Based on Measuring Market Penetration with Brand Tracking (+ Metrics & Examples) by Tom Whatley
Business benefits
Employ customer surveys to measure NPS and CSAT.
Sample questions to ask:
- NPS: On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [your company] to a [friend/family member/colleague]?
- CSAT: On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate your experience at [your company] today?
Use NPS to track improvements in customer experience against baselines and competitor data, and to make predictions for future growth (NPS and loyalty are highly correlated):
CSAT asks customers to rate their satisfaction with your brand on a scale from 1 to 5.
Use this to measure customer satisfaction at each touchpoint to identify points of friction and opportunities for improvement.
For example, you could deploy CSAT surveys at various parts of the buyer’s journey (distributed across leads so as not to bombard a single customer with multiple questions). You might find that, on average, your CSAT score is lowest at the handoff point between sales and service.
Measure brand loyalty, brand associations, and perceived quality.
Sample questions to ask:
- On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to purchase [product] from us again?
- For how long have you been buying [your product]?
- On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to switch to a competing product in the future?
Measuring all three can give you insight into why customers intend to repurchase.
For example, if a significant portion of customers intend to repurchase simply because you offer the lowest prices, give less weight to brand loyalty in the final analysis. In this case, you’ve captured customer loyalty, but perhaps not brand loyalty.
Measure brand usage, including how often, how much, when, and where your customers spend with you. Track the percentage of spending in the sector that your brand receives.
Sample questions to ask:
- When was the last time you used [your product]?
- How often do you use [your product]?
- Do you use our products exclusively, or do you switch between brands?
- Why is that?
- What do you use [your product] for? (for more comprehensive offerings such as software packages)
- When you purchase [X product] how often do you buy [your product]?
Don’t get too complicated with these questions. Customers should be able to answer from top of mind and too much cognitive effort tends to lead to less reliable answers.
Use this data to understand consumer behavior and to develop targeted messaging strategies.
Measure your brand’s market share relative to your competitors’.
Unlike metrics such as brand awareness, which can rise across the board, growth in market share means a decline for competitors.
For example, as some of the largest providers of cloud computing - like Microsoft, and Google - experience an increase in market share, we all see a significant decline in competitors’ share.
Image source
To give context, compare market share changes with objective measures such as changes in total industry spending and company revenue, and strategic changes.
If your market share has declined, but the industry overall has grown, this can be an indicator that your competitors are doing a better job at picking up new market entrants.
Calculate brand momentum using this formula: Brand momentum = brand mass x brand velocity.
- Brand mass: your company’s size, reputation, and relevance.
- Brand velocity: your brand’s speed of growth and agility in keeping up with industry changes.
Example
Take Tesla. They tick all three boxes in the “brand mass” department:
- They have a strong reputation in the market (as evidenced by continuous stock price growth)
- They’re incredibly relevant (there has never been a time where renewable energy was more important)
- They’re a giant in their industry, owning more than 80% market share
Tesla’s not only able to navigate industry changes. It could be argued that they are driving these changes). This is demonstrated by an exponential speed of growth:
Measure brand awareness using awareness categories and audience segments, to help you understand how your messaging resonates with different groups of people.
Sample questions to ask:
- When you think of [product], what brands come to mind?”
- If they mention your brand: What stands out to you about our brand and why?
- If they mention another brand: What stands out to you about [competitor brand] and why?
- Have you heard of [your brand] before?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, how familiar are you with [your brand]?
- Which of the following brands have you heard of? (list your own + competitors)
When surveying brand awareness and recognition, let customers tell you which brands they’re aware of. Ask open-ended questions like, What is the first bank that you can think of? rather than closed-ended questions like, Which of these banks have you heard of?
Example
AirHelp, an air passenger rights advocate, ran a comprehensive brand awareness study. They discovered that their most aware segment was frequent travelers. And, that while brand awareness was increasing for their company, it was also growing for competitors, pointing to industry-wide growth.
AirHelp might have decided that since they already have strong brand awareness with the frequent traveler segment, they’d focus branding efforts on less aware audiences. Or they might take the opposite approach, and double down on what is working.
Similarly, understanding that awareness is growing across the industry might prompt AirHelp to team up with a non-competitor, but relevant industry leader to launch a dual campaign. This partnership would leverage both audiences and the rapidly growing awareness of the vertical.
Measure brand consideration to track the percentage of the market that’s both aware of your brand and would consider buying your products.
Sample questions to ask:
- How likely are you to purchase from [your brand] next time you go shopping for [X product]?
- If your favorite brand in this category isn’t available, which brands are you likely to consider instead?
- Which of the following brands would you consider purchasing from in the next X months? (List your own + competitors.)
Example
Take BMW. Of luxury car brands, they have the highest brand awareness:
But when it comes to consideration , BMW falls into third behind Jeep and Nissan, with two-thirds the consideration of their top competitor:
The implication is that not all press is good press.
Brand awareness can be influenced by negative factors such as scandals and product recalls, and while a brand can be well-known, this doesn’t necessarily mean they have a strong reputation.
Use brand association studies to discover how consumers feel about your brand.
Sample questions to ask:
- When you think of [your brand], what feelings/words come to mind?
- On a scale from 0 to 10, how much do you trust [your brand]?
- What did we do to earn your trust?
- What can we do to keep your trust?
- What are some positive associations you have with [X brands]?
- What are some negative associations you have with [X brands]?
- How well does this statement apply to [your brand]? [Your brand] is
- Trustworthy
- Reliable
- Friendly
- Fast
- Convenient
- Approachable
You can use this brand tracking metric to understand terms and emotions that customers associate with your brand (such as trustworthy, sustainable, and affordable) and use them to further differentiate brand messaging.
Example
Take reBuy, a marketplace for high-quality used electronic goods. By undertaking brand tracking studies in customer associations, reBuy discovered that their primary association was ‘price value’. They also identified a growing trend in associations with ‘sustainability’ in the younger demographic:
Before conducting this brand tracking study, reBuy had no idea that ‘sustainability’ was a brand association, and they certainly weren’t pushing this concept in any brand marketing activities.
This new learning allowed reBuy to reinvent how they were positioning their brand with younger consumers and grow that segment of their audience.
Measure several aspects of perceived quality to understand consumers’ overall opinion and sentiment toward your brand.
Sample questions to ask:
- Based on what you know about [your brand], how well does it compare to other [category] brands?
- On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the quality of [your product]?
- On a scale from 1 to 5, how would you rate the reliability of [your product]?
- How valuable is [your brand] to you?
- On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was cheaper?
- On a scale from 1 to 5, how likely would you be to switch to an alternative brand if it was more convenient to purchase?
To understand where opportunities for improvement lie in perceived quality, break this metric down into sub-measurements:
- Performance of the product.
- Features offered.
- Frequency of defects/conformity with specifications.
- Reliability of the product.
- Durability of the product.
- Service system competence, efficiency, and convenience.
- Fit and finish of the product.
Measure brand visibility to track how frequently consumers see your brand through channels such as search, social, and email.
Sample questions to ask:
- When was the last time you saw [your product]?
- How often do you see [your brand] on social media?
- When was the first time you heard of [your brand]?
- In the last month, how often have you heard other people talking about [your brand]?
Visibility is an upstream measure and has a positive influence on awareness – the more you’re seen, the more likely you are to be recognized.
Example
Take Zoom. From the moment the world turned to remote work, Zoom’s name was everywhere .
They were in front of 300 million people per day at their peak, and that’s not accounting for other visibility avenues like media coverage and meme culture.
In short, their visibility skyrocketed.
And as a result, they came out on top for growth in brand recognition in 2020:
Easy enough to change back, though.