BRAND

TRACKING

INTRODUCTION

• Brand tracking studies are an important tool in the day-to-day decisions brand managers make. They allow marketers to monitor a brand’s health and adjust marketing programs.

• Brand tracking help company stands to gain valuable insight about a market by simply monitoring its competitors.

• Close monitoring of competition reveals gaps in supply demand situation in the market and consequent opportunity.

•

• Brand tracking offers to help you gain valuable

information about any target market.

• Brand Tracking offers your company the

possibility of analyzing the image of your brand

and your competitors brand among consumers in

a certain period of time.

• By tracking your own brand as well as competitor

brands - a company may measure effectiveness

of its marketing effort and take timely steps. A

brand tracking analysis may reveal:

Which are the largest brands by value or volume.

Fastest growing brands.

Brand losing market share.

Performance of own brands, vis-a-vis competitor

brands, etc.

CONSUMER BASED BRAND EQUITY MODEL

Brand Awareness (Depth and breadth )

Brand PerformancePhysique (design), quality, reliability, service, price

Brand ImageryWho, when, how, where used personality, history

Consumer FeelingFeelings, social,approval, self respect

Consumer JudgmentBrand value,credibility

ResonanceLoyalty, sense of

community, engagement

Identity

Brand Association

Response

Relationship

The above model provides a detailed list of potential measures that correspond to the customer based brand equity model, all of which are candidates for Brand Tracking.

• Each brand faces different issues, which often

required customized tracking surveys. Following

are the measurement of the brand tracking

studies.

AWARENESS:

This is often tracked through measures of brand

recall and recognition. A brand that it is easily

recalled in certain situations is more likely to be

considered for purchase than one that is only

recognized when it is prompted to the

consumer.

WHAT SHOULD BE TRACKED?

USAGE:

• This can be measured through recency, frequency

of usage, and total spending in the brand, and

product category.

• These brand tracking measures, not only tell us about

consumer shopping behavior and preferences, but

also are indicators of market share and "share of

wallet," which is the amount of consumer spending, a

brand is capturing and has a direct impact on a

company's revenues and profits.

BRAND ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTION:

• This is usually captured through questions related to brand image and associations that consumers develop based on their experience with the brand and exposure to its message through PR, advertising and promotional programs.

• Brand associations include beliefs about product- and non-product related attributes and benefits, as well as perceptions related to price and value.

• Some brand associations are stronger than others, are more easily recalled and are appealing enough that they become a driver in a consumer’s decision to buy a brand.

Many times, attitudes towards a brand go beyond the

product to include attitudes toward the company.

For eg. Toyota’s image had been damaged, not only by

the car recall due to defective accelerator pedals in

several car models, but more so by how the company

failed to promptly notify car owners.

PURCHASE INTENTS:

Measures of likelihood to buy a brand or switch to a

competitor are also indicators of brand health and

should be part of brand tracking studies. These

questions should be put in context regarding specific

product or brand, reason for the purchase, time,

channel, price and other relevant factors to the

purchase decision, so they can be predictive of actual

purchase behavior.

WHEN AND WHO TO TRACK?

• Brand tracking studies usually involve collecting quantitative data from consumers on a regular basis.

• One way to do it is to continuously collect information, which provide a more representative picture of how the brand stands and allow us to control for unusual marketing activities during the analysis.

• However, this type of brand tracking may not be feasible due to budget and resources constraints.

• Fortunately, tracking at specific time intervals (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.) can be equally effective.

• When determining the frequency of data collection in brand tracking studies, following things are considered:

Frequency of product purchase: Long purchase cycles can be tracked less frequently.

Marketing activity in the product category: Product categories with a lot of marketing activity should be monitored more often.

Level of competition in product category: • Highly competitive product categories, where new

products and competitors are constantly trying to break in, should be tracked regularly.

Stability of brand associations: • Brands with an established image that don’t change

much over time, can be tracked less often.

• Brand tracking studies are usually conducted with current customers, but monitoring non-users of the brand can prove to be invaluable to the development of acquisition and market penetration strategies.

HOW TO INTERPRET BRAND TRACKING

MEASURES?

• Although for comparison purposes brand tracking

measures tend to stay the same over time, they

should be revised from time to time to assess their

reliability and sensibility, so they don’t become

unable to capture important shifts in the market due

to changes in sociodemographic trends, competitive

landscape and economic macrotrends.

• Another issue with brand tracking measures is defining what constitutes the desirable level of specific metrics.

• Is a 70% level awareness good enough? It depends on

the product category and the competitive environment.

• In low-involvement product categories and those with many competitors, it may be difficult to get very high levels of awareness and strong brand associations, so “good” levels for any metric differ across industries and product categories

• Finally, each brand tracking study should be

customized to capture the brand associations

that contribute the most to brand equity and the

marketing activities supporting the brand .

• The goal is to identify key drivers that make a

difference on consumers’ brand choice and

purchase behavior and develop marketing tactics

that lead to brand growth.

Brand tracking can also:

• Test the effectiveness and appropriateness of marketing strategies.

• Evaluate the success of creative executions. • Test the effectiveness of media plans. • Assess the marketing mix. • Find barriers to purchase.

Brand tracking focus specifically on brand loyalty and answer the following questions:

• What is the level of brand loyalty for buyers of the brand?

• What brand associations and purchase factors cause

loyalty? • What brand associations cause and can prevent brand

switching? • What is the level of customer satisfaction for the

brand?

Brand tracking focus specifically on perceived quality and answer the following questions:

• What is the level of perceived quality for the brand? • What are the quality drivers? • What areas need to be improved?

CASE STUDY

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