A brand audit is a means to determine the perception of your brand. A brand audit is also a means for defining ways to improve your brand. All of your marketing materials and communications, both internally and externally, are evaluated to reveal their strengths and weaknesses—leading to a better, stronger brand.
During a brand audit, your leadership team(s) will participate in question and answer sessions as well as review competitors’ marketing materials. The audit will also take into account how your customers or prospects perceive your brand and their interactions with your company. While you likely have some indications of what is not working with your brand, interviews, surveys, and independent research can reveal additional insights and help contribute toward a plan for improvement.
As businesses evolve, brand audits are becoming increasingly important.
As businesses evolve, brand audits are becoming increasingly important. Trillion has helped facilitate in-person brand audits and digital connectivity tools have opened up more opportunities to conduct a brand audit virtually—potentially saving time and money. If your company has seen significant growth, is experiencing increased competition, or your brand is going through tough times, an audit can help better position the brand, connect with customers, and build a stronger presence.
Involve key stakeholders in your brand audit
We always see the best results with a brand audit when top leadership is onboard. In addition to business owners, CEOs, and other top-level leadership professionals, there are more people who should be involved with a brand audit—in its entirety or just for a portion of it.
- Business group leadership or department heads
- Board members
- Marketing/PR director/manager
- Product owners
- Customers/clients/external partners
- Longstanding employees
- New hires
Gathering a list of individuals who represent a broad demographic of employees, leadership, customers and relevant stakeholders is paramount. You will certainly want an impactful group present for the brand audit. Individuals who are willing to provide constructive commentary will be the most valuable during the process so keep that in mind when enlisting your team.
The benefits of outsourced marketing expertise in brand audits will unlock new insights
You may be thinking, “I can do this on my own?” Maybe. However, an independent third party can bring fresh unbiased perspectives to the audit. Smaller organizations can implement a brand audit on their own. If your organization reaches many thousands of customers or constituents, you have a staff of 20+, or you have a board of 12+, you should seriously consider hiring a branding team like Trillion to facilitate and execute your brand audit.
A branding team of experts can bring a level of expertise and facilitate the process. Evaluating the right data, language, visuals, and overall aesthetics of a brand in the right way can expose new opportunities for improvement. Plus, this independent third-party expertise can more critically and constructively analyze language and visual identity within your organization and to the public.
Brand audits in a virtual world
The brand audit process can be new to many and a valuable team-building experience. In the past, we would gather the brand’s leadership team and other stakeholders into a large conference room over the course of a few days. However, virtual and interactive tools are creating a nice evolution for brand audits.
Polls, surveys, and data collection can happen during the meetings and results can be shared and displayed in real-time.
With the help of virtual meeting tools such as Zoom, the brand audit process becomes easier and interactive. Polls, surveys, and data collection can happen during the meetings and results can be shared and displayed in real-time. Seeing digital results from polls and surveys as they happen is eye-opening. Also, since a moderator has the ability to mute and unmute participants, we can provide a platform that offers opinions to be shared without interruption.
Watching website sessions can leave a lasting impression for those who are tasked with improving the website’s experience or effectiveness. Tools such as FullStory can be used to help craft a more perfect digital experience. You can view how users are interacting with your website and it provides a complete picture that can drive high-impact improvements.
Challenges of brand audits
One of the most common challenges of a brand audit is the task of coordinating calendars of so many people and blocking out significant time from their schedules. While this challenge does still exist, remote working has offered much more flexibility to employees, board members, and other stakeholders who will be participating in the brand audit. Online scheduling tools like Doodle can quickly help determine the best dates or times.
Much like hybrid learning in schools, a mixed in-person and virtual brand audit will create challenges for a moderator. A hybrid group will require more preparation to synchronize the two environments. For this reason, and the reduced face-to-face contact most businesses are adhering to, virtual brand audits offer the best environment.
How long does a brand audit take?
The length of a brand audit will vary depending upon the complexity of the brand, the size of the company, the target demographics, competitive landscape, as well as the quantity of products and marketing materials. A typical range is 4-7 weeks. There is a good deal of research and preparation that happens before an in-person or virtual session happens. The front-end research and preparation can take 2-3 weeks. The client-facing meetings can take 2-4 days. The analysis, digestion of the findings, and the recommended adjustments can take 1-3 weeks. Implementing the adjustments will vary greatly from client to client.
Take the next step toward improving your brand
If you’re ready for a brand audit, great, let’s talk. But if you are still considering the viability of an audit for your brand, we have a free download for you. We’ve created a branding brainstorm worksheet that can help you prepare for a branding audit or exercise. Take a look at it and let us know what you think and if you would like to talk through your questions on the process.
