In an increasingly competitive and dynamic business landscape, brand positioning plays a vital role for businesses. But how to measure the success of a brand positioning?
In fact, knowing the effectiveness of your brand positioning is essential: not only will it allow you to adapt to changing consumer needs, but it will also help you identify growth and improvement opportunities, especially for corporate internationalization.
Read on to find out how to measure the success of your brand positioning.
Brand positioning and brand awareness
To understand how to measure the success of a brand positioning we must introduce the concept of “brand awareness”.
Brand positioning and brand awareness are two distinct yet related concepts.
Brand positioning is the unique and distinctive image that the company wants to associate with its product or service in the minds of customers. It involves the creation of a clear and recognizable identity for the brand, which is based on its specific attributes, values, tone of voice and target market of the company. The goal is to ensure that the brand is recognized and chosen by consumers over its competitors.
For example, a car maker may want to position its brand as a manufacturer of high-performance luxury vehicles, while another company may want to be seen as an affordable and reliable option for families.
Brand awareness, on the other hand, refers to the level of awareness and recognition of a brand by consumers within the market in which it operates. It measures how well consumers recognize or remember the brand when exposed to its name, logo or other identifiers.
Basically, brand awareness is a sort of mirror of a successful brand positioning: if the brand positioning strategy has worked, a broad brand awareness, on target with its audience, will be achieved.
How is brand awareness measured?
Measuring the success of brand positioning and brand awareness is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies adopted and eventually make any improvement required.
The value of brand awareness is measured by the so-called “Pyramid of Aaker” – created by economist David Aaker– which represents the four levels of desirability of a brand. At the base of the pyramid there is lack of knowledge, at the second level there is superficial knowledge, at the third there is strong knowledge and at the top there is the so-called “top of mind”: brands which represent the first thought of a consumer for a given product category are to be found here. Basically, they represent a first option.
So let’s see what are the metrics to monitor to determine brand awareness and the strength of a brand positioning.
Website traffic and Google search volume
How many visitors browse the brand’s website? Having a lot of site traffic is a significant indicator of brand awareness.
Another important indicator is the search volume for the brand on Google.
Followers count and social media engagement
Analyzing the number of followers and engagement of your content on social media along with the likes, comments, shares and mentions of the brand will reflect the public interest in it.
Conversions and leads increase
Conversion metrics allow you to measure how many website visitors or social channels have been converted into desired actions (sales, subscriptions, inquiries). This data is valuable to measure the success of a brand positioning in guiding customer action, beyond pure brand visibility.
Customer feedback
Conducting market research, surveys and focus groups will help you gain direct insights from your customers and target audience. You can ask them how they perceive the brand, what words they associate with it, how much they would recommend it to others and what is the level of satisfaction with your products or services.
Also pay attention to all customer feedback and especially reviews. You will be able to obtain valuable information on customer satisfaction and understand if your brand is respecting its positioning statement and promise.
Competitor assessment
Monitor how your brand stacks up against direct competitors. You can use competitive analysis tools to evaluate your market share, relative performance and distinctive positioning.
Traffic and offline conversion tracking
If your brand involves physical activity, analyze in-store traffic or other offline conversions. You can do this through loyalty programs, discount codes or other specific indicatores to evaluate the impact of your placement on site sales.
Analysis of sales and financial performance
Last but not least criterion to measure the success of your brand positioning is observing the trend of the financial performance of the brand: awareness is important, but an effective positioning must necessarily translate into growth in sales and profit margins over time.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that measuring the success of a brand positioning it is a continuous process. To achieve maximum impact in the market you will need to monitor data on a regular basis, fine tune your strategy based upon feedback and new information gathered and adapt your positioning strategy accordingly.
Are you looking to build a successful brand positioning for your business? Then get in touch with no hesitation !
I’ve been helping SMEs in Italy for years to strengthen their positioning and expand into foreign markets.