t always as straightforward as it appears. Many factors affect the perception of equity and value in the course of time. This is why every company that invests in extensive marketing efforts must have a brand tracking strategy in place. Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of research on brand tracking.
The brand tracker a type of survey that is carried out at an interval (e.g. each quarter every year, once a year, or continuously) which assesses a firm’s as well as its competitors’ performance. This research lets you continuously understand the various aspects that affect awareness, consideration, purchasing and even retention.
Pros
An in-depth understanding of your brand and your competition
Continuously reviewing your brand’s performance gives you an in-depth understanding of your brand’s overall performance in the marketplace. If you’re tracking your brand’s awareness, market share as well as profits and retention rates and what is the reason for them to be at the level that they are.
Understanding KPIs, Performance and the Goals
What can you tell whether your public relations efforts are effective? Every business has its own specific metrics they use to determine the success. Brand trackers allow you to determine whether your marketing strategy is meeting requirements continuously.
Brand tracking includes the use of performance-based questions. These typically include metrics like unaided/aided recall and perception, purchase intention and the likelihood of recommending.
Comparisons Over Time
Trackers are the snapshot of the brand’s health over time. The thing that makes research on brand health useful is its ability to distinguish what might impact your company’s performance. For example, if it were negative factors (e.g. negative publicity, a crisis) and something good ( the development of a product, or a excellent commercial) you receive feedback in the present moment, and then compare it with past results.
Continuity
Researching on brand trackers is a lengthy process, however managing the survey for the following round is easier after the initial research. While some questions might alter from the next iteration of the tracking tool to address specific concerns within a few minutes but the vast majority remain the same. This allows for a smoother method of understanding and evaluating the value of your brand.
Competitive Analysis
The main ingredient in any solid brand tracker is the analysis of competition. The brand is assessed against its main competitors to determine who is the most prominent and in what way. Understanding how your competition’s image changes is instructive and essential to the brand’s strategy. It also provides a glimpse of how your competition may be planning their strategy at a specific moment, or how their plans alter in time.
Cons
It is important to be consistent
Trackers should be conducted regularly. Certain brands might find that there hasn’t been any significant change from quarter to quarter and only begin to track whenever something is wrong. Whatever the cadence may be, consistency is essential. If too long has passed, there could be a variety of factors that can cause different outcomes.
Don’t Get Overly Complex
It is crucial to keep trackers organized and easy. If you are evaluating too many competitors as well as asking too many specific questions can cause boredom during survey-taking. Additionally, the results could become too detailed and get lost in the details. So, the end user isn’t looking at the larger picture says.
Too generic
Most research firms have typical tracker templates. Provoke Insights does not agree on an all-inclusive solution. It is vital to ensure that the tracker takes into account the company’s specific goals in the process of developing the tracker. In addition, the research should be based on the particular requirements of the industry and current trends. For instance, certain industries have a solely transactional web-based model and in other industries, where sales in person may be more important. Trackers must be aware of this type of behaviour into consideration.