Performing comprehensive brand diagnostics is one of the best ways to determine your brand’s overall reach and position within the market. Brand diagnostics can also be used to identify weaknesses within your brand both internally and externally. The way in which a businesses chooses to utilize diagnostic research depends heavily on the business makeup, industry, and the business’s overall goals.
Brand diagnostics can be utilized in numerous ways. Today, we will be defining brand diagnostics, identifying the relationship between brand diagnostics and market sizing, discussing using diagnostics to identify brand weaknesses, and finally how a diagnostic report can help businesses make prudent decisions moving forward.
What are Brand Diagnostics?
Diagnostics is of course referencing the act of making a diagnosis. Diagnosis is defined in part as, “Investigation or analysis of the cause or nature of a condition, situation, or problem”. When we talk about brand diagnostics, we are not necessarily looking only at that bad, but also at the good. Think of brand diagnostics as an annual check-up/physical for your brand.
There are several metrics which can be evaluated with brand diagnostics, including:
- Public perception of your brand
- Market sizing
- Industry health and growth potential
- Conversion rate analysis
- And much more
Brand Diagnostics and Market Sizing
The vast majority of business decisions take on some form of calculated risk. Whether you are considering a property investment or making a new hire, those decisions are only as good as the data upon which you base them. Brand diagnostics is an integral part of understanding you industry’s projected growth and your brand’s market share.
Market sizing and market share analysis provide several key pieces of information:
- How and why is your brand losing business to your competitor(s)?
- Is your brand gaining or losing customers, transactions, and occasions?
- Has your business been materially impacted by market size fluctuation or pressure from competition?
Brand diagnostics are designed to answer these questions and do so within the context of the greater picture. This allows businesses and their owners to make well informed decisions about branding, investment, or even whether or not it may be prudent to move in a different direction.
Identifying Brand Weaknesses Through Diagnostic Analysis
Of course, brand diagnoses do often focus on what is “wrong” with your brand. We prefer to think of this as pinpointing opportunities for improvement rather than fixating on the negative. So how exactly do brand diagnostics work to help identify brand weaknesses?
Find where the sales process breaks down in your brand funnel. Brand funnels, or sales funnels, refer to the flow of customer interactions with your brand from awareness to customer loyalty. A typical funnel might include vague awareness, acute awareness, seeking out additional information, making a purchase, and building a long-term relationship. Locating a breakdown in any of these steps is a crucial part of brand diagnostics.
Understand the effectiveness of your brand message. Many brands feel that they have formulated and put out a strong brand message, only to later find that the message has not been received by the public. Brand personality, brand identity, and brand message can only be controlled to a point. Brand diagnostics informs businesses what the perception of your brand truly is.
Brands may be on a sinking ship. A worst case scenario for many brands is that they are in the wrong business, have made a bad bet, or are simply losing their market share. Brand diagnostics are effective at providing the necessary data analytics so that businesses can turn that ship around!
Businesses Use Brand Diagnostics to Inform Next Steps
Traditional thinking says that brand diagnostics should be performed before businesses “scale-up” and make a big step. While this certainly makes sense, we believe that regular brand diagnostic work should be considered an integral part of your regular business routine. Consider the wealth of information brand diagnostic evaluations offer, and you will see why this information can help businesses make well-informed decisions in all situations.
Whether you are considering investing in a new property, expanding your market reach, or looking into a new business avenue, brand diagnostics provides companies with the internal and external analysis necessary to make a level-headed decision.
Some businesses wait until crisis mode to perform a diagnostic check. Why wait when you can avoid a crisis altogether? Much like you go for your annual physical to keep your body healthy, we recommend using brand diagnostics as a brand “check-up” to keep your business moving in the right direction.
Brand Diagnostic Evaluations from Clock Tower Insight
At Clock Tower Insight, we turn data into business solutions. By maximizing brand positioning, CX management, moments of influence, and more, we help build our clients brands in the short and long term. Clock Tower Insight believes that happy customers equal a happy business. We work closely with clients to tailor their brand from top to bottom in order to maximize positive image, exposure, and sales.
To learn more about how we may be able to help your business grow, read about our 15 plus years of focused experience working with brands such as Starbucks, Kraft, McDonald’s, and much more.