In this blog we will be going through the importance of performing brand audits to help facilitate business growth. We will also run through how you connect the dots from audits to growth within your own company. We will spell out what an audit is, that process and how that translates into real business growth.
What is a Brand Audit?
A brand audit is when you do a review and analysis of your brand, logo, messaging and positioning, marketing and sales materials as well as your website and social media accounts. Part of doing the audit is to determine if your brand portrays the desired brand image, brand messaging, look and feel that you are trying to project. Another component of a brand audit is to take a look at the competitive landscape and see how your brand stacks up against your competitors. Once you have the brand audit information it allows you to determine if your brand is good or if you want or need to make refinements or adjustments in order to fuel your business growth.
Why Do Businesses Need a Brand Audit?
Every company or brand needs to look at and perform a brand audit every one or so, especially taking a look at the competitive landscape to see if there are any new competitors, tracking for trends, what’s new and innovative as well as if your own brand image, messaging and positioning is really competitive or needs some serious updating and to ensure your brand is competitive and robust enough to help with your business growth. Here are a couple of items to take a look at:
Importance of brand audit
Let’s run through why it is so important to perform a brand audit:
Trends: I love taking a look at my competitive space and seeing what the trends are, who’s doing what, where are things going and what to look for.
Competitive landscape: Another thing a do pretty regularly is looking at what the competitive landscape is looking like, anybody new? And news trends?
How you stack up: I ask myself all the time, how do we stack up, are we competitive? Leading, falling behind or where we want to be?
Next steps: Based on performing a brand audit it gives you a good idea on things that you can do to improve your brand, its image, messaging, positioning, website, pitch decks, etc. Based on this information you can develop an action plan of next steps you want to take to improve your brand, brand value, brand equity and brand results.
The Key Elements of a Brand Audit
We start with a brand audit and we have created a Brand audit checklist where we look at different aspects of a brand. The brand audit checklist and Brand audit template includes looking:
Own brand review
Logo: Take a look at your logo, does it still work, standout, portrait the image you want for your company and brand.
Color palette: Are your brand colors still appropriate, do they stand out and separate you from your competitors?
Brand look and feel: Review your design elements that together compose your brand look and feel and determine if those are still on-target and relevant?
Content and copy: Every year or so I review our content and copy to still see if it is relevant, crazy how much the marketplace and terminology changes all the time and how your content needs to stay current.
Website: Your website is probably one of the items that is checked out most about your company and brand, make sure to review it regularly!
Marketing and sales materials: Make sure your sales and marketing materials are refreshed and renewed regularly to reflect your offering, positioning and pricing.
Pitch/sales deck: Your pitch and sales decks are other key elements that are used pretty regularly, make sure they are on brand, current and communicate your desired brand.
Social presence: Another brand element that is viewed regularly is your social media presence and posts. We like to look at impressions, clicks, followers, engagement with your brand.
Competitive review: A big part of a brand audit is looking at your competitors, and the competitive landscape, see how your brand stacks up and what about your brand may need to be updated, refined or totally reinvented.
Key takeaways: Once you go through the above action items it’s time to sit down and do an honest assessment of where your brand is at, how it stacks up and other key insights and takeaways.
Next steps/action plan: Last but not least you need to develop what your next steps and action items are and what and when these items need to be addressed.
Steps to Perform an Effective Brand Audit
Let’s take a look at the Brand audit framework:
Alignment: When performing a brand audit we like to first understand how your company is doing against your stated goals, objectives and growth plan. Most companies and brands invest in branding and marketing efforts in order to grow and drive revenue.
Research: We first like to research your competitors and the competitive landscape and see what’s going on in your space. Also, we like to do an internal review to see how you are doing against your sales and growth goals and objectives.
Review: Once you have done your research, it’s time to review the information gathered on your marketplace including doing a hard look at your brand and brand position.
Analysis: Based on your research and review, it’s time to perform your analysis of what the review, insights and data tells you.
Next Steps: Based on what you have determined in your brand analysis, it’s time to develop what to do with that information and what your next steps should be.
Action plan and timeline: Through development of your next steps, it’s time to make that a reality and create an action plan and timeline to get these items done and make your desired brand modifications to get to where you want it to be.
Brand tracking and measuring: With your brand adjustments have been made and launched, it’s time to track and message how they are being accepted and performing. Based on this data you can determine what refinements and adjustments need to be made for maximum effectiveness and business growth.
Brand audit report: From the above brand audit framework, we like to develop a brand audit report that can be shared with and presented to your executives, management team and the company as a whole depending on your preferences.
Benefits of Conducting a Brand Audit
The benefits of performing a brand audit are many. Everything from ginning a real look at how your brand stacks up in the marketplace to what adjustments need to be made to your brand as well as the potential benefits for your brands evolving and growing to owning your space and seeing real practical things like a gain in revenue, market share and value.
Real-World Examples of Successful Brand Audits
In a world where brands mean so much and owning your own IP (intellectual property) is very important and valuable. Let’s take a look at a real brand audit example:
In a recent brand audit we worked on with a client, it was discovered that there were 8 other companies with the same brand name, meaning you can’t own the IP for your brand and brand recognition and equity is next to impossible with that much brand confusion. As a result of the lack of not being able to own and protect your brand name and image, this company was forced to go through a rebranding process and come up with a new brand name and a whole new branding process.
When Should You Conduct a Brand Audit?
Every company should go through a brand audit in brand management of your brand every couple of years at a minimum to guard and protect your brand and brand equity.
I know a lot of marketing and sales teams that do through brand audits pretty frequently in order to stay competitive and ensure they are staying a step ahead of the competition and it’s helping in their growth goals. They look at their sales and pitch decks on a regular basis and sometimes they look at a pitch deck expert in order to make sure their pitch and sales presentations look great, tell a great story and compel people to take action. If this resonates with you, you should look into brand agency services that offer help with your pitch and sales deck.
Conclusion
In a competitive marketplace like most of us operate in these days, staying competitive to our business success. Performing a regular brand audit is critical to your brand staying competitive and it helps you stay ahead of the competition and helps to fuel your growth. You may want to consider working with a leading branding agencies to help you with your brand audit, rebranding and marketing implementation to help your brand grow and achieve your desired outcome.
