Brand analysis

“I think I know that …” is not enough as a foundation for strategic, long-term branding. For international B2B brands, in-depth brand analysis during brand consulting is the starting point of a comprehensive branding process.

WHAT IS BRAND ANALYSIS?
The starting point of the branding process.

Brand analysis is the initial step towards updating your brand strategy and brand positioning. During this first stage of brand consulting, we assess your brand’s current standing. Owing to manifold interconnections, the number of factors influencing a brand is large. To maintain or enhance your position in international competition, sound brand analysis is required. Initially, brand analysis serves as a starting point in the branding process, and later on it is performed on an ongoing basis to recognize and evaluate developments and changes.

Secondary analysis

By taking a close look at the market, competition, business situation, products, target groups, and market developments, it is possible to derive where and in which field of conflict a brand stands. In brand analysis and brand consulting, we link this secondary data to the current corporate strategy and brand strategy, brand architecture, brand portfolio, brand communication, and ongoing communication activities. This helps us identify your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks within its brand environment.

If goals, vision, mission, positioning, and guiding principles have already been elaborated, we analyze these brand-relevant aspects and evaluate them with regard to the future development of the brand.

Primary analysis

To determine the current impact of the brand even more clearly and to define approaches for brand optimization, primary analyses may be necessary. Internal workshops, external workshops, expert interviews, focus group discussions, and customer surveys are instruments of primary research. It may be necessary to analyze how the current brand values are integrated into holistic marketing (4Ps). For brand analysis, the questions focus primarily on aspects such as brand perception, brand personality, brand authenticity, and brand preferences.

The holistic aim of brand analysis is to gain a clear picture of the brand, its strength, its familiarity, and its presence today. This view of the general underlying data flows into the future-oriented evaluation during brand consulting, creating the basis for the development of the brand strategy.

Employees, customers, and trends — relevant points of brand analysis

The insights from secondary and primary analyses provide a clear view of the company and its environment. There is another important field in brand analysis and brand consulting for well-founded and long-term brand development: the most precise description possible of customers and their wishes and needs (insights). Various approaches can be used to achieve this. The results are always to be seen in relation to competitors. This helps to identify “blank spots” in the customer landscape.

Target audiences, personas, internationality, culture, mentality, employees, customers

Milieu studies that give as realistic pictures as possible of the diverse society are helpful. These include values, life goals, lifestyles, and sociodemographic characteristics. If your company is represented in many countries with production sites and branches, cultural aspects must be included in brand analysis and brand consulting.

In B2B analysis, clear target group descriptions in combination with persona profiles are helpful to better describe the individual groups of decision-makers. Information behavior and search behavior, decision-making authority, decision-making and purchasing processes, budget, and influence are the focus of the brand analysis here for subsequent consulting. What milieus and personas have in common is to be understood in a target group-oriented way for your brand and marketing.

Customer journey
Customer insights

The customer’s external perception of the brand is also a helpful starting point for assessing the brand. Here, it is important to follow the customer journey, identify the customer touchpoints, and understand what the customer experiences today and should experience in the future from a brand perspective.

Trend analysis

Long-term trend analyses bring another aspect to brand development. The aim here is to understand how possible developments will change a market, an industry, or a current application. Legal issues at the national and international levels are just as much a part of this as social trends, scientific developments, technological trends, or mega-trends. In these fields, too, path marks can be found for determining the location of a brand and its development potential.

From individual observations or the sum of such a brand analysis, a clear picture emerges of where an international B2B brand stands today in the industrial and technological environment, where there is a need for action, and where the decisive starting points for brand development in brand consulting are.

What methods do we use for brand analysis?

In brand consulting and brand analysis, there is no one tool or one exclusive approach. The aim of the analysis determines the choice of methods. Methods must fit the subject of the analysis. We use tailor-made methods that fit the specific situation of the individual client.

Brand performance analysis

What potential does the existing brand have? Which aspects make the brand special? Which aspects make the brand interchangeable? There are ways to qualitatively measure brand awareness, brand image, and brand strength. Not all methods are suitable for B2B brands that operate in selected market segments. In brand analysis, we choose the appropriate tools depending on the situation, the question, and the subsequent task. In brand consulting, brand performance analysis is not exactly the same for each client, but as unique as the company, market, and goals.