The Brand Audit

Critical to a successful marketing plan is an up-to-date review of your organization’s situation – from three different perspectives.

Your organization: We begin internally. Marketing and communications programs exist to support your business plan so we begin there. We also work with you to assemble, review and analyze information and activities that you’ve undertaken in the past. This may include primary research studies, past advertising efforts and results as well as all materials currently in use – from signage to corporate identity standards. We meet individually with key organizational leaders and conduct confidential interviews to assure that all share the same vision and priorities. Often, we uncover common threads that have gone unrecognized or disparities that work at cross purposes. Finally, we conduct similar interviews with employees, sales and internal opinion-leaders who have direct customer contact. Since they represent both the culture and the brand to your customers and prospects, those characteristics must be understood to assure consistency with your external communications.

Your customers and prospects: Your brand lives in the minds of your customers and prospects. So, too, do the brands of your competitors. The better we understand their attitudes toward you and your competitors, the better we can reinforce or counter those perceptions. And the better we understand them as people – their interests, their media habits, their lifestyles and geographic locations – the more efficiently we can reach them and the more relevant and compelling the messages that can be developed to motivate them.

Your market environment: Your organization competes in a rapidly changing world. To develop effective marketing efforts, we must know exactly what your competitors are doing including their positioning strategies, the level of their marketing activity, their product advantages, disadvantages and voids. However, the broader world also impacts your customers and their buying behavior. Economic recession and unemployment have a direct impact on confidence or ability to buy. Even “non-discretionary” purchases, such as dental care or prescription drug purchases are affected.

The rapid advance of technology, the dynamic economy, competitive threats and organizational changes demand that an audit be conducted with increased frequency (no less than annually), to assure that strategies and tactics are based on current conditions, not past assumptions.