Brand Audit: Where to Start?
By Levina Kusumadjaja
How often do you go for a regular health check-up?
Chances are you don’t go for a regular check-up because you feel sick (unless you have an underlying condition prior the check-up). You do it mostly because you want to make sure that you are healthy. Later on, if the results of the check-up show that follow-ups are necessary, then you will probably schedule a consult with another doctor or specialist. That’s exactly what a brand audit is for a brand.
A brand audit is a brand check-up.
Brand owners and strategists do brand audits to see whether the brand is “healthy” in the light of its goals and competitive landscape in the market. They do brand audits to pinpoint areas of growth and opportunity, and evaluate alignment, awareness, perception, and engagement from the customers.
Where to start with a brand audit?
The question now is what information do you need to look for when doing a brand audit? Here below are four easy things you can do to start your brand audit:
Jump on a discovery call:
Always, always start the brand audit with a call with your client—the person behind the brand. Get to know the vision and goals behind the brand before you dive into a check-up for the brand. What goals do they want to accomplish? How do they envision the brand? What’s the “why” behind the brand? Without doing a discovery call, you will come in to the brand audit with many assumptions.Screenshot analytics:
Have your client screenshot all their analytics, website traffic, social media statistics—basically all information they can find about people’s interaction with the brand. This includes any kind of interaction with the brand through the difference online touch points. It would be good to provide clients with a checklist of what to screenshot and a folder to upload all the screenshots together.Compile assets:
Collect everything that has your client’s brand on it. Every visual, product, collateral—if it’s branded, then have your client take a picture of it and send it to you. Take screenshots of the brand’s website and social media profiles. Again, to make it easy, you can help your clients by giving a checklist and preparing a folder for them to upload all their brand assets.Dig through feedback:
Go through all customer feedback and reviews that you can have access to. Ask your client for survey results, testimonials, and interview recordings—if they have any. If possible, you can also connect with some customers to ask them their thoughts on the brand experience and the way they perceive the brand.
Just start with what you have in your hand.
To do a brand audit, you and your client don’t have to look far from what you already have. Sometimes what makes brand audits overwhelming is the notion that you have to have this mount of statistics and paperwork before you can understand the brand better. But in reality, brand audit can start anytime with anything your client has on their brand. The goal is to understand how the brand is doing now, that’s why it’s better to focus more on gathering all the information you have versus all the information you could have had. Start with what you have and trust that it will still bring you valuable insights for you and your client.
If you’re still curious to learn more about brand audit, you can check out some of these articles:
Questions to Think about in a Brand Audit
Brand Research vs. Brand Audit: What’s the Difference?
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!