How A Brand Analysis Can Positively Influence Your Revenue

by Blackwood Impact Group

What is a Brand Analysis

Whether your company has been in existence for a while or is new to the market, a Brand Analysis is a critical step to take when establishing or refining your brand. Conducting a brand analysis at the formation of your brand is optimal. But it is also constructive (if not necessary) when your existing company is looking to increase revenue, target new customer segments, expand into new industry verticles, or introduce new products and services to market.

A brand analysis can also be called a brand audit.  It is a systematic and disciplined approach to analyzing all aspects of how your brand is performing (or desires to perform) in the marketplace. The results help you to develop your brand strategies, formulate the plans you will implement for improvement, and establish the metrics you will use for ongoing evaluation.

A brand analysis or brand audit gives you a firm grasp of all aspects of your brand. The process includes evaluating all your visual, verbal, and experiential marketing materials. This includes but is not limited to your logo, colors, business cards, stationery, proposals, brochures,  sales presentations, and PowerPoints, on and offline advertising copy, email templates, your website, and so much more. With the insight you gain from your brand analysis or brand audit, you will be able to build or reshape your brand experience successfully.

Common Problems Which Indicate You May Need a Brand Analysis

Although we’ve noted above that a brand analysis or brand audit is useful when you are introducing something new to the market, a brand audit might be a recommended course of action in other situations. We at Blackwood Impact Group have conducted a brand analysis when our clients have experienced certain types of business pains.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if a brand audit might be for you:

• Is consistently generating quality leads a challenge?
• Are prospects not responding to your sales team’s follow up messages?
• Is a lower than expected number of prospects converting into customers?
• Is your brand experiencing low engagement? Areas can include but not be limited to:
  • Low social media engagement (likes and shares of your posts).
  • Low engagement with your content (articles, videos, etc.) meaning no audience questions, comments, or reactions.
  • Low email open rates.
  • Your ads generate low click-through rates and even fewer take you up on your offer.

If you believe you have good salespeople and efficient processes in place, have correctly targeted marketing messages and you provide reliable customer service, then the key to your lackluster sales might be your brand. The reason is that the above symptoms tend to signal a perception problem; you may see your company as relating to and or servicing a particular audience. However, that audience disagrees, based on what they see from or experience with you. There may be a mismatch between your intended goals and how your brand is actually being expressed and experienced. If this is the case, it is definitely time to reevaluate your brand.

Your Brand is A Foundational Element Which Influences Your Success in Your Marketplace

Mismatched messages and audiences indicate a branding issue, not a marketing challenge. True, it may be possible that your message isn’t very well defined. However, before you can clarify it,  you must know what groups of people you intend to speak to. Understanding your audience will help ensure you send the right messages to the right group of people at the right time. Determining your audience happens during the foundational stages of your business.

When you establish your business’s operational principles (who you serve and what you offer) branding is an integral part of that process. By nature, your brand will speak to a specific audience and communicate how you are different from your competitors in promise, offer, product delivery, and customer service. Your brand should resonate with your ideal market. They should be able to easily understand who you are as a company, what you stand for, and how you will treat them if they were your customer.  Your brand, then, becomes the cornerstone of all your other efforts (marketing, sales, and operations).

Your brand should have been clearly defined at the outset of your company. But the reality for many small businesses is that proper attention wasn’t given to their brand in the company foundation stage, beyond picking a name, deciding on the logo design, and colors for their website. If this is true of your company or you find yourself poised to enter new markets, ask yourself these questions:

• What is my brand promise?
• What do we stand for as a company?
• What is our message and who are we targeting?
• How do our prospects and customers interpret their experiences with us?

An inability to answer any of those questions is an indicator that you may not have a good grip on your existing brand. As such, it wouldn’t be far fetched to think that there is misalignment amongst your marketing, sales, and operational efforts. If your value proposition does not resonate with your intended market (or you are communicating to the wrong market), then those who are seeing your messages will ignore or tune you out. Low engagement is a natural bi-product of non-resonance. If there is any misalignment in how your brand is expressed across various channels, it can and will affect your ability to attract a high quantity of quality leads and convert a large amount of them into paying customers.

How An Ineffective Brand Can Negatively Affecting Revenue

Blackwood Impact Group was once able to help a local medical aesthetics company with a brand audit. The company performs many popular nonsurgical procedures such as Botox, Restylane fillers, and hair restoration.  But their customers and prospects weren’t connecting with the brand image portrayed in their marketing. Their website, in particular, featured pictures of 18-year-old young women. Their audience is comprised of women in their 40s and older. They couldn’t relate to women who had youth on their side. It was unbelievable that those pictured were actual customers.

Once Blackwood Impact Group completed the practice’s brand analysis, we helped oversee website revisions. The new aesthetic of the site featured mature women ages 40 and older. It was reflective of the practice’s clientele. As a result of the changes, the company saw a significant increase in the number of leads they generated and converted into paying clients via their website.

Like this medical practice, your company may also be losing credibility in your market space because your messages and intent behind them are being misinterpreted by your intended audience. There could be a wide variety of root causes. Maybe there is a disconnect with your brand from a visual standpoint. You might be using different font types and sizes between different collateral, such as your website, business cards, and brochures. If the messaging on your website is inconsistent with your leave-behind sales materials, prospects will be confused.

Ultimately, your brand is how people perceive your company. It’s how they feel when they think of your firm, your products, and the representatives they’ve interacted with. Congruency builds trust. Trust builds sales (and positive word of mouth promotion). But nothing kills revenue like inconsistent or persistent negative experiences.

Anatomy of a Brand Analysis

Blackwood Impact Group uses a brand analysis to help determine inconsistencies within your brand. We let those results guide how we plan to take corrective steps. Here is a closer look at what is included in our brand analysis process.

Step 1 – We examine your company’s history and background. We take into account goals or milestones you’ve already accomplished or desire to achieve. We look at the target markets you’re currently focused on and the ideal clients you’d like to work with. We also evaluate your current customer personas.

Part of our process also includes us talking to your core team and stakeholders. We also survey a sampling of your customer base. We also use market analysis and complete a SWOT assessment.

Step 2 – In the next phase, we examine the tactile elements of your current brand: verbal, visual, and experiential/interactive. We review your color scheme and logos to determine what it is unconsciously communicating. We determine what your current brand’s voice is. We look at your written style, language, and tone that your company uses in your communications and see if it matches up with how you wish to be perceived. We look at all of your sales and marketing materials and experiences, including but not listed in your sales letters, sales presentations, website, video, social media accounts, and more.

Step 3 – Once we have completed the information gathering stage, we then examine if what you are putting out is consistent with your goals. We determine what is helpful and what is harmful to you. We identify what your audience is finding confusing. We also check for alignment between your groups (sales, marketing, operations, customer service) who are all equally responsible for representing and delivering a consistent brand experience. We also look at your closest competitors and how you compare. We look at what that brand is communicating and how their audiences respond.

Our process is data-driven and experientially influenced. We analyze the data and create a plan of action for improving your brand based on the results. We identify what needs to be fixed and exactly how to do it. If there are multiple items that need to be addressed, we help you determine the order of priority based on which changes will deliver the most impactful results the quickest. We also provide an estimate of how much each course of action might cost you so you can make smart budgeting decisions. Best of all, if you need our assistance in implementing your new branding plan, we can help you through the process.

One of the most significant benefits you will experience as a result of a brand analysis is having an objective perspective on all of your market activities and gaining an understanding of what type of impact you are having on your marketplace.  A brand analysis will revolutionize how you market and operate your business.

Are you ready for a brand analysis? If your company is considering entering new markets, preparing to launch new products, or is serious about making a quantum leap forward in revenue, these are all perfect times to have a brand analysis conducted. Get the process started by contacting Blackwood Impact Group at 770-502-6295 or info@blackwoodimpactgroup.com for a no-obligation consultation.