Brand Health Measurement: Why Track Brand Health Metrics?

Brand health metrics are a way to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your brand. They are an indication of its advantage over your competitor and its ability to support your business in the future.

A healthy brand supports a memorable and durable reputation for your company, its products and services, and its people. It gives you a competitive edge that helps you grow revenue and earn a healthy profit. It creates a sense of connection with your customers, driving preference and trust.

Like a person’s health, brand health is dynamic. You need to keep an eye on it, measuring some things often and others less so. You might weigh yourself every week and go for a full physical annually. 

Brand health measurement is similarly a mix of activities that monitor the condition of how strong your brand is, punctuated by regular, more in-depth examinations. 

What is brand health, and how can you measure it?

Brand health refers to a collection of concepts. A healthy brand scores well across all brand metrics. Regular brand tracking for brand health should measure these key areas:

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness tracks the degree to which your potential customers know about your products or services and are familiar with the benefits they provide. 

• Key metrics: Share of voice measures how often your brand appears in all brand conversations, whether in social media, the press, or in advertising.

Brand Equity

Brand equity is the value customers perceive in your products or services.

• Key metrics: In addition to the price premium it can command in the market and rate of growth, you should measure brand trust, sentiment, preference, and reputation.

Purchase Intent

Purchase intent is the degree to which customers say they want to buy a product or service within a certain period of time.

• Key metrics: Your brand tracking research should monitor customer interest, design, and plan to take action.

Brand Loyalty 

Brand and customer loyalty refers to a customer’s willingness to repurchase your product and service and maintain a relationship with your company.

• Key metrics: A net promoter score (NPS) measures the willingness of customers to say good things about your brand and recommend it to others. A customer satisfaction score (CSAT) indicates how well your brand meets customer needs and expectations.

Why it’s important to track brand health metrics regularly

Initiating formal brand tracker research is as vital to brand health as keeping an eye on your own vitals is for your physical health. 

Brand tracker research gives you  insights into what is ahead so you can prevent problems. In addition to preventative care, a brand health tracker can identify potential problems early when they are faster, easier, and cheaper to solve. Brand health tracking can also point to opportunities you can capitalize on faster than your competition. 

Most brand tracker research is done in regularly scheduled waves so you can compare current to past–and identify trends. The information brand trackers provide is vital for setting goals, making a game plan, measuring progress, and changing course according to market dynamics.

Choose your brand health metrics partner with care

Brand health measurement is a significant investment. Finding a true and trusted research partner ensures you get maximum value from the money you spend. 

The right market research partner will have a superior process. The best ones also bring experience and best practices to ensure you get superior brand insights. 

They should also truly understand your industry and your business to provide strategic thinking so that your brand health metrics and methodologies can be fine-tuned, recalibrated, and adjusted based on business needs and evolving market conditions.