5 reasons why your company should do a brand audit
When professionals hear the word “audit” it may evoke feelings of stress, anxiety, and the need for financial organization. However, this is not the case with a Brand Audit.
A Brand Audit aims to measure how successful your brand is performing in the eyes of your customers. It’s all about solving problems, reaching the right audience and thriving in your field — all reasons to get excited about! In this blog post, we will cover 5 reasons why your company may need a Brand Audit.
1. A Brand Audit Helps Figure Out Your Brand’s Position in the Market
Part of performing a brand audit is sorting out your brand’s position with your competitors. Brand positioning is the strategy used to set your business apart from the rest. It’s all about looking into the details of your brand and sorting out what your company does better than anyone else. In our Brand Strategy Series P3 we went into more detail regarding brand positioning.
Read more about brand positioning HERE.
2. Use a Brand Audit To Define the True Needs of your Target Customers
Defining the needs of your target audience during a brand audit can provide meaningful insights into the intrinsic value of your brand. This process involves understanding your customer's motivations, preferences, and behaviours. As part of your brand audit strategy, you may leverage market research, customer surveys, and data analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of your target demographic.
These insights will not only demonstrate whether your brand currently holds value in the eyes of your audience but will also guide crucial decisions about the future direction of your brand. You may decide to evolve the brand, make significant changes, or refine existing elements to better align with customer needs. A thorough brand audit can reveal opportunities for improvement, innovation, and growth, thereby strengthening your brand's position in the market.
3. Brand Audits Ensure Consistency
A brand is made up of lots of moving parts. Logo, social media, website, print materials…
There are so many different elements that make up a brand, it’s easy for inconsistencies to happen. Inconsistencies take away from the brand experience. Any inconsistency within your brand can cause confusion among your target audience. Remember, any place a potential customer sees your brand and uses your brand's product/service they are expecting the same experience. The more inconsistencies they pick up on, the less trust they associate with your brand.
A brand audit can help identify inconsistencies in your brand image across platforms. A cohesive brand image is crucial to build trust with your audience. By ensuring consistency across all platforms - from your logo to your website to your social media presence - you can create a unified brand experience that resonates with your target audience and enhances brand loyalty.
4. Identify Marketing Materials Strengths vs Weaknesses With A Brand Audit
Part of a brand audit is to look at current and past marketing materials. This is the perfect time to evaluate what worked, what didn't work and why. A marketing inventory audit is vital in understanding what needs updating in order to match your new and improved brand strategy. The bottom line is, a marketing campaign that successfully informs the customer what the brand’s values are will ultimately bring in more sales.
5. Use Brand Audits To Make Clear Recommendations on Future Direction
A brand audit is perfect for updating visuals, making sure your brand is being represented correctly and is reaching your ideal demographic. The value/information that comes from the audit is not just to be used for updating visuals. The data that is analyzed will give you a base for future business perspectives, ensuring your next campaign is based on solid insight instead of assumptions. This clear view can set you up for future growth so you can move forward with a clear brand strategy that your team can all follow.
How Often Should You Do A Brand Audit?
In a perfect world, every brand should undergo a brand audit every year. Within 365 days, trends come and go, the market changes and new competitors pop up. It’s good to stay on top of the market and make sure your brand is connecting with the right people. If you don’t have time to complete a brand audit once a year, it is best practice to have a brand audit every time a major change happens. If your brand's core product/service changes, goals, vision, and values change or if you are finding that your numbers aren’t what they used to be.
Of course, there are more than 5 reasons to get a brand audit, but we wanted to highlight some of the more important reasons. If you are unsure if your brand is reaching your target demographic, maintaining loyal customers, running successful marketing campaigns or if your brand is performing better than your competition - you need a brand audit.
Running a brand audit on your own can be very overwhelming and confusing as to where to even start. This is where Sunday Roast steps in, we have been helping brands connect with their target demographic successfully for years. It is never too late or too early for an audit. To get your brand audit started, book a discovery call at Sunday Roast. We love helping brands reach their full potential and get noticed.
Take the next steps to apply what you’ve learned in your brand audit with the purpose that drives your brand’s growth.
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