Navigating the complexities of brand health tracking requires a strategic approach that goes beyond surface-level metrics.

Here are the 6 essentials for successful brand health tracking:

1️⃣ When it comes to brand health tracking, simplicity is key. Complicated systems often go unused.

2️⃣ Next, a cohesive marketing model is essential for guiding tracking efforts. At MSW, we build from a strong marketing model to ensure alignment across teams.

3️⃣ Determining the target audience is critical. Are we focusing solely on existing users, or should we cast a wider net? Defining this helps tailor tracking strategies effectively.

4️⃣ Consistency is key. Establishing a regular cadence for measurement and reporting ensures alignment with organizational needs and category dynamics.

5️⃣ Analysis is crucial for understanding potential growth areas and prescribing actionable strategies. An agreed-upon framework ensures everyone is on the same page.

6️⃣ Last but not least, financial alignment is paramount. Without clear links to finance, it’s challenging to justify marketing investments. From the C-suite to operational teams, everyone must be on board.

Each of these six essentials is vital for successful brand health tracking.

Brand health tracking isn’t just about reflecting on past performance; it’s about charting the course for the future.

We break it down into five essential components:

1️⃣ Competitive Positioning Analysis: Evaluating where your brand stands compared to competitors; identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

2️⃣ Trend Analysis: Understanding the patterns and shifts that have shaped your brand’s current position, providing insights into market dynamics.

3️⃣ Future Projections: Anticipating potential trajectories for your brand based on market trends, consumer behaviors, and emerging opportunities.

4️⃣ Strategic Options Exploration: Exploring various strategies and approaches to influence your brand’s trajectory, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.

5️⃣ Actionable Recommendations: Providing concrete and targeted recommendations for actions to drive brand growth, based on insights derived from the analysis.

That’s the true essence of brand health tracking—clear, comprehensive, and geared towards driving future success.

The first step in designing a tracking study is to identify what your goal is and what you want to do with it.

Do you need a Brand Equity, Brand Health or Advertising Tracker?  Or some combination?

So let’s first define each…

Some researchers lump Brand Equity and Brand Health into the same bucket but they’re actually different.  Here’s how…

Brand Equity:

Brand Equity is a measure of the value of a brand.  That value is built on everything the brand goes to market with; name, logo, image, advertising, packaging, service, quality, price, performance, availability, etc.  In very practical terms, it is why a consumer will choose one brand over another, and why in some instances, even pay a price premium for that brand.

MSW’s CC Brand Preference™ measure is a proven, independently validated measure of brand value.

Brand Health:

Brand Health is how the brand got here and where can it go in the future.  Brand Health can be made up of many measures depending on the objectives; awareness, consideration, perceptions, our Brand Franchise Analysis (a segmentation technique that looks at Loyalty, Repertoire usage, Lapsed, Rejectors, Attracted, Indifferent, and Hostile), our RDE Analysis (which looks at Relevance, Differentiation and Emotion), etc.  Examining trends is also an important part of Brand Health.  All of this is what informs and creates the actionability of a well designed tracker.

And there’s also Advertising Tracking to consider:

Advertising Tracking measures the performance of a brand’s communications.  How well is it working to move consumers to consider, use, or use more of your brand.  And how to optimize messaging, media, and weight.

With these definitions in mind, the first step is to align this with your goals.

We can help.  At MSW we provide insights derived from proven, brand growth oriented KPI’s; innovative tracking analytics that empower you to grow your brand by demonstrating how to:

• Retain current customers,
• Acquire new customers, and
• Improve the return on your marketing investment.

Contact us to learn more.