Brand Metrics:
A Comprehensive Guide of Metrics to Track
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Simon Halamasek
- 14. May 2024
Fear not! You’re not alone, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a comprehensive list of essential metrics and a short overview of which ones you should track.
In this article, we will quickly go through these metrics any brand manager probably knows or has at least heard of:
- Brand Association
- Brand Awareness
- Brand Salience
- Brand Loyalty
- Brand Equity
- Share of Search
- Brand Health
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Furthermore, we will also get into which metrics to measure based on the size of your brand.
Sounds good? Let’s get straight into it.
Brand Metrics: What’s What?
Brand Association
Brand association reflects consumers’ connections between your brand and specific attributes or qualities.
These can be positive or negative associations, but also simply refer to a buying situation.
For example, if your brand is a soft drink, the buying situation might be “to hydrate”.
Brand Awareness
Brand Awareness gauges the level of recognition your brand enjoys among consumers.
This is usually prompted – you ask consumers about a brand, and they let you know whether they know it or not. Simple!
Brand Salience
Brand Salience measures the prominence and distinctiveness of your brand in consumers’ minds. This is also known as being “top-of-mind”.
Unlike brand awareness, brand salience indicates whether a consumer can spontaneously think of you, especially in buying situations.
For example – you might want a nice cold soft drink that energizes you. Chances are, you think of Coke.
Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty represents the extent to which consumers consistently choose your brand over others within a product category.
It goes beyond repeat purchases; it reflects an affinity towards your brand, often driven by positive experiences, trust, and emotional connections.
Brand Equity
Brand equity reflects your brand’s overall value and strength in the market. It’s how much consumers trust and prefer your brand over others.
For example, if consumers are willing to pay more for your product simply because of the brand name, your brand likely has high equity.
Share of Search
Share of search shows how often your brand is searched for compared to competitors in your industry.
It indicates your brand’s online visibility and popularity.
For instance, if your brand is mentioned in 30% of all searches for a specific product category, your share of search is 30%.
Brand Health
Brand health describes the overall condition and vitality of your brand in the market.
It includes factors like brand awareness, perception, and customer loyalty.
A brand with good health has satisfied customers who trust and engage with the brand consistently.
Net promoter score (NPS)
Net promoter score measures customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your brand to others.
Responses are categorized into:
- promoters (loyal customers)
- passives (neutral)
- detractors (unhappy customers)
Subtracting the percentage of detractors from promoters gives the NPS score, with higher scores indicating stronger customer loyalty.
Brand Metrics – What to Measure?
I know what you’re thinking: “That’s all great and all, but what’s really important?”
We’ve sifted through the clutter and researched the most important metrics to watch out for based on the size of your brand or business.
What to track based on your brand’s size:
A starting brand
What counts as a starting brand:
market penetration is less than 2%
What you should try to achieve:
Convert customers who are actively looking for a solution (usually by targeting them with performance marketing).
Metrics to monitor:
Category size
Why should a starting brand track category size:
Tracking category size helps a starting brand understand the overall market potential and identify opportunities for growth. By knowing the size of the category, the brand can assess its market share and set realistic targets for expansion.
A small brand
What counts as a small brand:
market penetration is between 2% and 10%
What you should try to achieve:
Raise awareness about your brand or product.
Metrics to monitor:
Brand Awareness, Brand Emotion
Why should a small brand track brand awareness:
Brand awareness is crucial for a small brand as it determines the level of recognition and familiarity among consumers.
By tracking brand awareness, a small brand can measure the effectiveness of its marketing campaigns and initiatives in reaching its target audience.
Why should a small brand track brand emotion:
Tracking brand emotion enables a small brand to understand the emotional connection consumers have with its brand or product.
Emotions play a significant role in consumer decision-making and influencing brand preference.
A medium brand
What counts as a medium brand:
market penetration is between 10% and 30%
What you should try to achieve:
Be a salient brand in the selected category entry point (CEP).
Metrics to monitor:
Brand Salience, Brand Associations
Why should a medium-sized brand track brand salience:
Brand salience reflects the brand’s prominence and top-of-mind awareness among consumers within its chosen category entry point (CEP).
For a medium-sized brand, being salient in the CEP is crucial for maintaining competitive advantage and driving consideration and purchase intent.
Why should a medium-sized brand track brand associations:
Brand associations represent the attributes, values, and characteristics linked to the brand in the minds of consumers.
For a medium-sized brand, tracking brand associations is essential for shaping brand identity and differentiation.
A large brand
What counts as a large brand:
market penetration is above 30%
What you should try to achieve:
Be a salient brand in the strongest category entry points (CEP) of the entire category.
Metrics to monitor:
Mental Market Share (salience across multiple category entry points)
Brand Associations
Why should a large brand track mental market share/brand salience:
By monitoring mental market share, the brand can assess its position relative to competitors and identify opportunities to strengthen its presence in strategic CEPs.
It enables the brand to allocate resources effectively, prioritize marketing initiatives, and adapt its strategies to reinforce salience where it matters most
Why should a large brand track brand associations:
For a large brand, monitoring brand associations allows for identifying strengths to leverage and weaknesses to address.
It enables the brand to align its messaging and experiences with its desired positioning, fostering deeper connections and resonance with consumers.
What does Behavio measure and how?
At Behavio, we focus mainly on measuring brand awareness, brand salience, brand emotion, and brand associations.
Why? Because at least one of these metrics is vital for a brand at some point in its journey.
How do we do that? Brand tracking!
Behavio brings you a quick, easy, and cost-effective solution to brand tracking that demonstrates the ROI on your brand marketing investment.
Major benefits include:
- Get actionable insights with easy-to-understand dashboards. Behavio gets rid of slides filled with unintelligible data; instead, it offers clear and concise insights that make the audience easily understand what is important.
- A simple 30-minute initial onboarding. After all, we know your time is valuable and there are a million other things you could be doing instead of trying to figure out complex marketing tools. Keep it simple. Spare the technical details—unless they’re really needed.
- Get an advanced set of metrics at a fraction of the normal price. We bet your company spends more money on coffee every month. And just like caffeine sharpens focus, our brand tracking will point your brand directly towards better performance.
