Brand Research vs. Brand Audit: What’s the Difference?
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Think about going for an annual health check-up versus meeting with a specialist to consult about a specific health problem. You go for a checkup just to know whether you are healthy and everything is okay or not. You would look at an overview of your whole body and ask, “Is everything functioning as it is supposed to?”
From there, you would decide whether you need to see a specialist. For example, if your cholesterol levels need attention, you would probably go to a nutritionist to find out diet plans that can help you manage that. But you don’t do it the other way around—you don’t go see a specialist to zoom out and diagnose your overall health. One offers an overview, and the other offers a deep dive.
This is what brand audit versus brand research looks like. When you do a brand audit, you want to find out: Is the brand doing ok? Is the brand healthy? Does it look like it needs help in certain areas? But once you identify that, it would be time to dive deeper into what can we do with those specific areas. The deeper dive after an audit is the research.
Brand audit: figure out where the brand is right now.
A brand audit is like a brand check-up.
Brand audit focuses on finding out where the brand is now and where the brand is in the eyes of the customers. It seeks to evaluate the brand based on its goals, alignment, and intended awareness, perception, and engagement from the customers. Brand audit relies heavily on analytics and current brand assets, and can be done within a short period of time.
In a brand audit, some key components you are evaluating are:
Goal: Is the brand reaching its goals?
Experience: What’s the journey like for customers as they go through the different brand touch points?
Consistency: Does the brand consistently communicate the same message and feel throughout the different visuals and touch points?
Feedback: What are customers saying about the brand?
Competitive landscape: Does the brand stand out from its competitors in the market?
Brand research: figure out what the brand should be.
Brand research focuses on where the brand is now and what’s expected of the brand.
Brand research doesn’t only assess who we are as a brand but also dives into what the customers want and expect from the brand. The result of the research will point to the key opportunities, positioning, and secret sauces that are most beneficial for the brand—understand the customers in the market and the brand’s place in it. Usually a brand research is considered as a formal research based on empirical analysis.
In a brand research, some key components you are trying to find out are:
Brand awareness: What do people know about the brand and its values?
Brand perception: What do people think and feel when they interact with the brand?
Brand association: What do people associate the brand with?
Brand experience: What’s the journey like for customers as they go through the different brand touch points?
Brand’s competitive landscape: Who are the brand’s main competitors are and does the brand stand out from them?
The common goal: to identify areas of growth and opportunity, and give value to clients.
The result of both audit and research are beneficial for brands, strategists, and clients. It’s valuable for clients and strategists to know how the brand is doing before doing any strategy work through brand audit, and it’s also valuable to understand what customers expect from the brand to define the strongest positioning from brand research.
Every client and project is unique, so the best steps to take prior to your strategy work will also be unique. Instead of getting buried in the difference between brand audit and research, focus on asking this question: what will be most helpful for your client? And then do that.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!