Your brand sets your business apart from the competition. It's how people recognize you and remember the unique value you offer. The more effective your brand, the stronger your market position.
A brand audit is the best way to evaluate brand strength. It looks at all aspects of your branding, from your visual identity to how people perceive you.
The process is more straightforward than you might imagine. Let's look at how to do a brand audit, including what tools and services can help.
A brand audit is a comprehensive assessment of your business's market presence. It looks at how you present yourself, how others perceive you, and how those factors impact business objectives.
A complete brand audit looks at three aspects of your brand:
The complete audit process evaluates your brand's competitive performance and perceived market position. Using those insights, your business can develop an effective branding strategy
A brand audit forces you to look at every aspect of your branding in detail. It highlights what you're doing well and what branding choices are the most influential for your target audience.
Auditing also spotlights where you can strengthen your brand. Weak spots can easily go unnoticed without a deep dive. Acting on them is essential for building brand equity, which is your perceived value in your target market.
An audit can benefit your brand at any time, but it's particularly essential:
The results offer essential insights into how to move forward.
A systematic approach will help you get the most from your brand audit. The first step is to define your "why."
If you've decided to run a brand audit, there's something you want to learn. Identify that goal as clearly as possible, and you'll be able to allocate audit resources more effectively.
For example, if your market is getting more competitive, you might conduct a brand audit to differentiate yourself better. That information can drive changes leading to increased customer loyalty and more new business.
Your objectives would differ if you were starting a new product line, expanding into a new national market, or deciding whether to rebrand.
Once you know what you want to learn about your brand, dig into the details of your brand identity.
Brand identity is how you present your business to the world. It includes your brand's recognizable visual elements, such as logo, colors, and font styles.
Your visual identity informs audiences' first impressions of your brand and helps familiar audiences recognize you. Think of Coca-Cola's signature red or the Apple with a crescent-shaped bite on the right side.
Brand identity also comes from less tangible elements, from your core values to your voice and tone in communications. Those aspects shape how people perceive you.
This is a core piece of understanding brand identity: Brand image primarily comes from the outside. Fortunately, a strong and consistent identity can shape that image.
Market position is where you stand in your competitive market. You have a strong position if you offer something unique and valuable, and your market is highly aware of that value.
Your position could be stronger if either of the following apply:
This step requires an in-depth analysis of your competition's strengths and weaknesses. Identify what different competitors do well and where you excel or fall behind.
This stage is often where you'll gain the most valuable insights, as customer sentiment is the ultimate brand test.
Customer perception combines brand image and customer experience (CX) quality. In one study, CX leaders outperformed the overall market, generating returns 260 percentage points higher than the S&P 500.
The best way to assess CX and brand perception is by asking directly. Surveys and focus groups can tell you how people perceive you and how those perceptions affect sales.
The next step is to examine your marketing and consider how it affects your brand image. You'll dive deeply into your past campaigns and communication, including:
Focus on the content, messaging, and success of your strategies. Determine what value your marketing communicates and whether it reflects your intended branding.
The last step is the most important: Summarize what you've learned from your brand audit and use those insights to take action.
Start by organizing your findings into a report. Include:
The report should be a starting point for your brand strategy and a tool to track progress.
Get the most out of this process with brand audit tools, including:
Brand audit services are often the most valuable tools available, especially if you're new to auditing.
At Pixel Pocket, we provide audit and brand design services to help you shape your ideal strategy. Your subscription gets you access to our expert team, whose experience working with Fortune 500 companies has led to a deep understanding of brand development. Check us out today to get started.
