Audit a Brand

Great brands deliver consistent experiences. A brand audit will help you measure the
consistency of the experience you're delivering.

Strategic Planning 5 - 8 hours 4 steps

1. Audit Your Current Brand

Your brand delivers an experience with each interaction with the marketplace. It's important for
you understand how your market feels about that experience - both your internal market (your
stakeholders) and your external market (your customers and prospects).
Understanding if the market responds to the key elements of your brand strategy - the emotional
benefits that your brand delivers, the three things that your brand means to your market, your
brand personality traits, your promise and your story - will enable you to understand whether
you're communicating effectively and which areas need improvement.

Steps

1 Create Brand Summary

Branding is crucial for products and services sold in huge consumer markets.
It's also important in B2B because it helps you stand out from your
competition. It brings your competitive positioning and value proposition to
life; it positions you as a "certain something" in the minds of your prospects
and customers.

Think about successful consumer brands like Disney, Tiffany or Starbucks.

You probably know what each brand represents. Now imagine that you're
competing against one of these companies. If you want to capture significant
market share, you must start with a unique and strong brand identity or you
won't get far.
Successful branding also creates "brand equity" - the amount of money that
customers are willing to pay just because it's your brand. In addition to
generating revenue, brand equity makes your company itself more valuable
over the long term.

What can you brand? You can brand almost anything. Branding something
intangible can be very challenging, but the point is that you can brand a
concept, an action, a product, a service or a company, because a brand is an
experience.

Brand Summary for Audit

The first step in your brand audit is to summarize your brand. Later, you'll
compare this interpretation to the results of your internal and external
surveys.

If you're not sure how to answer some of these questions, you may want to
take more time to fully define your brand strategy before conducting your
brand audit.

If you're unable to complete your brand summary yourself, put together a

team to fill in the blanks.

Brand Being Audited:

Primary Value Proposition:

Secondary Value Proposition:

Most Powerful Emotional Benefits Conveyed to Customers:

The Three Things Our Brand Should Mean to Our Customers:

The Five Human Personality Traits that Describe How We Want the
Market to View Our Brand:
Our Brand Promise:

Our 25-Word Brand Positioning Statement:

Our Brand Story:

2 Audit Brand Internally

How do your employees and stakeholders view your brand? To gain a better
understanding, conduct an internal brand audit. This will help determine
whether the people in your company clearly understand your brand strategy.

The survey complexity and the number of participants will depend upon your
company situation. You'll want sufficient detail to evaluate the true
perception, along with a sample large enough to ensure that the results are
relevant.

First, list the people who can participate in your survey.

Internal Brand Survey Participants:

Next, determine your survey format. You have a number of options to choose
from.

Email
Use an online survey program like Survey Monkey or Survey Gizmo to launch
your survey and tally your results.

Email Survey Pros

Easy to set up

Helps you structure your survey questions

Inexpensive
 Tabulates responses and provides reports

Keeps costs low

Email Survey Cons

May need to be deployed several times to get people to respond

Viewed as impersonal

Requires a compelling headline and intro to get people to participate

Direct Mail
Send a self-addressed stamped envelope with a cover letter and a paper
survey.

Direct Mail Survey Pros

More space to create a compelling message, to thank the customer for

participating and communicate any incentives

More effective than email for reaching customers who don't use computers

Direct Mail Survey Cons

Needs to look very professional

May be viewed as tedious

Doesn't fit with the "innovation" value proposition

Telephone
Place calls directly or use a third party to make impartial calls.

Telephone Survey Pros

Great way to get detailed answers and probe for more information as needed
 May bring to your attention unhappy customers whom you can help
immediately

Telephone Survey Cons

Dissatisfied customers may be uncomfortable telling employees about their

issues

Customers voicing a concern to another live person often expect action to be

taken immediately

Can be expensive using an outside group

Combination
Contact the customer via two methods - for example, call or email them
about a survey and then send it by mail.

Combination Pros

Improves your response rate by improving awareness

Reinforces the importance you place on customer loyalty

Offers another chance to communicate with your customers

Combination Cons

Is more costly

Survey Format:

Survey Vendor:

After choosing your delivery method, create your questions. Some suggested
questions are below. They're designed as open-ended questions rather than
multiple choice or ratings so that you gain true unsolicited, uncolored
feedback. These work well with a fairly small group of survey recipients (as
you'll need to manually evaluate each response and assign it a rating
afterward), but it will lead to more accurate, actionable results.

If your survey is large, consider closed-ended questions with ratings on a

scale of 1 to 5 or with check boxes.

Example questions:

1. What do you think {insert your product or company name} stands for?

2. What are the key benefits {product/company} delivers?

3. How would you describe your experience working with

{product/company}?

4. When purchasing from/working with {product/company}, what's a word or

phrase that describes what you expect from us each time?

5. If {insert your product or company name} were a person, how would you
describe him/her? What human personality traits match the brand?

6. What is the main thing you think of when you hear {insert your product or
company name}?

Brand Communications
You may also wish to audit your marketing materials to determine whether
you're consistently conveying your brand promise and personality.
Here is a list of items you may wish to audit:
Corporate Identity

Logo

Colors

Stationery
 Business envelopes

Mailing labels

Other printed identity

Website

Design

Functionality

Content quality

Printed Literature

Company brochure

Product/service data sheets

White papers

Case studies

Reference lists

Hard copy newsletter

Presentation Materials

PowerPoint template

Product demo

Product sample

Folders

Product Packaging (If you're B2C)

 Packaging

Colors

Logo

Imagery

Templates

Proposal template

Email templates

Sales letter templates

Interactive Tools

Email newsletter

Company blog

RSS feed

Videos

Social media

Other Tools

ROI calculator

List each item and notate whether it's consistent with your brand promise
and your brand personality.
Brand Operational Interactions
You may also wish to audit your operations to ensure that your brand is
supported by your people.
Below are some suggestions.
Telephone

Main answering system

Responsiveness of each department

On-hold messaging

Employee voicemail

Other

Email

Email responsiveness

Email signatures

Email stationery

Personal Interactions

Sales representatives

Other employees

Survey Questions:
You don't need to collect a survey from every recipient. Instead, you're
aiming for a "statistically valid sample size," or the number of responses you
need to be able to confidently apply those results to your entire group of
customers.

Statistical Significance
Statistics is a complex field, and consumer marketers must take into account
all sorts of calculations to accurately measure and apply their results. There
are a number of key metrics for a marketer to consider, including:

The total number of people to whom you want to apply the survey
results (A)

The % of those people who respond to your survey (B)

When your "total number of people" (A) is very small, you need a higher
percentage of them to respond (B) so you can be confident in your results. If
A is very large, you can confidently use a smaller percentage. Statisticians
and researchers use the term "confidence rating" to indicate how statistically
accurate a survey's results can be considered. Ninety-five percent is a
standard confidence goal.
Here's how to calculate:

Number of potential respondents in Group (A) (population)

Percent who should respond to the survey (B)

Number of completed surveys desired (C = A*B)

Projected minimum response rate (D) (as a decimal)

Number of surveys to send out (C / D)

It's very difficult to estimate a response rate if you haven't conducted a

similar campaign with a similar group of people. Here are some factors to
keep in mind:

A phone survey will deliver the highest response rate but will be
the most expensive survey to implement. You can probably reach 80% of
your list, depending on the amount of time you spend making calls.

A mail survey will produce a far lower response rate than the
phone. You can raise your response rate by calling or emailing recipients
ahead of time and asking them to participate.
 An email survey is very simple for participants but is subject to
the same factors as any other email campaign - you need a
compelling headline and a solid message to persuade them to participate
rather than delete the message. An email survey is the least personal for
the recipient, and thus they may not take as much care with their
responses.

If you offer an incentive, you can dramatically increase your response. As

you get ready to launch your survey, here are a few additional tips:

People are busy. Keep the survey as short as possible.

Ask people to respond within a fairly short but fair period of time - for
example, 10 days. A deadline is important or else the piece may end up in
a pile of unimportant mail.

If the deadline comes and goes and you haven't received your
minimum number of surveys, call or email the people who haven't
responded and ask them if they'd be willing to help you improve.

Consider providing an incentive to respond.

Thank recipients who invested the time to participate. A personal note,

a letter or even a small thank you gift is a simple but effective gesture.

Desired Response Rate:

Results
Number of Surveys Sent:
Number of Surveys Received:
Response Rate:
Statistical Validity:
Confidence Level:
3 Audit Brand Externally

How do your customers, prospects, vendors, partners and former customers

view your brand? To gain a better understanding, conduct an external brand
audit. This will help determine if your company is doing a good job building
your brand, and whether your market clearly understands your brand
strategy.

The survey complexity and the number of participants will depend upon your
company situation. You'll want sufficient detail to evaluate the true
perception and a sample large enough to ensure that the results are
relevant.

First, list the people who can participate in your survey.

External Brand Survey Participants:

Next, determine your survey format. You have a number of options to choose
from.

Email
Use an online survey program like Survey Monkey or Survey Gizmo to launch
your survey and tally your results.

Email Survey Pros

Easy to set up

Helps you structure your survey questions

Tabulates responses and provides reports

Inexpensive

Keeps costs low

Email Survey Cons

 May need to be deployed several times to get people to respond

Viewed as impersonal

Requires a compelling headline and intro to get people to participate

Direct Mail
Send a self-addressed stamped envelope with a cover letter and a paper
survey.

Direct Mail Survey Pros

More space to create a compelling message, to thank the customer for

participating and communicate any incentives

More effective than email for reaching customers who don't use computers

Direct Mail Survey Cons

Needs to look very professional

May be viewed as tedious

Doesn't fit with the "innovation" value proposition

Telephone
Place calls directly or use a third party to make impartial calls.

Telephone Survey Pros

Great way to get detailed answers and probe for more information as needed

May bring to your attention unhappy customers who you can help
immediately

Telephone Survey Cons

 Dissatisfied customers may be uncomfortable telling employees about their
issues

Customers voicing a concern to another live person often expect action to be

taken immediately

Can be expensive if using an outside group

Combination
Contact the customer via two methods - for example, call or email them
about a survey, then send it by mail.

Combination Pros

Improves your response rate by improving your awareness

Reinforces the importance you place on customer loyalty

Offers another chance to communicate with your customers

Combination Cons

More costly

Survey Format:

Survey Vendor:

After choosing your delivery method, compose your questions. Some

suggested questions are below. They're designed to be open-ended rather
than multiple choice or ratings, so that you gain true unsolicited, uncolored
feedback. These work well with a fairly small group of survey recipients (as
you'll need to manually evaluate each response and assign it a rating
afterwards), but it will lead to more accurate, actionable results.

If your survey is large, consider closed-ended questions with ratings on a

scale of 1 to 5, or with check boxes.
Example questions:

1. What do you think {insert your product or company name} stands for?

2. What are the key benefits {product/company} delivers?

3. How would you describe your experience working with

{product/company}?

4. When purchasing from/working with {product/company}, what's a word or

phrase that describes what you expect from us each time?

5. If {insert your product or company name} were a person, how would you
describe him/her? What human personality traits match the brand?

6. What is the main thing you think of when you hear {insert your product or
company name}?

Brand Communications
You may also wish to audit your marketing materials to determine whether
you're consistently conveying your brand promise and personality.

Here is a list of items you may wish to audit:

Corporate Identity

Logo

Colors

Stationery

Business envelopes

Mailing labels

Other printed identity

Website

Design

Functionality

Content quality

Printed Literature

Company brochure

Product/service data sheets

White papers

Case studies

Reference lists

Hard copy newsletter

Presentation Materials

PowerPoint template

Product demo

Product sample

Folders

Product Packaging (If you're B2C)

Packaging

Colors

Logo
 Imagery

Templates

Proposal template

Email templates

Sales letter templates

Interactive Tools

Email newsletter

Company blog

RSS feed

Videos

Social media

Other Tools

ROI calculator

List each item, and notate whether it's consistent with your brand promise
and your brand personality.

Brand Operational Interactions

You may also wish to audit your operations to ensure that your brand is
supported by your people.

Below are some suggestions.

Telephone

Main answering system

 Responsiveness of each department

On-hold messaging

Employee voicemails

Other

Email

Email responsiveness

Email signatures

Email stationery

Personal Interactions

Sales representatives

Other employees

Survey Questions:

You don't need to collect a survey from every recipient. Instead, you're
aiming for a "statistically valid sample size," or the number of responses you
need so you can confidently apply those results to your entire group of
customers.

Statistics is a complex field, and consumer marketers must take into account
all sorts of calculations to accurately measure and apply their results. There
are a number of key metrics for a marketer to consider, including:

The total number of people to whom you want to apply the survey results
(A)

The % of those people who respond to your survey (B)

When your "total number of people" (A) is very small, you need a higher
percentage of them to respond (B) so you can be confident in your results. If
A is very large, you can confidently use a smaller percentage. Statisticians
and researchers use the term "confidence rating" to indicate how statistically
accurate a survey's results can be considered. Ninety-five percent is a
standard confidence goal.

Here's how to calculate:

Number of potential respondents in this group (A) (population)

Percent who should respond to the survey (B)

Number of completed surveys desired (C = A*B)

Projected minimum response rate (D) (as a decimal)

Number of surveys to send out (C / D)

It's very difficult to estimate a response rate if you haven't conducted a

similar campaign with a similar group of people. Here are some tips:

A phone survey will deliver the highest response rate but will be the
most expensive survey to implement. You can probably reach 80% of your list,
depending on the amount of time you spend making calls.

A mail survey will produce a far lower response rate than the phone.
You can raise your response rate by calling or emailing recipients ahead of time
and asking them to respond.

An email survey is very simple for participants but is subject to the

same factors as any other email campaign - you need a compelling headline
and a solid message to get them to participate rather than deleting the message.
An email survey is the least personal for the recipient, and thus they may not
take as much care with their responses.
If you offer an incentive, you can dramatically increase your response. As
you get ready to launch your survey, here are a few additional tips to keep in
mind:

If you're not using an online survey system, set up your worksheet to tabulate
your results BEFORE you finalize your survey. That way you can make sure you're
asking your questions in a way that can be captured and measured in your
spreadsheet.

People are busy. Keep the survey as short as possible.

Ask people to respond within a fairly short but fair period of time - for
example, 10 days. A deadline is important or else the piece may end up in a pile
of unimportant mail.

If the deadline comes and goes and you haven't received your minimum
number of surveys, call or email the people who haven't responded and ask them
if they'd be willing to help you improve.

Consider providing an incentive to respond.

Thank recipients who invested the time to participate. A personal note, a

letter or even a small thank you gift is a simple but effective gesture.

Desired Response Rate:

Results
Number of Surveys Sent:

Number of Surveys Received:

Response Rate:

Statistical Validity:

Confidence Level:
4 Analyze Brand Audit Results

After you've collected your survey results, it's time to analyze them. Your end
goal is to determine whether your existing brand matches the market's
perception and your team's perception of your brand. If it doesn't, you'll want
to identify the disconnects.

If you'd like to create analyses and reports for separate groups (such as
customers, prospects, vendors, employees, etc.), complete this task for each
group.

Survey Group:

Your first step is to determine how you'll rate the responses. This depends
upon the survey type and the volume of responses, but your end goal is to
evaluate how well the majority of the responses reflect your brand summary.

Read through all of your questions and determine the average rating for each
question and record them below. Rate the response to each question based
on the following scale:

5 = the response is an extremely strong match to your brand strategy

3 = the response is a general match to your brand strategy

1 = the response does not match your brand strategy at all

Question and Rating:

Now, take a look at the different groups you sent the questions to. Record
the average rating for each. Do you see any trends? What can you conclude
from the data?

Group and Rating:

Sample Supporting Responses:

Sample Non-Supporting Responses:

Final Analysis
For each group, determine your results. If your audit matched your brand
summary, congratulations! Keep up the good work. If not, continue to
determine how you can strengthen your brand. Then apply it to the materials
and messages you use in the market, along with your operational
requirements (because your brand is an experience - not just a logo or
creative).

Group Results and Analysis:

If you're unsure whether your results match your brand summary for any
particular group, outline the areas that don't match below.

Brand Area and Disconnect:

Visual and Operational Brand Analysis

If you have audited any of your visual identity, list each item below and
notate whether your respondents felt it was consistent with your brand
promise and brand personality.

Identity Item and Brand Consistency:

If some of your materials need improvement, you may want to hone your
brand strategy with the rest of this section beforehand.

If you have audited any of your operational requirements, list each area
below and notate whether your respondents felt it was consistent with your
brand promise and brand personality.

Operational Touchpoint and Brand Consistency:

Commentary: