What is brand audit in marketing

Any company is a living organism that has to be monitored on a regular basis. In order to obtain reliable information about the brand current position in the market and adapt company’s marketing policy on time, it is advisable to conduct brand audit (BA). The main purpose of BA is to evaluate its development.

Brand audit is assessment of company’s market position as compared to its competitors, perceptions by target audience, employees and partners.

Conducting a BA involves a further reaction to the study. Based on the data obtained, the marketing analyst can make a “diagnosis” and give recommendations to the company’s management on solving specific problems.

Why Is It Important?

BA is a proven way to manage a brand, allowing you to assess its competitiveness and real market position, dynamics and development prospects. There are particular reasons for conducting BA and strategic issues it helps to solve:

• exploring higher price segments;
• assessment of success indicators of a new label after a large-scale advertising and information campaign;
• rebranding planning;
• creation of new product groups;
• franchising development planning;
• selling a label to a new owner;
• receiving unsatisfactory data on sales volumes and loyalty of target audience.

How To Conduct Brand Audit?

BA evaluates such directions, as label health (How does it feel?), label management (Is is treated well?) and label protection (Are titles assets properly registered?).

The stages of conducting BA depend on the specific company’s goals. We can highlight three main steps:

• Preparation stage.

Before starting the analysis, it is necessary to collect as much information as possible about the company itself. There is a kind of questionnaire that an organization must fill out. The answers to these questions will provide a clear picture of how a company looks in its own eyes.

Here is a brief example of a questionnaire:

1. Company’s activities.
2. Main competitors (in price, quality, image). General overview of market competition.
3. What problems in brand communication with consumer have you encountered?
4. What goals do you set for your company during the year (entering a new market, expanding the market, etc.)?

• Study and analysis. Establishing diagnosis.

The most basic and important part — brand analysing and its image. As a result of this stage, information should be collected on the following elements:

– market structure;

– development trends and brief characteristics of the market;

– main consumer goods properties;

– the target audience;

– existing brand image;

– historical heritage of the brand;

– positioning (both emotional and rational);

– 4P model (Price, Product, Point of Sale, Promotion).

Basing on these data, a marketing analyst can conclude about company’s situation within the market, as well as about communication with the consumer and within the brand.

Recommendations

A strong brand is the guarantee of enterprise’s prosperity and stability. It allows creating an objective brand and business as a whole, finding ways to improvement and prospects for further development.

If you seek professional advice — please, feel free to contact our marketing experts, who are devoted specialists in this field.