Brand Analysis

“How does my brand rank on association X (compared to competitors)?”

How does a brand win the battle for the brain?

Apple is regarded creative and innovative. Budweiser is the all-American beer. Dove is gentle and empathic. But how robust are these identities compared to their close competitors, respectively Samsung, Miller and Nivea?

The Brand Analysis offers a profound scientific answer to the question every brand manager ponders about: “how do consumers really perceive our brand?”

Scale

Medium

Purpose

Evaluation

Area

Branding

Research Set-up

The Brand Analysis unravels how a brand is represented in the customer’s mind, optionally in comparison with one or more competitors. The first step requires to determine which associations matter to a brand, which is explored by means of a strategic briefing as well as exploratory market research such as free association tests, interviews and surveys.

Relevant association can be found across four levels of the brand: product features, goals, identity and overall evaluation. The final three in particular often operate at surprisingly unconscious levels (Dijksterhuis & Aarts, 2010) and are hard to pin down by traditional explicit research methods (Maison, Greenwald & Bruin, 2004).

What's next?

The research report displays brand scores across every association. When the research is aimed at competitor comparison, the scores are mapped to graphically display the brand’s relative strength.

Firstly, the results serve an evaluative goal: does the identity the brand is aiming for match the true identity in the customer’s mind? You receive a deeper insight in your brand-DNA.

Secondly, when the data is accompanied by a brand map featuring competitors, it offers points of support to: